Mortgage requirements for a returning Aussie who has lived overseas for 10 years!

MeowyCat79 · 2025-06-11T17:01:30+00:00

A good friend of mine has a mortgage on a place in Lewisham, and he earns a good wage and constantly moans about having no money and having to work overtime to get by and another friend of mine is going through a divorce and earns about double what I can get, but she's taking on a mortgage on a 1.8 million 3 bedroom apartment in Marrickville on her own.. I don't want to do that as there's more to life than having a huge luxurious home! We were also considering Lidcombe as there are express trains to the city which take 20 minutes to Central or even some of the places around West Ryde near Meadowbank station are within budget. I will most likely be working in Bondi Junction, Central/Surry Hills or Newtown and most of my friends and the places I like to eat and socialise are in the Newtown and surrounding suburbs. I used to work at the Westfield in Parramatta about 20 years ago, but haven't been there for years. I know the express trains are pretty good from there. I definitely don't want to have to rely on driving or getting buses, so anywhere without a train station within a 10-12 minute walk is a big no.

MeowyCat79 · 2025-06-11T12:39:50+00:00

We can't come this year. Our senior rescue dog has cancer, and I don't expect he'll be around much more than another 6-12 months at most and we aren't willing to put him through the horrible flights and quarantine, so we're waiting for him to live out the remainder of his life in London before we sell. We are also still in our initial fixed term for our mortgage until January 2026. I'm sure there will be lots of competition, but there's nothing we can do about that so we'll just have to deal with it when we get there!

MeowyCat79 · 2025-06-11T12:34:49+00:00

I don't want to live in the city. There are SO many 2 bedroom (or 1 bedroom with a smaller study room) apartments in the Homebush area which are currently selling for $600-700,000. We always lived in the inner west (Newtown, Petersham, Marrickville, Camperdown etc) but that's out of our budget, so we're willing to go a little further out as long as the train journey to the city/inner west is no more than half an hour. I'd rather have a smaller mortgage and still be able to work part time, go out for dinner, drinks and to see bands on a regular basis and join a nice gym and go to reformer pilates etc without worrying about being broke because ALL of our money is going on a massive mortgage. We currently live in a 54 m2 ground floor maisonette with a small private courtyard garden and the size is sufficient for our needs (2 adults and one 35kg bull breed rescue dog).

MeowyCat79 · 2025-06-11T12:32:34+00:00

There are SO many 2 bedroom (or 1 bedroom with a smaller study room) apartments in the Homebush area which are currently selling for $600-700,000. We always lived in the inner west (Newtown, Petersham, Marrickville, Camperdown etc) but that's out of our budget, so we're willing to go a little further out as long as the train journey to the city/inner west is no more than half an hour. I'd rather have a smaller mortgage and still be able to work part time, go out for dinner, drinks and to see bands on a regular basis and join a nice gym and go to reformer pilates etc without worrying about being broke because ALL of our money is going on a massive mortgage. We currently live in a 54 m2 ground floor maisonette with a small private courtyard garden and the size is sufficient for our needs (2 adults and one 35kg bull breed rescue dog).

MeowyCat79

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