rydel

Hi

We have finally obtained our Aus PR (beginning of September)and intend to "land" in mid October.

Can anyone tell us where is the best place to live in Melbourne with good schools? I have two school going children (11 yrs and 12 yrs).

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.



rydel.

Kenand Nel

Rydel,

There is no single answer to your question. What do you want to be doing.

There are good schools all over Melbourne, both private and state. Buy a copy of the Age good school guide and a Melways and take a look at some locations first.

Try Brighton, Balwyn or Glen Waverley. Or Cheltenham or even Frankston. You have to look first and also considcer your commute to work.

Regards,

Ken

hevs

Try this, it has a melways link on it and loads of info

http://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/

tennisoz

rydel

I come from Melbourne and the answer to your question is 'how long is a piece of string'! As the other response indicated there are so many things you would need to know before answering the question where is the best place to live in Melbourne. Any indications as to where you will be working? Are finances tight? Property values and rentals can vary enormously. Cheap suburbs are Frankston, Melton (fair way out), Dandenong etc; expensive suburbs are Toorak, South Yarra, Brighton (which was recommended) etc. Give me some more information and I will be happy to recommend.

Incidentally, check out www.domain.com.au to get a feel for property values and rental values in the different suburbs.

For what is worth Williamstown, where I come from would be my recommendation not knowing anything else. However, it is getting quite expensive and values go up a lot the closer you get to the water.

TennisOz

rydel

Dear all

Thank you for your replies.

We have actually not decided where we will be living but it should be somewhere not too remote i.e. near good schools and shopping centers, shops etc. Our budget would be in the region of AUD$200K - AUD$250K for a house. Will I get a decent house for this price?

My husband is an electrical/electronics engineer (consultancy) and he will be going to Melbourne first to kickstart his career and thereafter, my children and I will follow. How is the employment opportunities for his type of occupation like in Melbourne?

What is the difference between a Private School and a Public School in Melbourne, apart from the fee difference? If I send my children to Public Schools, will they be getting the same kind of education/standard as a Private School?

Thanks!

HUP

If you go onto

http://www.realestate.com.au

you can get some ideas. There are loads of map sites to check the locations

http://www.whereis.com.au

and this

http://www.street-directory.com.au/m...aliasearch.htm

wongstonn

Hi

Having got my family's PR through a few months ago we embarked upon a sortie to check out Melbourne suburbs. OUr budget is very similar to yours. I concentrated on areas east of the CBD and south of the Yarra down as far as Frankston South. I also checked out Melton to the west. As you will doubtless already know, Aus is having a property boom as vigorous as ours with all the same worries of bubbles bursting.

[West] Melton for me was a no no. The houses seemed fine but a tour of the local shopping centre indicated that the facilities seemed poor and the people 'hard put'

Going east we checked out Balwyn, Doncaster, Blackburn, Croydon, Croydon Hills, Baywater, Boronia, & Ferntree Gully. The first five of these were too expensive (though I thought that Croydon Hills was very nice) and the remainder of patchy quality though within price range. Lilydale and Mooroolbark were also within price range and seemed safe, and many districts there were new build properties. Trains go the CBD about once every 20 minutes and take about an hour. I suspect (but do not know)that these latter areas could get a wee bit nippy, being near the hills as they are, in the worst excesses of winter.

In the southern 'burbs there are plenty of new build spacious houses at the city limits within the price range, such areas being Endeavour Hills, Narre Warren, South Frankston. Again the length of the commute to the CBD is the issue. Frankston [central] has a good train service (1 hour to CBD)and a good shopping precinct, though on inspection I would take care on which suburbs in it's immediate locale to consider, as there were quite a few run down bits. The drive back to the CBD took a little less than 1 hour from Frankston on the Sunday I tried. A bit of a shock. I'm a Londoner, and the size of Melbounre really surprised me.

More central areas were well out of this price range, though if I had, say, $100,000+ more money I would like Richmond & Kew for their location, transport and frequently nice property.

Didn't check out any of the northern or most western areas on this trip.

Anyhow, I concluded that you really, really need a car in Melbourne

As for links, I find that www.realestate.com.au is best for me.

tennisoz

Rydel

Some excellent advice from wongstonn. For up to $250K you will not get anything decent to the east or south of the city until about 45 minutes commute away, but you would get a decent place to the west or north of the city. As a generalisation virtually all suburbs have decent shops, schools etc nearby so you can be reasonably confident wherever you locate that you won’t have far to go for these things. There are also huge regional shopping centres in the north, south, east and west that aren’t too far away from wherever you locate – Highpoint (west), Northland, Southland, Chadstone, Knox City etc.

Wongstonn mentioned 5 suburbs to the east which would be too expensive – they were all within the 45 minutes range of CBD. Bayswater, Boronia, Ferntree Gully, Lilydale, Mooroolbark etc are further out. Nice places, decent properties for your budget but a long way to the city centre if you want to go there frequently – not a problem however if you don’t want to go there often.

My brother lives at Frankston and we have a property in Williamstown. When we are out there it takes us at least 75 minutes to drive to his place and it gets tiresome when you do it frequently. Melbourne is a big place! I put in context to my Scots friends by pointing out that it spreads over a larger area than coast to coast from the west of Glasgow to the east of Edinburgh!

Probably what has happened in Melbourne of late is that there is a move back towards the city centre and inner eastern and southern suburbs for those that can afford it while those on lower budgets have been forced to buy in the outer suburbs and the west and north where property values are lower.

I would agree with the comments on Melton but for your budget you would get a palace there where the median price is in the early to mid 100’s . There is a new estate called Caroline Springs which is closer to the city centre than Melton which is very popular but property values would be a fair bit higher although I would have thought something decent would be obtained with your budget. Williamstown is on the bay, only 10 minutes from CBD by road but you won’t get much there for that budget. Adjoining suburbs are cheaper but not as good – Newport and Yarraville are becoming more popular.

I laugh when people mention how much property values are rising in Oz. I was watching Location, Location, Location on Home & Leisure last night, a 2000 repeat and they were mentioning 45% average increase in property prices in West London in ONE year!! As the PM in Oz says, no home owner has complained to him about their property going up in value.

By the way, try to get the Age median price guide by suburb. I get it on paper as a cutting from my ‘rellies’ but it surely must be on domain.com.au somewhere. I can’t comment on the job situation for your husband but checkout the jobs on theage.com.au for an idea. There are lots of other job websites as well.

I am a schoolteacher but have only taught in state (government) schools in Oz and Scotland. I can’t comment on the private schools other than there are lots of them all over Melbourne so the parents must think they give value for money (or status!). As someone said get the Age school guide, Melways street guide and the Age median price guide and pinpoint a few potential locations.

Let me know if you need any more information

TennisOz