Thanks to its sun, sea and surf, Australia sounds attractive at the best of times. In the worst of times, it sounds positively Elysian. Or, as one British expat observed: “Unemployed in Scunthorpe or unemployed on Bondi Beach - which would you prefer?”

Last year, a record 23,000 British migrants arrived in Australia. This year, even more recession-weary Brits are expected to apply to migrate there - some, perhaps, inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s sweeping cinematic vistas of the country. Which makes it a good time to ask what you can expect from life down under.

Let’s start with the good news. Most aspiring migrants assume the Antipodes will mean warmer weather, more space and a better quality of life. From where I’m sitting – at a desk overlooking a leafy acre of the Adelaide Hills, enjoying a very clement 26 degrees – these are perfectly reasonable assumptions.

I’ve enjoyed the Australian sunshine since 1992, when I left London for Sydney with a couple of thousand in the bank. I’ve made good hay since then, entering the city’s property market in 1995 and riding the years of prosperity. Today, I’m in South Australia, where my wife and I delight in seeing our young boys growing up, happy, healthy and safe.

As a British expat, I’m often asked what I most like about Australia. Where do I start? The big cities offer all the civilisation, commerce and culture I need, yet true wilderness is never far away. Great restaurants are a fact of life, rather than a special occasion, lovely old British sports cars don’t rust, and while Anglo predispositions towards humour, energy and asking questions are seen as symptoms of Pommie madness, they’re appreciated by the locals.

Perhaps the best news, at least from where you’re sitting, is that Britons who bring their equity south – however much it has dwindled in the past year – can usually afford more house than they had back home.

Which brings us abruptly to the bad news. First, being unemployed on Bondi Beach is a real possibility – if not for you, at least for your new neighbours. Yup, the credit crunch has hit us too.

Second, the pound, which until recently bought A$2.50, is now below A$2.20. And finally, the property market, which was still surging this time last year, is looking patchy, so you can no longer count on capital appreciation if you buy. Prices are still rising in the Northern Territory and Tasmania, the least populated states, but elsewhere they’re either falling or flatlining.

So, what are the pros and cons of the five Australian cities that were most popular with British migrants in 2008?

1 Perth, Western Australia Rich in gold, iron, bauxite and oil, Western Australia began the millennium with a mining boom. As this leviathan slab of Oz spat out valuable minerals and metals, it sucked up managers, tradespeople, doctors, nurses and policemen – which is why, last year, the greatest number of migrants from Britain (7,100 of them) arrived in Perth, the state capital. House prices have doubled in the past six years, but are heading down now, as economic growth slows sharply.

Nick Sullivan, 27, a recruitment consultant for the mining industry, left Swindon in 2001. In 2003, with his Australian wife, Brooke, he bought a two-bedroom 1920s home in Inglewood, a suburb 10 minutes’ drive northeast of the central business district (CBD), for about £120,000. “We knew property prices were increasing and, looking back, our timing was great,” he says. He reckons the house, which has a sun deck, high ceilings and a two-car garage, is now worth between £300,000 and £340,000.

“When I first got here, I was amazed by how clean it was,” he says. “It was like being on holiday, what with the beaches and the space and the lifestyle. On the negative side, the pace of life is a bit slower and the isolation is a factor for some people. We’re a five-hour flight from Sydney – in fact, we’re supposed to be closer to Singapore – but the beauty of the place more than makes up for that.”

As the global economy shrinks, the commodities boom that drove up the price of property is over, at least for the time being. The analyst Australian Property Monitors says house prices fell by 3.4% in the third quarter of last year, with flats falling by 4.2%. Prices are expected to “tread water” for up to a dec-ade.Nevertheless, with just 1.5m people, Perth remains a spacious, open city, famous for its beautiful beaches on the Indian Ocean, and Sullivan says that there are still opportunities for British migrants. “I keep trying to persuade my parents to come over,” he says. “They might bring £300,000 to £400,000 with them, and they could have so much more here: the further from the CBD, the more they could have.

“Take the suburb of Ocean Reef, 30 minutes’ drive up the freeway. They’d get a huge house, sea views, probably a pool. There are a lot of Brits there, and I see people with boats outside their houses. They’re living really well.”

2 Brisbane, Queensland Queensland, the other mining state, was the second most popular destination with British settlers last year, attracting some 6,000 of them. Many of them made for Brisbane, a Cinderella city of 1.8m that has flourished in the past five years, reaping huge revenues from mining and a superheated property market.

It also received floods of wealthy retirees, lured from Sydney and Melbourne by its warmer climes, laid-back atmosphere, generous river, fine beaches and hilly hinterland. Others headed for the Gold Coast, a seam of high-rises running along 30 miles or so of beautiful beach. Occupied mostly by chardonnay-drinking retirees, real-estate speculators and holidaymakers visiting theme parks and casinos, it may be your idea either of heaven or of hell, but British buyers remain the biggest overseas investors.

As in Perth, the housing market in Brisbane has become a victim of its meteoric success. In the third quarter of 2007, prices fell by 5.2%, the biggest decrease of all the state capitals. Which could be good news if £400,000 for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom, 100-year-old timber house with bay views sounds like a good deal. Provided prices don’t slide further after you’ve bought, that is.

3 Sydney, New South Wales In 2008, New South Wales attracted 4,000 Brits, the third-largest number. Unsurprisingly, most settled in Sydney, the harbour city that epitomises the Aussie dream. On a good day, few metro-polises in the world can rival Australia’s de facto capital for its combined natural beauty, capitalist fervour and Riviera glamour. But there’s a telling murmur doing the rounds: if you’re not living beside the water, why live in Sydney?

More than 4.2m people are squeezing into smaller living spaces and the pressure is starting to show, not least in bad tempers, lousy public transport and crowded roads – some pay as much as £50 a week in tolls to negotiate the slew of new tunnels and highways on their way to work. Piling on the agony, the state government is piling on new taxes.

After 12 years of speculation, property is the most expensive in the nation (the median house price is £257,000), but there’s now an across-the-board correction: the third quarter of 2008 saw 1.7% shaved off house prices and 1.1% off flats.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. For £245,000, you can buy a small two-bedroom flat. This sounds comparable to London, but it’s in desirable Bondi and has a balcony with Pacific Ocean views.

4 Melbourne, Victoria Victoria received 3,200 British émigrés last year, swelling Melbourne’s 3.8m population. Home to some of the nation’s biggest manufacturers and industrial in aspect, Melbourne is unfairly derided as Sydney’s ugly sister, but properly regarded as a city of culture, great shopping and good humour.

Susan Swann, 32, and her boyfriend, Oliver Horn, moved from London three years ago. “I’d never been to Australia, but Oliver worked for Foster’s and the company made him a good offer to relocate,” she says. “We arrived in Melbourne in December, and it was fabulous. We went straight into summer, only it was a proper summer, which was a real novelty.” Swann found a new job in PR and was soon doing the “Australian lifestyle thing”, enjoying sport, eating out and “being surrounded by people who were friendly, welcoming and interested”.

Earlier this year, the couple bought a house in fashionable St Kilda at auction, for what Swann says was “a good price”. Although reluctant to reveal what that price was, she says it would have only bought her a two-bedroom flat in Barons Court, west London, where she was living before. “Now we’ve got a three-bedroom Victorian semi with polished floors, period features and a garden,” she says. “And we’re five minutes from a beach. I know Australians think Melbourne beaches are rubbish, but they’re great. I should know – we go running on the sand every morning.” The Melbourne flat market continues to be oversupplied and volatile, but at present house prices have hit a plateau – certainly a result in this climate.

5 Adelaide, South Australia I’ve already declared my interest in Adelaide, capital of South Australia and the fifth most popular destination for Brits (2,450 arrived in 2008). Five years ago, I effectively swapped a two-bedroom miner’s terrace in Sydney’s inner west for my present home: a four-bedroom 1870s villa with an acre of land, on which there is a stone cottage dating to 1859. It cost £175,000.

Luckily for me, furious mineral exploration, the world’s biggest uranium deposit and a general dawning that something was seriously out of kilter have meant house prices have doubled since then. But that still makes it only £440,000 for a large property 20 minutes’ drive from the central business district – which, even by Australian standards, is underpriced. Or, as a mate from Melbourne recently commented: “Jeez, you blokes are giving it away.”

Adelaide is a city people end up in, rather than choose. For some, this big country town of 1.1m is just too small. But folk like me appreciate its intimacy, elegance and the fact that it’s only 20 minutes from the beach or a winery in the hills. That mining boom hasn’t yet happened, but sectors such as defence could keep the job market steady.

In the three months to September, Adelaide house prices nudged up by 1.2% (prices of flats hit a plateau). Some of this unseasonal growth is down to people bringing their buying power in from the eastern states and, yes, from overseas.

Bonzer deals

Despite the weak pound, you can still find value for money down under

Queensland - £724,400 In Raby Bay, Brisbane, No 28 Nautilus Drive is a waterfront home with glorious views directly up Columbus Canal. The 912-square-metre home, built in the late 1990s, has five bedrooms, three separate living areas, a media room, a deluxe kitchen and three bathrooms. Outside are a three-car garage and a swimming pool. LJ Hooker; 00 61 7 3286 2500, www.ljhooker.com.au/cleveland

New South Wales - £242,200 This two-bedroom flat with 56 square metres of living space at the south end of Bondi Beach, Sydney, has sensational Pacific Ocean views. The flat, in a 1960s block, would benefit from an open-plan renovation. It is near the trendy delis, bars, cafes and surf shops of the area, with easy access to the famous Tamarama coastal walk. Nexus Estate Agents; 00 61 2 9416 7800, www.nexusea.com.au

South Australia - £450,800 Semi-rural living in Bradbury, 30 minutes’ drive from central Adelaide. This four-bedroom, three-bathroom, four-garage home, built in 1993, is set in seven acres; as well as 275 square metres of living space, it has a large deck and an outdoor hot tub. Equestrian extras include a tack room, a hay-storage area and fenced paddocks. Ray White; 00 61 8 8391 6866, www.raywhite.com

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