Guest cartertucker Posted December 7, 2011 Report Share Posted December 7, 2011 Im curious..... How did you find the area that you decided to settle in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackboots Posted December 7, 2011 Report Share Posted December 7, 2011 We had been here two years and 3 house moves until we decided to buy where we live now Kelly , that was 3 subburbs as well . We were lucky as my daughter was not at school until we chose where we are now which basically boiled down to .. Schools , affordability, subburb desireability, funny enough comuting to work came last on our list, as once your here you seem to travel further distances without a blink of an eye , if my other half had travelled 45 mins to work in the UK we would have said NO WAY before we got started yet here you think nothing of it .. works for some and not others .. i still say if you can, don't rush into anything and if your buying beware it costs huge amounts to resell over here unlike the UK where its a couple of thousand here it can be nearer $20 + . costly mistakes if your not happy with your choices . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portlaunay Posted December 7, 2011 Report Share Posted December 7, 2011 We've been here almost four months and have moved four times, once into Freo, once out of Freo and then two more within Freo. What is important to us is community, creativity, vibrancy and safety (relatively speaking). These are the things that feed our soul, the practical stuff like schools, size of property etc come second to that because for us, if the environment and the lifestyle isn't right but the schools are great then we're merely feeding the practicalities of life, not the metaphysics. Curiously we've moved to an area that is well served with those practical elements and so paradoxically, perhaps, these elements that are so important to us can't exist without the practical stuff. Look, it's hump day here and my head hurts now. Alternatively new arrivals could arrive, drive around and see what looks nice. I'd start not by asking "Where is a nice place to live?" but rather "What makes me happy about where I've lived and what stuff is important to me?" but I also think it's important to ask "What don't I like?" We were very clear that we didn't want to come here and move to Britsville. We've lived an insular, segregated expat lifestyle in other countries and we know it's not for us. I think we're really lucky. We've found everything we wanted and more very quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Give me a break! Posted December 7, 2011 Report Share Posted December 7, 2011 Work and schools, Id say Kelly. I have been here 18 months now and we still love it, but we are on the move closer to Mandurah, hopefully our house will be built by the end of January. Im not so set on areas anymore because Im no prepared to pay over the odds for a more "popular" area when everyone drives everywhere anyway. It needs to be close enough for work to not need the stress of a really long comute and close enough to a decent school for the same reason, other than that I am now easy. I used to think I had to be really close to the beach, but we are now and never walk as we have too much stuff with us, so we could quite easily live further inland. Also sometimes you need to really look at an area once, twice even three times to get a proper feel for it. Good luck Kelly its not an easy choice. Oh and one thing I would advise against is chosing an area because you have friends nearby, they can easily decide to move, and you may not always get on with people you once thought you had a lot in common with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraighttothePoint Posted December 7, 2011 Report Share Posted December 7, 2011 Can I commute easily using public transport, could my kid walk or cycle to school, can we walk to the local shops, can we be at the beach within a 10 minute drive, can we be aa one car family and can we absolutely not end up in some new house in a suburb in the middle of nowhere. We struck lucky and got the lot in Joondalup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted December 7, 2011 Report Share Posted December 7, 2011 When we were initially looking from the UK we were drawn to all the places that ex pats mentioned - Mandurah, Halls Head (at the time), Joondalup and Duncraig ... to be honest it was because they were mentioned a lot. I then got offered a job and I did not want to commute more than 30 mins - working shifts at the time would have meant a late night/early morning drive. We drew an imaginary circle around the suburbs within a 30 min radius - and as luck would have it managed to secure a furnished rental, researched the area (which we'd never heard of), got the kids into the school and liked it so much we decided to stay. I think you have to think about what you would like - for us being on top of a beach wasn't important, we know our suburb being older won't be everyones cup of tea, but it has a great community feel and is close to the city and Freo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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