mccomisky

My husband has just secured a new job @ Brisbane airport ! Hurray its been a long time coming and a distant pipe dream. But now its very real and I have no idea as to where to get any REAL advise so I am handing myself over to u guys in the hope that u can help us.
We r a family of 5 currently living in Weston super Mare North Somerset England . We have 3 young boys aged 5 9 and 10 years old .
My first of many questions is , which would be a good area to move to in the interim not far from the airport (about 20 - 30 mins ) to start with. Obviously I need good schools and one of my children has a medical need ????
Do I rent a house to start with ? Furnished unfurnished ? private ? or holiday let ?
We are very outdoor people and my boys r very sporty and the older two play rugby which is very important to them.
I have been advised that I should expext to pay about $400 per week for rent and this is ok could possibly pay a little more but to start with I think this would be a reasonable amount .
I would be very grateful for any advise that may b of use to us.
Thank u for reading and I hope to hear from anybody who has time soon.

Sue

Hi and welcome to BE.

I've moved your thread to the Australia forum for you.

Congratulations on the job offer, I bet you are very excited. I can't help with your questions as I live in the US, but I'm sure someone will be along soon who can give you some pointers. In the meantime take some time to read though the forum and the wiki.

Oh and if you ever get stuck on anything site related please give me shout.

Dave999

Hi Mccomisky

I cant answer everything but to say that we are currently waiting for visas after accepting a job offer in Brisbane. We have two small children.

We have been advised by the National Australia Bank that you have to rent for a minimum of 3 months prior to being able to get a mortgage there.

We are intending to try and settle in the suburbs of the South West Brissie area. I have two friends who live in the North East suburbs and South East Subs. They say there is 'loads' for the kids and sporting activities everywhere.

Our strategy is as follows.....as our worldly goods will be in transit for 12 weeks with storage allowance too, we intend to fly out 1 month prior to starting my new job. We will look at a holiday rental and then whilst finding our feet spend that month looking at 6 month rentals in the nearby area where im working. Then during the 6 month rental period looking for somewhere permanent to get a mortgage.

We will be looking at a furnished rental for the 6 month period (again as our goods will still be on the way and then store them until we get a house of our own).

Not sure how you want to do this but this is how we have decided to do things after advise from our two friends who moved out 2 years ago. They did it this way and it seemed to work.

You can apply for and open an aussie bank account from here (which will remain active for 1 year) and you can get lots of advise from the bank regarding things like this.

Your prices quoted for rentals seem consistent to what we have reviewed too.

I know I havnt answered everything but hope what I have said goes a little way to helping. Good luck with it all.

Shellyj

You can look at the price of renting here. You may well be paying a lot more than $400 for a family of 5! http://www.domain.com.au/

KJCherokee

The airport is north-east of the CBD and I would suggest looking in that area for housing - convenient suburbs are Banyo, Nundah, Northgate, Wavell Heights, Virginia, Nudgee, and possibly out as far as Sandgate. From any of these you can get to the airport quickly via either the Gateway motorway or the East-West Arterial. If you go south of the city you will be paying road tolls on either the Gateway Bridge or the Clem7 Tunnel (or AirportLink when it opens next year).

Plenty of good schools, hospitals, and sporting venues in that area.

JAMFC

That's good advice from KJCherokee about being NE of the CBD for the trip to the airport every day. Where we are in Redcliffe is about 25 mins from the airport but at peak hours it takes about 40 mins. We have a nice beach though which is why we live here (3 kids!).

When you say rugby do you mean league or union? If it's league, Redcliffe have a good club. Don't know anything about union, sorry!

With regards to rentals - for a regular rental the minimum term is usually 6 months and the house would be completely unfurnished apart from an oven and possibly a dishwasher, and a lot of places have built-ins (wardrobes). You need to pay a bond also which is 4 weeks of rent (you get this back when you move out and there is no damage to the property). I think $400/week would be ok for a 3/1 or possibly a 4/2 depending on the area. (Not any inner city suburbs though).

When you first arrive a holiday/short term rental is good as they are fully furnished but obviously cost a lot more.

Schools are everywhere and it depends on whether you want public or private - a lot of people travel to their preferred schools ie. don't necessarily just go to their closest school. A lot of public schools have catchment areas though.

Hope this helps!

jad n rich

You would find a pretty decent house for that rent in the redcliffe/woody point areas.

The links to the airport are being upgraded, and with a train line going out to the area in the next few years, if you ended up buying property there it would have to be a bonus.

There is loads to do in the area, from iceskating to, beaches, cinema, parks, sailing, miles of bike paths, shops, restaurants etc etc. Also hospital and school for kids with special needs.

Its a very underrated area. Beach areas with those type of facilities that close to the city in melbourne would cost double or treble. We lived down there for a year and really liked it.

Grayling

What visa are you coming on.

If it is a temporary visa then be aware that a child with 'medical needs' may make it very difficult to get a permanent visa depending on the seriousness of the condition.

JAMFC

Just to add:

You can see regular rentals on realestate.com.au
You can see holiday rentals on homeaway.com.au (owned by realeatate.com.au), or Stayz.com.au - these 2 sites will give you a good idea of prices.
If you find an area you like you will also find that local real estate agents often have holiday rentals if you are looking in a holiday area. In our area the holiday agent is this one:
http://www.maddiesrealty.com.au/
They also do sales and regular rentals. (I am in no affiliated with this company and my house is not for rent through them, this is just to give you an idea of what's out there )

Cheers!

asprilla

hi there -

A) I think that Nundah is a pretty good place to live. It is close to the airport and it has a good rail link into the city.

B) I hope that you have not, at any point in the past few months, taken the Australian salary that your husband will earn and divided it by the current exchange rate (1.5) to try and work out whether or not you'll be better off.... If you have, you are making a big mistake and you are over-estimating how well off you'll be. If your husband is going to earn $80k, that does not equate to GBP53k per annum, far from it. Instead, you need to be using a figure of 2.4 or 2.5 to truly reflect purchasing power. This would reveal that the equivalent salary is closer to GBP32 or 33k.

best wishes