Flake Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Hi All, we arrived in Sydney 2 months ago and are now staying with the inlaws in the Hills District. I am now researching suburbs in the hope of finding somewhere that can offer a house for under 500k decent schools and a distance of 1 hour or under commute to the city for work?! This is seeming harder than I thought! We would like a house rather than an apartment nothing flash just something! Any suggestions? Please note that family are all in Sydney otherwise we would have likely chosen another area altogether! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 If you find somewhere be sure to let us know! Seriously, you are going to struggle with that budget in Sydney ... I would suggest you go south to Sutherland, although I am still not sure it would be quite enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freckleface Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Have a look at places like Glenmore Park, Lapstone etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flake Posted June 30, 2015 Author Share Posted June 30, 2015 Tell me about it! The only place I can find are places like Mount Annan in SW Sydney, have heard ok things about there but I guess the fact is anywhere worth living means a crazy price tag! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Tell me about it! The only place I can find are places like Mount Annan in SW Sydney, have heard ok things about there but I guess the fact is anywhere worth living means a crazy price tag! It sure does. What you are doing is like trying to find a house in central London for £250k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Hi All, we arrived in Sydney 2 months ago and are now staying with the inlaws in the Hills District. I am now researching suburbs in the hope of finding somewhere that can offer a house for under 500k decent schools and a distance of 1 hour or under commute to the city for work?! This is seeming harder than I thought! We would like a house rather than an apartment nothing flash just something! Any suggestions? Please note that family are all in Sydney otherwise we would have likely chosen another area altogether! Can you clarify, do you mean $500K or £500K? If it's $500K then I doubt you will find anything - I'd suggest the Central Coast as your best bet but the commute will be a bit longer. In most of Sydney, $500,000 will buy you a one bedroom flat. If you're finding a house under that price in the Sydney metro area, it's probably an area you don't want to live in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie 2 Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Many moons ago we put an ordinary 3 bedroom house on land that we had purchased in the Hills District. Total cost $17,600. We quickly added a decent sized,concrete, pool for $3250 and 20 years ago I added an extension which consisted a large family room, bedroom and ensuite at a cost of $50,000. Total cost to me,$70.850. If I sold it tomorrow I would get well over $1m. This is nonsense. People are buying at these prices every week. This is ludicrous. What hope, have most young couples, of ever affording a home? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Thinking about this a bit more, I can't help feeling you're setting yourself up for unhappiness settling in Sydney - family or not. With that budget you have almost no chance of setting yourself up with a half-decent home anywhere in Sydney, so you could be condemning yourself to renting for the rest of your life. Have you considered going to Newcastle instead? A lovely city with great beaches, on the doorstep of the wineries, and only a couple of hours' drive to visit the relatives in Sydney. I knew a couple of guys at my work in Sydney who lived in Newcastle - they felt that life in Newcastle was so much better for their kids, they wouldn't move to Sydney even though it meant putting up with a long commute (and both did eventually find work nearer home). Property is dramatically more affordable too. By the way, we were in a similar position to you - I've lived in Sydney for 30 years, but now in our 60's we realised we couldn't afford to retire unless we could reduce our living costs. If we could've found a nice apartment (not house) in a nice part of Sydney for under $500,000, we might have stayed - but we couldn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Can you clarify, do you mean $500K or £500K? If it's $500K then I doubt you will find anything - I'd suggest the Central Coast as your best bet but the commute will be a bit longer. In most of Sydney, $500,000 will buy you a one bedroom flat. If you're finding a house under that price in the Sydney metro area, it's probably an area you don't want to live in. Good point, I had assumed $500k but £500k is another matter and is starting to get achievable, although still won't be spoilt for choice! Personally, I have some doubt that you could get a one bedroom flat in Sydney for $500k, not near CBD and in a decent area anyway. Thinking about this a bit more, I can't help feeling you're setting yourself up for unhappiness settling in Sydney - family or not. With that budget you have almost no chance of setting yourself up with a half-decent home anywhere in Sydney, so you could be condemning yourself to renting for the rest of your life. Have you considered going to Newcastle instead? A lovely city with great beaches, on the doorstep of the wineries, and only a couple of hours' drive to visit the relatives in Sydney. I knew a couple of guys at my work in Sydney who lived in Newcastle - they felt that life in Newcastle was so much better for their kids, they wouldn't move to Sydney even though it meant putting up with a long commute (and both did eventually find work nearer home). Property is dramatically more affordable too. By the way, we were in a similar position to you - I've lived in Sydney for 30 years, but now in our 60's we realised we couldn't afford to retire unless we could reduce our living costs. If we could've found a nice apartment (not house) in a nice part of Sydney for under $500,000, we might have stayed - but we couldn't. Agree on all counts. Newcastle is gorgeous, although I wouldn't want to commute to Sydney every day, but if work could be found in Newcastle itself it is a great option. And we also were driven from Sydney on property prices and we were two very well paid professionals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JockinTas Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 If you are talking in pounds you will be OK. If you are talking dollars then the best of luck to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flake Posted June 30, 2015 Author Share Posted June 30, 2015 Hi All, thank you for your responses, just to clarify, yep I'm talking $500k AUD! I'm not looking to be very close to Sydney CBD in fact it's the opposite! I love to be away from the city, as much as possible but we are restricted going too far due to my husbands work, so an hours train/bus ride is what we considered ok in terms of life balance. There do seem to be some places available for under $500k but who knows how long that will last?!!! Silly Sydney. If my husbands family did not live here, I would likely not choose to live here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Hi All, thank you for your responses, just to clarify, yep I'm talking $500k AUD! I'm not looking to be very close to Sydney CBD in fact it's the opposite! I love to be away from the city, as much as possible but we are restricted going too far due to my husbands work, so an hours train/bus ride is what we considered ok in terms of life balance. There do seem to be some places available for under $500k but who knows how long that will last?!!! Silly Sydney. If my husbands family did not live here, I would likely not choose to live here. You mentioned an hour commute, that would still be considered quite close to Sydney CBD. You need to go a lot further than an hour out for house prices to fall into that budget range. It would be interesting to know what you have seen though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Hi All, thank you for your responses, just to clarify, yep I'm talking $500k AUD! I'm not looking to be very close to Sydney CBD in fact it's the opposite! I love to be away from the city, as much as possible but we are restricted going too far due to my husbands work, so an hours train/bus ride is what we considered ok in terms of life balance. There do seem to be some places available for under $500k but who knows how long that will last?!!! Silly Sydney. If my husbands family did not live here, I would likely not choose to live here. How many of those under-500 places have you actually looked at? Even if you're not ready to buy yet, you definitely need to get out there on Saturday mornings and start doing inspections, as many as you can. It's impossible to make judgments by looking at Domain.com.au or realestate.com.au - the pictures and description are always distorted to make the property look better (and bigger) than it really is. By actually going and looking at these properties, you'll get an idea of what the areas are like, you'll see how big (or small) a property you can get for your money in each area, and you'll gradually get a picture of what's possible. No other way to do it. And I have to say, I think you're going to be very disappointed in what you can manage to get for that figure. By the way, is that including stamp duty and conveyancing fees or excluding? On $500,000, stamp duty is about $18,000 plus allow about $2,000 for fees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Blue Mountains ! That's where we are looking but be quick mind - the investors have already started sniffing around. Hi All, thank you for your responses, just to clarify, yep I'm talking $500k AUD! I'm not looking to be very close to Sydney CBD in fact it's the opposite! I love to be away from the city, as much as possible but we are restricted going too far due to my husbands work, so an hours train/bus ride is what we considered ok in terms of life balance. There do seem to be some places available for under $500k but who knows how long that will last?!!! Silly Sydney. If my husbands family did not live here, I would likely not choose to live here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Blue Mountains ! That's where we are looking but be quick mind - the investors have already started sniffing around. That is certainly much more realistic on cost and would be a lovely place to live I think, but will not meet the OPs one hour commute limit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkerfamily123 Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Good luck with this one! we have double that amount and are struggling to find a home that is not in a complex with strata fees, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaiapoilady Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Been here a year and still renting, its ridiculous, seriously thinking of moving on. Even the houses we have looked at for under 500k (as this is our budget too), you would have to renovate as well, we have looked at the Blue Mountains too. I really do not like Western Sydney (this is where we are renting atm, and its the pitts). You could look up the central coast but be careful up there, some area's are not nice, or maybe down towards Wollongong, but that's a hell of a commute from there. The housing market is insane here in NSW. And I am not prepared to stay in rental until I retire, not happening..Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fish.01 Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Good luck with this one!we have double that amount and are struggling to find a home that is not in a complex with strata fees, etc. You can get a decent family house in Paddington for that money :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 One thing this forum has taught me is that house prices in australia are absolutely crazy :shocked: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fish.01 Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 One thing this forum has taught me is that house prices in australia are absolutely crazy :shocked: I find it depends where really, like the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Well in scotland you can get a really nice place for 100k. You can get something a lot cheaper than that too if you don't mind a ex council house. I guess some people can be a bit snobby (maybe not the right word) about that but I find they tend to be better built. We almost bought one of these new builds and there was so much wrong with it, we rented it first. It was like one of those rent to buy schemes, was totally overpriced for what it was but it was because the location was on a old army barracks. Although saying that in glasgow or edinburgh it would probably be a struggle to get anything that was really nice for that budget, you would have to go on the outskirts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fish.01 Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Well in scotland you can get a really nice place for 100k. You can get something a lot cheaper than that too if you don't mind a ex council house. I guess some people can be a bit snobby (maybe not the right word) about that but I find they tend to be better built. We almost bought one of these new builds and there was so much wrong with it, we rented it first. It was like one of those rent to buy schemes, was totally overpriced for what it was but it was because the location was on a old army barracks. Although saying that in glasgow or edinburgh it would probably be a struggle to get anything that was really nice for that budget, you would have to go on the outskirts So taking salaries into account that's roughly AUD$250,000 for a smallish house (by Australian standards) in a small town ? In Brisbane you can buy a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1 garage house around AUD$350,000 on the outskirts (40 minute train ride). More expensive but I guess it is probably larger and 40 mins from a city of 2.2 million ? Hard to compare exact like for like given different salaries, demographics of various areas etc. I would say Australia is dearer than Scotland but not sure if "absolutely crazy" ? From reports I do think Australians possibly have more capital on average to bring to their next house purchase so that probably makes prices higher for someone coming in from another market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 You can get a decent family house in Paddington for that money :rolleyes: That's Paddington Queensland, not Paddington Sydney of course! There are huge differences between house prices in different parts of Australia. Houses in Hobart are the cheapest of the capital cities, they're about half the price of an equivalent house in a similar suburb in Sydney. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chortlepuss Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 $500k for Paddington, Brisbane? I'd love to know where. I've been looking for a house to buy reasonable commuting distance to Brissie - budget about $600k - mostly townhouses and nasty apartments. Brisbane can be cheaper if you're not near a train line and willing to do a 40 min drive through heavy and inconsistent traffic but even Brisbane is becoming pretty unaffordable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fish.01 Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 $500k for Paddington, Brisbane? I'd love to know where. I've been looking for a house to buy reasonable commuting distance to Brissie - budget about $600k - mostly townhouses and nasty apartments. Brisbane can be cheaper if you're not near a train line and willing to do a 40 min drive through heavy and inconsistent traffic but even Brisbane is becoming pretty unaffordable Not $500k ...you missed the "we have double that amount" What do you consider a reasonable commute btw ? I may be able to help. When you say away from a train line, some bus routes are ok..? $600 would easily get you a big house in Ferny Grove, 30 mins from Brisbane on the train, for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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