Hi all

We are looking to fly out in October and, are looking at fully furnished leases online for our arrival. What is the recommended time for the first lease? We have no idea where we want to settle and need to locate a carpentry job for hubbie and a good primary school, so dont want to be tied in too long.

A lot of sites say around 6 weeks, to give you time to look around longer term rentals and decide on a more permanent location.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

We took 7 weeks ourselves, but that was 4 years ago and where we were looking rentals were very scarce at the time.

We now have our own rental for new arrivals, and from their experiences, 3-5 weeks seems to be the ideal period here in Victoria, and the other states seem to be similar.

As you have mentioned, you need time to look around at areas, schools etc, but you will also find on all the various expat sites a mine of information on areas, schools, job situations etc. so you should have quite a good idea before you arrive as to where you might like to settle.

We have been finding that our tenants are surprised at how long it's taking to get a longer term lease here in WA - we have had people stay with us for six weeks who have had to extend their stay. Not sure how home opens are conducted in the UK but here in WA at least there's usually a specified time eg. 1-1:30pm on a Saturday, and when you turn up there are up to 30 other couples. This sounds like it's different to the way things are done in the UK. Also it's the only way you can actually apply for a rental (by going to the home open) - you can't apply without having seen the property. Plus sometimes properties are advertised that won't be available immediately to rent, so you may have to wait up to a month for the property to be vacated, even if you're the successful applicant.

Based on our tenants' experiences I would say minimum six weeks in a short term rental is a good start.

Generally the UK is completely different. You make an individual appointment to see the property so you aren't falling over other people. Then in almost all cases, if you want it, its yours. None of this "lets see who the landlord likes the best" stuff.

We booked 4 weeks serviced accomodation before arriving and ended up extending by 2 weeks as it took longer than expected to find a rental and sort out the new furniture/electricals (we didnt ship a great deal of stuff).

Hi Sue have Pm'd you

Hi

I think 6 weeks is the average, even tho we did have one family that were with us for almost 3 months - sorry dont want to scare you

In Scotland it is different from England as we have found out. You go see the property and put in your application and then the landlord looks at all the applications and decides who they want, we have had a few instances where we have been sat waiting for weeks to find out only to find out someone else has been offered the property. In England it was very much first come first served, as long as you references checked out

We are doing one for 6 weeks.