Moving to Melb in Jan and wondering where to live.

[unzippy]

Hello

A bit of background, Wife is Tas and has been living in the UK with me for the last 9 years, I'm UK.

We live in SE London, (Lewisham) Zone 2 so about an hour commute door to door.  We both work in IT in London earning about £85k jointly and hope to get similar roles in Melb.   We enjoy the multiculturalism of our suburb, we have awesome turkish/indian/vietnamese/japanese/chinese food shop and restaurants.

We are looking for similar in Melbourne.  We've stayed in Footscray for a week about 4 years ago with friends and despite them warning us about it being rough, thought it was fine compared to home - no sirens or helicopters.

We will be renting with a view to saving for a place of our own later.  Not that fussed about being close to a beach, would rather spend that money getting a better place rather than being close to the beach.

Would like 2 bedrooms, off street parking would be nice, garden for cooking in, garage/shed for tools.

 

Where should we be looking at?  What else should we thinking about?

 

Cheers!

[Lever40]

Have you lined up jobs or anything? or know where you'll be based for employment as that would have an effect on your location. Im definilty an eastern suburbs fan, having lived in and worked in quite a few areas in Melbourne over a couple of years Id chose south/central eastern areas. Obv the closer to the CBD the more expensive. @The Pom Queen has put up a few articles on here about different suburbs in Melbourne. Check out Realestate.com.au it will give you a break down on suburbs. Footscray probably wouldnt be my choice if im honest lol 

[unzippy]

Nah!  We'll be in Tas with the in-laws for Nov - Jan.  We can think about jobs then.  We .don't actually land in Melb until Jan.  I guess we'll airbnb it for a week or two until we sort somewhere to live and can then get our stuff delivered.

What makes you say that about Footscray?

[KiwiKaye]

If you like the multi-cultural aspects, then Footscray would be fine. I would also look at Coburg which is an inner-north suburb of Melbourne - Sydney Road has a great range of food shops, restaurants, etc. from all parts of the world.

Much will depend on your budget, which you won't really know until you find work. The closer you are to the city in Melbourne the more expensive it is, especially if you want to buy. Check out www.realestate.com.au and www.domain.com.au for rental and sale prices. Most of the houses for sale in the inner areas go to Auction, so the guide price means very little. You can check out past sold prices on both these websites though.

[markb28]

I moved here from London (Brixton) in 2012, lived in Sydney now in Melbourne (Brunswick East) where we bought a house.   My partner and I both work in IT, I'm a Londoner she's Aussie. Compared to Lewisham the suburbs are safe here and not rough at all - what do you want to know? The weather ain't that spectacular for 6 months each year regardless of what you hear- but still better than home and awesome for the other 6 months. You're looking at $600 a week for the type of property you are looking for in a decent area,$100 less if you are content with a 2 bed flat.

There's loads of suburbs I could recommend - Fitzroy/Carlton/Brunswick/Northcote/Thornbury in the North, St Kilda/Windsor/South Yarra and Prahran  in the South (getting more expensive in the South). City beaches are pretty unspectacular in Melbourne, however good ones are just over an hours drive away. All the areas mentioned I'd find suitably lively as a Londoner. Avoid docklands, its reasonably priced for a reason - Canary Wharf like soulless.

Someone mentioned Coburg, next suburb north of us and has stuff going on however I'd move to somewhere with a bit more lively - that's more an area you would buy in when you're getting a foot on the ladder.

I'm assuming you are fairly young - if so transport options should be key to your decision, a good tram/tube station close by is important.

 

[starlight7]

St Kilda is another lively place plus the added  bonus of a beach.

[buzzy--bee]

On 6/13/2017 at 02:20, unzippy said:

We both work in IT in London earning about £85k jointly and hope to get similar roles in Melb.   We enjoy the multiculturalism of our suburb, we have awesome turkish/indian/vietnamese/japanese/chinese food shop and restaurants.

 

I also came from London working in IT.  There's a lot of suburbs that would fit your bill.  Coburg I reckon would be somewhere to consider for instance.

St Kilda is very edgy, bit like Notting Hill, mix of wealth and grunge.  South Yarra and Prahran might too.

[TheWayOfThePony]

Anywhere will be nice after Lewisham ? (sorry, don't mean to be rude to Lewisham - I'm SE London too )

Good luck I've been to Footscray a couple of times. Didn't find it threatening but admittedly didn't stay there long enough to form an educated opinion...

[Winneth]

You pretty much can live anywhere in the inner city suburbs of Melbourne. Footscray and Coburg (8km) and Brunswick (5km) do fit the bill. Kensington and Flemington (6km) are good options as well. All are serviced by public transport (both train and tram lines) going to the CBD. Footscray has been touted as the next suburb to boom. It seems like it has been taking a long time because it is still considerably reasonable to rent there. Coburg is being developed to allow conveniences for people who cannot afford to live in Brunswick. All these areas have a good dose of multiculturalism. And you can be in the city with any of these suburbs in less than 40mins using public transport.