Jump to content

Suburb advise for young family


Recommended Posts

Hello,

 

Me, my wife and our baby daughter are emmigrating to Perth in May this year. We are initially looking for a holiday home to spend 2/3 weeks while we locate a long term lease. We visited Perth last year and were attracted to the Southern suburbs of Coogee and Munster as the houses looked very new and modern and the areas are fairly close to nice beaches, Fremantle and the City. Are these areas as good as they look? family friendly and safe? Does anyone have any advise re this?

 

We have also been looking at houses in the Northern suburbs of Hillarys, Duncraig and Sorrento but have found that many of the houses are a lot older in style. However, if we were advised that these were the best, family friendly areas we would be happy to compensate modern house for that.

 

We have a budget up to $600 a week for long term lease. We would ideally like a 3/4 bedroom modern house in a child friendly area, close to a good beach/beaches. We will be seeking employment on arrival. I am an Electrician and my wife is a Solicitor.

 

We would be grateful for any advise re safe, family friendly, modern suburbs close to the beach and commutable to City.

 

Many thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We visited Perth last year and were attracted to the Southern suburbs of Coogee and Munster as the houses looked very new and modern and the areas are fairly close to nice beaches, Fremantle and the City. Are these areas as good as they look? family friendly and safe? Does anyone have any advise re this?

 

Hi and welcome to PP. Being from Dundee you'll probably find that everywhere in WA is safe :tongue:

 

Joking aside, there are many threads on here about different suburbs including a sticky about that very subject. What's 'best' for you is going to be dependent on many factors - the kind of things you like doing, where you're going to be working, what kind of school you want for your children etc.

 

You'll get a hundred different opinions from a hundred different people and there's no easy answer I'm afraid. We love Fremantle and we're likely to stay here for at least another five years. We tried living in suburbia and hated it. We also prefer older houses to the new concrete cubes and if I travel further north than Scarborough I start to get a little jittery. NOR just feels like a world of wrong.

 

Rental prices have reduced considerably over the past 12 months and are likely to keep going south so all I'd say is to come and try an area, don't sign a long rental contract and move around until you're happy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Paul,

 

We are a young family living in Broughty ferry and emigrating at the end of this year. We are in same position just trying to decide where to settle. I'm a teacher so can really work anywhere but we want a nice area that we can settle in for our wee boy starting kindy. We liked north and loved alkimos. It is a new developing suburb but pretty far out but stunning. We can't wait to go but still saving to have a substantial start. Good luck and let me know how you settle from your fellow Dundonians haha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Paul,

 

We are a young family living in Broughty ferry and emigrating at the end of this year. We are in same position just trying to decide where to settle. I'm a teacher so can really work anywhere but we want a nice area that we can settle in for our wee boy starting kindy. We liked north and loved alkimos. It is a new developing suburb but pretty far out but stunning. We can't wait to go but still saving to have a substantial start. Good luck and let me know how you settle from your fellow Dundonians haha

 

 

Hi there. We are actually from Broughty Ferry as well. Have just sold our house and the shipping company are coming next week to pick up our furniture etc for its 8 week journey to perth. We have a few dundonian friends in Perth already who have been very helpful but ultimately it really is all very dependant on jobs, child care schools and where you get a feel for. We know of other people from dundee heading out the same time as us so there will certainly be a health squad of us out there. When were you over in Perth and what visas do you have? We activated our visas last Jan, We only ventured as far North as the burns beach area having a look at the show home village up there. Some amazing houses. We have decided in the last few days we need to get a holiday let for 2-3 weeks then the first mission is to sus out areas and find a 6 month or 1 year rental. The hope then is that you don't end up getting offered a job that's miles away but you can't have it all ways. Think we need to accept it won't necessarily be plain sailing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, we've been here 2 weeks and are currently staying with our friends in Duncraig, it's a lovely area close to Hillarys and Sorrento beaches and the schools are supposed to be really good. However after looking around for the last 2 wks we've decided that we like it better a little further north, so we're now looking at Carramar and Tapping. It's only 10-15 mins from Duncraig but is a bit more modern, greener and prettier and more like what I was expecting and still close to lovely beaches.

Ultimately it's a matter of preference, some people like older places whilst others like modern!

Good luck x

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, we activated our visas in July there. It was a great time to visit ad no heat to battle with. We have PR so can stay anywhere but we like north too. It is quiet and scenic. I don't mind travelling to start with. We have made many sacrifices to get to Perth so some more in the starting out stages won't make a difference. Great to hear stories of those of you who are already there and enjoying it. We can't wait to come over for good. X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi again guys.

 

We are looking at booking our flights in the next few days and looking to arrive around mid May. We also have PR so will be hoping to find a 6 month rental then hopefully buy a property after that (maybe a bit ambitious!!!). Gaznsal, are you finding the area you are currently staying not as moderns as you expected. We spend hours looking at property on Realestate.co.au and find some of the areas look quite old or maybe our expectations are too high after looking at the new builds with spacious living, cinema rooms, walk in wardrobes etc. In all honesty thought, as long as we are close enough to the beach, have a BBQ and a pool and we get the 300 days of sun a year that Perth promises i'll be happy as a pig......! Good Luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, all of the houses we've looked at have been quite shabby, some kitchens are ok but all have had really rubbish bathrooms, most haven't had a/c in the bedroom just in the lounge or dining room. We've been surprised with the lack of properties with a pool, we thought most would have them, so you'll be limited with choice if u want a pool. We'd promised our kids a pool but luckily after a couple of wks looking with nothing suitable we've spoken to them and they've agreed it's more important to find a nice house quickly and get settled than it is to have a pool (kids can surprise u sometimes with how grown up they can be!).

So we've got viewings booked this week in modern spacious properties in Carramar - I'll let u know the differences when we've viewed them!

Edited by GaznSal
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My advice, is not to limit yourselves to particular areas too much before you arrive. We were certain we wanted one of several suburbs then arrived and didn't like any of them. Where we ended up was somewhere we hadn't heard of.

 

Google street view has been updated in a lot of areas in the last couple of months, so you can use that to get some ideas.

 

I know our place, is now on there (lakeway retreat dawesville if anyone wants a look) as it might be what some of you are thinking about for a house - big modern houses, many with pools and next to a good beach.

 

Our rental is is also now available. The house is for sale by the owners, but sure they would accept a rental as well. It has a pool.

 

http://www.realmark.com.au/listing/52-the-pass-dawesville-6211-wa/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hi, Halls head is lovely. It does have distinct parts. There's old Halls Head with more established properties and trees. Seascapes is newer and developing with big areas of new builds. Falcon is the older, more holiday home area with big houses next to beach shacks. It's all lovely, just depends what style you like. If you have children Falcon and South Halls Head are the better schools, so Falcon and Seascapes areas. hope this helps : )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quite a distance to the CBD if you need to head there for work.

 

Not too bad, and any trip on the Mandurah trains will show there are LOTS of people doing it. Halls Head to the stations is only minutes and then 50 minutes to CBD. I did it for two years. With a coffee and a morning paper from the shop in the station, it is just enough time to enjoy both. Trains run every 10 minutes or so from Mandurah to the CBD at peak times. I know people who live in Perth, but because the transport isnt good and have to get a couple of connections, take as long

 

Big advantage is you can buy or rent a nice house next to the beach, for what at Perth beaches would get you a shoe box.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the tips guys. I actually took the TransPerth train into the CBD a few times when I went over a couple of years ago. I quite enjoyed it, whether I would every day is another matter! As a teacher I'm more likely to drive and being from Cornwall anywhere nearish a beach is tempting. Lots of plusses for Mandurah for me!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember before we came I thought I would live NOR (it was the area most mentioned on the sites) and in a new house. Ended up in a suburb i'd never heard of and in an older house which we have slowly made our own - the advantage of older houses is that they are usually on a bigger block. We have 2 large outdoor living areas, pool and large garden area

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not too bad, and any trip on the Mandurah trains will show there are LOTS of people doing it. Halls Head to the stations is only minutes and then 50 minutes to CBD. I did it for two years. With a coffee and a morning paper from the shop in the station, it is just enough time to enjoy both. Trains run every 10 minutes or so from Mandurah to the CBD at peak times. I know people who live in Perth, but because the transport isnt good and have to get a couple of connections, take as long

 

Big advantage is you can buy or rent a nice house next to the beach, for what at Perth beaches would get you a shoe box.

 

I worked in both Osborne Park and St Georges terrace and one guy worked there from Halls heads. To osborne park it took him 1,5 hours in the morning and 1,5 hours in the late afternoon. That's nearly half a day of work. For the CBD it took him just over an hour (2 hours and 15 minutes per day). Imho that's quiet a lot. But he's happy with it and –like you said– lives near the beach for an affordable price.

 

 

edit: I recall he hated the mozzies over there :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...