Brookfield, Pullenvale, Chapel Hill and Kenmore Hills

[TheTillins]

We will be moving to Brisbane in September and are looking to rent in Brookfield, Pullenvale, Chapel Hill or Kenmore Hills.

 

My husband will be working in the CBD and I am hoping to find IT work there too. We have 3 children (aged 12, 10 and 10). My husband plans to cycle to work, but I am more likely to use public transport.

 

Can anybody give us your thoughts on these areas and which might be best for us as a family to move to?

 

Any recommendations on schools? They will all be in primary until the end of the year. Then our eldest will need to move to High School.

 

Also what's the rental market like out there at the moment?

 

Thanks.

[Guest siamsusie]

Hi The Tillins,

 

Bumping your post for you.

 

Also do feel free to join our sister site http://www.lifeinqueensland.com/ where there is an abundance of advice also.

 

Best wishes

 

Susie x

[calNgary]

Hi

All the areas you mention are quite respectable areas not to far from the city. We stayed in Chapel for a little while and it was great but a tad hilly making walking out with little ones quite tough, other than that i can't really fault it.

 

For rentals use www.realestate.com , of course the properties advertised now will have gone by the time you get here but it should give you a pretty good idea of the style of housing, costs etc

 

Hope this helps a little

Cal x

[fish.01]

Those suburbs are all a part of the higher socio-economic side of Brisbane so school standards should be good on average. Some report traffic issues along moggil road between kenmore and indooroopilly. Personally if you can afford it I think the pocket around Indooroopilly/Taringa/St Lucia is worth considering as it is on the train, has good schools, better shopping, easy bike ride to the city and avoids most of the Moggil Rd bottleneck.

 

You might also consider Bardon, Ashgrove, The Gap, Wilston etc. The Gap state high school has a very good reputation and regularly out points many private schools. There are also many great state primary schools throughout these suburbs as well as many of Brisbane's leading private schools.

[TheTillins]

Thanks for your replies. I will take a closer look at the other areas you mentioned. Hills shouldn't be a problem for our children as they're 10 and 12, but are a bit more challenging for the daily cycle to work!

[fish.01]

Thanks for your replies. I will take a closer look at the other areas you mentioned. Hills shouldn't be a problem for our children as they're 10 and 12, but are a bit more challenging for the daily cycle to work!

 

A little cycling tip. Follow the river or creek beds out from the city area to work out where the flattest rides are. On the west look for brisbane river, enoggera creek and ithaca creek. Most bike paths follow alongside and are obviously flat as a tack. Using this method I managed to find a house in a lovely hilly suburb and have an easy cycle to work.

 

Btw, most of the suburbs mentioned back onto/near inner city mountains that are crisscrossed with great mountain bike trails of different grades - cyclists everywhere when I went past last weekend.

[Smackey]

We moved to Chapel Hill and loved the area, we were right on the edge of Mt Coot-tha Forest and it was very popular with cyclist and walkers, it is a lovely green area and if you pick your house carefully then you should be fine with the cycle route to work etc. Some good schools in that area are Chapel Hill State, Kenmore South State, Indooroopilly State and Kenmore State. I drive on Moggill Rd twice a week and don't find it too bad, but bear in mind that there at going to be roadworks at the Mt Coot-tha end for the next 2 years as they build the Legacy Way tunnel.