EmaT

Hello ,
I'm new on here and after some advice.
In January me and my family are moving to Melbourne on a 457 visa through my work. My children are 5 & 3 and I am struggling to work out what suburb is best to live in. I would like a nice suburb which has good primary schools. We are renting with a monthly budget of around $3000.

any advice on areas or websites to visit would be very much appreciated I am finding it all a little confusing and overwhelming at the moment.

Thanks

Emma

Smartinis

When you say you have a monthly budget of $3000, is this just for rent? Rent and bills? or is this your entire monthly income? This will make a big difference to what you will be able to afford. Try looking for rental properties on realestate.com or domain.com for your prefered suburb. The closer you are to the CBD the more expensive they will be, so you may prefer to commute from a bit further out. Moorabbin is on the Frankston train line, so you could even go for popular family suburbs such as Mornington or Mt Eliza if you don't mind the travel to work, both of these are very nice seaside suburbs with a good range of both private and state schools. If you need the cheaper suburbs then there's always Frankston itself, many will warn you off Frankston, but there are some very nice areas as well as the dodgy ones. However there are plenty of nice suburbs to choose from. Good luck.

Allan_P

It's worth being aware that several of the best suburbs, Parkdale, Mentone, Cheltenham, Mordialloc etc. spread both sides of the railway line. The properties on the "Beach side" of the line are generally considered much more desirable and rental costs would reflect this. Having lived in Parkdale for some years I can recommend this suburb. It has something of a village atmosphere with a short walk to the beach. It has a local shopping strip with major shopping centers also nearby and is within easy commuting distance to Moorabbin (which is a largely light industrial area)

If you can afford Black Rock or Beaumaris, even better. I note a 3 br house on the beach side in Black Rock currently renting at $520 per week. Perfect
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Allan

Buzzy--Bee

We love Parkdale too (we are right on the border with Mordialloc near the Warren Road shops).

BB

Allan_P

Hello BB,
I started off in Parkers Rd, just a short walk to the beach before moving to Temora St (First left off Warren Rd)
When I needed a bigger house I moved to Endeavour Hills, a great suburb but I do miss those sparkling sunsets on the Beach Road
From memory, my house in Parkdale cost me 42K back in 1980
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Allan

Mummy3

We stayed in Black Rock for 4 weeks, if there had been rentals available at a good price we would have stayed there... It's lovely.

MHMan

I know of a place as friends is leaving Melbourne. Its in Hampton 2 bed 2 bth + additional toilet, 2 car spaces near train station, close to the beach.

Sent you PM

stuartsummers1980

Websites wise, when it comes to Melbourne realestateview.com.au gives you the best suburb profiling (although for the best data you have to look under the buying sections), schools overlaying property listings on their map function etc, while realestate.com.au has the most properties so use those two. Domain offers nothing the other two don't have so skip that one.

Areas wise, just a word of warning having just moved from the Sandringham line to the Frankston line. The Frankston line is a very congested route compared to the Sandringham line, although you didn't really say where you would be working unless I missed that, so not sure how relevant train travel will be.

In terms of how far south you go on the Frankston line, if your journey doesn't involve any tram connections, you can probably go as far as Mordialloc, which is lovely. But if anyone has to train then tram to get to work, I probably wouldn't go further south than Moorabbin itself. (we're learning that the hard way having just moved from Windsor to Aspendale.)

Schools wise in that area around Moorabbin I do know that people rave about being near McKinnon, it's a very small suburb in it's own right, but I think there must be a really good school there or something, but that would suggest that getting in might be difficult, but I don't know enough to advise.

RedDragon2008

You need to be careful you are in the Mckinnon Zone, and not just great area of Mckinnon. And no you cant take the word of an estate agent, get it in writing.

Also Glen Waverley - its not a bad run from Springvale down north road.

derab

When we were looking, there seemed to be about a $100 per week premium on rentals in the McKinnon School zone, and the avaiability was shocking too, I think there were 2 places available if I remember right.