Oh Great!

The RP Data rent report showed Darwin's average house rents were $520 a week, followed by Canberra, where rents had risen 3.1 per cent in the past three months to $495 a week

Streuth, we ended up in sunny Canberra after getting rainstormed out of Sydney/NSW on our Crimbo hols and even staying here in 5 star luxury were only getting done for $200/day http://canberra.park.hyatt.com/hyatt...index.jsp?null


Sorry, haven't kept up with the thread, how long will you be residing in Canberra?

We're looking at around 5 years or so to complete both son's educations. We looked for temporary accomodation a couple of months ago but availability was poor and the price very high so OH and I are camping during our first couple of weeks there (leaving the boys with their aunties in Sydney) while we sort out accomodation, car, etc and deal with all the stressful bits. ....Should be a bit of a laugh

I'll say.

We weren't laughing after wasting tons of $s on advanced bookings for beachside hotels south of Sydney supposedly at the height of summer (winter in Japan) and having given up on the area just kept driving in the direction of good enough weather to play golf and feel we were actually on holiday ie. Canberra, hardly the place anybody would choose beforehand for such a purpose. At least we were miles away from the Ashes calamities (2007) and I could make the missus 'suffer' in that impressive museum there.

Good luck, look forward to reading your posts.

Thanks , sounds like a plan

I've just checked the prices of the hotel you stayed at and for the 4 of us for just over 3 weeks in December it's $13530.00 . I think we'll camp at £12 a night

We camped for a month while looking for rentals in Febuary & looking back it was only a short period we were doing it for - but it was a nightmare & I'm not sure I'd recommend it.

The campsites in Canberra aren't great - we stayed at the Carotel off the Federal Highway which at least has a pool and free wi-fi if you sit in or near the office, the ladies in reception were helpful with photocopying & faxes etc as well & if I remember rightly it was $34 a night for a family.

We soon learned that a combination of all the advice thats been given so far will help - we had references from estate agents in the U.K., a covering letter explaining our background & circumstances, offering to pay up to 12 months rent in advance (in the end we didn't have to)and copies of passports retc ready, we chatted to the agents at the viewings & made sure they knew we were living in a tent, and you can also use the Canberra sponsorship team as a reference.

We would trawl all-homes in the evening for open houses, make a list of possibles, spend the day viewing and then back to cool down in the pool before doing it all again, it took 3 weeks to find somewhere & then we were offered 3 places in the same day and had to choose between them!

On the other hand jobs were easy - we started applying the Monday after we moved into the house & I started work on the Friday & my wife Monday.

Good luck- it is worth it in the end...

I'd never trust real estate agent photos. They can make a tenement look like a palace.

What, is Mrs Paulry from Japan too (and would 'relish' the opportunity to see the nip midget subs that came near Sydney and the evidence of appalling treatment/torture of the Aussie POWS at the hands of the Nipponese in Changi prison & elsewhere) ?

No, it's a great museum really http://www.awm.gov.au/

A very encouraging post. Thanks for sharing. Good to hear that we aren't the first recent arrivals to start out in a tent. We're camping a bit in South Africa en route so it seemed logical to carry on in Canberra. We're staying at the motor park. Stayed there before earlier this year in a motor home and were impressed at how clean and well run it was.

You got everything sorted remarkably quickly, that looks promising. When did you settle there? And do you like living in Canberra?

Gotta get started on the covering letters, references, etc. A sponsorship team recommendation sounds like a good plan

Thanks again

It's sometimes possible to get an inspection outside of the allotted times if you're keen on the property. Usually this requires the property to be vacant though and if the market in Canberra is busy then this might indicate a bad property or an unreasonable rent. If you really like the look of a property then it might be worth getting a sneak preview. Unfortunately the pictures are often misleading so it's hard to judge whether it's worth buttering up the agent to get this privileged access though.

Yes, that's true. And on reflection there's a lot more to a property than just internal photos. Things like the immediate area, etc.

It's a bit like seeking tenants over here: We get the place ship shape and looking like a show home only to discover that the people viewing it are just time wasters. Sometimes it's tempting to do no preparation ...But what if they're good prospective tenants?

We'll get a sneak preview of as many as possible, take a look at everything and just hope for the best

No, she's Chinese Malaysian. Sorry, I hadn't realised the museum was a war memorial museum. Looks very interesting though, will have to take a look at it sometime.

Gotta get started on the covering letters, references, etc. A sponsorship team recommendation sounds like a good plan

Scan them & save on your laptop as you can apply online with some agents so it will save you having to have so many photocopies, we would also take some applications to the agents offices & get them to photo copy the docs & get them to do a couple of extras for us ready for the next application.

I'll send you a pm with our contact details so you can drop in for a sanity break if you need it!

Brilliant tips here. Thanks very much

Good Luck with your move to Canberra. Lots of good advice from people re the rental situation. January is known for being the hardest month to get a rental.
We came in March 2008 and had 1 month in a luxury apartment (firm paid) and we stressed at first about finding something. We were advised to apply for everything we viewed, so we did!
We were offered 2 and would have been offered more had I put the right mobile number on the application oopppss but the 2 agents managed to track us down and offer.
We paid $480pw for a 3 bed ensuite, double garage in Tuggeranong (southside).
Pleased to say we have now bought in same area, and all settled well here. It has been the best move ever coming to Canberra and Australia!! Love it.
Hope you love it here as much as we all do x