finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

Hi everyone
A question for those of you who have no relatives/friends to stay with when you arrive in oz.

What arrangements are you making for somewhere to live when you arrive ?? I am just starting to get my head around all the plans that need to be made if we get the ok. I have a job offer in Brisbane and feel obliged to get there as soon as possible, so I want to be prepared in advance.

I am under the impression it is not easy to pre-arrange rental homes, and as our furniture will be arriving after us we would need a place furnished, which I believe is harder to find.

All advice/info appreciated

Thanks

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

Try the holidays lettings website (www.holidaylettings.co.uk if I remember correctly), put in your area and you can arrange from here (we did that when we went on a reccie and it was great, 12 days accommodation in a fully - and I mean fully - furnished house) there's also longer term rentals for when you make the permanent move, some only do rentals over 6 weeks, some do from as little as 1 week.

There's the other alternative that your prospective employers may have some suggestions, or even temporary accommodation that is available.

Good luck!!

Mel:D

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

Hi,

We are hoping to be in Melbourne on a 457 visa in the new year. We are starting anew and leaving all of our furniture in our current house (to rent out) In a way I feel much lighter....not so much 'stuff' to worry about!

We are a couple traveling alone so don't have kids to worry about, this gives us lots of lovely freedom so am planning on booking a guest house for three weeks or so. We plan to catch the trams across the city to travel to view rental properties. Hoping this will be a good way of getting to know the place.

Have been in touch with estate agents so have all the info on forms of ID and refs needed to rent as a new migrant. Feel free to get in touch if you need this and I will fwd.

:)

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

Hi if you require furnished short term accomadation in brisbane or melbourne try www.brisbane-relocations.com or www.moving-to-melbourne.co.uk

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

It is possible to pre-arrange rental homes (we did it) but it does need someone "on the ground" for you. If you have no family/friends, you can pay for someone to handle this for you. When considering the cost of that, also consider the extra that you'd have to pay for furnished accommodation.

Cheers
b

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

We had a little 'holiday' when we got here (as well as doing the TFN's, medicare, looking for a rental, and the other million things you need to do that is :D)

Worth a look, keep your options open and all that! :D

http://www.big4.com.au/ :)

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

We booked a short term furnished rental for four weeks to give us enough time to find a long term rental. We found it on www.seqrents.com.au and it was a lovely apartment within walking distance of Brisbane CBD.

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

Hi Kookypie,

Your doing EXACTLY what me and the OH are doing. We have booked holiday accommodation for 3 weeks and a car for 3 weeks. That will hopefully give us time to sort the other things out and find a rental.

If you could forward me the forms you have that would be appreciated !!!

Thanks
Donna.

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

some other options:

1) send your UK stuff 6 weeks before you leave and borrow what you need in UK from friends and rellies;
2) rent furniture short term from somewhere like PABS (Brisbane based) - we rented beds from them
3) rent white goods etc if needed from somwhere like Radio Rentals; they have numerous branches in Brissy including at Fortitude Valley
4) buy inflatable mattresses at about $35 for a double from places including K- Mart and Crazy Clarks (you can also buy an inflater that you plug in your car for about $12 so don;t need a foot pump)
5) buy a bunch of camping chairs (K Mart again) for about $10 each; very comfy and you'll find you use them in the future

We arrived with no furniture, went into holiday appartment (Club Crocodile in Toowong, Brisbane) for three weeks then moved into empty rental and survived based on most of the above for weeks before furniture arrived

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

We arrived last month in Brisbane with no place arranged to stay. We just got a list of serviced apartments from the Tourist Information Centre in Queen Street Mall and drove around to them.

Eventually a nice lady at one of the places told us about an apartment complex in Fortitude Valley which does short-term furnished apartments. So we went there and took an apartment until January on the spot (only needed our passports).

It's a beautiful apartment and only 10 minutes into the city on the bus (or 30 - 40 minute dawdle on foot).

You will find it's easier than you fear (I know we did).

Hope this helps
D
:thumbup:

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

Hiya if anyone needs to purchase a car when they are here let me know as I send a lot of my clients to a guy that buys direct from the auctions saving you $$$ he is a genuine car dealer that will make sure the car has no other finance on it and as he buys direct from the auctions and does not have a show room he can save you a lot of money


Hope this helps you

Sarah x

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

Hi Sarah,

Is this just for the GC or does he have contacts all over ?

Thanks
Donna.

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

Hiya Donna

He deals mainly with the auctions in the Brisbane area so anyone that is willing to travel to Brisbane.

Hope this helps

Sarah x

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

hi mel
there looks like there is alot of good hoildaylets on that site think we will be going there when our time comes thanks we going perth do you know if anyone as stayed in any down there?

Re: finding somewhere to live before arrival ?
 

Try looking at http://www.nextstepaustralia.com they have a range of services all under one roof, from helping you find a job to organising short term furnsihed rentals with free airport pick up.:thumbsup: