Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

Hello Perth people,

We are a young family of 5 heading out in November, our children are 6, 20 months and 9 weeks at the moment. We are trying to choose a suburb but it is so difficult!!!!

We are looking for somewhere that is really family friendly with lots of parks, mother and baby/toddler groups, fairly close to the coast if possible. A must is a good primary school for our son, in the UK our 6 year old is very active with weekly tennis, rugby, swimming and football lessons so a suburb that has these activities so that he can continue them over there too. Also an easy commute to the CBD so close to a train station.

Finally and I know I am asking alot but the suburb needs to be affordable!!! People have recommended Duncraig and Mindarie but both seem to be really expensive. Ideally don't want to be spending more than $500 a week on a rental.

Any suggestions that people already living there could provide would be most welcome!

Thank you all in advance

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

Mandurah,aveley,Ellenbrook,Kingsley,woodvale,butle r,noranda,carnie,padbury.

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

Where will you be working? You don't want to rent in Mandurah if you're working in Joondalup.
Aveley, Ellenrbook, Noranda and Woodvale are not close to the coast. And the OP would be hard pressed to find a rental in most of those other suburbs big enough for her family under $500/wk. Honestly I think the OP is going to have to drop some items from her wish list and give us some idea of where they intend on working.

If they're going to be working SOR I would look at Rockingham area. There are some nice suburbs down that way a lot less expensive than NOR.

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

:thumbup: Wellard, Baldivis, Secret Harbour...

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

Shocko has THE best beach for small people....and english swimmers (stones) Waveless .... And shallowish.... Rental for under $500 very doable... Being an established burb plenty for youngsters to do.... Didnt have teenies when we got here, but there are plenty of groups advertised ....

Big draw back... Secondary education unless you go private.... Which is comparatively reasonable...

Also when it comes to buying... Unless you have a large chunk behind you (we certainly didnt when ours were tots) you wont have rented out of your financial grasp so to speak.....

Any house "this" side of the city centre is walkable to beach able.... Just....

Historically shocko has a very bad reputation as being a piss poor pommie shanty town..... But miliions has been invested in the infrastructure and people who we last here 10 years ago, let alone 15/20 dont recognise the place....



Having said all this... Not entirely sure we want cashed up poms discovering our little gem... driiving up house prices locally... So I'd recommend NOR ....:rofl:

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

We're in a holiday apartment in Rockingham at the minute, despite what some people say we've found it really nice. Seems to be plenty to do and the shopping centre has plenty in it if you like that kind of thing. The beach is lovely and my kids have loved playing in the sea, even if it is winter here :p

We're moving into our rental on Friday which is in Secret Harbour. Looks a lovely place but seems very quiet. Our kids will be going to Secret Harbour Primary which seems really good on first look. Will report back once they've been there for a while.

We went visiting some friends in Como yesterday and it is lovely up there too.

I guess a lot depends on where you have been living in the UK, to us we haven't found a bad place yet. But then we have only been here a week and driving round visiting places etc

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

Thanks all, my husband works in procurement for a printing company in the UK so is likely to be CBD based I would think. I am hopefully going to be staying home with the children for at least the first year or so.

Secret harbour was our first choice when we started trying to choose a suburb, I thought the commute was longer than 35mins into the city on the train though. How far is Warnbro station away from Secret Harbour and is that the closest place to get the train into the city? I was put off by people saying that the schools were not very good.

John Mc - please keep me updated would love to know your views on SH primary and how your children are settling in there.

Thanks Naomi

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

I have heard good things about Roleystone.

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

Thanks will check it out too.

We have just been looking at Wattle Grove, is anyone on here there? Primary school looks excellent, would sacrifice my wish to be close to the coast though. Does have good schooling and is very close to the City. Anyone know how far to the coast it is?

Opinions and views of those in the know are most welcome!!

Thanks!

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

The OP should bear in mind that there is apparently a real shortage of rentals at the moment and an advertised rate of $500 may turn out to be $600+ by the time it is taken.

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

that is true.

Wattle Grove is fine, however very hot in summer, you won't get the sea breeze.

My suggestion would be as other mentioned above the Rockingham Shire. For me it would be Baldivis. Rentals shouldn't be a probblem, very close to the train station (if you get there early it's fine, otherwise Rockingham station will have enough parking when you arrive).

Baldivis has private and public schools, easy excess to the freeway, close to the ocean. And as Eddie07 said, for toddlers the beaches down there are the best along the coast, it's a bay and very safe, no big waves at all. Plus not many people are at the beaches and you def will find parking. From Warnbro station the train is about 35 minutes.

East of Baldivis is open countryside and plenty of horses. South it is not far to Mandurah, and 1.5 hrs to Bunbury if you want to see something different.

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

Baldivis houses do look nice as does the area from what I have seen so far, I am a bit uneasy that I can''t view the results of Makybe primary school as it is too new, the Baldivis and Settlers primary school both appear on the myschool website to be below the standard of average australian schools. Tranby College will not be a possibility due to costs with three children, possibly could consider for secondary education though.

Does anyone have children in Makybe? How are they doing?

What time does Warnbro station car park fill up? How far is it from Baldivis?

Thanks

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

Also concerning rentals, we are planning on a fully furnished rental for the first month, do you think this will be sufficient time to find a long term rental?

Do agents require payslips for proof of income, we probably won't apply for mu husbands job until we arrive as ideally would like him to be home with me while we try and find our feet in the first month or so.

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

My aunt lives in clarkson? she brought my cousins up there from a young age - never been so can't comment but she's happy...
Good luck!
Jen85

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

I know someone with a son in Makybe and she likes it very much. She also volunteers there on a regular basis and so would have a good idea of the inner workings of the classroom.

Warnbro Station...ack. Apparently it's full by 7am (or earlier). I could be wrong. It's about 5-7 minutes' drive from Baldivis. I'm not sure how long on the bus.

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

Hmm...the rental market is very tight right now. People are having bidding wars over rentals, so you might want to give yourself a buffer. I think it took us about three weeks to find a suitable rental and that was years ago in a more favorable market.

Does your husband have a job offer in place? If so, then at least a letter from his company or stating what his position will be, average wage, etc. will be helpful. If he doesn't have a job lined up, I'm not sure how flexible the agents (and landlord) will be. Usually they like to have some proof of income when you apply...

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

I live a 2-minute walk from Makybe Primary. Nice little school I wanted my 9-year-old son to attend when we moved here from NSW last September.

Unfortunately, at that time the school only catered for children up to Year 3 and my son is in Year 4 so instead enrolled him at Settlers Primary which now has more than 1,000 pupils and is rapidly running out of space. But he is doing well,enjoys attending this school and likes his male teacher who is big on discipline and good manners.

Wouldn't rely entirely on NAPLAN results as there is a lot of controversy about them. Teachers and principals are very dismissive of NAPLAN tests as they say the results don't give an accurate overall performance of a school.

Typical. Received a letter from Makybe Primary this week inviting me to enrol my son in the school as it will take children from Kindergarten to Year 7 from next year. Don't think my son will want to move and we will be out of the catchment area as about to build a house closer to Settlers.

Tranby has a very good reputation and parents I know who send their kids there speak very highly of it. Would like to send our son there but can't afford it at the moment.

Warnbro station is less than a 10-minute drive from Baldivis but parking is a major headache. I use the car park Monday to Friday as I work in the CBD and take the train to Perth (40 minutes to Perth underground). The car park is 90 per cent full by the time I arrive at 7.10am, especially Monday-Wednesday. The park-and-ride part is full by 6.30am. Only spaces left are in the pay-and-display section at the far end. Only $2 to park there all day so good value.

More spaces in pay-and-display on a Friday as many people use Friday as their day off to have a long weekend, according to a parking attendant I spoke to before I started this job a couple of months ago.

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

To be honest, if you miss spaces at warnbro traino rockingham is just down the road... Another 10 minutes max... And they are building another carpark to take overflow just across the road.... You can usually always find a $2 a day spave at rocko though.... Unless thereis a big match on...

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

Thanks all, we are confirming flights and first 4 weeks rental today for November, rental is in Secret Harbour. We are going to view the Baldivis primary schools and Wattle Grove when we arrive then I suppose play things a bit by ear to see where we can secure a long term rental. Now I am in panic mode!!! Hopefully it all just comes together.

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

We are looking at similar areas to you Naomi, and the school thing was a worry for me too. We are unable to make the move until our uk house sells and we don't want to rent it out, and the way the market is at the moment in our area we could be in for a long wait. I emailed a rental agent and they sent me a long list of of what they require to enable you to rent a property, references, bank statements, mortgage statements etc. the list was so long, i think the getting a rental part of the process is what i'm dreading the most, good luck with it all and it will be November before you know it!

Re: Help choosing a Perth suburb.
 

I am a bit panicked by the prospect of finding a long term rental too. My husband is Australian and although has lived in the UK with me for 6 years hopefully will still have a credit rating in Australia, we rented together for 6 months in Adelaide too so am going to contact the letting agent that we did that through and see if she will provide us a reference.
We have never rented in the UK so won't have references from over here although do have a mortgage so will take the statements.
I will email some too to get prepared with what they require, worst comes to worst I suppose we will just have to pay 6 months rent up front, although don't really want to do this as the exchange rate is so dire.

Good luck with your move too, hope your house sells quickly!