Choosing a suburb

Hi,

 

My husband, 10 year old (11 in August) daughter and I are looking to make our move to Perth in early September, of this year. We are looking for advice on choosing suburbs. We would ideally like to be a maximum of 15-20 minutes walk from the beach, good schools are a must, about a 30/40 minute commute to the City and possibly South of the City too. We would like a reasonably quiet area but with easy access to cafe's, shops etc.

 

If anyone can offer any advice we would be incredibly grateful.

 

Many thanks

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

What at is your budget as like anywhere that dictates.

Hi Melissa,

 

I've just moved over from Sydney, I got some good advice from people on suburbs when I was moving over so it may be worth having a read of that thread.

 

Budget is a key one, and what else is important to you in terms of priority, ie must haves, nice to haves. Schools, beach proximity (lots of beaches), city proximity (30-40 mins offers a lot, try to be closish to a train line). BTW nobody walks 15-20mins on 40 degree days (or 33+ for me)

 

The good news is that there are plenty of rentals available and rents have dropped. The flipside is work is harder to come by, what do you guys do for work?

 

I'm not up on schools yet but on what you have posted I think around Scarborough and surrounding suburbs could be worth a look. Everywhere in Perth is fairly quiet IMO, Scarborough has a bit of life and there is a big redevelopment of the beach front well under way, should be close to finished by Sept. Doubleview, Innaloo, Wembley Downs, Karrinyup etc all pretty close and you should get a 2-3 bed villa/house for approx. $380-$500 pw. The quality generally improves with the price. I found finding a place with a garden a challenge (even a small one), everybody seems to have built another house in what was the original garden and cobble locked the courtyards. But this may not be important to you.

 

Have a look at domain.com.au, realestate.com.au and even gumtree for private rentals. After looking at lots of places, I found what I was looking for on gumtree. Being closer to the city, a bit of life and having a garden is more important to me so I settled on Mount Hawthorn. Walking distance to a nice village and Leederville (nightlife), good public transport links, about a 15-min drive (30min bus) to the beach at Scarborough. A nice vibe with older style houses.

 

Hope this helps. I wouldn't worry too much about it until you are on the ground. Very hard to narrow in on a place until you get here. Plan on staying in short term accommodation for 2-3 weeks until you find your feet (airbnb is good).

 

Hope this helps.

Hi all,

 

thank you for your replies, all advice and help welcome and gratefully received.

Our weekly rental budget would be about $500/550 per week to start with. I currently work as a Student Welfare Officer in a high school. But I am happy to try new jobs and re-train as necessary.

You might be able to get Fremantle for that.

 

Have you you got your visa?

Hi Melissa,

 

We have been here nearly a month and have been in our rental for just over a week. We chose Willetton which is south of the river but close ish to the city. We cannot walk to a beach, nor would we want to, in this heat its much better to drive 20 or so minutes in an air conditioned car and enjoy the beach when you get there feeling fresh rather than walk and being hot and bothered when you get there. We have had no issues finding parking and its nearly all free, your daughter certainly won't thank you for the walk! We are paying £550 a week for a 4 bed 2 bath renovated house with gardening thrown in, its very spacious but has no pool. A pool is one thing I really wanted before we moved but now its not a priority at all.

 

We are close to 2 good schools, Rostrata Primary and Willetton Senior high school, my 2 girls have just started last week and have made friends very easily and are enjoying their classes (well, as much as any child enjoys school!) We are close to a shopping centre called Southlands its about a 20 min walk or 5 min drive, it has shops, supermarkets, coffee shop, restaurants and a cinema. There are other shopping centres offering different shops not too far away, about a 10 min drive. The area seems very peaceful, even in school hols and weekends and we think we'll be very happy here. Other suburbs close by in the catchment area for good schools are Rossmoyne, Shelley and Leeming.

 

Hope this goes some way to helping you figure out a way to decide where to live, but a lot depends on where you find work, and what houses you like when you get here, we were between 4 suburbs and 3 diferent high schools, and the final decision rested on which house we liked the best. We got a holiday apartment close to the city for 2 and a half weeks, and managed to secure a rental in that time.

 

Best of luck.

$500/$550 per week should get you something ok in a reasonable suburb in the current market. I got my place for $450pw with the gardening done by the landlord and he will pay 1/2 the water bill in summer. It's a nice garden and he wants to keep it that way. I'm happy enough.

Edited February 7, 2017 by Collie

Hi,

 

thank you you for all the replies, really helpful. Yes visa's all sorted.

 

Does anyone one know anything about Waikiki and Singleton?

Does anyone one know anything about Waikiki and Singleton?

Waikiki is very nice close to the beach, not so great as you move inland. You will see this reflected in house prices and rents. Avoid anything east of Rand Avenue. Warnbro Sound is easilly the best and most unspoilt bit of coastline in the metro area. No sign of container ships or industry and teeming with dolphin. Miles of unspoilt sandy beach from Point Peron around to Long Point and a brilliant cycle path. General rule of thumb with most coastal suburbs is that the best bits are within easy walking distance to the beach. These blocks are sold first and are the most sought after. Then the suburb grows inland with the cheapest blocks sold last. Singleton is close to Mandurah and a bit of a trek into Perth. Was originally a beach house weekend getaway for Perth people.

But Mandurah is great!

If you are looking at Waikiki, also consider Port Kennedy or Safety Bay as they are part of the same beach/bay as Waikiki. As with all suburbs, there are some areas that are not as good as others, but closer to the actual coast there are some really nice houses and areas.

 

However I do think it is hard to decide on a particular area or suburb just from the internet, and you need to spend time physically walking/driving around the streets and going into the shopping centres etc. Quite a few people on PerthPoms have ended up living in areas that were not part of their initial choices made prior to arriving in WA because they felt more comfortable or at home in other areas. Just something to bear in mind.

Until you arrive and have a chance to visit, it is too hard. We thought we had whittled it down to three suburbs, but when we arrived, these were the three we liked least.

Hi,

 

My husband, 10 year old (11 in August) daughter and I are looking to make our move to Perth in early September, of this year. We are looking for advice on choosing suburbs. We would ideally like to be a maximum of 15-20 minutes walk from the beach, good schools are a must, about a 30/40 minute commute to the City and possibly South of the City too. We would like a reasonably quiet area but with easy access to cafe's, shops etc.

 

If anyone can offer any advice we would be incredibly grateful.

 

Many thanks

 

Hi

We are Portkennedy beach side got a 10 min walk to the beach.Also Rockingham beach not far away.Not far to shops and train station.Not sure what schools are like.

 

Deb