A businessman from Belfast who has just returned after eight years living in Australia and New Zealand said the city has "a lot of potential."
Mick Donaghy was 26-years-old when he made the move across the world, initially to Auckland in New Zealand, in 2017. After four years, the recruitment professional then moved to Brisbane in Australia and founded his own recruitment company, GEDON Executive.
Early this year, he made the move back home, relocating his family and business with him. Despite having the time of his life in Australia, Mick said he is glad to be back in Belfast - and has noticed a lot of changes in the city.
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Speaking to Belfast Live about his experience, Mick said: "I moved in 2017 when I was in my mid-twenties. Like most people that age, you want to experience the world, get out there, and meet people and do different things, so I left when I just turned 26. I moved to Auckland in New Zealand where I lived for four years before immigrating to Australia.
"I continued working in recruitment, I worked in recruitment beforehand in Ireland. I built some really good connections and that led to me moving to Australia and setting up my own business.
"Culture wise it's an amazing place, in your twenties it's probably the best place to be in the world. But things change when you grow up and you know you have different values after a while.
"We moved to Australia six months before Covid, so we were setting up a business during those years which, looking back on it now, was probably the best time to do it. We effectively had two years of just grinding and building relationships."
As for why he decided to move his life and business back to Belfast, Mick said: "Australia is a very expensive place to live. When you want to start to buy a home and settle down, it's a very expensive place to be. The average house price for an entry home is around the million dollar mark, which is around £500,000.
"Looking at a broader perspective, too, Ireland sits right in the middle of the world; when it's 1pm in Belfast, it's 8am in New York. The proximity to Europe is incredible, in Australia you're really isolated, you're a two or three hour flight away from another city within the same country. From Belfast, you can be in Paris in an hour and a half."
Mick said since returning, there are a number of positive changes he's spotted around the city, but a lot more work to be done. He said: "Where we're based on Dublin Road, there's two student accommodation buildings being built right beside us.
"I see that as a real positive, and I think we really probably don't sell ourselves as a city or country well enough. The quality of education in Northern Ireland is insanely good to what you would get in Australia, a typical secondary school or grammar school here would be the equivalent of a private education costing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
"If our politicians can come together and get themselves in the right headspace and start taking advantage of what we've got from Brexit, we could be in a very unique position globally. We have a lot more to do, but the city has a lot of potential.
"Belfast people always talk down about the city, they will mention the problems rather than the positives. But when you look where Belfast was 20 years ago compared to now, it's a massive step forward."
Offering advice to anyone planning to make the move to Australia, Mick said it's a brilliant place to be full of opportunity. However, he said contrary to popular belief, many may not make much more than they do in Belfast, depending on their line of work.
"I would say definitely go and experience Australia, the perspective you'll gain by meeting people from overseas, by putting yourself in uncomfortable situations, you'll learn so much about yourself," Mick said.
"Australia around ten years ago was seen as the place where you could land and all the streets were lined in gold, it was seen as the place where you would just make loads and loads of money without much hesitation. Realistically, the world has caught up, so if you're someone who's maybe driving machinery like an excavator or doing labouring, you'll make more money being in Australia.
"If you're a mid-level white-collar construction professional, you actually might have to take a bit of a drop in salary in order to get Australian experience because that's so important to Australian and New Zealand companies. You might think you will automatically earn twice your salary - that isn't the case anymore.
"Once a lot of people head towards their mid-30s out there and want to have a family, settle down, and have more family support, they tend to come home. We have great people here and if we can keep them here or bring them back, there's great opportunities for them at home as well."
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