rachels

Hi All

I'm new to this so please be gentle with me!

My "Defacto Spouse" and I are moving to Brisbane at the end of September (we live in London although I'm from Newcastle and he's from Manchester) and I was hoping for some advice on good places to live in Brisbane.

I've been checking out Paddington,West End, Tarringa and Toowong as much as I can online but has anyone got any opinions? I need to be close to UQ (for study and work) and Andy (the Defacto) needs to find work on arrival so I guess close to the CBD? We won't be buying a car for a while so we'll have to go by public transport or cycle.

I've read through alot of your posts but other people seem to be dicussing suburbs further out than the ones we need. I also wanted to ask about good recruitment agencies in Brisbane for office based roles.

Thanks!
Rachel x

Kiwipaul

These are def inner city suburbs, and I think the reason most people are looking futher out is because they want houses and land for the kids. These suburbs are mainly town houses, appartments, etc with very small gardens if any at all. The west end is within walking distance of the CBD, Tarringa and Toowong are a bit futher out but both have excellent train and bus services. Toowong has one of the best shopping centres around.
I assume you mean the University in St Lucia, and Toowong would be closest.
When I first moved to Brisbane, I lived in Coorparoo which is about the same distance from CBD as Toowong but South, and got around fine for about 9 months without a car. Public transport in Brisbane is excellent. There is also a bikeway following the river from Toowong right into the CBD.
Lots of new appartments going up in all these areas as more people are moving into the city and the areas are boomig.

You could also look at suburbs on the river New Farm, Kangaroo Point as their is a fast and efficient ferry service up to the University.

jayr

I stayed in Toowong for the first month and would recommend it. It seems quite young and I think a lot of UQ students live around there. As KP says it's good for shops with a Coles and Woolworths (supermarkets if you don't know already) and there's some local nightlife at both the Royal Exhange Hotel (bar) and the Regatta (bar and restaurant). Depending on which bit you lived in you can either get the train to the the CBD (about 14 mins) or the newly opened CityCat from the Regatta. Also Coronation Drive along the river is a fast route into the CBD. There's a choice of takeaway food, Chinese, Dominos, Indian, Thai etc. Taringa is about another 2-3Km away from the CBD but also has a train and bus services to the city, you'd probably prefer Toowong to Taringa, both are also close to the large shopping centre at Indooroopilly. You should be able to get a decent two bedroom unit (flat) from $200-300pw, check out www.realestate.com.au. Use http://www.transinfo.qld.gov.au/ to get some ideas about tranport options and times, this will tell you what bus/train/ferry options you would have and how long they take from different suburbs.

rachels

Hi

Thanks so much for your replies. Is there anywhere in the inner suburbs that should really be avoided? (I am going to be studying in St Lucia at UQ, sorry, forgot to mention that!).

I'm at that real glassy eyed stage, beside myself with excitement but also nervous. Can't wait though.

Rachel

Hunnie

Hi Rachel!

We live in the inner suburbs of Brisbane at Kangaroo Point, which wouldn't be ideal for you at UQ but would be perfect for your boyfriend as its just a 5 min ferry ride to the CBD.

My boyfriend works in Toowong and it's pretty nice. There are good shops and a pubs and some really nice restaurants. We've been told that we would be paying around the same in rent there as we do at Kangaroo Point (we currently pay $280 a week which is thought of as expensive, but we think its reasonable considering the cost of renting back home in the equivalent area and facilities). Toowong has good transport connections (train station right in the centre, Regatta CityCat stop - good for you to get to UQ) and buses. It only take about 15-20 mins on the bus to the city and 8 mins on the train.

We looked at West End but it was expensive for what we were looking at. There were also and awful lot of bugs around (which put me right off!) It's an up and coming trendy area too. It has good bus connections to the city and a CityCat which will take you to Toowong.

We avoided Paddington as its just buses that go there, and you would have a fairish walk to get a train, and of course there are no nearby river connections. But it is closest to the city centre and is a trendy area withlots of shops and boutiques.

I hope this helps. My best advice is to stay in a motel for a week, hire a car and go and see the places and decide what will suit you best. Get a day rover and try out times on the boats and buses, and the suitability for your work and study of that. If you're not buying a car soon i really wouldnt recommend going much further out of town. We have found that public transport is pretty crap at weekends at it finishes early and sunday services are rubbish! City Cats are good at weekends but its peak fares then.

Another consideration - the train is by far the cheapest - a one month pass from toowong to central is about $30 and thats probably what you would pay on the citycat for a week. They dont do one month passes on the buses and boats, you have to buy a ten trip saver which gets you 10 trips for the price of 8, it can be quite expensive. Try to use the train if you can, they're really frequent and have air conditioning.

Try and buy a car as soon as you can too, it makes your life so much easier. If you want to go anywhere out of town, you will find it so much better. Even though the 2nd hand cars are more expensive than in the uk. If you are planning to stay long-term, try to buy new.

In general you will find most brisbaners don't live in the city if they work there! A pain when you want to go for a drink after work - they all go to get their train! Hopefully you won;t have that problem at Uni, your boyfriend should be ok too, if he likes to go to the pub, there are groups of guys who will happily chat to him.

Ok, if you have any more questions just ask!

Do you have somewhere to stay when you arrive?

rachels

Hi Hunnie

Thanks so much for that post - full of very useful info! We have actually taken a 3 month rental on an apartment in Taringa (it was was approved for us by UQ), just to get us started.

We arrive on 29th September so we thought it would be good to know where we were headed and to have an address to ship stuff to in the meantime. It is fully furnished and has everything we bascically need so we won't have to worry about anything initially except settling in and getting used to being on the other side of the world! We can use those 3 months to really investigate and find somewhere we really want to be.

I was quite alarmed by your comment about bugs in West End! I read on here the other day that bugs are 10 times as big as the ones in England and things that should stay close to the floor (like cockroaches) have actually decided to fly. Gives me shudders just thinking about it.

What make of car is a good (cheap and hopefully reliable) second-hand buy in Australia? Excuse my ignorance but are there any Aussi made cars and are they cheaper than imports? We would love to buy one a few months down the line as I am really keen to explore Queensland and beyond. I think I'm getting a 4 year temorary visa so we will be staying at least as long as that (if a giant, flying, cockroach doesn't decapitate me before then) but we can't really afford to buy new.

One more quick question, is it difficult to find furnished apartments? I've been looking at Estate Agents online but they all seem to be unfurnished.

Cheers
Rachel

kaleb777

You should remember that you don't have to live close by car to the uni. Ferrys link most suburbs on both sides of the river right up to the university. Get a map with the ferry routes on it so you can see where the stops are. Toowong, Paddo etc are pretty expensive and there are small gardens if there are gardens at all. If you have kids I would avoid New Farm which had a big drug culture. Rents are higher in those suburbs you mentioned so if you do get a car and want some more space with lower rents you should look further out except around Sunnybank in the central south which is pretty dear.

I agree that no matter how close to public transport you live you will need a car for shopping and going to the coasts etc. There are plenty of locally produced cars - none have sunroofs. The last thing you will want is to be sitting in traffic developing melanomas.

jayr

Rachels

Where you are staying at Taringa you will be close to some second hand car places along the Moggill Road, you should be able to get something reasonable for $10-15k. You can also rent cars at most servos (petrol station) for around $50 a day. Try and bring a UK Photo drivers licence, it will help for photo ID purposes instead of carrying your passport everywhere.

Fully (or even part) furnished units/houses will be near impossible to find, you won't usually even get a fridge or washing machine, though cooker and dishwasher should be pretty standard. You can rent just about anything here, however, try www.pabs.com.au, I think they do a starter pack for two people for example, send them an e-mail for info.

Oh and don't eat at Montezumas at Taringa, it's crap, but I would recommend the Raj Mahal for good Indian food!

jayr

I take it back, here's a furnished unit at Taringa:

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin...=&fmt=&header=

and another:


http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin...=&fmt=&header=

Gavin B

Is there a way you can do a search on www.realestate.com.au for fully furnished properties only, or is it a case of sifting through them all?

rachels

Hi All

We haven't got kids so its just us two 29 year olds (both turning 30 in Brisbane later this year!) to worry about.

It seems that furnished places are out there if you look hard enough. Unfortunately you can't search on "furnished" just on rent and area, you have to sift through. Its bound to be hard doing it all online, I'm sure it will be easier once we arrive and I can hit the streets and visit the real estate agents in person.

Thanks Jayr for the restaurant recommendation. We love Indian food and its good to know a decent one is nearby!

I don't think we'll be able to afford a half-decent car for a while. We're not exactly loaded now, but because I'll be studying full-time I won't be earning so $10-15K for a car is way out of our league. I'll have to send Andy down the mines or something to earn some extra cash!

Rachel

Gavin B

Oooh, oooh, you must tell me which is a decent curry house in Brisbane? I'm going to miss my Chicken Sag from Brick Lane...

kaleb777

There's a chain called curry hit but I don't know what it's like. Indian food isn't real big in Australia.

Gavin B

Gap in the market eh?

No worries, our home cooked ones are pretty special. Anyone gagging for a decent ruby are most welcome to pop over to our house in Brisbane any time after November.

I'll have to limit it to 30 people maximum though. Actually, we're planning to get a two-bed flat - 2 people maximum! sorry!

kaleb777

Good oportunity for a business! Actually there's an Indian restaurant opening close to me. If Aussies take to it it might take off big time. I think the problem is that there aren't a lot of Indian or Pakistani immigrants here. Most Aussies eat Thai, Chinese, Lebanese etc.