Diggeryd

No doubt this has been discussed a great deal previously for which I apologise.

We are looking to settle in Sydney area and have no idea where to look for a house?

My job market is financial IT so Sydney seems the best bet (if expensive). However I have no idea where the best places are to look for a home (commutable to CBD). I am hoping that some of you marvellous folks have already researched this and can help me out...

We plan a fact finding tour around this July before finally going for good in a couple of years, but any advice would be most welcome to narrow down our search.

We have one son currently less than a year old, so would like to find a good family neighborhood, ideally not to far from the beach.

I have no idea how much we are likely to have to spend, so we'll pretend that it does not matter...

CUEBALL

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You could try the sites listed, we have looked at real estate but not in great depth. But have found out of sydney is cheaper. Sorry if this is not much help. Good luck
Raine and Horne - www.randh.com.au
Samantha Bower Properties - www.sbproperties.com.au
Judy Gilchrist Real Estate - www.judygilchrist.com.au
Central Coast Prestige Properties - www.ccpp.com.au
Property Central - www.propertycentral.com.au
L J Hooker - www.ljhooker.com.au

Hutch

I suppose it all depends on how far you're willing to travel to commute and whether you plan on doing that by car or train. My first year in oz will be spent with my parents in their house (don't panic, they have a separate annex ) and I'll have a two hour commute into Sydney for work. I can't say that bothers me, because a) I used to commute up the M4 into London from the Bath area and that was often a three hour trip and b) the train's cheap, uncrowded and the view's amazing. That's from Berry in NSW incidentally. We've been looking at properties in Shoalhaven Heads near there - $375k gets you a very nice detached property, nano-seconds from a fabulous beach complete with kid-friendly sandy estuary (extensively tested by my 3 year old son Josh). Not suggesting it's the area for you, but handy maybe as a yardstick.

bondipom

Me thinks you'll be in for 3 hours commute.

www.realestate.com.au
www.whereis.com.au
www.131500.com.au are starters

The travel times on those sites are hopelessly optimistic. Double them in rush hour. Your budget will determine the place to live.

Bronte is my favourite beach suburb but public secondary schools in the area are not that great.

SamG

Hi!
We're also a family on the way to Sydney with a hubby in IT It really depends on what your criteria are and commuting hopes - we don't mind not living by the beach and want less than a 45 minute commute, we're also wanting areas that are relatively safe and have good schools esp primary as our children are all little.

Advice we've received from friends and family out there (and I haven't been to any of these places yet so don't quote me!) is that Northern Beaches/Northern Suburbs are good places to live. Sydney has it's own mini Silicon Valley in Ryde so round there might be good for you. My brother lives in Chatswood which he says is nice (but others say is a bit commercialised), adjacent suburbs are nice (but expensive) such as Pymble, Killara, St Ives, etc, most of these are on the train line. Lane Cove has been recommended as a place to research too - although it currently suffers from a traffic problem this should be eased when an underpass opens, so is currently good value for money in terms of its housing stock.

Hope that helps, I know I'm passing on advice I haven't yet tested so I could be well off the mark - but we'll be there ourselves in April and I'll let you know!
Sam.

soapy©

We tried all that, asking people on the forum where the best area was. We got so many different answers. After a while we decide to get the map out. Draw a circle round work with a distance of 20 mins commuting. Then when we got here, hired a car and looked at all the areas surrounding. There is another factor though. When we arrived we were all cooped up in a 1-½ bedroom lodge and would have taken anything to get out quick.
We were lucky enough for a house to come up in this area. We now live 5 mins from work and life is bliss. But most areas are mostly down to personal taste. Manly seems to be the area of the moment for the expats and there’s plenty of info on this forum about it at the mo.
Good luck wherever you land

soapy

bondipom

The issue in Lane Cove is the location and filtering of the tunnel stacks when the new road opens.

nanci

We've been in Sydney since July '04 and are still finding our way around. As my brother lives south of the CBD we are looking to move there. We are renting in Lugarno at the moment, which is a nice suburb with good schools. We have an eleven year old who has settled very well.

There are plenty of other good suburbs locally, and if you move slightly further south there are many good suburbs in Sutherlandshire, Cronulla is an excellent family beach. Most of these suburbs are within an easy commute of the CBD.

My husband works in IT as well, and the only downside is that a lot of the jobs do seem to be north of the harbour, having said that his commute is about an hour, depending on how well Cityrail services are running, and he works just north of the harbour bridge.

On the plus side for us access into the CBD is relatively easy and cheap so we visit quite often.

Hope this all helps,

Nanci

Diggeryd

Thanks for all the info.

I guess there's no substitute for actually looking around. We loved Manly when we visited before, although I don't suppose you get to much for your dollars there.

Would it be easier if I asked where wouldn't you choose to live in the Sydney area?