the big nowhere

hi.....read many interesting posts on aussie,we have been offered jobs in adelaide by several employers..but know nothing about the city....we want to be near the sea...with a view if poss...area with good schooling.private / state / catholic ...we don't mind.....good,safe neighborhood......say 30 - 40 mins from city centre......want to spend approx $600 - $750k on a house.....any advice would be greatly received.....cheers.

Wendy

Don't have a clue about prices, but near the sea about that distance away I'd personally look around Brighton or West Beach. There's lots more nice suburbs by the coast, but these two are my favourite within that distance.

Maybe someone else can give you more suburbs to look into.

Tiggs+Graz

You shouldnt have much problem getting a nice family house reasonably close the beach for that price or even an apartment on the seafront.
Adelaide is fairly compact so 30-40 mins commute would mean you could probably pick anywhere along the coast from Seacliff (south west of the cbd) to Semaphore (north west of the city).
Personally if i had that sort of money i would look at Brighton and Glenelg (unfortunatley my budget wont stretch that far ) lovely beaches, good shopping/cafes etc and nice quiet resedential streets too. Brighton High School has an excellent reputation but you have to be in the catchment area to get in (or i think they do musical scholarships for children from all over). Dont know about the other schools in the area.

Hope this helps

T x

Lettik

HI Tiggs, Wendy

My query was/is pretty similar. We are moving to Adelaide shortly ish - got one of these provisional permanent visas granted earlier this week. We are looking for a "nice" area to settle also - our daughter is 14 so education is really going to be a priority on where we live.
I'm a personal trainer and my husbands a social worker, so I guess we aren't going to be restricted on where we work as such. If its only a small commute one side of Adelaide to the other its no big deal.

Any advice on how, what, where, etc would be great to us novices... pretified but excited all at the same time!

Tiggs+Graz

Hi there
If you are not restricted by commute then i would have no idea where to suggest to you!!!
My suggestion would be to get in a car and drive around as many suburbs as you can! You will soon get a feel for the areas you like and then you can look at schools etc in specific suburbs. As a guide - east/west you can get from the hills to the coast in about half an hour. North/south is quite a bit further e.g. from Elizabeth to Morphett Vale is about an hour and a half ish.

Again as a general guide you will pay the most for your house along the coast or right up in the hills, the east suburbs are generally more pricey than the west, and the south a bit more than the north (and before anyone complains that i have this wrong i did say generally )

If i can help anymore let me know
Tiggs x

Lettik

Thank you. Are there any areas to avoid? I know you need to "be" in an area first to decide what/where to reside, but as a general rule, if we had an idea before we left it would give us something to aim for intially and then move on at a later date if we see somewhere else that suits us better.

What are you doing in Adelaide yourself? are you enjoying your first few months there?

chris and farideh

We use to live in Somerton Park we lived almost stone throw away from the beach, My eldest son went to Brighton High, Excellent State school but you have to be in the catchment area, also there is Scared Heart High School I think the fee for that is $5000, that's for year 8, you need to buy the uniforms separately, Private school fees are a lot more, so You might have to check that once you get there.
you can buy a nice place for around $700 K in Somerton park but you wont get much garden for it.
You would be around 15 mins drive from CBD, you can get the bus, train or the Tram from Glenegl.
The closest State primary School is called Pringa Park, near Brighton High school which my Youngest two went they were very strict too on the catchment area we had to show our 12 months rental contract before they would even see us.

But if you aren't too bother than move to the hills, I can say most schools in SA are really good, now that I had to compare it with Qld.

Hope this helps you, if you need any more help let me know.

F x

Babsw

Seacliff Park ( further along road from Brighton) has fantastic views of the sea, try for a house on Davenport Terrace if there are any for sale. About 30 mins to city centre from there.Safe area with nice schools all around. Marion shopping centre 5 mins away in other direction.

Kristo

Grange and Henley Beach are also very nice beach suburbs. Cheers, and good luck.

Lettik

Guys, you are all fabulous!! I started out this morning petrified and not knowing a jot about Adelaide - feel I have a bit more of a handle on it now. Thanks again....

We will buy soon after arriving, probably likely to move over in October this year we think. But will need to rent for a couple of months I'd say - any recommendations of rental offices to try? I gather it may well be difficult to rent as so many people are after the one place, but perhaps in the more affulent areas? (am I right in thinking this is Brighton, Glenelg and others mentioned above?)

Is there an ex pat community in Adelaide? will want to mix with the locals, but initially would like to meet others from our neck of the woods also...

Wendy

I arrange meet ups for Adelaide for every 6 to 8 weeks, so look out for them. I usually have a link in my signature when there is one arranged.

Tiggs+Graz

Oooh there are generally big arguments on the boards when people start suggesting places NOT to live
For us personally i would say not the north west suburbs (although if you could afford to be right on the coast then that would be different) and the general opinion on the boards is to avoid Elizabeth (i dont really know the area myself but the last set of suburb stats put Elizabeth at the bottom of the list for employment/income/education etc).

have you tried looking at houses for rent/sale? try realestates.com.au and you can search by suburb or price etc. It should give you an idea of the costs in different areas and the types of houses. It might give you some suburbs that you could start with.

I know how you feel wanting somewhere to start. When we arrived it seemed such a huge task to look for somewhere to live in a city that we didnt know anything about! But then it really didnt take us long when we got here to get to grips with things just by driving around. (oh and dont forget when you are driving to get off the main roads and into the side street in each suburb - then you get a much better feel for an area!)

T x