Moving to Melbourne - advice needed

Hi All,

First time post so hopefully in the right place. My wife and I along with our 2 children are moving to Melbourne in July 18 and i'm planning on visiting this May for a week to spend some time in local suburbs. Only problem is that i don't know where to start. We would be looking for a family friendly area that is commutable to the CBD, say max of around an hour door to door. i'll likely get the train to work. What sort of areas should we consider? We're not fussed on being close to the beach as we know that when it comes to buy, this will likely be out of our range (c.500k AUD).

Also, could someone give me a steer on whether a salary of 130k AUD would be enough for a family. I'm just trying to get a feel as to whether my wife would need to find work quickly or we could manage on my salary. I know this is difficult to answer, but i'm just looking for a very broad response. We don't want to eat into savings as this will be used to help buy a house. I'll be working straight away as will have a job lined up before we move.

I'v got a million other q's but will start with these first.

Cheers

Chris

The salary should be ok but eventually your wife will need to work to support the mortgage. The median house price in Melbourne is well over $600k. Depending on the age of your children you should be looking in good high school catchments. For the beach you could be looking at Frankston and beyond. You could also consider a semi rural area such as Sunbury or Bacchus marsh but 500 will always be a stretch. Www. Realestate.com.au is a good place to start to look at values. You probably know that Melbourne is over 100km wide so all of the leg work you can do before you come will be a bonus. Just follow the train lines out and know that you will be looking at the extremities of the suburban system or the first couple of stops on the vline country trains.

The closer you live to the CBD the more expensive housing is both in rent and purchase. Cranbourne in the south is still affordable and a lot of people choose to live in the western suburbs like Point Cook, Weribbee, Tarneit etc. Sunbury is also affordable. Frankston has some but not a lot affordable anymore. Houses in Frankston that are reasonably priced sell over the weekend. Langwarrin is affordable but transport is a problem.

https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/ is the public transport web site and it will give you the train lines. You can then look on Domain.com.au or realestate.com.au at the areas and rent and prices that are around.

Hi,

I have moved to Melbourne just over 6 months ago and am just waiting for the family to arrive permanently in June. However my salary is similar and we have the view that I do not want my wife to be pressured into working quickly as our children may need support to settle in school.

General finding from me so far is that probably best to rent before buying, school catchment areas are important to understand. Distance from CBD affects price a lot and think about what can be compromised on. I am in the Pascoe Vale and realistically a family home requiring work will be over $800K which is fine if you have equity. At $500K you would struggle with good schools for example Strathmore/Buckley Park/Rosehill are all good areas, but if I moved to the Glenroy area (Been advised avoid with a poor secondary school, but only the next suburb) the average price drops by $200K easily. Depending on your equity position I would suggest that you need to add $150 - $200K to that budget to find a house about 50mins to 1 hour from the CBD in a good catchment area (Although I have heard positive comments on schools in Frankston).

My bank have confirmed a mortgage of up to $600K is easy to secure at that income and loans on homes are a lot more flexible than in the UK. In particular the concept of going initially interest only and then changing to repayment would not be a problem and is a way to ease the pressure on a short term basis this was a difference of about $800 a month roughly.

IF Beaches arent your thing then you will have no problem. Look at the suburbs back from the bay, so Carrum Downs, Langwarrin, Frankston, etc. We live in Langwarrin and love it - our personal preference was to be closer to the beach but we didnt want to compromise on the house we bought or strangle us with a mortgage, so we bought a 3 bed 2 bath house last year for $450k on double the size plot we had in the UK. Its a 10-15 minute drive to the beach and just slightly less for the train on the frankston line and the express trains run every 10 minutes, 50 minutes into the city.

Personally i would avoid the Cranbourne train line as its single track in parts so runs much less frequently and is generally packed all the way.

If you want to be South East then look at Berwick, Cranbourne, Lyndhurst and surrounding suburbs. Or you could look to the West and get more for your money in places like Point Cook etc.

IF Beaches arent your thing then you will have no problem. Look at the suburbs back from the bay, so Carrum Downs, Langwarrin, Frankston, etc. We live in Langwarrin and love it - our personal preference was to be closer to the beach but we didnt want to compromise on the house we bought or strangle us with a mortgage, so we bought a 3 bed 2 bath house last year for $450k on double the size plot we had in the UK. Its a 10-15 minute drive to the beach and just slightly less for the train on the frankston line and the express trains run every 10 minutes, 50 minutes into the city.

 

Personally i would avoid the Cranbourne train line as its single track in parts so runs much less frequently and is generally packed all the way.

One thing about Cranbourne train line is that as it's the end of the line you are first on the train of a morning so guaranteed a seat.

true, although parking is getting worse. I gave up after all the spaces were regularly gone by 6:45.

Have a look on SEEK for any ideas of wages and real estate view or domain for the price on houses. 

Hi Bubbs, you don't mention how old your children are. If they are about to enter secondary school I'd look to rent in a good state high school zone. Rental returns are typically 2 -3 % and most investors rely on capital gain rather than rental income. So the house may cost say $1.5 mil but the rent is say $35k per year. You probably don't want to be out of the property market for long so maybe put your capital into a rental property and negatively gear if you can.

I'm a fan of the Western suburbs, and your money certainly goes further. I live in Wyndham Vale, and the train from Werribee or Wyndham Vale (now the V Line goes through there) is less than 45 minutes. Schools are a bit hit and miss, but my Aussie Mrs got her eldest into Hoppers Secondary who are very good from experience. Her younger kids are at Iramoo primary, just round the corner.

Hi Chris.

Apologies: I'm a late arrival to this thread.

Have a look at Geelong.   I travel to the CBD from South Geelong, and the train trip takes an hour (see the VLine website).   Free car parking at South Geelong. 

20 minutes or so to the beach at Torquay.

Works for me!

Best regards.