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-   -   Brisbane, good areas?? (https://britishexpats.com/forum/australia-54/brisbane-good-areas-107294/)

Chris000 Mar 31st 2002 3:37 pm

Brisbane, good areas??
 
Hi all,

Can anyone tell me what are good areas in and around Bris and or Sunshine Coast, to buy or rent. Preferably within half an hours travelling to Bris, and near the coast would be good.

Also I dont see many houses with air con, is this normal for that part of Aus?

Ta,

Chris.

dotty Apr 1st 2002 3:07 am

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
The sunshine coast is about one half hours from Brisbane City Centre. Very few houses have airconditioning, it has always puzzled me, the cost is the reason I usually hear, ducted airconditioning is about 14 - 20 thousand depending on house size. Becoming more popular after this summer tho I believe it was the hottest on record. A good real estate website for all of Australia is www.raywhite.com you can go into each state then into each area. What work are you planning? Sunshine Coast has about 17% unemployment, much lower in Brisbane. Hope that helps.

dugongs Apr 1st 2002 4:37 am

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
Sunshine Coast is a good hours drive North of Brisbane and it is not really possible to commute as journey can take double that in rush hour traffic.

Nearest costal areas to Brisbane are the Redcliffe and Redland Shires which have several areas which adjoin Moreton Bay (no surf beaches though). All these areas are within 30 mins drive although takes an hour in morning rush hour. Placenames such as Manly, Wynnum, Wellington Point, Scarborough, Redcliffe, Shorncliffe - all these areas are growing rapidly.

Aircon is not standard in older houses although is becoming more frequently specified in newer particularly better quality housing and apartments. The climate is such that you only really need it for about 2 months in the peak of summer and 2 months in winter (for heating). The rest of the year you can live without it although ceiling fans are common to help circulate the air.

Shaun Nell Apr 1st 2002 10:35 am

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
Dotty, where did you get your unemployment stats for Sunshine Coast? I would be
interested in looking at other stats for other areas. Thanks Shaun

"dotty" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > The sunshine coast is about one half hours from Brisbane City Centre. Very few
    > houses have airconditioning, it has always puzzled me, the cost is the reason I
    > usually hear, ducted airconditioning is about 14 - 20 thousand depending on house
    > size. Becoming more popular after this summer tho I believe it was the hottest on
    > record. A good real estate website for all of Australia is www.raywhite.com you can
    > go into each state then into each area. What work are you planning? Sunshine Coast
    > has about 17% unemployment, much lower in Brisbane. Hope that helps.
    >
    >
    >
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Chris000 Apr 1st 2002 8:14 pm

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
Thanks for all the replies so far.

Chris.

Andrew Apr 2nd 2002 5:05 am

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
Hi Chris,

It depends on 2 factors: how you define "a good area" and what kind of work you would
be looking for. Brisbane is very large in area and there are plenty of jobs in the
nothern 'burbs. However, the majority of professional jobs are located in the CBD,
and this will create a longer commute is you want to live close to the coast.

The Sunshine coast is too far away to be practical to commute to Brisbane every day.
Redcliffe is the closest area close to the sea, but even that will require at least 1
hour commute each way during rush hour.

Good areas close to the northern "edge" of the city are (1/2+ hr commute):

Aspley Bridgeman Downs (lots of new housing and a quick escape to the Sunshine Coast
on the weekend)

Good areas (north-western) inner city areas are:

Toowong Taringa Indooroopilly (older houses, more expensive, close to the CBD but a
"long" way to the coast!)

There are plenty of other good areas - but these areas are the only ones I know
fairly well.

Air con. is still pretty rare but it is slowly becoming more commonplace - newer
houses usually have at least one in the main bedroom. Even older houses are being
retrofitted with small units.

Good hunting, Andrew

P.S. Bring as much money as you can. It goes a long way but when it runs out I will
quickly realise how low Oz wages are!

Chris <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
    > Hi all,
    >
    > Can anyone tell me what are good areas in and around Bris and or Sunshine Coast, to
    > buy or rent. Preferably within half an hours travelling to Bris, and near the coast
    > would be good.
    >
    > Also I dont see many houses with air con, is this normal for that part of Aus?
    >
    > Ta,
    >
    > Chris.

Johnny Boy Apr 4th 2002 6:35 am

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
"Andrew" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

    > Redcliffe is the closest area close to the sea, but even that will require at least
    > 1 hour commute each way during rush hour.

Hey Andrew,

What about Sandgate,Wynnum, Manly, Wellington Point, Ormiston and Cleveland - all
good areas, on the water's edge and much, much closer to the Brisbane CBD than
Redcliffe!!!

Cheers, John

Andrew Apr 8th 2002 7:51 am

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
Hi "Johnny Boy",

I've been in Brisbane for 3+ years and "most" of Brisbane are what migrants (esp.
from the UK) would call a good area. I don't know much about about "Sandgate,Wynnum,
Manly, Wellington Point, Ormiston and Cleveland" though I've been briefly to Manly
and Cleveland and thought they were looked like great places to live.

How long does it take to get to the CBD from any of thse places? I thought it was at
least over an hour by car or train? If you can get a job near one of the sea-side
areas than any one would be ideal (for me at least). But my line work forces me to
work in the CBD so I have to consider the daily commute.

See you later, Andrew.

"Johnny Boy" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > "Andrew" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    >
    > > Redcliffe is the closest area close to the sea, but even that will require at
    > > least 1 hour commute each way during rush hour.
    >
    > Hey Andrew,
    >
    > What about Sandgate,Wynnum, Manly, Wellington Point, Ormiston and Cleveland - all
    > good areas, on the water's edge and much, much closer to the Brisbane CBD than
    > Redcliffe!!!
    >
    > Cheers, John

A+V Johnson Apr 10th 2002 1:30 pm

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
Hi Chris it depends what you want we are moving to Brisbane next month and we are
moving into an area of Pine Rivers called the Samford Valley around half hour from
Brisbane. Lovely area most houses we have looked at have air conditioning although we
are going to build our own house. We will need a house to start with and I will be
getting one with some sort of air conditioning good luck Roni "Andrew"
<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Hi "Johnny Boy",
    >
    > I've been in Brisbane for 3+ years and "most" of Brisbane are what migrants (esp.
    > from the UK) would call a good area. I don't know much about about
    > "Sandgate,Wynnum, Manly, Wellington Point, Ormiston and Cleveland" though I've
    > been briefly to Manly and Cleveland and thought they were looked like great places
    > to live.
    >
    > How long does it take to get to the CBD from any of thse places? I thought it was
    > at least over an hour by car or train? If you can get a job near one of the
    > sea-side areas than any one would be ideal (for me at least). But my line work
    > forces me to work in the CBD so I have to consider the daily commute.
    >
    > See you later, Andrew.
    >
    > "Johnny Boy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
    > > "Andrew" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > > news:[email protected]...
    > >
    > > > Redcliffe is the closest area close to the sea, but even that will require at
    > > > least 1 hour commute each way during rush hour.
    > >
    > > Hey Andrew,
    > >
    > > What about Sandgate,Wynnum, Manly, Wellington Point, Ormiston and Cleveland - all
    > > good areas, on the water's edge and much, much closer to
the
    > > Brisbane CBD than Redcliffe!!!
    > >
    > > Cheers, John

timsorrell Apr 10th 2002 1:53 pm

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
Another thing of course is how much money do you have to spend on a house? There are good areas, and there are outstanding areas! To some people their ideal home would be waterfront property - but waterfront property has a typical block size of 800sq metres, (around 1/5th acre), or at best a double block 2/5ths acre. Waterfront properties are in the places mentioned before - but don't forget the Gold Coast, such as Runaway bay area. To others, upmarket areas as close to the city as possible is what is their ideal property - and Windsor is expensive and upmarket suburb. But for others - and this is where I'm biased - like large houses on acreage, and dislike suburban areas for living in. On acreage, some prefer seclusion - and some prefer open views - maybe elevated with mountain views.

When we emigrated from the UK, we looked for areas that we would consider you'd get more for your money - and initially we looked at 1/2 acre to an acre as being ideal and ended up getting a 2 acre property; now we feel that for our next house (which we hope to build), 5 acres would be absolutely ideal - room to add fruit trees here, garden there, pool, allow the house to be set well back from the road yet still have large front and back gardens, room for extension in the future and still have large expanse of playing area, but not too large to manage. (I used to absolutely hate gardening by the way in the UK, but here it just all seems worth it!).

Acreage areas are likely to give you between 1 acre and 5 acres and the areas we found were: Pullenvale, Bridgeman Downs, Samford Valley (&surrounding areas Camp Mountain, Cedar Creek), Eatons Hill, Kenmore Hills, Brookfield. I'll go into detail on my own site soon (www.hotshopping.com.au/emigrate) but for various reasons such as no village/shops nearby, less polished, over expensive, further away from city, no views etc, we rejected the other areas, as one place stands out as the ultimate area which is Samford. It's just 30mins from the city centre - has a great village with good facilities - 30 mins to the coast (Redcliffe/Scarborough), and has a number of areas including Samford Downs with mountain views and a very polished appearance.

Amazingly Samford has cheaper land prices (and thus also property prices) than many other acreage areas, yet has the best appearance with the best facilities. After 2.5 years and having visited these other areas on several occasions out of interest, we think Samford and the surrounding area was still the right choice. All the acreage houses I have seen are very individual. For a nice 2500 sq foot house on an acre it will probably be £130k ($350k). Move up to £185k and you get something very large and with the wow! factor. Move to £220k+ and you have prestige 6000sq foot property with excellent location and also intercoms, central vacuum, aircon, landscaped gardens, but will be hard to find (unless you build!). Move to £260k+ and you'll not find anything at this level in Samford - though with this budget you'd be best to build something very nice (there are a couple of projects at this level I have seen). $1million = £370k gets you a nice house on good Waterfront in the Gold Coast on a double size plot (2/5ths acre). It will also get a nice house on 1/2 acre close to the city but of course the costs can get higher there.

Typical building cost is $550 per sq metre (£19 / sq ft) but add 20% if you want high quality fittings or special brickwork etc. Also add up to $40k for landscaping, driveway, patio, tiles, gates, etc etc all of which can make you go over budget. I think a large house (on acreage) is considered to be over 60 "squares" = 465 sqm = 5000 sq foot.

There are still wonderful land blocks being sold and it's quite normal to buy the land and have a house built. I'd recommend first renting or buying, allowing a considerable amount of time to
design your dream home to try and avoid mistakes and regrets. If you can, of course buy the land as soon as possible to secure it.

Re aircon - yes it's amazing how few houses have it, even though we only use it ourselves when it's around 34 degrees or over, or when the air is unusually still at lower temps. It's even more amazing how Brisbane residents put up with the cold in the winter. Typically if you don't have central aircon, a woodfire or gas fire in the central living area would be used - and maybe an infrared heating bulb in the bathroom, but many don't bother lighting the fire and put up with the cold in their jumpers thinking surely it shouldn't be this cold in Brisbane! The house temperature probably drops down to 15 or 16 degrees if you didn't heat it in mid winter which is uncomfortable. If using aircon to heat the house, the air is circulating, so you end up having to heat it to 25 degrees to make it comfortable, in order to compensate for the breeze you create in the house. In upmarket area you'll find more homes with aircon (and even more pools), but frequently perhaps aircon is only installed in one room like the living room or perhaps the master bedroom. Ducted aircon throughout should be in your £220k+ houses but not necessarily!

Chris000 Apr 10th 2002 2:31 pm

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
Wow, so much information, but you can never have too much, the picture I'm getting is that overall we would be hard pressed to buy in a bad area, or what we would call a bad area over here!

We dont want to live too close to the CBD as we're not city folk and I guess our budget will be limited to around £120,000 as we're both public sector workers and probably will be over there, at least to start with.

Thanks to everyone,

Chris.

timsorrell Apr 10th 2002 2:59 pm

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
You can definitely buy some acreage property in the Samford Valley area. In fact a smaller house on Samford Downs was asking $280k and will probably sell for $250k but presently being rented. Just seen a 3 bed house (not acreage) in Samford for $240k. So you should find something nice. Or look at Camp Mountain, Cedar Creek, or Eatons Hill area up towards Albany Creek - and you should find 4bed home with verandahs on 1/2 to 1 acre. If it doesn't have aircon, you can get a room aircon unit added for say $1600 - (<£600).

PS - To the UK family A+V Johnson arriving here in Samford next month, would you be interested in a houseswap / or rental - for our house in Samford Downs, mid June to mid July ? We return to the UK - first time in 2.5 years - hoping for Dorking/Epsom or Southampton areas+carswap.

dotty Apr 13th 2002 9:52 am

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
Shaun. I am sorry I did not see your question as we have been in Sydney twice during the last month and not on board much. I only knew the unemployment rate on the Sunshine Coast as my husbands business was looking for staff there and that figure was given to us by a employment agency there. last months national unemployment rate was 6.2% but I have no idea of individual area rates. Sorry Dot.

Martin Apr 14th 2002 11:57 pm

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
Chris

If you want to live 30 or so minutes from the CBD and on the coast, your best choice is Wynnum, Manly or Lota. Very up and coming areas but still a village feel to the place. It's a very easy drive into town. Brisbane is not the UK, living in a built up area here is hardly a drama. But, be quick prices are going up sharply - a good house in Wynnum/Lota 500m for the water is $300k +, Manly $400k +. Houses with good views cost $600k + . Brisbane's main problem is the beach, it doesn't have a good one until you hit either the Sunshine or Gold Coasts. Redcliffe has a beach but it's not the white sand, clear blue sea of the former two.

timsorrell Apr 15th 2002 7:18 am

Re: Brisbane, good areas??
 
This a very subjective matter - as to whether you prefer living in a built up area or on acreage, so here's an opinion coming from someone biased towards the latter. In the UK, acreage is very expensive and unachievable for many unless you are quite a long distance from a city. Since acreage is so much more affordable here, if you are fortunate enough to have in the order of $300k (£110k) or more to spend or can get a mortgage for it, I would personally much prefer to have wonderful views, space to spread your wings and a good feeling that you got more for your money, than living on the usual 1/5th acre block! Sure, here it's not like some heavily built up areas in the UK, and also there are plenty of smart houses with wonderful features that are close together on pleasant modern estates, many in areas with access to parks and of course everyone shares the good weather. But I feel that once you've lived on acreage and enjoyed seeing your children run and play around the whole property, as long as you get the hang of some gardening (personally I used to loathe gardening in the UK and avoided it at all costs!)... then I think we would now find living in a built up area to be claustrophobic. Certainly I feel if acreage is achievable, why have something smaller for the same price for the sake of 15 minutes drive?!. Each to his own!


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