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We're in Mandurah too and love it here - maybe we can help for early next year too.

The rental market has eased a lot in Perth now, so yes you could feasibly get a rental in 2-3 weeks, but you will be then tied in to a 6-12 month lease. I would recommend you consider taking a little longer in a short term rental to give you time to look around at the different suburbs and get a feel for where you want to settle, and then find a house that is really going to suit you - because there are some good deals out there to be had now. Good luck!

Hi Thompsons Just getting back into the forum, I seem to have been away a while - and think I can help you, we have a modern 3 bedroom property in ButlerAvailable 28th November to 7 January at $630 per week, this includes utilities. It's fully furnished with everything you will need - let me know if you want more details

Yes Byford is definitely closed permanently, this is the response I received from Dept of Agriculture, when I asked for clarification: Dear Tracey Thank you for your email. I wish to advise that the Byford quarantine facility in Perth has been permanently closed. This closure is due to the ongoing difficulty of managing the high risk posed by bushfires at Byford. In future, all dogs and cats will be imported into Australia through quarantine facilities in eastern Australia, currently in Sydney (Eastern Creek) and Melbourne (Spotswood). I appreciate that this may be a difficult issue for you; however, staff and animal safety are the critical factors that have guided the decision to permanently close the facility. Bushfires are commonplace in Australia and it has been necessary to evacuate staff from Byford in the recent past, in the face of rapidly advancing fires. It has not always been possible to also evacuate the animals held in the facility. Abandoning animals in the face of danger is stressful for staff and it would be catastrophic for owners if their animals were to be affected. To find out more about the quarantine facilities or the new import conditions you can visit our website at: www.daff.gov.au/biosecurity/cat-dogs. If you require more information, please contact us on +61 2 6272 4454 during the Australian working hours of 9am to 12:00noon and 1:30pm to 4:30pm (Eastern Daylight Savings Time). Kind Regards Amanda Permit Assessing Officer | Animal Import Operations Branch | Permits, Planning and Performance Phone +61 2 6272 4454| Fax +61 2 6272 3110 Department of Agriculture Animal Division 7 London Circuit, Canberra ACT 2601 Australia GPO Box 858 Canberra ACT 2601 Australia e-mail: animalimports@daff.gov.au | Website:http://www.daff.gov.au/biosecurity/import/live-animals

We used to live the other side of Cooloongup in Careeba Park, Rockingham, and yes it does have a bad reputation, but in comparison to most places in the UK it's not bad at all, we never had a problem. I also have friends who live on Harrington Waters and love it there. Yes if money were no object I would live on the beach side of Read Street. As always I would say come and look for yourself and make your own mind up. Unless you lived in a crime free area in the UK, I think you will be pleasantly surprised! Tracey

Hi yes there is definitely a market for this type of accommodation, and the good news is that the laws have changed recently and you no longer have to rent your Granny flat out just to Granny, but can advertise it to non family members. My best advice would be to price it right and you will have it full permanently! Most people move over and want their own space, but more and more people are coming over on a tight budget, so are looking for an affordable place to stay for the first few weeks/month. Good luck and if you want any help with marketing it give me a shout Tracey

Hi Mike and Steph This question does get asked a lot, and I agree with all the above - not very helpful I know, but it will depend on how you live and budget. I have friends that say they spend $350 per week on groceries alone and couldn't possibly spend any less, I also have friends (and myself) who will spend around $150 per week on groceries and live very well. If you shop around you can get some bargains - ie The Spud Shed is about 1/2 the price of Woolies, and buy home brands instead of having to go for Heinz beans and all the things you are used to. Yes rent is expensive and setting up will cost you a lot of money. If you budget to bring enough money over to see you through the first 6 months renting, and to buy anything you need that you aren't bringing over, then yes you'll be fine (not rich but better to be just OK and have some sunshine I reckon!), even if you don't get a job straight away. I don't know what job you will be doing, but you may find that you are underestimating your pay. I've just come across this salary information that may help you, but do see that there is a big range for each type of employment - http://content.mycareer.com.au/salary-centre though it does show averages. Good Luck!

YAY!!! Lots to plan now D)

Hi Mairi I've just sent you a private message Tracey

Hi Mairi, we have just listed a property in Palmyra close to Fremantle, the owner will be travelling so looking for someone to stay for 6 weeks from early/mid December, it may just suit you Oh and it's fully furnished. Tracey

As fifi69 says renting is becoming a lot easier now, with not as much competition for each property. A lot of landlords now see that pets aren't as troublesome as children Oops how many people have I just offended there?! Good luck with your move! Tracey

Yes both and the one that needs replacing will be the one you haven't got a spare of! Oh and they are called globes not bulbs - If you ask in Bunnings for bulbs you'll get directed to the gardening section Tracey

With the trainline running from Mandurah you will be in the City in around 50 minutes, and the freeway now goes from Perth right down to Bunbury. You will find that people do travel longer distances over here as a rule - we would drive 100kms for breakfast - I don't think we would have driven 50 in the UK. Mandurah is lovely, do take your time to find a good area though as there are some places that are not as nice as others - talk to the locals and take your time in getting a longer term rental. Good luck! Tracey

What a great post, I love that you converted it to hours worked, that does put it into perspective. To add to other posts, you should try the Spud Shed if you are near, their meat, fruit and veg is so much cheaper than Woolies or Coles and if you buy whatever is in season, you will save even more and get to try a great variety of food you maybe wouldn't have thought to try before. Also our local IGA regularly discounts bread that still has a couple of days on its date, you can get a loaf that way for 39c or a pack of 4 bagels for $1.20 etc, stick them in the freezer and your'e good for bread all week.

As has been said, most shires will only allow 2 dogs, you have to apply for a permit for any more. I do know of one person that managed to do this in Rockingham, I don't know about other shires. Will the dogs be coming over straight away, or will they be behind you and then in quarantine first. Maybe look at taking a short term rental first, this will give you chance to look at areas, and approach Shires in different areas that may suit you. If you have the permit first you may find it easier to get a rental that will take all 3. Oh and Peppermint Grove is going to be expensive! you may want to look a little further afield and travel. Good Luck Tracey

Due to the lack of short term furnished rentals, it may be to your advantage to let the owner know you have found somewhere else and hand the keys back, if they are able to re-let it then you could approach them for a partial refund. In my experience most owners would be happy to do this. And I agree with the above, they probably aren't spying on you, just concerned for you, as maybe a neigbour has said they haven't seen you around Tracey

OK now I understand?!?!?!

Hi Bri It may be a good idea to have a chat to some of the agencies before you get here, they may be able to line you up with some phone interviews. In general getting a job in Perth will mean networking lots! Speak to everyone you come into contact with and let them know what you do (want to do), and you may just speak to the right person at the right time. Good luck Tracey

Definitely a good idea, if you can prove that your pets won't be a nuisance to neighbours, won't destroy the house, and will be a credit to you , then you shouldn't have a problem. Strangely though I have found that we have more trouble placing cats than dogs, a lot of landlords don't seem to want to have cats in the property. Good luck Tracey

It does seem like the unfurnished rental market is slowing down, making it a lot easier to find somewhere that you want, rather than as had been happening just grabbing whatever you could get, before your furnished short term rental ran out. Landlords are putting a more realistic rent on their properties, and this is good for them too, as the tenants that will be applying, will generally want to be in that area, and are more likely to stay. And yes to some of the above comments, a pleasant demeanor, some pleasant small talk and well behaved kids will go a long way to getting you at the front of the queue! Tracey

Any ant sand should do the trick outside. For inside I have heard that talc will stop them, but I've not tried this myself. Just make sure everything in the pantry is in sealed containers, this will deter them from coming in.

Enjoy the journey - it will all be worth it! Tracey

Most people will come over to short term fully furnished accommodation. The average stay would be 2-3 months, this will give you enough time to get a feel of the suburbs you like, take a look at schools and allow you time to secure a long term unfurnished rental property in an area you know and like. Most people do arrange this from overseas, and this then gives them an address for shipping, bank accounts, medicare, schools, etc, and they can come straight to a home allowing them to settle quicker into this wonderful lifestyle Good luck with your planning Tracey

Thanks for the post, that shows a realistic view of the Perth long term rental market - I would really love to share this with our clients at Ozouserental.com - some people really do have an unrealistic view. thanks for the insight, and please let me now if it is Ok to share. Tracey Ozhouserental at;63128]G'day! My husband and I arrived March 5th and managed to move into a permanent rental May 22nd. I just thought I would write a bit about our experience and take on things which may help others out. In hindsight, the whole process has provided us insight in the Aussie approach and we now fully understand where the saying "Wait a while" comes from! We knew before arriving that the market was competitive but moving from Vancouver, Canada, extortionate rental rates and poor accommodation standards weren't anything new. However, having lived in the UK, Canada and now Australia, I think it's almost impossible to compare the different markets. GENERAL MARKET EXPERIENCE The Perth rental market is what it is. The most shocking element for us was the standard of service received from many of the agents and the efficiency (lack of) of the rental process; once we realised and accepted that these were not going to change, our rental search and the whole process became much more easier to work with. We laugh now, but when we first started to look at houses, we were so unimpressed by some of the agents, we just walked away thinking we don't want to rent from an agent with a careless attitude. Ha! If we continued to do that, we would still be looking now. Of course not all agents have the attitude, but too many of them do - and it was our experience that that aspect of the house search could become quite demoralising if you let it. In the end, we would turn it around and look at the positives after a viewing and think "oh, at least that agent didn't drive over the flower bed after they were 10 minutes late to the viewing" (true story). COUPLE HOUSE SEARCH ($380-430/week) (NO KIDS TO CONSIDER) As we have no kids to consider, I think our house search experience would be very different to those who have to consider schools and surroundings. I think our main challenge was finding something we could happily live in within our price range. We are fussy buggers and as my husband works from home, quiet street is a must (little traffic) and we wanted an Aussie garden preferably with a palm tree or two, eucalyptus tree and a couple of citrus trees! We also decided rather early on that we wanted to live NOR as we instantly fell in love with the beaches up here. In this price range, the first houses we found to look at were in Craigie, Heathridge, a couple in Joondalup, Connolly and Currambine. Most of the houses in Craigie and Heathridge offered the gardens, however, the houses were older (which normally isn't a problem), a lot of them seriously hadn't been renovated since they were built. Some of them were just shocking. Some of them just should not have been shown in those states. Just shocking. Personally, I found it quite depressing to see how other people lived and after one viewing just burst into tears in the car one day. We looked at one place that desperately needed a pain job and had a whole pucnched in one door and basically things were hanging off everywhere and floor boards sticking up. Give me a break! After that, we started considering looking further afield and looked at newer builds in Balcatta and NOllamara. We actually found some houses in decent states and I think if you can tell by looking at the neighbours gardens what kind of area it is. But the ocean was still calling us and we didn't see as much bush as we liked around those areas. One day, we even went out to Kelmscott. Again the house was a newer build, but the street it was on could tell a story or two. We hung around outside for a bit and sure enough a couple worse for wear walked passed with a Coles trolley pushing a kid. 5 doors down saw the bins were burnt out.....yeah....we were trying hard to want to like the house, but decided against it. IN the end, we decided to start looking at new builds (as oddly enough many of them are cheaper) but wasn't keen at all about the lack of garden and the houses built right next door to eachother. Since we have been living in apartments for quite a long time, we decided to think of these houses as apartments - just spread out horizontally rather than vertically. That worked for us and we could then start imagining living in the houses. 3x2's The beauty of theses 3x2's is that many of them are pretty small which meant that they didn't appeal to many families so we found there were only 10 or so attendees to the open house rather than the 20-30 that usually attended the houses with gardens. OUr now agent even said that some landlords prefer a professional couple in 3x2 rather than a family. We ended up winning a 3x2 in Pearsall and glad now we did. we are 10km away from the beach but the house doesn't need anything doing to it and we have just moved straight in without having to paint or put doors back on their hinges. We are finding it hard though trying to bring some life into the decor without being able to hang what we want up and where we want it. Application Package Be prepared to give all of your personal details to the agent and just hope for the best - We have little faith that our personal details are filed under lock and key and just waiting for the day when we will be vicitms of identity theft. We ended up creating an index/cover sheet and referenced all of our copies of identification etc. This made it much easier when filling out the application. ON our cover sheet we included the following: Names and identification #'s Current landord and contact details Vehicle make, model and license plate no. Personal references - contact details Landlord reference - contact details We only had emails from people which we printed off as references (landlord, personal) and we each had an employment reference from our employers in Canada stating our position there and how long we worked there for. Neither of us had work and we just gave a copy of our bank statement. If you are relying on your savings too, I would recommend getting a statement print off right after landing and include that one in all of your applicaitons. Ours was 2 months old that we used in our application - and noone questioned it. So print before you buy a car!!! We DID NOT offer more weekly rent! In the end, we applied for 4 houses and won 3 out of the 4. (and the one we didn't get must have had a story to it, as they didn't even call our WA reference). Warning: you may feel the need to offer vital organs in return for a lease - but refrain from doing so. If you are meant to get it, you will!! If not, move on to the next one. Lease Signing When getting you to sign the lease, don't take offence when they treat you like you live like a heathan pig and assume that you will wreck the house. (even after they have checked your references). Just say "yih" or "nah" and you'll be right. Living the Lease We are only 2 weeks into our lease so will have to update this at a later date. Would appreciate it if anyone can give us some ideas for filling up these bare walls! Hope this helps someone. Just thought I would give our take on things as we are a couple on a relatively low rental range.

The Thai is good, I find the seafood fabulous, but I guess we didn't get many prawns in the Manchester Ship Canal. We regularly use minced kangaroo instead of beef in chillis etc, it's very lean and tastes really meaty. But Indian's are hard to come by Tracey