Ahames

11 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

Lots of people commute to Newcastle from the Central Coast, but they drive.  From The Entrance to Newcastle is about an hour.  

The good news is that if you're only renting, he could start the job in Alexandria then look for a job in Newcastle, and he'd be able to commute up there in the short term until you find a place closer to his work.  Whereas if you focus on Sydney, he'll have that commute forever.

I had colleagues in Sydney who had been transferred from our Newcastle office.  They refused to move their families from Newcastle and commuted the three hours on the train every day (while looking for other jobs!).  They felt Newcastle was so much better for bringing up their children.  That has always stuck with me.  

The Eastern Suburbs are the posh part of Sydney.   Most families live out West, but it's a very long way from the beach and it gets very hot and sticky, unless you go all the way up to the Blue Mountains - in which case he'll have an even longer commute.  

I'm from Sydney - actually Scottish, but lived there for over thirty years.  We sold up and went to the UK thinking we might retire there, then changed our minds.  Sydney is now so expensive, we can't afford to live in a respectable suburb - so we've moved to Melbourne.

Our thoughts are to just get there with a good job offer and try - if not definitely move jobs. As our eldest will be in high school after a year of being in Oz. I’d rather not be moving schools.

think hubby is set on cc - I think he’ll be ok with travel but I couldn’t do it.

time will tell!

Ha! Didn’t like uk ... don’t blame you!

david has family in Kew, I however didn’t like the rainfall in Melbourne!! Felt too much like home. Glad you’ve settled thou.

thanks for helping 

1 minute ago, Marisawright said:

You'd be mad to try to get a rental before you arrive anyway - you'll end up with a dump. 

If you are coming for a better life then I'd forget Sydney altogether.    Newcastle would be a much better bet, more affordable, lovely beaches, a much better environment to bring up kids and there are reasonable job opportunities.  I know he's got the job lined up already but I'd suggest he keeps trying for something in Newcastle or Wollongong.  

I’m not trying to get a rental before we arrive- I’m just searching to see what’s available and prices in areas!

yes Newcastle looks lush but too far to commute, job has contract signed and it’s a starting point for us. Otherwise we’d have stress of finding job on top of everything else involved in moving 

3 minutes ago, aconcannon said:

 

I hear you! It’s pretty tough when you first move over & get set up. We were really shocked when we first arrived in Sydney & saw the price of everything. And like you, we sacrificed our 3 bed house in the UK with big garden etc, for a 2 bed apartment. Apartment living for your average family with kids is standard in Sydney as only the wealthy can afford houses. I wouldn’t want to live in an apartment with kids though. It’s the main reason we left Sydney as we wanted a house so we can settle down & start a family. Do you specifically want to be near the beach? If you’re not fussed about that check out the western suburbs as renting a house there would probably be a similar price to the CC. Some of the suburbs have a bad rep, but they don’t have anything on a UK council estate, lol. Suburbs like Stanhope Gardens, Blacktown, Bankstown - that sort of radius on a map. There’s a lot of new properties up that way too.

 

Oh my....this is getting scary!

I’ve heard to avoid East !

The Hills comes up alot but again - struggle to afford that!!

Might get him to change jobs! Can work nearer cc!! Ha!

ideally near water would be nice, considering we don’t live near it here, and when you visit it’s a let down!

More investing I guess!

thanks for helping 

2 minutes ago, aconcannon said:

 

Has your hubby been given his hours yet? Most tradies start really early over here, garages maybe as early as 6.30am. He’d be getting up pretty early for a massive train journey if that was the case. I know I wouldn’t do it! Also, unless you lived within walking distance of the train station that could be a problem timing a bus with a train really early in the morning so he’d probably need to drive to the station & leave the car. A commute like that would soon become boring I recon. I agree with the last person who commented & reckon you keep looking for something around Botany, Cronulla or the Gong. What’s your budget each week & what are you looking for? The whole of Sydney is notoriously expensive. That’s why we left after 3 years. $720 a week for a pretty average 2 bed apartment is insane! We pay much less now on the Gold Coast & have a huge 4 bed house with a pool & a 5 min walk to the beach. Central coast is the way to go if you want to save money & live in something nicer, but ive definitely never heard of anyone doing that commute to Alexandria before. The central coast is too quiet in my opinion & does have some pretty rough areas, (I’m early 30’s), so I’d recommend paying the extra rent to live in Sydney. You wouldn’t regret it. Good luck with it all

 

He'll be working 8am-4,20pm. Looking like 12-13hr day.

We cant live in an apartment, not with 2 kids. We are making the move for the better, not leaving 3 bed house with garden to live in a flat. I understand we cant afford the house like that there without living outside the area though, hence why cc came up.

On other forums and news articles it seems more are moving from city to cc for the living space but comes at a cost of travel.

We are restricted on the visa, but did prefer QLD.....maybe after our 2yr are up we can pop over the border!

I'm def struggling to find any rentals south though.....they don't seem to hang around long!!

Thanks for replying

Hey, Thanks for replying.

Everyone says the same but im struggling to find rentals on south side. Im concerned we wont be able to buy there too.

We do plan to spend a week on each side to see thou.

I look into Helensburgh though. The Gong came up at similar train distance.

Hi  

We have just been granted out 190 visa for NSW and hubby has a job in Alexandria, Sydney.

We are looking to live CC though (can’t afgord nearer city and rather have the surroundings of CC)

We understand the journey via train is around 1.5hr and see that lots of people do this commute daily. He’s a mechanic so no option to work from home.

We havent been to CC before so only going by online research, we like Avoca, Terrigal, Green Point.

Can anyone recommend schools in the area?

We have girl 10 and boy 6. I was hoping to get the set before the Xmas break so the can start day 1 with everyone else. 

Any advice is welcomed though.

Thanks

Anna 

Thank you very much Ktee.

I hope that you visit Port Noarlunga should you visit Adelaide :smile:

Wkd post! Thanks for sooo much info.

You have listed everything someone would need.

This has been v helpful to me

thanks again

anna