PeanutButterJam wrote:I dont mind moving to Australia if I could be granted some form of residency. We are now at Stage 0 of planning, but will definitely look into it. Been to Perth, Melbourne and Sydney and Perth seems to be a great place to raise young children.
For starters it depends on whether you need to be *physically* present in either of those cities in terms of your job. If the answer is "no" then you should be looking at the Gold Coast for the best lifestyle and kid-friendly environment in Australia by a light year... nothing else even comes close. And since you have two girls - like myself - then a school like St Hilda's will blow away anything that the UK has to offer in terms of education.
I used to believe that the British educational system is second to none, but in reality it's outdated and has been surpassed by many countries in Europe even. I also used to have my doubts about the Australian system, but after St Hilda's I changed my mind completely - it is the best school my kids have attended across 3 continents.
Regarding residing in the UK, I too thought of that but my last trip in February definitely put an end to that. The climate is simply hideous - it's not just a few bad months and then plain sailing. It's 12 months of wishing you were elsewhere. The winters are miserable, and the summers barely even show up (ironically usually only for a short period in the form of a "heat wave"). This is not "the good life" once you have lived in Singapore. It's just a miserable existence and wishing you could leave asap...
Most other positive aspects of living in the UK quickly dissipate as well. The architecture and smallness of living conditions is astounding by any standards (even Singaporean!), driving is a pain with all the small lanes, slaloming in many residential areas due to parked cars, shopping is fun only for the first month or so (don't we all shop online nowadays?) and pub food literally stops being edible after the first week... and other options don't even compare to Singapore! Seriously, give it a few weeks and you'll be looking at a one-way ticket back to Sing or beyond.
Take a trip to the UK and see for yourself, but pretty soon I bet you'll see that it's not the place to be in terms of lifestyle and long-term living. Politically and economically things have gone downhill as well, with idiots in power and the UK passport about to become as useful as an Albanian one across Europe. If you want to exercise your EU right to live wherever you want (while we still can!), and you enjoy a warm climate, then maybe you can give places like Malta a try - a hidden jem in the EU with a great climate, pleasant lifestyle and friendly people. And good food too. But overall I'd be looking at doing everything you can to stay in Singapore, and if that isn't sustainable then the Gold Coast would easily be my next pick. Especially for the girls, their education, and the amazing lifestyle that the Gold Coast offers.