carrot

Hi, we (me, husband and 2 yr old son) are moving to Melbourne from UK mid-October on a 457 visa. I have done a lot of research on renting in Melbourne and kept a check on realestate.com.au for pretty much the last year!! We are hoping to move to 2/3 bed house in southern or eastern suburbs. From what I have read in previous posts on here and on The Age it is a bit of a nightmare to rent in Melbourne at the moment, and am worried about finding somewhere decent to live. We have got temp accommodation sorted till the end of Nov, but is 6 weeks from arrival going to be enough to find somewhere to live and move into it?
Also, are we going to have to offer more than 1 months rent up front when we put in an application? If so, how many months up front are people putting down at the moment? We aren't coming out with too much money and if we have to put down 6 mths rent up front is going to mean not having the money to afford to buy a car!
If any one has any tips on how to put in a winning application when you find a place you want to rent, I would be very grateful.
Thanks!

thebears

Where in melbourne are you looking?

It is a battle but we can help you get through it. You need to be prepared and ready to accept compromises or fork out more money.

Izzy

We had to put down a bond of equivalent to one months rent and then you pay a month up front rent. We took a reference from our estate agent in UK stating that our home was well kept. We took mortgage statements to prove that we had always paid that on time and character references from various people.

Seemed to do the trick for us. We had only 2 weeks to find a rental and this only left 10 days to Xmas for us, so 6 weeks should be fine. Make sure you get one with aircon - you will need it, and heating too.

thebears

No need to pay any more in advance than the normal one month and bond usually equivalent to 2 months rent.

Suggestion is to attach a detailed cover letter explaining your circumstances ie if you dont yet have a job or local references. They come across expats all the time so your not the first or will be the last.

thebears

To add - if it doesnt come with Aircon don't rule it out completely. You can install at a cost of under $2K including reverse cycle ie heating in winter. Bear this in mind because the difference in cost per week can be around $50 so within 40 weeks you have broken even with a saving of $600 over the year.

matt n ann marie

Hi,
We've been here for nearly 4 weeks and brought $25000 dollars. We bought a car for $5000 on the road, and paid approx $700 insurance.

We stayed at Frankston holiday village for a fortnight, having paid for one week from the UK, we paid the second on arrival.

We found it easy to find rental properties here. We arranged with the agent we'd rented from in the UK to email a reference to a rental agent here along with personal references. We viewed the house one day and the agent rang us the following day to tell us we had been successful.

We're in Narre Warren and paying $245 per week for a 3 bed single storey with a good sized garden, and have paid a bond and one months rent in advance. We've spent money on some basics for the house whilst we wait for our container, aswell as a trampoline and a selection of toys to keep the kids going.

We have spent quite a lot of our money getting started. Matt was lucky to find work quickly though and we are also entitled to family benefit (we have 2 children) and rental assistance as part of that. In our circumstances, this gives us more in benefits than we got in the UK.

If we can offer any more advice, please ask away!

Teliko21

Wow, I see alot of people saying it is hard to rent in Melbourne and I can honestly say I haven't seen any sign of it We got our first choice both of the times we have been looking didn't have to pay extra rent up front ddin't have to sign away our lives to the devil... I am feeling hard done by now

Oh and by the way, both our places have been arranged while we were students, not working and the 2nd one we had our terror of a dog! Obviously we must live in undesirable areas

carrot

Thanks for all your responses. Guess I'm worrying unnecessarily! We should be able to get good references as my husband as got work lined up in Melbourne already and we have some friends from Melbourne who I'm sure are happy to provide character references.

We are looking to move either to Camberwell/Balwyn area, Malvern/Glen Iris area, or Bayside - either Elwood area or Beaumaris. We have got a longlist and will narrow it down to about 3 areas when we get there! My husband is really keen to be as close to the CBD as possible as he is currently fed up of long commute from Herts to central London but if we do that and rent in say Elwood, we could probably only afford a 2 bed place. I am more keen for a 3 bed further out with a big garden! We are budgeting about $425 wk on rent, though could stretch to $450.

Also, re aircon, do landlords mind if you install aircon in a rented house? Guess it's just a case of getting their permission...

Thanks for all your help!

haggis supper

Hi,

There are plenty of houses available to rent at the moment, it very much depends on a number of factors - how much rent do you have to spend, where do you want to live, number of rooms etc etc. It's also coming towards the busier time of the year, more properties will become available though more people will be looking.

It's not worth trying to make any arrangements from the UK, estate agents here will simply not help you. Before you arrive I'd try to narrow your search to just a few areas so you can focus your attention when you arrive - though be prepared to change your mind when you arrive. Things are never quite as you expect !

When you get here spend time in the areas and try to decide on just one or two areas and the immediate surroundings. That way you'll save time on running around Melbourne, not fun with the volume of traffic here.

Check out the realestate and and the realestateview websites daily and continually call the agents - do not rely on them to call you or keep you up to date. They are worse than useless. Get friendly with a few agents, make them aware of your preferences and the chances are they'll let you know about places that are due to come on to the market before they do. Many places go before they are listed.

Take a digital camera with you if you can, my wife found it useful to take a few pics of the houses she liked as I was often at work during the viewings.

Also be prepared for lots of flowery descriptions and some artistic licence from the agents. The houses often sound nice but we saw some real shockers.

If you can get a written reference from a previous landlord that helps. We're renting our place in the UK so our agent provided us with a reference saying how good a landlord we'd been. If you've sold your house in the UK see if the agent would give you a written reference praising your conduct and perhaps stating that your house was well maintained etc. Get similar references from your UK and Aus employer if you can. These will help the process and demonstrates good character.

Make sure you have a bank account open. I'd recommend NAB (National Austrlia Bank) - though have to admit to some bias as I work for them.

You will need to put in an application, this is just a form to be filled and they will check references. Only took a day for ours. If the house is in demand some people will offer a higher rent or a longer rental term. The agent should be able to tell you what the status is.

Only a months rent should be required. You should have no problems finding a place in 6 weeks, providing you are prepared to be flexible.

It can be a bit of a nightmare and we looked at 35 places - however we were being somewhat fussy. We managed it in 6 weeks and have heard plenty of people finding places within days.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. Good luck.

Cheers,
Col

thebears

Hi Carrot

We have just had AC installed in our rental (as we plan to be here for a few years) no problems with landlord just got everything in writing ie that we reserve the option to take with us provided property is restored back to original state, and the rent is not to be increased due to the increase in value of having AC.

Train from Malvern to CBD 15 to 30 mins. Tram 35 mins.
Depends on where in CBD your hubby is going to be working.
Check out Whereis.com.au all the areas you mention are close to us. It takes us 7mins to drive into the CBD out of rush hour and about 30 mins during.