Melbourne

Hi all, myself and family are moving to melbourne. Flights booked for 2nd October ?

My partner has a job in Preston and we have been looking at Epping as a suburb to rent. Can anyone help as to what it's like ? We have a 13 yr old son so if anyone knows what the local school are like that would be great ?

Thanks

What has made you decide on Epping? If you have a 13 year old I'd been looking at http://www.myschool.edu.au for what schools might suit him and then pick the suburb. Epping wouldn't be my pick but you will find cheaper housing. How about looking more to the east e.g. Rosanna?

Have you considered places like Coburg or Reservoir which are very local? Or even Northcote or Thornbury if you have the budget?

I understand that those new houses in Epping look like a bargain. However, for better schools I would be looking at Thornbury, Northcote, Pascoe Vale South. If you go to http://www.melbourneschoolzones.com.au and set the filter for secondary schools you will see the catchments for Strathmore Secondary College and Northcote High School. The catchments are strictly enforced. Have a look at rentals in those zones on realestate.com.au - you can get the results displayed on a map. Also - has had already been said, look east to Rosanna, Heidelberg way and check for good schools. you can also check school rankings on http://www.betterschools.com.au

Good luck!

We're in Watsonia, not too far away from Epping. We really like this side of the city.

Epping has older areas of housing, and newer areas. A friend from Adelaide has just had a house built in Epping as an investment property, so there are signs of the area being modernised in much the same way as other older suburbs, knock-down rebuilds etc.

It's got all the usual amenities just like every other suburb.

The Northern Hospital is in the area, and there is a large shopping centre in Epping too.

It's on a train line to the city, and it's also far enough out of the city that a drive to the countryside is only 15-20 mins away. It's right next to the ringroad.

Can't help you much with schools; ours all went to schools local to us. You should be able to get a tour of any school in the area that takes your fancy; admission to schools will largely depend on where you secure a permanent address.

There were a few large grass fires in the fire season in the area in the last few years. Nothing too major, but you may want to be aware that even the outer suburbs can be hazardous in fire season.

Check domain.com.au for rentals.

Good luck!

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Can't help much on schools but we spent a few days in May staying with my 2 of my cousins who built in Epping. While I feel it's not the best driving route to CBD, I am happy to say we found it better than a lot of other suburbs we visited. It has its malls, hospital, cinema, eat outs, restaurants etc and many of the neighbouring suburbs drive into Epping for weekend shopping.

Cousins live in a newer estate but most of the houses looked good, we took a few walks from the day care to their place and loved it. Mind you, we like sprawling suburbs with uncrowded broad streets instead of crammed narrow car filled streets lined with huge trees and lots of electric wires.

We are planning to buy in Epping mainly for reasons already mentioned, just far enough from the CBD, an hour by train tops and close to the countryside plus you get the right amount of land for your money, prices havent sky rocketed. It may feel a little lost and empty to some people but we loved the 2 nights we walked on the streets at 1am to enjoy the chill night air and bright moon light

All the best!

KnK