Moving to Australia from the UK: the practical guide

Start with the visa

Your visa decides far more than whether you can work. It sets your access to Medicare, whether you pay school fees, when you must swap your driving licence and whether you can buy a home. Settle it first.

The Department of Home Affairs visa finder lists every option and current fees. If you use an adviser, check they are on the register of migration agents.

Cost of living

Housing is the cost that decides whether Australia feels affordable. The national median advertised rent reached a record A$675 a week in September 2026, and vacancy rates in most capitals sit near 1%, so good homes let quickly.

Rents are for all dwelling types, from the realestate.com.au Rental Report for September 2026 (reported here). Sterling figures use A$1.90 to the pound, roughly where the rate has sat through 2026.

A few things work differently from the UK:

• Rent is quoted weekly and usually paid fortnightly or monthly. Expect to pay a bond of around four weeks’ rent, lodged with a state authority.
• Prices include 10% GST, half the UK’s 20% VAT, which helps on cars, furniture and electronics.
• Groceries, alcohol and eating out cost more than in the UK. The supermarket sector is dominated by Coles and Woolworths, with Aldi a smaller third player.
• Wages are higher in most trades and professions, and your employer pays 12% into your pension on top. Compare take-home pay for your own job, not averages.
• Location matters more than country. Sydney costs a third more to rent in than Melbourne. Moving from London, you may pay less; moving from a UK regional city, you will pay more.

Buying a home

Temporary residents cannot currently buy an established home. A ban on foreign purchases of existing dwellings runs from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2027 and may be extended. Permanent residents are exempt, and new-build purchases remain possible with approval. Plan to rent first in any case: it lets you learn the suburbs before committing.

Tax

Australia taxes residents on a sliding scale with a tax-free first A$18,200, plus a 2% Medicare levy on taxable income. The tax year runs from 1 July to 30 June, and most people file their own return by 31 October.

Source: Australian Taxation Office resident rates. On a salary of A$100,000, that is A$20,520 in income tax and A$2,000 in Medicare levy, leaving A$77,480. The 15% rate is due to fall to 14% from 1 July 2027.

Points that catch UK arrivals out:

• Get a tax file number (TFN) as soon as you land. Without one, your employer must withhold tax at the top rate. Apply free through the ATO.
• Residency for tax is not the same as your visa. If you move to live and work in Australia, you are normally a tax resident from arrival. The ATO explains the residency tests.
• Residents are taxed on worldwide income. UK rental income, savings interest and pensions must be declared. Temporary visa holders are generally exempt on most foreign investment income, so check your position.
• Higher earners without private hospital cover pay more. The Medicare levy surcharge adds 1% to 1.5% for singles earning over A$105,000 and families over A$210,000 in 2026-27.
• There is no inheritance tax in Australia, though UK inheritance tax can still apply to your estate.

Leaving the UK tax system

Tell HMRC you are going. Most people do this with form P85, which can also trigger a refund for the year you leave. You will still pay UK tax on UK income such as rent from a property you keep. A UK-Australia double taxation agreement stops the same income being taxed twice.

If you are keeping a UK home, a business or sizeable investments, take advice from an accountant who handles both countries before you move, not after.

Healthcare

Medicare is Australia’s public health system, and UK residents are covered from the day they arrive. It is good, but it is not the NHS: you will pay towards more of your care.

Permanent residents enrol in full Medicare. Temporary visa holders from the UK are covered by the reciprocal health care agreement, which lasts until your visa expires and pays for:

• medically necessary care from a GP or other out-of-hospital provider
• medically necessary treatment as a public patient in a public hospital
• some prescription medicines at the subsidised rate.

To enrol you need your passport, your visa and proof you lived in the UK, such as a GHIC card or two dated documents like a bank statement and a utility bill. Pack these in your hand luggage, not your shipment.

What Medicare leaves you to pay:

• GP visits. Doctors who “bulk bill” charge you nothing. Others charge a fee and Medicare refunds part of it, leaving you a gap to pay.
• Prescriptions. Subsidised medicines cost up to A$25.00 each for general patients from 1 January 2026.
• Ambulances. Not covered by Medicare in most states, and a call-out can cost hundreds of dollars. Cover is cheap and worth having.
• Dental and optical. Largely private for adults.

Private health insurance

Around half of Australians hold private cover, pushed by two rules that apply to new arrivals too:

• Medicare levy surcharge. Singles earning over A$105,000 and families over A$210,000 pay an extra 1% to 1.5% of income unless they hold private hospital cover.
• Lifetime Health Cover loading. If you are over 31, you have 12 months from the day you register for full Medicare to take out hospital cover. Miss it and premiums rise 2% for every year you are over 30, up to 70%. Reciprocal Medicare does not start this clock.

Compare every registered policy on the government’s own site, privatehealth.gov.au, which also explains the loading rules for new migrants. Some visas require you to hold private cover as a condition, so check yours.

Schools and term dates

The Australian school year runs from late January to mid-December, in four terms, with the long summer holiday over Christmas. A child leaving a UK school in July lands halfway through the Australian year, so talk to the new school about year placement early.

Each state sets its own dates. These are the 2027 terms for government schools in the five largest states.

NSW dates are for eastern division schools. In some states, teachers return a day or more before pupils, and private schools set their own calendars, often finishing earlier in December.

What else differs from the UK:

• Starting age. Children start full-time school in the year they turn five. The birthday cut-off varies by state, from 30 April in Victoria to 31 July in New South Wales.
• Catchments. Government schools take children from a defined local zone, so choose your suburb and your school together.
• Fees. Government schools are free for citizens and permanent residents, apart from voluntary contributions, uniforms and excursions. Some states charge tuition to families on temporary visas, so check before you pick a state.
• Private and Catholic schools teach around a third of Australian children, at fees well below UK independent schools.
• Qualifications. Each state awards its own Year 12 certificate, such as the HSC in NSW and the VCE in Victoria. Moving between states in Years 11 and 12 is disruptive.

Compare any school’s results and profile on the national My School site.

Driving

Australians drive on the left, so the roads feel familiar, and a full UK licence converts to an Australian one without a theory or practical test. The catch is the deadline, which each state sets for itself.

• New South Wales: permanent residents must get a NSW licence within three months; temporary visa holders within six. See moving your overseas licence to NSW.
• Victoria: six months from the date you start living there.
• Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and elsewhere: generally three months once you are a resident. Queensland’s rules are on its overseas licence page.

Once the deadline passes, your UK licence no longer lets you drive in that state, even though the card itself is still valid. Take your UK licence, passport, visa and proof of address to the state licensing office, pass an eyesight check and pay the fee.

Road rules worth knowing before your first drive:

• Speeds are in kilometres per hour. The default limit in built-up areas is 50 km/h, school zones drop to 40 km/h or lower at set times, and most highways are 100 or 110 km/h.
• The drink-drive limit is 0.05, lower than the 0.08 limit in England and Wales, with random roadside breath tests common.
• Cameras detect mobile phone and seatbelt offences in several states. Fines are heavy and carry demerit points.
• Registration (“rego”) is annual and includes compulsory insurance for injuries to other people. Damage to vehicles needs separate cover.
• Wildlife and distance are real hazards. Kangaroos are most active at dawn and dusk, and country fuel stops can be hours apart. Our Australian wildlife guide has more on living alongside native animals.

Pensions

Pensions are where a move to Australia can quietly cost you the most, because the two systems do not join up. There has been no UK-Australia social security agreement since 2001.

Your UK State Pension

• It is paid in Australia, but frozen. You get no annual increases while you live there. The rate you first receive in Australia is the rate you keep, for life. GOV.UK explains how your pension is affected abroad.
• You need 35 qualifying years for the full amount, and at least 10 to get anything. Check your forecast before you leave.
• Topping up from abroad became harder and dearer on 6 April 2026. The cheap Class 2 voluntary contributions are no longer available for time abroad. You can pay Class 3 only if you lived in the UK for 10 years in a row or paid 10 years of contributions. See National Insurance if you work abroad.

If you have gaps in your record, filling them before you emigrate is usually simpler than doing it afterwards.

Your UK workplace and private pensions

These stay invested in the UK and can be paid to you in Australia when you reach pension age. Moving them is restricted:

• A transfer must go to a scheme on HMRC’s recognised overseas list, or you face a tax charge of 40% or more.
• You must be at least 55, rising to 57 from 6 April 2028.
• Few Australian funds qualify, so most transfers go to a specially structured self-managed fund.

This is specialist territory. Use an adviser qualified in both countries, and read GOV.UK on transferring to an overseas pension scheme first.

Australian superannuation

“Super” is the Australian workplace pension, and it is generous. Your employer must pay 12% of your ordinary earnings into your fund, on top of your salary, and since 1 July 2026 it must be paid with each pay packet. You choose the fund. You can normally draw on it from age 60 once you retire. Moneysmart explains how to choose and compare funds.

If you are on a temporary visa and leave Australia for good, you can claim your super back, less tax.

The Australian Age Pension

Australia’s state pension is means-tested and paid from age 67. You need to be a permanent resident or citizen and to have lived in Australia for at least 10 years, five of them unbroken. Your UK working years do not count towards it.

Shipping your home

Australia lets you bring your household goods in free of duty and tax, but it inspects them more strictly than almost any other country. How well your shipment is prepared decides how quickly, and how cheaply, it clears.

Customs

• Goods you have owned and used for 12 months or more before you leave come in free of duty and GST as unaccompanied personal effects.
• Cars, alcohol and tobacco do not qualify, and nor do goods bought for someone else or for resale.
• You declare the shipment on an Unaccompanied Personal Effects Statement (form B534), supported by your passport and a full packing list.
• Sea freight takes around three months door to door, so plan what travels with you by air.

Biosecurity

Every shipment is assessed by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Anything carrying soil, seeds, plant matter or insects can be cleaned, treated or destroyed at your cost. The items that most often cause trouble:

• garden tools, lawnmowers, outdoor furniture, plant pots and barbecues
• bikes, golf clubs, walking boots, camping gear and anything else with mud on it
• wooden furniture and ornaments showing signs of woodworm
• Christmas decorations made with pine cones, straw or dried plants
• vacuum cleaners that have not been emptied
• food, pet food, and pet bedding.

Three habits prevent most delays. Clean every outdoor item thoroughly before packing day. Leave all food behind. And make sure the packing list says what each item is made of, box by box, because an entry marked “miscellaneous” invites a full inspection. The department publishes a full list and preparation checklist.

Pets

Cats and dogs can come, but start at least seven months ahead.

• Every animal needs an import permit, a rabies vaccination and a rabies blood test, followed by a 180-day wait before travel.
• All pets arrive through Melbourne and stay at the government quarantine facility at Mickleham.
• Quarantine is a minimum of 10 days if two authorised UK vets verify your pet’s identity before the blood test is taken. Skip that step and it is 30 days. Details are on the UK identity check page.

Getting the order of the vet visits wrong means starting the 180 days again, so use a specialist pet shipper.

Useful links

These are the official sources we point clients to. Rules change, so check them close to your move date.

This guide is general information for people planning a move, correct to the best of our knowledge in October 2026. It is not tax, pension, legal or migration advice. Rules and figures change, so check the official sources linked above and take professional advice on your own circumstances.