Where to live in Sydney

[MARYROSE02]

10 hours ago, Marisawright said:

MaryRose has lived in Surry Hills for 30-odd years, I think, and keeps forgetting how expensive it is for new arrivals.   I suspect he's sitting on a goldmine on his mortgage-free unit.

The mistake I made was not buying a terrace house as soon as I paid my mortgage. 

I might be able to afford a unit in Marrickville if I sold my flat but I doubt I could afford a house there.  I'm trying to think of the sort of houses in Marrickville? Older homes,  semi-detached,  possibly terraces but not like the inner city terraces in Surry Hills. 

I imagine there's been a lot of development there.  I recall seeing lots of new blocks along Canterbury Road. 

There was a one bedroom unit in my block which sold for $800K in September but I don't know what prices are like now. 

There are not many burbs in Sydney where I could buy a house for 800K now? Maybe adding the money from the UK house.

Here in Surfers there are some nice units but houses are dear.

Aside from London perhaps there are not many places where a home like mine near Southampton would buy you a nice home in Sydney.

[Ausvisitor]

Marrickville is a strange property stock

Lots of good low rise units in the 6-700 range for a 1 or small 2 bed. However terrace isn't common and so free standing or semi houses seem to be the norm at 1.4m+ (but 3 bed, parking and outside space)

It's for a year and then we will have worked out where we want to live after that, which may still be marrickville (also the 190 work in NSW clause will be up then too, so Australia will be our oyster)

 

[MARYROSE02]

2 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:

Marrickville is a strange property stock

Lots of good low rise units in the 6-700 range for a 1 or small 2 bed. However terrace isn't common and so free standing or semi houses seem to be the norm at 1.4m+ (but 3 bed, parking and outside space)

It's for a year and then we will have worked out where we want to live after that, which may still be marrickville (also the 190 work in NSW clause will be up then too, so Australia will be our oyster)

 

You probably already know your way round Sydney better than I do,  or at least the inner west or inner mid west. My sister in law's mum lives in Campsie. My brother lived in Picnic Point which is near Revesby, Padstow, Panania. I use to drive along Canterbury Road but as soon as I'm off the main roads I lose my bearings.  He's living in Spring Farm now, a new build estate near Camden, 60 km from Surry Hills. Lovely homes,  brand new but I'd not like to commute to the city from there. 

I think of Surry Hills like the hub of a wheel and the main roads are the spokes. I'm ok on the spokes to Bondi, Bronte, Clovelly,  Coogee, but when I cut across those spokes I'm not so sure. 

I'm in Surfers Paradise now on an extended holiday and I like it here - Surry Hills with a beach because the beach is 300 metres away and I can walk everywhere else and if I can't walk they have an excellent tram line.

[Marisawright]

10 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:

Marrickville is a strange property stock

Lots of good low rise units in the 6-700 range for a 1 or small 2 bed. However terrace isn't common and so free standing or semi houses seem to be the norm at 1.4m+ (but 3 bed, parking and outside space)

It all comes down to how the suburb evolved.  As you go a bit further out West, you'll find much of it is the same as Marrickville - the terraces disappear and it's all houses or semis.

Marrickville prices have always lagged a bit behind other Inner West suburbs because it had a poor reputation, which Sydneysiders are slow to forget.  I like it.  I used to work there.  

 

[NickyNook]

Yes, Marrickville was always known as being a poor man’s Newtown. When I first came to Sydney over 40 years ago, it was predominately Greek and Lebanese. Vietnamese came later.

Has a couple of fantastic Greek Cake shops in Illawarra Road along with loads of excellent Vietnamese greengrocers. It’s an interesting suburb much loved by foodies. You get more space for your money there -compared to other inner city suburbs like Surry Hills, Newtown etc yet it’s still close to them.

[Toots]

Another inner city suburb that had a very bad reputation is Redfern.  Friends of ours (from Scotland) bought a terraced house in Redfern over 30 years ago.  Everybody thought they were mad.  They were neve burgled or had any trouble from the locals.  Now the street they bought in has a good reputation and the house has turned out to be an excellent investment.

 

[MARYROSE02]

12 hours ago, Toots said:

Another inner city suburb that had a very bad reputation is Redfern.  Friends of ours (from Scotland) bought a terraced house in Redfern over 30 years ago.  Everybody thought they were mad.  They were neve burgled or had any trouble from the locals.  Now the street they bought in has a good reputation and the house has turned out to be an excellent investment.

 

I should have followed their example! My dentist was in Pitt St, almost opposite the Town Hall and I started going there in 1984. I didn't like going to Redfern after dark mind and ask the shops in Redfern St were shuttered up from 6pm.

But it's become trendy with new restaurants,  bars, cafes, and I'd have no problem walking there before midnight now. 

[DIG85]

20 hours ago, Toots said:

Another inner city suburb that had a very bad reputation is Redfern.  Friends of ours (from Scotland) bought a terraced house in Redfern over 30 years ago.  Everybody thought they were mad.  They were neve burgled or had any trouble from the locals.  Now the street they bought in has a good reputation and the house has turned out to be an excellent investment.

 

Any of those terraces will be worth a tidy sum now.

[MARYROSE02]

"Take the last train to Marrickville and I'll meet you at the station."

Is it on the Bankstown line? Campsie,  Lakemba?

Once   I was walking towards Central, on Buckingham St when a woman said something to me. 

My first reaction was  "No, I haven't got any money." But then I listened to her and she was asking to get to the station.  She had a slight speech impediment or similar. And she took my hand and I walked her to Central and onto the platform.  I think she was going to Campsie.

[Ausvisitor]

Bankstown line

 

 

[MARYROSE02]

On 21/03/2022 at 21:39, Ausvisitor said:

Bankstown line

 

 

I rarely had any reason to go on that line.  When my brother lived in Picnic Point I got the East Hills line. Sometimes I'd do the Hume Highway then left on??? Can't remember the name of the road that bypassed Bankstown. I've been away too long.  

[BeachBabe2022]

On 12/03/2022 at 20:55, Ausvisitor said:

 we have settled on Marrickville.

Interesting.

Never been there exactly - well apart from making sure my car doors are locked when driving through.

[Marisawright]

On 21/04/2022 at 09:04, BeachBabe2022 said:

Interesting.

Never been there exactly - well apart from making sure my car doors are locked when driving through.

What a prejudiced thing to say.

[Ausvisitor]

2 hours ago, Marisawright said:

What a prejudiced thing to say.

Water off a ducks back, we like the place.

I'm guessing the poster who made the comment lives in Bondi, so therefore has no actual knowledge of Sydney, just living in the Bondi bubble

[Marisawright]

32 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:

Water off a ducks back, we like the place.

I'm guessing the poster who made the comment lives in Bondi, so therefore has no actual knowledge of Sydney, just living in the Bondi bubble

I do understand the reaction though.  For the first 20 or so years of my life in Sydney (living in the Eastern Suburbs), I thought the civilized world ended at Glebe to the West and Randwich to the south

Since then I have lived in a few places including the Inner West, South and even the North Shore.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Marisawright

[Peach]

I would choose somewhere that was a balance of a. what is available b. what I could afford and c. what I could tolerate.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/30/my-daughter-couldnt-start-school-sydney-family-rejected-for-35-rental-homes-despite-1000-a-week-budget

[MARYROSE02]

On 27/03/2022 at 23:54, MARYROSE02 said:

I rarely had any reason to go on that line.  When my brother lived in Picnic Point I got the East Hills line. Sometimes I'd do the Hume Highway then left on??? Can't remember the name of the road that bypassed Bankstown. I've been away too long.  

Stacey Street? I didn't Google it though. Runs from the Hume Highway and eventually carries on past Padstow and then over the river (George's?) to Alford's Point, Menai, etc 

[MARYROSE02]

On 30/04/2022 at 15:44, Marisawright said:

I do understand the reaction though.  For the first 20 or so years of my life in Sydney (living in the Eastern Suburbs), I thought the civilized world ended at Glebe to the West and Randwich to the south

Since then I have lived in a few places including the Inner West, South and even the North Shore.

I recall a mate who lived in Surry Hills meeting a girl on Tinder who claimed she lived near him but it turned out she meant Glebe. I shared his outrage.