Confused about suburbs

[richdownunder]

Hi, we were all decided upon a move to Melbourne but have just been thrown a curve ball which is making us consider NSW. We are both accountants and our salary expectations in Melbourne are about $200-250KPA which is more than adequate to provide a nice lifestyle and house within our budget of $550-$660K. Here comes the curve ball...my wife works for an Australian company and she has been offered the chance to work in Sydney which would boost our income to about $300K PA - she'd also have the benefits of knowing the company, the role and some of the people she'd be working with.

 

We've been to Sydney quite a few times, mainly as tourists, but never with the expectation of living there as we know how expensive housing is. Given this opportunity I've been looking on Realestate.com to look at houses around Sydney (about an hours commute) and you don't seem to get as much for your money as you do in our preferred areas of Berwick or Mount Martha in Victoria.

 

We would appreciate any help on what areas we could look at which are family orientated and where we could get a nice modern 4 bed house for about $550-$600K (purchase).

 

All help would be most welcomed and most appreciated.

 

Rich & Steph

[MARYROSE02]

Which part of the city is she going to be working? How far and how long are you prepared to spend commuting? $300K is a pretty big salary. You can afford to live somewhere nice close to work or city or both if that is where she is going to be working, and look around for something else.

 

550 to 600K seems rather low based upon that combined salary but the again who wants to go into debt!

 

An hour's commute? I just checked back to your post. Pick a railway line and follow the suburbs untll you get to your price range. I don't know that site you mentioned but www.domain.com.au has most of the info you need.

 

I was talking on another post about being out at my brother's place in Picnic Point. That is a nice area although the homes will be a bit more than 600K I think. However, you may well get older, fibro ones closer to the stations at Revesby/Panania/Padstow and there's nothing wrong with them.

 

I was in Gymea later on and that looked OK too with a station and ?40mins to the city (I fell asleep.)

[richdownunder]

Hi, thanks for this. I'll take a look. We've set that budget as our budget as it will allow us not to have a mortgage - we know we can go higher, but we don't really want to be committed to a mortgage every month and instead enjoy ourselves a bit more and ensure that we have enough to pay for our daughters education etc. We're happy with up to an hours commute as that's what we do going into London each day, so anything around the same or less will be a bonus - especially when at the end of the day we'll be in NSW!!!

 

My wife's job will be in George Street so pretty central.

 

If it was you and you were prepared to spend say $800K on a 4 bed, where would you live?

 

Thanks, Rich

[LKC]

Sutherland Shire is a lovely family friendly area and within your budget, so it might be worth a look.

[Bromney]

Agree on checking the train map and then checking properties on http://www.domain.com.au for correlating prices. Popular areas are very expensive, i've been shocked at how pricey properties are in Sydney.

[Rupert]

I think you should take the job opportunity in Sydney for sure, especially as the job market is pretty tight at the moment. But I think you need to rethink your housing budget, actually I am not sure it would have gone that far in Melbourne would it? But in Sydney $500-500k would not leave you in a great location.

 

Even $800k won't get a four bed house in a fabulous location, we are on the northern beaches (my definition of fabulous) and many apartments up here are $700k. You would get a house in Frenchs Forest, Forestville perhaps though, other areas would be Hills District, you would get a McMansion up there probably and also I second Sutherland.

[Talieandtribe]

Hi

I'd agree with LKC on the Shire. We recently visited Engadine, nice little place, Miranda, and Cronulla. All on the train line to CBD.

Cronulla was a lovely beach area for a day out or to live.

You're right next to a huge beautiful national park too.

It looked like the nicest of the more sensibly priced areas we visited.

Talie

[LKC]

Hi

I'd agree with LKC on the Shire. We recently visited Engadine, nice little place, Miranda, and Cronulla. All on the train line to CBD.

Cronulla was a lovely beach area for a day out or to live.

You're right next to a huge beautiful national park too.

It looked like the nicest of the more sensibly priced areas we visited.

Talie

 

Engadine is a lovely suburb. We are in the next suburb over, but school, the shops etc are all in Engadine. I wouldn't live anywhere else!

[Talieandtribe]

Engadine is a lovely suburb. We are in the next suburb over, but school, the shops etc are all in Engadine. I wouldn't live anywhere else!

 

Hi LKC I lived in Woronora Heights for 6 months when I was 12, went to Engadine Public. I went back to have a look on our trip. It's a lovely area. We're thinking about Cronulla this time, do you know anything about the area in terms of schools etc? Talie

[LKC]

Hi LKC I lived in Woronora Heights for 6 months when I was 12, went to Engadine Public. I went back to have a look on our trip. It's a lovely area. We're thinking about Cronulla this time, do you know anything about the area in terms of schools etc? Talie

 

We are in Woronora Heights, love it! To be honest we never looked at Cronulla, partly because of our budget (wouldn't stretch to what we wanted in Cronulla) and partly because coming from rural Suffolk we wanted to be somewhere a bit quieter. We lived for six months in Yowie Bay and just found it too noisy. I wouldn't think that you'd have a problem in finding a good school in Cronulla, or anywhere else in Sutherland Shire to be honest. It is a nice area, although I would imagine that the population would be more transient in areas with lots of apartment blocks like Sutherland and Miranda which may not be ideal. I know several people whose children are at school with our eldest, who actually went to the same school when they were children. It seems the sort of area where people tend to stay put. I only know people with children at Engadine West, St John Bosco and Gymea Bay Public, so I can't really comment on any other schools.

[SydneyAnne]

Hi Rich and Steph. If you fancy the Sutherland shire the CityRail train line you will be using is the Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra line, which runs roughly from Bondi (through the CBD) to Cronulla Beach and on to Wollongong. The suburbs along it don't take you too far from the coast if you are beach-goers. Perhaps another starting point in your search might be the sort of school you want your daughter to attend, and work from there. You probably know about the school system here but, if not, there are roughly 3 choices: state schools, Catholic schools and independent schools. Latter 2 are the harder ones to get into and more costly. Perhaps it might be useful to take a short-to-medium-term rental property when first arriving and have a good look around once you arrive in Sydney? Happy to help answer any further queries you might have. Cheers, Anne (relocate-east.com.au)