Can anyone give me some advice on whether it is better to buy furniture in Australia or to buy it domestically and have it shipped there? If shipped, will the procedure be complicated?

Of course, first of all, what is your purpose of transporting furniture to Australia? Immigrate or study abroad, a couple, or a family of three with a baby. Do you want to buy high-end furniture, such as mahogany furniture? For example, is there a piano? Do you already have a permanent residence in Australia? Are you bringing furniture to save time or money?

You said you don’t have to pay the freight yourself. Is it all door-to-door costs? If it is just the cost from the Chinese port to the Australian port, this part is probably two or one-third of the total cost. For a 20-foot container from China to Australia, the shipping fee is about RMB 10,000, depending on the season. When you come to Australia, if you find a local customs broker, customs declaration, bill of lading, pick-up, delivery, and shipping company arrival fees, the total cost is more than the shipping fee, about 2,000 Australian dollars. Of course, you can also choose to declare your own customs. Australian Customs allows personal items to be declared by yourself, but you only save the customs declaration company’s errand fees. If you do it well, you can save about half. If it is not done well, for example, if the goods are not picked up for a week after arriving at the port, for example, if the container is detained by commodity inspection and re-fumigated, the cost will be doubled on the original basis. In addition to these costs there are also import taxes.

If you are a new immigrant within two years, you can bring furniture that you have used for more than 12 months into Australia without paying taxes. Of course, we will not bring all the old furniture here. Whether it is new or old depends on luck. The customs should not inspect the container 100%, but at least pay attention when loading the container, and don’t unpack all the original packaging. . There are still many Chinese students who are ordered to pay taxes by customs.

The above is about the cost of transportation. Next, let’s see if the furniture is worth shipping. There are many different grades of furniture here, ranging from free furniture picked up from the roadside that is still new (of course it takes some time), to second-hand furniture that you can buy for a little money. Many international students and many new immigrants started out like this. In a rented place with one room and half a kang, there is really no need to put high-end furniture when moving three or four times a year. There are not as many choices for new furniture as there are in China, but there are still a lot of decent ones. IKEA is considered economical, because I found out here that its products are mid- to low-end at best, and their quality is really not that good. The expensive furniture, made in Italy, probably has the same price as in China. It was brought all the way here and taxes were levied before entering customs. If it is classic, mahogany furniture from China, bringing it yourself will definitely have an advantage in terms of price. If the furniture is made in China and is of average quality, there are many for sale in areas where Chinese people live. The selling price will definitely be more expensive than in China. But if you add the above expenses I mentioned, it will still be cheaper here because they sell in bulk. Importing, especially when it comes to promotions or closures, is not much more expensive than in China. It’s just that I know that when I first arrived, the feeling after multiplying the price by six was very exciting. Plus, there has never been such a thing as free shipping, which was still very painful.

There is also a question of time. For FCL and FCL, the ship travels on the sea for about a month. If you live and come to a port city, this is the case. It starts with the bill of lading before the goods arrive. After customs declaration, the ship has to leave the port within three days before you are charged any fees. A container costs money wherever you put it. I will definitely send it to you as soon as you ask for it. The origin of three months is probably LCL. LCL means less than one container, and charges are calculated based on cubic meters. But since you are furniture, the scale will not be small, and the shipping fee is free. The possibility of not taking the entire container is very small, so I won’t expand it.

The above experience comes from the 20-foot container I brought when I immigrated seven years ago. I was afraid of buying second-hand furniture at first, and I was worried about where to buy furniture. There was no one to deliver it, and I just bought it in China. There are a lot of things that children need that I don’t want to give away. Besides, I do import and export in China, so I can save money if I can. Now that my children have grown up, they have also moved into their own home. Within a few years, there are not many things left within twenty feet, because the furniture I bought was all cheap domestic products and fell apart as soon as I moved. In short, if someone had told me this at that time, I would have comprehensively considered whether I should bring it here myself, and maybe I would, but just to save trouble, not to save money.

To sum up, it is very comprehensive. Let me add points, although I don’t know what the points can be used for. Of course I’m kidding, if you come to Sydney, you’ll have multiple friends. If you are elsewhere, just be multiple netizens. If you have any questions, ask me. If you don't know, I'll help you find them. I'm still in the same business here, although I'm not working as a freight forwarder. I don't know the details, but it's probably fine.

Haha, when I saw what was written downstairs, I wanted to confirm one more thing. A lot of Australian furniture is out of stock. I bought my new furniture from Malaysia here. Dining tables, chairs, and TV cabinets are in stock, but modular sofas are out of stock. The house has been empty for half a year and there is no room to renovate it. I complained to the Consumers Association but there was no help because the furniture company happened to be transferred to the owner. I guess the order had not yet been placed in Malaysia when I urged it. It is common for sofas to be out of stock, and it usually takes two to three months.