A British tradie who went from sleeping in a car in London to running his own handyman business has revealed why he is still moving to Australia as a skilled migrant despite the rental crisis.
Taj Singh, a 27-year-old married family man with three children under five, is relocating to Sydney in September, as Australia accepts a record-high intake of migrants.
A summer holiday earlier this year to Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast convinced him Australia offered a better way of life than the UK, where it rains more often and housing is also expensive.
‘We want the lifestyle Australia has to offer with its beautiful beaches, warm weather and friendly people,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘As well the pay is better in Australia than in the UK.
Taj Singh, a 27-year-old family man with three children under five, is relocating to Sydney in September, as Australia accepts a record-high intake of migrants and Australians struggle to find someone to fix small things around their home (he is pictured with his wife Kiran Kaur)
A summer holiday earlier this year to Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast convinced him Australia offered a better way of life than the UK, where it rains more often and housing is also expensive
‘The quality of life is much better in Australia when you take into consideration there is actual work-life balance and housing being much more affordable.’
He is far from the only Briton making the move with Australia home to 961,570 people born in England in 2023 – up marginally from 961,370 in 2022.
England is the most common birthplace of Australian migrants but among the top 10 list, six of them are in Asia, including India, China, the Philippines, Vietnam. Malaysia and Nepal.
Thousands of UK residents are also flocking to Australia for short stays of up to a year, with 77,140 of them arriving in February alone along with another 7,070 from Ireland, Australia Bureau of Statistics data showed.
With immigration at record-high levels, Mr Singh is also moving to a city where the rental vacancy rate is at record-low levels under one per cent, making competition fierce for accommodation.
Despite that, Mr Singh insisted Australians had he spoken to during his Australian holiday were very supportive of him moving from the UK as a qualified civil engineer, with tradies in short supply.
‘I found people who I spoke to during my two month trip to Australia were positive about my family moving to the country,’ he said.
He had previously battled homelessness, having to sleep in his car in London to survive.
‘It was extremely rough sleeping in my car as I was seeing my family less and less and falling into a vicious cycle of joining the rat race,’ Mr Singh said.
‘We were moving every five days to get a feel for different areas and discovered many people who were offering both short-term and long-term rentals.’
Having struggled financially in the UK, he is undaunted about moving to Australia during a rental crisis.
‘I see no issue with this at all,’ he said.
Many new migrants from the UK are moving to Australia despite the housing crisis. Pictured: A man and woman are seen arriving at their new home on Coogee’s main strip
Mr Singh is making the move with his wife Kiran Kaur so he can start his own business doing small repairs around the home, mainly for landlords renting out properties, with this versatility extending to painting, moving furniture and taking waste to the tip.
‘I can offer handyperson services, repairs, painting and decorating, gardening and landscaping, home removals and moving items,’ he said.
‘I have gained years of extensive on the job experience, learning in teams in construction and civil engineering on the railway.’
After experiencing homelessness, Mr Singh’s life transformed in 2018 when he found jobs via Airtasker, which offered the chance to earn up to £7,000 or $A13,400 for a big job.
‘Yes I had an opportunity of earning £7,000 from an initial job which was only quoted at £2,500 on my first few jobs through Airtasker,’ he said.
‘The job was initially to paint a six- bedroom house and then extended to electrics, plumbing and further adjustments to improve the aesthetics of other properties the clients owned. ‘
But even without the big jobs, he was able to make £500 to £800 a week, translating into $A959 to $A1,5343 – or $A79,768 a year ‘on just basic handyman services or removals and moving furniture’.
As a civil engineer in the UK, he was earning £60,000 or $A115,100 ‘at the peak of my normal job which was still not enough due to the inflation increases, cost of living, managing a family of a wife and three kids under five years old.’
Home cleaning, home repairs, gardening, furniture assembly and removal are the most common jobs sought on Airtasker
Mr Singh is hoping to eventually gain permanent residency so he can make a living bidding for jobs in the gig economy, putting in long hours.
‘When I initially move it will be every day after work and full time on weekends,’ he said.
Australia’s unemployment rate of 3.8 per cent in March was still low and the federal government last year deemed 50 per cent of jobs in the trades category to be in short supply, leading to higher building costs.
But Mr Taj’s suggestion Sydney is more affordable than London may be naïve.
American think tank Demographia’s International Housing Affordability ranked Sydney as the world’s second least affordable market after Hong Kong, with the median house price of $1.4million costing 13.3 times a median household income of $105,000.
London was ranked as the 12th least affordable with the mid-point house price of £513,000 ($A984,000) costing 8.7 times the median household income.
Australia also has even more intense population growth than the UK, with a record 548,800 migrants moving to Australia in the year to September, leading to the fastest population growth pace since 1952.
Many British and Irish expats choose to live near Sydney’s eastern suburbs for the vibrant expat community and the convenience of having the beach at their doorstep.
Friends Killian and Grace, from Kilkenny in Ireland’s southeast, had recently moved to Coogee.
The pair agreed that more of the friends they had made in school and college are now living in Australia than in Ireland – making the trip a no-brainer.
Friends Killian and Grace, from Kilkenny in Ireland’s southeast, had recently moved Down Under
‘My mum’s sister came out when she was younger with her boyfriend and never came home,’ Killian told Daily Mail Australia.
‘They live in the Central Coast now, they’ve got five kids and they probably go back to Ireland every couple of years.
‘So I knew I would have a good support system to come out to and then just the weather, the life, like, it’s more of a chilled lifestyle than back home.’
Airtasker founder and chief executive Tim Fung said the gig economy was enabling people to migrate to other countries doing work that traditionally would not have been considered to be a full-time job.
‘Airtasker empowers people, like Taj Singh, to use their skillset and transform unconventional tasks into fulfilling careers,’ he said.
WHY MOVING TO AUSTRALIA WAS THE BEST DECISON OF MY LIFE
Personal trainer James Smith moved to Australia in October 2016 as a ‘broke backpacker’ and has never looked back.
He said moving was the ‘single best decision’ of his life and listed reasons why Australia is a great place to live, including its affordability, lifestyle, coffee and being able to reinvent yourself.
‘You should quit whatever you’re doing and move to Australia,’ James said.
‘I can’t express how great coming here was for every part of my health, my mental health, my business, my relationships and everything.
‘In Australia even living in Bondi Beach, one of the most famous beaches in the world, is cheaper than London and I just can’t quite fathom that, so Australia is a lot more affordable.’
British personal trainer James Smith (pictured) moved to Australia in October 2016, claiming it was the ‘single best decision of his life’
James added Australia is a really good place to be ‘poor’.
‘When I came here as a backpacker, even if I was spending the least amount of money possible, I could spend my days down here [at the beach] chilling out, reading a book and figuring out myself,’ he said.
He said living ‘a long way from home’ can be tough and at times he misses his family but added the flight home is only ‘a day away’.
‘It’s a day away. Yeah it’s 21 hours of flying but everywhere is a day away,’ he said.
Earlier this year, Western Australia’s police minister Paul Papali lead a delegation of Australians on a nine-day tour of the UK with the aim of recruiting 30,000 Brits to work in Australia’s police force, hospitals and hospitality industry.
‘Our wages are higher and our cost of living is lower. Our health system is world class. You will be taken care of,’ he said.
‘The wages in the UK are far lower, the conditions are worse and resourcing appears to be far worse. So there’s all manner of reasons why WA is more attractive.
‘It’s lower cost of living, higher wages and magnificent weather. What’s not to like?’
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