‘Their own little groups’: TikToker slams Sydney culture

The UK expat has given a scathing review of Australia, saying he moved back home after making one crucial mistake.

A UK expat has been slammed for warning people against moving to Sydney, saying his negative experience of Australia made him return home within six months.

TikToker Dan Lezar, who appeared in the Netflix series Cheat: Unfinished Business, said he made “the mistake” of not “living by the beach”, which meant he was unable to live the “Aussie dream”.

Instead, Mr Lezar lived in Newtown in Sydney’s inner west, where he had come to play cricket.

“I’ve never struggled with mental health until I went there,” Mr Lezar said.

“It’s so hard when you don’t live in the same area. Everyone has their own little cliques, their own little groups, so it’s very hard to break into that.

“It would take me like 30, 40 minutes to get anywhere near a beach.”

Mr Lezar said that while some people go to Australia to “find themselves”, he “lost” himself.

“My issue was where I was living, it felt like I was back home, there wasn’t a lot to do, yet I was on the other side of the world with no friends,” he said.

TikToker Dan Lezar has taken to social media over his negative experience of Australia. Picture: Tik

Mr Lezar said he flew home within six months of moving to Sydney. Picture: TikTok

He also said that when it was sunny, the beaches would be “so packed” you didn’t want to be there.

The Netflix actor is from a small town in South Wales, in the UK and said rent prices shocked him.

Mr Lezar revealed he was paying $350 a week for a room in Newtown while friends in Bondi were paying up to $500 a week in rent.

“If you are not from London and you go to Sydney you realise how expensive it is,” he said.

Many in the comments were quick to slam his take.

“Why are people so obsessed with living by beach? Especially in Sydney? There is so much more to our amazing country than Sydney,” one commenter wrote.

Across 2023-24, the net overseas migration from the UK to Australia was 446,000, down from 536,000 a year earlier, according to the ABS.