Moving to Canberra

[Guest Cathy D]

Hi , I will be moving with my family to Canberra in a few weeks , I would appreciate any advice on finding schools with housing close buy. Would like to buy as soon as possible , have rental for 4 weeks through employer. Bringing dog who will arrive early Jan . I know that he does 30 days in Quarentine . Rental seems expensive and dont want to be tied into 12 month rental if possible . My job is permanent, is getting a morgage easy? are there good and less suitable areas to live?

I would be greatful for any help

thanks

Cathy

[Quoll]

Welcome Cathy!

 

It all depends on where you will be working as to where you should look for somewhere to live. If you are going to work down in Tuggeranong you wont want to be living in Gungahlin for example. Really the only place to check for rental accommodation - and for buying homes too - is Real Estate & Homes for Sale, Rent and Share | allhomes and if you go to the search engine for the rental properties you can tick the box for the pet friendly options as well which could save you some time!

 

Mortgages are quite easy to get and as a PR you would be entitled to the first home owners grant as well which may help you financially ($14k). Prices are staying about the same overall - going down in some areas and up in others, there isnt much movement though.

 

There are some areas best avoided if you can - Charnwood, Richardson, Eastern Narrabundah spring to mind instantly but there are areas of other suburbs which are not exactly brilliant either - you really have to go and have a look at the neighbours to get a real feel for whether you want to live in a particular spot.

 

The newest house builds are in Gungahlin (Amaroo, Forde, Harrison, Palmerston, Nicholls etc) and though the oldest of them are beginning to mature a bit they are still rather McMansionistic IMHO and rather barren but, as I said it all depends on what you want for your money.

 

Tuggeranong was the previous expansion area - it got a reputation as being "nappy valley" back in the 90s. The further in to the city you go the older the homes, the smaller they are but the bigger the blocks until you get into the real inner city where the old homes have been demolished and blocks of units put up on them.

 

Given a choice I would be looking at inner suburbs but you get apparently less bang for your buck in places like Yarralumla, Reid, Campbell, because the land values are high. I like Ainslie - old, established, bigger blocks but on the down side, for the same price as a 3 bed weatherboard on 1/4 acre here you can get a 4 bed ensuite on 1/6 acre in the outer outer suburbs. Watson and Hackett are often ignored hidden gems IMHO as well.

 

Schools - hmmm, well there are some that do a great job and some that do an OK job and some that .... well ..... On another thread, the recommendations were Ainslie (not North A), Garran, Chapman, Torrens, Forrest I think - I would agree with them and also add Aranda, Majura (Watson Downer Hackett), Fadden. For secondary schools - gosh, about 50% of the secondary population go private but there seems to be some movement towards govt HS Alfred Deakin, Telopea, Melrose and possibly Lyneham or one of the privates like the Grammars, Radford, or Catholic schools.

 

Be aware that if you choose to live in Jerrabomberra or elsewhere out of the ACT you arent zoned for an ACT school and so dont get any priority of placement.

 

You really wont know until you get here though - there will be something that grabs your eye no doubt!

[Guest Cathy D]

Thanks for the advice, My job is Social worker with dhcs. Moving out 30 Dec . a little apprehensive my experience is with mental health and learning disability. Our kids are 4 and 7 they go to catholic school here, I was looking at Gowrie and Holy Family primary.

[Quoll]

Thanks for the advice, My job is Social worker with dhcs. Moving out 30 Dec . a little apprehensive my experience is with mental health and learning disability. Our kids are 4 and 7 they go to catholic school here, I was looking at Gowrie and Holy Family primary.

 

If you are looking in that area, a better bet might be Fadden or Monash PS in the govt system. Holy Family would be fine for PS but you might want to look further afield than McKillop which is the local Catholic HS.

 

DHCS are putting in a big effort to make sure that this round of recruits is well supported and you should have a buddy you can talk to as well! You will be fine, dont worry! There wont be too much of either mental health or learning disability I would imagine - I think most of the recruits are heading for Child Protection arent you?

 

BTW if your youngest is 4, will s/he turn 5 before 30 April because, if not, then you would be looking at preschool for 2009.

[Guest Cathy D]

Yes I am heading for Child protection, limited experience in that field thats all .My son will not be 5 until May .Thanks for your advice about schools.