Environmental quality- china vs australia?

I'm considering moving to London, England versus Melbourne, Australia as a young professional in audit. What are your thoughts on the cost of living vs. quality of life vs. career development?

• Answer:

  Don't know anything about the audit industry, so can't comment on that specifically. Living costs is not too different, once you add up every aspect of spending, but salary standard can vary greatly in these two places, so you may want to investigate that further.  As someone who's lived in both places for long periods of time, here's some pros and cons, which hopefully will help you: Melbourne Pros: 1. great dining/cafes/drinking/going out scene. Some of the best food in the world can be found in Melbourne. Compared to London, standard's higher and prices are more affordable, dining out wise. Except for alcohol, which is frightfully expensive when you're drinking out in Melbourne. But they have great bars there! Very robust cafe scene and East-Asian (Japanese/Vietnamese/Indonesian/Thai/Korean) food scene. 2. Mild climate 3. Because of no.2; better place to lead an outdoor lifestyle: outdoor swims, biking, running, etc. (There is no surf though, for surfing you gotta go way out of town). 4. Cosy: smaller size, feels more manageable. Less overwhelming 5. Adequately artsy for a city so isolated from the rest of the world, with some of the best festivals and cultural happenings all year round. Cons: 1. Cost of living is on the up and up, property prices are ridiculously overpriced. Still cheaper than London for what you get/pay, but still... 2. Public transportation sucks. You have to own a car if you live further than the inner suburbs (more than 10K away than city centre). Cycling is alright, but not as safe as it should be, as cars rule the road, and go quite fast, unlike in London. 3. Isolated. You fly for 4 hours or more, and you'll still be in Australia (Melb-Perth = 4 hours). Even to go to Tasmania for a weekend break, is expensive (Ferry ticket, sitting up, overnight journey = AUD 300-400 on Spirit of Tasmania). Closest 'overseas' holiday is New Zealand, but culturally NZ is not that different to Aus. So if you want something really different you have to go as far as South East Asia. 4. Alcohol is expensive! 5. Harder to make new friends. A lot of Melbournians tend to stick within their friend groups (formed in highschool or University), and are less welcoming/open to newcomers. Not outright hostile, just inconvenient to open up. Thanks to shitty public transport, going out drinking is inconvenient if you don't have a designated driver. Taxis are really pricey too, so spontaneous hangouts where you can make a new friend or meet new people, don't happen very often. 6. Arts/culture scene : It's artsy enough, but not as exciting as it is in London. Aus is a very young country, you will not be able to find anything older than about 200 years or so. Whereas there are places in UK/London dating back from Roman times.... 7. Electronics/software is so overpriced 8. The psyche of Australian public can seem very out-dated. Melbourne is pretty much the most progressive city in Australia, but there's still tons of things that are wrong. Green energy/public transport infrastructure isn't prioritised. Instead they build roads, roads, more roads. A little frustrating at times. London Pros: 1. One of the most exciting, eclectic places in the world. People of all ages/backgrounds congregate here. A myriad of languages can be overheard on the street, anywhere you go. 2. Pubs/drinking scene is very robust, easy to make new friends, coupled with point no.1. A better city to be single in than Melbourne. 3. Arts/culture: very dynamic scene. Famous plays, musicals, history museums, old buildings, you name it. 4. Europe on the doorstep, New York 6 hours away on a plane, North Africa 4.5-5 hours away to the south.  You are right in the centre of the world, literally. 5. Public transport is fantastic, cycling is also encouraged a lot more than in Melbourne. If you're an environmentally conscious person, London is the less frustrating place to live in: easier to buy humanely farmed meat, better recycling initiatives, green electricity option is affordable and easy to pick, etc. Cons: 1. Congested, dirty, polluted. Comes with the territory of being a more densely populated place than Melbourne. This is fine if you're young, but after a while it will get to you and sooner or later, most people end up leaving London for being hard to live in. 2. Hard to make long-lasting friendship, as sooner or later, everyone leaves London. it's a very transitory place. 3. Climate is harsher. Harder to maintain an outdoorsy lifestyle. 4. Eating out is really expensive and the standard of food is quite poor. You end up paying a lot for something that's so-so. 5. Class system still rears its ugly face now and then, and it's not pleasant. This is less of a problem in Australia. Feel free to ask me anything specific, these are just some of the rough outlines from my personal perspective/experience....