Fordies

Hoping to move to Brisbane in November with my wife and 8 year old son, anyone got any reccomendations on decent suburbs/schools etc? Any info would be helpful, thanks, Paul

Kim67

If you do a search, there are a lot of threads on this, some are as current as a couple of days ago. Good luck.

Antney

I can only comment on where we live, which is the suburb of Pullenvale and part of the Western suburbs.

We have some excellent state and private schools to choose from.

There is apartment living to acreage and at the furthest point (Moggill) your still only about 25km from the CBD.

Good luck and if you want anymore information on the Western suburbs let me know.

bingobob777

yep

The Gap is very rural and feels like living in the rainforest. If you like getting out and about by foot, like having cafes/restaurants/bars nearby and generally like a bit of buzz but need a garden then move to either

New Farm
Bulimba
Paddington
Rosalie
Ascot

If you're happy with a unit or apartment, there are more options closer to the CBD.

Having checked out Manly and Wynnum at the weekend, either buy a house on the beach or don't, 2 houses back and it's like a shanty town

KJCherokee

All fairly expensive suburbs. 8-10km radius around the CBD these days is where (in general) the high-medium price area starts becoming the medium-low price area.

heldownunder

Having checked out Manly and Wynnum at the weekend, either buy a house on the beach or don't, 2 houses back and it's like a shanty town [/QUOTE]

Well with that attitude i am glad you are not buying in Manly - what a generalisation ..
Live 15 min walk from the esplenade and its gorgeous - avoid wynnum central and north but manly and manly west are great - fantastic state school two excellent private schools - hidden restaurants along the harbour, yacht club, water parks , man made beaches - views over the bay and islands, great cycle routes, train to city, great young community and a fair few british people ...
So take time to explore it yourself - make your own mind up- i certainly wouldnt live anywhere else and my house is far from a shack :-)

DadAgain

All depends on budget...

if you've got $1m to spend on a place and are epxecting to have a joint income of $300k a year then recommendations are going to be different compared to whether you're coming over pennyless and expecting to have a joint income of $45K a year.

Perhaps more info from you will yeild more appropriate responses (and quite possible result in the usual arguments about various aspects of various suburbs - from which you can draw your own conclusions!

MarkandS

Northern suburbs are very good. It will depend to some extent what and where you will work. As for schools, there are several good schools around where we are, Ferny Hills. The Gap as mentioned is very good, though like others have suggested it also depends on what budget you will be looking at for housing, renting or buying etc.

Either way, a move to Brisbane is a good move and all the best with it.

DeadVim

Agree with heldownunder, sometimes the areas written off by the masses are most worthy of investigation ... Unless you want to pay top dollar with the rest of the aspirationals.

Huge variation in the areas already mentioned, all depends on budget and expectations of 'lifestyle'.

I live in the sticks but I am widely regarded as clinically insane. A few acres around me for less than $400k (today's prices) and in a nice neighbourhood ... insanity rocks

DeadVim

Oh, and if I wasn't living here I'd but up near Redcliffe ...

Fordies

Thanks guys, gives us a few places to look at, we're actually going to be renting for a while, just to find our feet! We have been over to Brisbane a few times to visit relatives but still don't really know about schools etc, thanks again, it's all quite daunting now ha ha.

Hoolio1972

Hi there, we are 8 mths in now. We've viewed houses N, S, W & E and on many budgets and lifestyle types. (for ourselves, helping friends and also visiting friends)

Initially we rented 6mths in Springfield Lakes (20k south) . . initially its wow, new and has everything you think you would need - a dream lifestyle. But we got a little unsettled there, possibly a little too 'manufactured' but there were many other outside factors which tainted springfield for us. We have a few great friends that live there and it is a lovely place, which we still spend allot of time in. My daughters kinde is there. There are lots of lovely houses, and some locations are leagues better than others (bigger plots, etc)

We now rent a 1acre plot in spring mountain at $510 per week. Ground is maintained within the rent. The house is less than 1 yr old and is very spectacular. We have a forest behind us, that a family of 13 roos live in - they visit our garden and hang out every day. Cockatoos, cookabura and forest frogs inhabit the garden. All out friends are in aww when they visit. There are a few 1000 homes here, and most on 1 acre. We feel we got lucky and will cherish the memories of this rental for years to come. Although we are a bit out, we have a huge woolies complex and Orion centre complex only minutes away. So services are all handy.
Bribie is 70min, Goldcoast beaches 60mins, dams and forests 60mins, so all handy. There are obviously plenty of superb local parks, forests and things within 10/ 30min drive.

I work in Carole Park, so including the kinde drop off - door to door is a pleasant (no traffic) 40. It would be 25mins without kinde.
My wife works in Rocklea, which is about 45min drive (traffic is a bit heavy). Public transport isnt great were we are and even private transport can be a pain if you live in the wrong area of Brisbane. Allot of the motorways are like carparks each day.

We were lucky not to have rented in the flood areas closer to the city - some of which were so charismatic.

prior to arriving it has been hard to research areas and I've accumulated many hrs driving around. Essentially our rental works, as our jobs are convenient.

Ive no idea where we would buy. I know some lovely areas, but I'd need to rob a bank to live there! a $500/ 600k house would be our limit

I done so much research online (It cant be helped, you get so excited!) but nothing beats being here. You will get a gut feeling for an area straight away and also once you get working, you will know which areas will be more feasible to commute from. I've owned my own home for the past 10yrs (and still do in the UK), so rental is unsettling, BUT its very hassle free and gives you the flexibility of more family time and also window shopping in potential 'buy' areas!

Best of luck and of course if you want any advice on anything PM me. I've had one hell of a 9mths! I should really do a blog - being here is much harder than I ever anticipated, but we are battling on!.

Hoolio

Fordies

Wow Hoolio, sounds amazing!
My cousin has lived on Springfield Lakes and as lovely as it was i really couldn't see us settling there either. As everyone has said if money were no object we'd have our pick, but although we will have a lot of equity in the house we're in (to be sold soon, fingers crossed!) we're very realistic about what we can afford, so hence the renting for a while to make sure we're in the right area.

Thanks again for your story of life so far in oz, it makes us excited about the big move! Might just take you up on the offer of more advice lol!
You may regret the offer ha ha ha.

Cheers Rachel & Paul

Hoolio1972

hey no probs at all, coming half way wrong the world is TOUGH! We have had a roller coaster 8mths in lots of way, and are very very great full that perseverance has paid off. We really have done so so well.

Tho . . like many others, we constantly find ourselves in reflection, and we are pretty sure that OZ will not be forever. We have and are having a great adventure, but with our reflections and analysing why we came here, we actually will probably return home in 2012. Time will tell . . . good luck with all your plans.

And please feel free to ask any questions or PM, if you want to keep it private.

Becs2010

Hi there,

if you don't mind me asking, what aspects of life over would make you return to the UK? my partner and I and our 1 year old are starting the process to move hopefully to Brisbane, and we are probably 99% sure it is right for us, but that 1% is always niggling away! Mostly it is taking our son away from his grandparents that niggles us, but we feel we would have so much more to offer him over there. I am happy to live an adventure for 4 or 5 years in Australia and then come home, but my partner is more of the opinion we do it for life or not at all, which I do understand as well, as it would be a massive upheaval to uproot a 6 or 7 year old and the way the employment market over here is a the moment, it's risky to leave a job and then try and find another one in a few years time. Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks