jarv

Hello chaps / chapettes.
I would love to hear from people who have moved to the brisbane area to find out the most popular areas.
I would like to get some knowledge of why people chose there suburbs.

Thanks


Dave

brisbec

I'm not living there yet!!!! But I would choose the place where i stay with my friends. Morningside and Bulimba. Morningside is very nicely laid out, quite spacious and is on the main road (Wynumm Rd) to the city. Bulimba is just around the corner and has Oxford St which is full of life day and night. Pubs, clubs and cinemas. Restaurants and it too is very good for the city via the City Cat boat.

I have seen alot of Brisbane but they are definately my favourite and when i finally get out there, they will be my first choice.

Kiwipaul

Your question is far to general to get sensible answers, do you want to live N, S or W of Brisbane, do you want by the beach, do you want an appartment or house with land. Do you want to live in CBD??.
See what I mean.

jayr

Agree with KP, you need to know what you're after first, where will you work, how (and how long) do you wish to commute, what house/land type, how close to the coast (and thus distant from CBD). I know the western suburbs quite well (Milton, Toowong, Indooroopilly, Taringa, St Lucia, Chapel Hill, Kenmore, Jindalee etc.) and can advise if you give some cort of criteria.

PeteY

My wife and I still don't know if we should be heading for Bris or Tvlle....can't make up our minds.

If we head for brissie, could either of you two recommend any areas we should check out?

My criteria would be as follows :

1.Not in the central city or CBD
2.Would like to live out of the city, perhaps on a bit of acreage, not essential.
3.Has to be easily commutable, as the wife is an accountant (at the moment) and will commute. Preferably within a 15 minute drive of a train station....
4. Although we will be renting for the first year or so, we would guess we would like to spend less than 350k on a home...
5. Prefer north or west of the city, not south.

From the research i've done, the places that i've got on the list for a nose around on arrival are Ferny grove and area, including samford, caboolture and maybe Bald hills...

Any suggestions?

Cheers
Pete.

Amanda&Paul

Perhaps I could jump onto the band wagon here as well. We are hoping to move out to Brisbane Jan 04. My husband is a plumber and will inevitably be working all over so we don't need to be too close to the CBD.

We would like to rent intially and then buy in that area once we have settled for a year or so. We are looking for an area with good schools and families as we have 2 kids - 10 and 2. We would like to live near the sea, we live 4 miles from the beach here in Bournemouth and dream of living much closer. What areas would you guys that are already out there recommend? We have a budget of approx $400,00.00.

We have seen lots of nice looking places on the internet but without knowing about the schools etc it is difficult. Is there a grading structure for schools out there? What is the deal with nursery schools? Are they mainly private as they are here? Have they got the equivalent of playschools there?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Amanda

jayr

I guess the nearest place to Brisbane and the sea would probably be Redcliffe, it always strikes me as being a bit like a British seaside town, notably there is no surf as it protected by the Moreton Bay islands from the ocean. Note Ceri, another poster here who lives thre refers to it as Deadcliffe, a reputation it may deserve.

Further away I guess Caloundra and Bribie Island would be nice choices (don't know about schooling here) with longer distances back to CBD. Acreage areas closer to CBD, probably Brookfield and Pullenvale worth a look, someone on here also just bought at Belbowrie, all close enough to be a short drive to train station. Note that $350-400k should be enough to get a decent 4 bed house with pool and acreage depending on area.

On schooling - diifcult to know what is good other than by word of mouth - no league tables. Lots of preschool/kindergarten stuff, all private and very popular, often long waiting lists (cheapish though). Schools wise, lots of private schooling here, but state (or public) schools seem OK too.

Sorry, tring to cover a lot of questions here so not as much detail as may be required.

Kiwipaul

My feeling is if you don't need to work in the CBD why live in Brisbane, you'd be much better off on GC or SC as the beaches around Brisbane are typical British beaches, whereas you've got to go to GC or SC (or Bribie island) for the typical great Australian beaches.
Trades people should be able to find work just about everywhere their is building work going on, and that def applies to GC and SC. $400,000 won't get you beachfront on either GC or SC but will get you 3 / 4 bed house within 1kms of beach, more so on SC than GC but SC coast catching up with GC fast.

Their was a meridian price of houses in SE QLD in Sundays paper but cannot find online link to article.

Cannot help with schools as no kids.

Ceri

The nice part of Bulimba is really expensive.. have you got a mill to spare?

Morningside has a lot of older type homes on small plots, I can't see why you say that is laid out... (I used to live down that way, near to cannon Hill for three years)... anyone know Morriston in Wales at all? if you do, Morningside reminds of Morriston to a point. Small town, not a lot there.

Redcliffe, Brighton, clontarf and Scarborough.. .. if you like "englishy" beaches... it may suit you, .. all Redcliffe needs is "kiss me quick hats" and it would really look like an English seaside beach town. Couldn't stand the place myself.. but obviously some people like living there. .. I'm out of there , I'm lost in the Pine shire region... getting back to the green/nature... I need a mountain and some bracken, and I'm all set

I'm not quite sure what you are after in a beach... if you are after sandy, ocean beaches forget Brisbane. You're going to have to go south or North (gold or sunshine) . Closer to Brisbane... try Bribie island in the Caboolture shire region.. you will not get a water front house with $400 grand but you will pick up a house which is "walkable " to the sea.

I can't comment on schools either, I have no ankle biters

cheers


PS it was in the Sunday Mail (the article KIwipaul is referring to) http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au...55E902,00.html (it hasn't got the tables though which was printed in the hard copy of the paper)

Amanda&Paul

Thanks alot for all your tips everyone. Lots to go on - think that perhaps the Sunshine Coast could be for us from the sounds of it. Will research the areas you have all mentioned and keep in touch re our progress.

Thanks again

jarv

Hello Kiwipaul
Thanks for your reply.
To add to my first question, we are looking for the usual criteria eg schools, parks etc, but don't want to be too close to the CBD.
I have seen Ferny Grove on a few websites and it looks rather nice but I have a feeling it may be expensive to buy property there.
Can you tell me how easy it is to get around in this area, i.e from say Ferny Grove to Sunnybank for example (across the river, north to south). I would like to know if people tend to commute fair distances to work.
I have not been to Brisbane or Australia for that matter and am taking a "leap of faith".
There seems to be some industrial areas around Acacia Ridge and as I am in the precision engineering trade I would be interested to know where there are other industrial areas.
Another area that looks quite promising is Carindale, any views on this area would be welcomed.
Myself and my family have no unusual requirements but would like to be in an area that is not too busy yet still within 15km - 20km from the sea and CBD
Any comments would be gratefully received.

Dave

mary1

Hi Dave,

There has been a boom in house prices in the last few years and the house prices are still rising.However if you don't know Brisbane I'd recommend renting for 6 months or more as you can find good places to rent through real estate agents really easily and cheaply(none furnished though).You can drive around and see what sort of suburb would suit you.

A good website for buying and renting is realestate.com.au.

The public transport for commuting is okay but slow.It's good if you work in the CBD but I would drive to work if you work elsewhere.You can park your car at train stations.I would live on the side of the city you work on too ie if you live on the northside then work on the northside.

Ferny Grove to Sunnybank would take you 45 minutes at least as you are going north of the river to south and you only have the choice of 3 bridges to cross the river and the traffic gets heavy especially in peak times.They are looking at building another bridge or tunnel under the river in the future.I wouldn't live on the opposite side of the river I worked on unless I could afford to live close to the CBD.

We've been looking at buying a house around the Ferny Grove area. They are still going up in price but you can get a 3-4 bed house on a 630m block of land for $225k- $350.
The beaches around the bayside suburbs have no surf and are mostly mangroves( okay by UK standards) but once you see the Sunshine Coast / Gold Coast beaches you will prefer them.( I still love driving over to Sangate or Manly just to walk along the seafront.)
The Gold Coast is quicker to get to and the road is great but I prefer the Sunshine Coast as it is less touristy but the road isn't as good and it takes a bit longer.
Depends on what your own tastes are.
Good luck.Brisbane is a great place to live.

Mary

Kiwipaul

I live close to Carindale and get a bus to Carindale and then pick up the express bus to city. Express takes about 20-30min to CBD. Carindale is one of the green field suburbs and is one of the most expensive suburbs on south side. You would struggle to find 3 bed house in Carindale as most cost $400,000 or more and be 4 beds or more.

Lots of suburbs around their that area are cheaper but not much industry around their. Public transport is OK so long as you want to go to CBD, but suburb to suburb difficult.

Rearding beaches their are beaches within 15-20kms of Bisbane which you would droole over in the Uk, but here they are mediocre. For the great beaches you need to go to SC or GC.

Def agree with mary1 rent for 6 months in say Bisbane and look around Brisbane, GC and SC for a job and then move closer to where your work is. Brisbane is not big on engineering but I've seen a few small engineering workshops all over the place.

The link Ceri referred to earlier dosn't include the tables the paper did of house prices of every suburb in SE Qld but I'll post if I find a link.

Ceri

which beaches are they? Manly? Thornside? .. I'm trying to think of a beach which is 20Kms from Brisbane. Can't be Bribie ... that's about 60km from Brisbane... Redcliffe is about 26 kms from Brisbane, or maybe Sandgate too .. and if you think that has a patch on UK beaches ..lol. Maybe if you compare it to an ugly beach such as Blackpool, or Brighton... like for like.

Or do you mean the artificial beach in Brisbane,? Anyway what beaches are you referring to that Brits would drool over within 15 to 20kms. Sorry I'm laughing. Are you forgetting that all beaches in the UK are not Brighton.

Either I'm not easily impressed or something (I've been spoilt coming from a beautiful part of the UK) , but for the life of me I can not see a beach within 20kms of Brisbane to drool over.

If people want Beaches. and a city, they are better off going to Newcastle in NSW than Brisbane. I'm not including GC or sunshine in the Brisbane. area , they are not really considered to be Brisbane.

Cheers

Kiwipaul

I'm on the south side and I'd consider Manley, Victoria Point and a few others down that way comparable to the typical English beaches that Brits would go ga ga over it they were in UK, but down here I don't rate them at all. The ones on the N side would be Sandgate and Redcliffe.
The closest English beach to all these would be Swanage, some of the beaches people rave over in Devon and Cornwall are crap compared to these close Brisbane beaches made up of just pebbles or rocks instead of sand.
I agree GC and SC aren't part of Brisbane and SC is too far to commute and GC for hardened commuters to Brisbane only.

I also agree some parts of Wales are beautifullty but when did you last visit the Valleys (Rhonda, Merthyr, Ebb, etc). Also the beach at Swansea is nothing to write home about last time I saw it.