We've done a bit of checking as we are planning to go to Perth area in January. Have been warned away from Armadale by more than one person and most recently been considering Rockingham and Mandurah. As there is a half hour train into the city from Rockingham this is our current favourite neck of the woods but all depends on house prices when we arrive really. Warnbro looks good just south of Rockingham, nice house prices and has own train station.
Its hard without driving round the places really and all you can go on is accumulated knowledge / recomendation / quality of the schools (if you have kids) and so on. If you can do a reckkie visit that would be favourite but we can't afford to, so are going on what we can find out from the web and a couple of people we know in Perth.
The property websites will give you an idea of what you can get for you money and prices do seem to vary tremendously from area to area. I have been watching Australia This Week on CNBC on Sky and I think from what they are saying that interest rates will stay high in Oz until the end of the year (which hopefully might force house prices down) then start to drop early next year. This would suit us fine :-)
The other thing I think they are saying is that the Aussie dollar will weaken against the US dollar during 2008. I am not sure but I think this means (assuming the pound holds its own with the US dollar), that we will get more dollars to our pound when we go over, but I am not very sure about that. Did economics about 25 years ago and its all a bit vague now! Be nice though eh?
Hope some of that helps. Good luck, please let us know what you find out in case it helps us too.
Cheers
Wayne
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Wayne (44), Nicki (43), Lucy (14), James (9) - Heading for Perth in Jan 09.
Mr B & kids have got citizenship, so just need a spouse visa for Mrs B.
17 Apr - Police form sent off, X-Ray & medical booked; 22 Apr - Visa App sent off; 23 Apr - X-Ray done
Have you looked on www.aussiemove.com it has a list of suburbs (and comments from others on the suburbs), average house prices (we found out where we couldn't afford to live lol). It is best to look around these areas and it may be little things - for us Bibra Lake was on our to look at list, but when we saw big electricity pylons near some of the houses it got taken off - yet is a lovely area.
One thing for me in particular was that I didn't want a long commute to work and adding a couple of hours onto my day. I have a 20 - 25 min journey from Leeming to Armadale which is great for me. Hubby drew the short straw and travels to Malaga in rush hour :(
Rockingham has alot of English people (a plus for some, minus for others), Madurah is nice and now only 40 mins into Perth on the train.
Ali
__________________ I am toopositive to be doubtful, too optimistic to be fearful and too determined to be defeated!
Hi - we live in Waikiki, between Rockingham and Warnbro. There are several others on PIO who live in this area and yes, there are a lot of Brits but there are also lots of Ozzies too. We like the area because it is very close to a lovely, quiet and unspoiled beach, very close to the new rail link - so quick and easy to get into the CBD of Perth. Not too far to drive/train to Mandurah or Fremantle - quite central to most things really. There are some areas in R'ham you might want to avoid and I think the price of housing would be a good guide to those. I usually go to the Reiwa website to search for properties and keep an eye on prices which will give you an idea of areas. Other places to look at might be Port Kennedy, Secret Harbour, Baldivis - so lots to look at.
There is still lots of open space down this way too whereas I find areas north of Perth a bit more built up. Hope this helps.
