Advice on Areas to live in Sydney (North/North Shores)

[MrsBigD]

Well the visa application has been sent and police check and medical arranged. And of course flight tickets booked for May and mother not impressed because we're shipping her grand children to the other side of the planet...

Just having a look at rental properties and obviously doing a rather broad search as we have no precise idea yet where exactly we will be moving to except for North Sydney

Some places look great but also rather cheap... where's the best place to look to find out about the 'neighbourhood'?

Avalon I'm guessing is cheaper because Wayyyyy north. Allambie and Balgowlah seem reasonably priced too.
Then there's Chatswood etc So many places to choose from!!!

Basically what we'll be looking for is family friendly area with good schools/nurseries, nature (thought that's probably a given anyhow ;)), transport to 'town' etc. you get the picture

Tia

I've heard Belrose is a nice area for families. Have a look at www.pomsinoz.com for some good info. DH is permanently on www.domain.com.au looking at ridiculously priced property and I'm trying to reel him in!

We were granted our visa a couple of months ago but haven't booked flights yet (initial entry to be by end of July 08). Sydney North Shore is where we are looking too. I'll watch this thread with interest.

Best of luck!

Thanks Hamishsmummy We jumped the gun a bit by booking the tickets, but am quite confident I'll be granted the visa as it's a NZ family member temporary visa ... now let's hope the medical doesn't turn up anything I didn't know about...

Avalon is lovely. It's on bus routes to the city but Chatswood has a train link too (I think). Sydney trains are hideous (packed at rush hour, routinely cancelled, running late etc) but buses are fine. Chatswood is a vast shopping centre so it would be a bit like moving to Bluewater, but Avalon is a beach village. My cousins went to the primary school in Avalon and thoroughly enjoyed it, but admittedly that was quite some time ago so with any luck someone will be able to give you more up-to-date information about them.

Manly is also very good for families (though the Corso area is boozy on weekend nights) and the ferry link to Circular Quay is efficient.

Personally I am no great fan of the inland northern suburbs - just my opinion but I find them a bit dreary. Beach suburbs are Australian suburbia at its sparkling best! There are odd little wrinkles in prices - Whale Beach is (IIRC) one beach up from Avalon and offers almost exactly the same lifestyle but is vastly more expensive, and Palm Beach (north of Whale) is strictly for billionaires. If I had to pick from the list of suburbs you've mentioned, Avalon would be so far out in front you wouldn't even be able to see the other contenders.

I don't know what your budget is like, but there are some really gorgeous inner Northern suburbs like Mosman, Cremorne and Lavender Bay (right by the harbour - breathtaking views but can be noisy because of all the screaming from the rollercoaster at Luna Park).

I was wondering where you were up to MrsBigD!

Thanks Hamishsmummy - we are in Belrose . We have a fantastically large backyard which backs onto the national park - we have only been here just over a year and we love it. In the vicinity of Belrose is also Davidson and Frenchs Forest and a little further out is Terrey Hills. There is a wide selection of schools in this area as well.

We still regard Manly as our local for hanging out and going to the beach etc though - we have lived in Manly, Queenscliff, Balgowlah and Dee Why before DS2 came along. The other suburb we were looking around to buy in was North Balgowlah and Manly Vale - the hill side. Gorgeous but more expensive than Belrose but with more houses than Manly is Harbord and Curl Curl. Allambie is OK too and relatively affordable but has busy Allambie Road winding through it.

To give you an idea of price variance - for the same price as our 4bdroom, 3bathroom, 2 living areas on 900sqm in Belrose, we could have gotten a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom 1 living area on 450sqm in Harbord.

Our 3drm 2 bthroom unit that we rent out in Dee Why which is only 4 years old goes for $590 a week.

If you narrow down your preferences let me know and I can be a bit more specific.

For commuting you are better off being in a suburb where you would go over the Roseville Bridge rather than the Spit Bridge which is notoriously slow if you are taking your own car. Public Transport is not that great around Belrose area though. From Manly you can do the Ferry or the Buses and there are bus lanes which improve the Spit Bridge experience.

Avalon is quant but is indeed regarded as waaayyy out - public transport nightmare for the city. IMO Chatswood has very little charm though some good shopping. The locals call it Chatswong which reflects its ethnic diversity.

Good Luck, Sim

Forgot to say, it is rare but not completely unknown for bushfires to affect the leafier outer northern and southern suburbs (beach suburbs are too well built-up, but anywhere that is near a nature reserve such as Ku-ring-gai or Lane Cove could be a very slight risk). If you are choosing between two places and one has a pool, go for that (assuming your kids can swim - I wouldn't have a pool if they're toddlers who can't) - if you're at the end of the street and a fire comes through, water pressure can drop to zero and if you've got a pool or water tank that can be emptied on top of the house you're in a better position to save it. As a matter of course you should follow all the advice about fire-proofing your house anyway (wire insect screens on windows to stop embers being blown in, no gaps in the roof, clear the gutters VERY regularly and don't grow gum trees up against the house).

I should emphasise that I'm talking about once-in-a-generation fires, and you have to make damn sure that the pool is fenced properly (I have a feeling that fencing laws don't always apply retrospectively, so if it's a very old pool the fence may not meet current standards - get it in writing from the agent that it does).

From memory the last fires that actually got into the northern suburbs were in about 1993, so I'm not trying to terrify you. It really is very rare but something to think about if you see something that backs onto the Ku-ring-gai national park and think oooh, that looks nice.

AussieSim is right about Chatswood. It's uncannily like Singapore, so if you like Singapore, you'll LOVE Chatswood. Plenty of people do like it, of course, but it wouldn't be top of my list if I loved nature or not getting stuck in traffic jams on weekends.

thanks ninedragon & aussiesim

Not sure about our budget yet as we'd have to find work first LOL. Will have approx $80,000 in an aussie account though by the time we fly over so that should give us some time to pick & choose dh is in IT and I'm a senior PA/EA so shouldn't have too hard a time to find work according to the Aussie Expo we visited

Love to be near water & nature (love the sound of huge backyard bordering on nature park!) that's why Avalon places looked so enticing. Kids can't swim yet, but they love water. DD has had some swimming lessons and can do eveyrthing in shallow pool, including floating perfectly, however as soon as she knows the water is depper... she can't do it... go figure. Gotta love the psychy of a 6 year old!!!

DH has mentioned Chatswood, though the thought of living near 'Bluewater' .

I spotted a book on Amazon about living in Sydney, might go and get it today

hmmmm this looks nice

God, that's divine. Rents are so far out of whack with mortgage payments in Sydney! That would cost squillions more per month if you actually owned it.

If you live near the beach you can put the kids in Nippers (junior surf lifesavers). Swimming in the ocean is a different set of skills to swimming in still water, so good for them to learn both. Everyone learns to swim unbelievably early - my aunt takes my cousin's daughter to swimming lessons every day and she is seven months old!

ninedragons, I'm not sure how domain.com.au lists the rent, for all I know that could be per week LOL

We are looking into buying eventually but haven't actually checked out pricing yet. I think first time buyers get something of the state for the down payment? Also a little birdie told me if you say you're only there temporarily (which will be believable as my first visa will be a 5 year temp visa) then the government gives you tax breaks ... need to read up on that...

I have taken my kids to the pool since they were little so they're not afraid of the water, but structured swimming lessons ... had one for ds (then 2.5) as dd's instructor (who's actually great) had a gap after dd's lesson so thought, I'll give it a try. After that ds didn't want to go back into the water! And I attended the session so nothing horrid or untoward had happened... guess my kids have a problem with authority

My cousin lives in Mosman, with harbour views, and it's gorgeous.

Oh yeah, that would definitely be per week.

It's just amazing, though, how much more you get for your money a little further out. We are renting out our 2 BR inner-city flat for about half that, but that place is way more than twice as spectacular.

hmmm so we'll be looking at up to $3-4k per month... better keep my eyes open for a well paying job LOL

Oops. I seem to have burst your bubble. Yes, Sydney is not THAT cheap. Rents are almost always quoted per week - certainly on domain but also in general parlance.

LOL no worries, I thought it looked to cheap to be monthly rates. We should be ok to go semi-extravagant also dh just said he'd be happy to move north of north sydney... any insights on West Sydney? There seem to be some bargains going

let us know how yoyu get on.we are looking at going to perth. husband in process of transfer to aussie navy.

Hi denbury dh did a stint with the aussie navy as a civi (after having left NZ airforce). I think he enjoyed it, though he was most disappointed when the crew of a sub he was on didn't torpedo an illegal fishing boat

I did visit Perth yonks ago. It's absolutely lovely there

thanks mrsbigd. who knows it'll be me her in a few months looking for somewhere to live???
how did your mum really take it? we haven't told ours yet.waiting to see as and when we can go.

hmmm how did my mum really take it? let me quote one of her many negative vibes 'a friend said that she thinks it's reckless to make the move with 2 young children'... my reply to that was 'sorry mum but reckless would if I'd pack our bags right now and board the next plane heading down under...'. In the end I told her if she hasn't got anything nice to say to not say anything. After all it's been my life long dream to go to Aus and now it's finally happening . I can see part of her selfishness as it is quite a way away, but at least she got to see them every 3 months or so so far, whereas mil (who's in NZ) only has met dd in person twice and ds once! And she isn't complaining. Though she's utterly thrilled of course we're moving to her neck of the woods. Told mum 'great vacation spot, come visit for a couple of months (which prompted dh to threaten suicide LOL) but she can't go away for more than 1 week because of her cat... priorities woman!!!

Tell your mum sooner rather than later so she can get over the initial shock and in the end hopefully be happy for you (I've given up hope on teh latter part re my mum but she's a rather negative person anyhow).

Parts of the Inner West are nice (some are lovely, in fact), but anything further out in the Sydney Basin tends to get much hotter in summer than the rest of the city.

Inner West is very child-friendly, on the whole, but there's not much nature.

Balmain, Drummoyne, Hunter's Hill and Summer Hill are quite nice (actually Hunter's Hill is amazing - Cate Blanchett lives there...) and very short commutes to the city. The first three will offer you harbour views as well. Newtown is friendly and slightly bohemian. Erskineville is Gay Family Village and rather pleasant but parts of it are under the airport flyover so don't go to view a house late in the evening (after the airport curfew). Glebe has some absolutely stunning Victorian mansions but can be a tiny bit rough around the edges - pockets of it are quite studenty (it's near the university), some pockets are yuppie and some are rough, so look at the street and decide if there are enough Saabs parked there for your liking!

I'm recommending places that have a "village" atmosphere, so there are cafes and shops within walking distance. A lot of Sydney suburbia was badly designed and feels a long way from anywhere, but these are all places you could conceivably live without a car.

thank you ninedragon village atmosphere sounds great. Like the idea of not needing to hopp into the car just to get a pint of milk

guessing Hunter's Hill = mucho dinero LOL

btw how to get a heart attack early in the morning... just looked up where our friends live at the momet... the migrated a couple of months ago... architect and fashion designer, no kids... hanging out at friend's place who's i Dubai... nice little place in Kirribilli...

We've been in Sydney six months now and absolutely love it, but despite lots of research before we left (we've got PR) we have still been a bit taken aback by how expensive it is. There is lots of work in IT (that's what OH does) but for more senior positions you are looking at around a 1/3 drop in salary if you're used to London rates so be prepared. Also, fringe benefits that you would take for granted in the UK like private healthcare for the whole family, car or car allowance etc. just aren't offered here. The recruitment process is also a lot less professional for the big companies and lack of local contacts can work against you, regardless of how impressive your CV is. We pay $4,000 a month in rent (4 bed, pool etc., 15 minutes drive to beach) as when we looked at all the houses in the $750 a week range that looked so great on the internet they were pretty scuzzy, BUT part of our problem was the fact that OH wanted to commute by train rather than bus so we followed the trainline north when looking for a suburb and close to trainline = expensive. We find the trains great btw - cheap and reliable though they are crowded during rush hour.

We booked our flights before our visas were granted too - everyone said we were mad but it worked out ok Feel free to PM me if you want any more info - I get together with a large group of mainly expats fairly regularly. It's a really friendly bunch with kids of all ages and I've found it a great source of support and info. It's a big move to make so we might as well all help each other

Forgot to say, you really don't want to live in what is known as the "Western suburbs" regardless of how cheap the houses are (not to be confused with the trendy "Inner West"). The only family I know who arrived and did so went home to Brussels after a month!

Just wanted to chip in to say that I support sunny's comments about the Western Suburbs. Generally people only live there because they grew up there or can't afford anything in the North, East or inner inner watery West.

Hi SunnyD, I thought you'd gone home?! Are you the mumsnetter (aside from my good self of course) in Coogee? And you've got a pool? How did you manage that?!?

MrsBigD - agree with everybody else. Don't go West. Northern suburbs are lovely, I think you could do a lot better than Chatswood, which is, although leafy and quite expensive, a bit like Bluewater as somebody else said.

Eastern Suburbs quite posh and overpriced, full of 4WDs and marinas. Having said that I quite liked Woollahra to be honest, a nice leafy villagey feel, close to the city AND beaches AND huge shopping centre in Bondi Junction. Not quite as beachy as the Northern Beaches though, but 15 minutes to the CBD. Same with Bronte and Clovelly.

$4,000 per month will get you somewhere nice, not furnished, probably not beachfront, but a good family home with pool.

Bear in mind that rents are quoted weekly, but your monthly rent will not be 4xweekly - it will be 52 times divided by 12, so higher.

Also all estate & letting agents here are EVIL. I was shocked and remain staggered at just how awful they are. I thought I was a hard nut from the London property market. Now I put everything in writing, assume they won't do a thing they promise and take dated photos of the condition of the house the day I move in, being a veteran of 4 lets.