\u2018Real shame\u2019: $1m home listed for $2 after backyard disaster<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg)
<\/p>\n
Lance Essihos, who\u2019s lived in 11 countries in 10 years, says Australia is still the best place on earth to call home \u2014 and admits he sometimes regrets leaving. Source: Instagram<\/p>\n
But after weighing up nightlife, health, fitness, outdoor living and safety, Lance said Australia still came out on top.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to say, I have to give a shout-out to my Aussies because I had the pleasure of living there for five years and it was really hard for me to leave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I wish I didn\u2019t because it was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
After years of living across the globe, he said Australia offered a combination that was hard to find anywhere else.<\/p>\n
\u201cMexico is amazing, but you know, obviously it\u2019s a little bit less safe than Australia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoutheast Asia is amazing cost-wise, but there are certain things that just aren\u2019t as good.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if you put money and cost of living aside, Australia is pretty hard to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Essihos spent five years living in Australia, splitting his time between Sydney, the Gold Coast and Port Douglas. Source: Instagram<\/p>\n
His take quickly hit a nerve, with many Australians agreeing the country\u2019s lifestyle is often taken for granted.<\/p>\n
While locals regularly vent about surging rents, expensive groceries and the impossibility of buying a home, others said Australia still delivers a standard of living that\u2019s hard to match.<\/p>\n
One Australian said many people simply didn\u2019t realise how good they had it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a shame a lot of Aussies don\u2019t understand how good it is, because they\u2019ve never travelled,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
Another argued the high cost was part of the reason Australia remained so desirable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so weird when people talk about how expensive it is,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst it\u2019s true, don\u2019t they realise that living in quality comes with a price? If it was a cheap place to live then it wouldn\u2019t be a quality place anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
But plenty weren\u2019t convinced.<\/p>\n
For some, Australia\u2019s famous lifestyle has become harder to enjoy as housing and essentials chew through more of the weekly budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo expensive, too many taxes, too regulated and too far from the rest of the world,\u201d one person said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After years of travel, including time in Mexico and Southeast Asia, Lance said Australia still offered something hard to replicate elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Others argued the problem with life in Australia wasn\u2019t just the cost \u2013 it was the culture.<\/p>\n
One Australian who recently moved to Italy said they had found a more spontaneous, social and affordable way of living overseas.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an Australian, I left in June to live in Italy. My dollars go way further here than in Oz,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lifestyle here I couldn\u2019t find back home. Oz is extremely programmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo catch up with people, you need to plan two weeks in advance. Here, my married mate calls me at 11pm to go get a coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another person said one of the toughest parts of Australian life was breaking into established friendship groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so hard to make friends because social circles are so tight-knit,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
The debate lands at a time when cost-of-living pain is reshaping how many Australians feel about the country.<\/p>\n
For younger people in particular, buying a home, saving money and still having a social life can feel almost impossible.<\/p>\n
The very things that make Australia so attractive \u2013 beach living, eating out, access to nature \u2013 can also be the first things priced out of reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A globetrotting expat who\u2019s lived in 11 countries in 10 years has declared Australia the best place in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":928602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-928601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}