Perth Info please
 

Flying out to Perth on the 31st March with wife and son to try and find a suitable area to relocate. It would save us a great deal of time searching areas if current Expats could advise us on good areas to relocate too. We need to live fairly close to the city for work and also live close to a good secondary school. We plan to move at the end of May as we have just sold our house in the UK and as of the 31st May we are homeless. Many thanks.
Graham

Re: Perth Info please
 

:eek: :eek: Your kidding, you've left it this late, are you staying with rellies first :)

Re: Perth Info please
 

Everything is ready to go. Shippers last week in May.

Re: Perth Info please
 

We'll be moving soon afterwards - so we're also waiting to hear all the replies to this thread.

Good luck with all the final preparations. :)

Re: Perth Info please
 

Hi Graham

Found this might be of use to you.

Not all suburbs are created equal - now some people will disagree with me but here is my guide:

Best Northern Suburbs:
Ocean Reef - seaside location, elevated position, good views, dune paths, marina, small quiet beaches, modern suburb, quite pricey

Connolly - modern, beautiful golf course and resort, quite pricey, townhouses and units available but no pets and small gardens,

Mullaloo - slightly older, seaside position, great beaches, can be pricey

Joondalup - mostly brand new, small plots (no gardens), townhouses, units available, central location - Uni, Tafe, shops, amenities, cafe strip, restaurants, cosmopolitan feel, close to lake with paths and gorgeous park areas. Pricey properties and flats but all near new (so no pets), good transport links

Mindarie - beautiful new suburb, fabulous marina area with shops, restaurants, water sports, further north, pricey, new homes

Good Suburbs:
Edgewater - older, but very leafy, larger plots, near lake, nice parks

Woodvale - older, leafy, larger plots, nice community feel

Carramar - Nearly new suburb, 'starter' homes feel ie young families and couples, public golf course, new homes, reasonable rents and house prices - up and coming suburb, good access to Joondalup Drive, Wanneroo Road

Ashby, Hocking, Darch, Tapping - brand new suburbs still under construction, starter home type properties, reasonable land sale prices, very few rentals available

'New' part Wanneroo - close to lake, new homes, reasonable rents

Just Nice Suburbs:
Currambine, Heathridge, Beldon, Kinross

Not so Great:
Clarkson, Banksia Grove, Older Wanneroo, Wangara

I know I have missed loads, so please feel free to update my list - the idea is to give new and potential migrants an idea of which areas to focus on when they first arrive

Good Web Sites to rent and buy property:

www.realestate.com.au

www.reiwa.com.au

Re: Perth Info please
 

Hi

We stayed with friends last years in Fremantle. Nice place but expensive with not alot of garden. Cappacino stip nice for meals, wine & ice cream. We went to see friends in Mandurah, (about 30 miles south of Freo) and it was lovely with a man made harbour where the dolphins come in daily. It had lovely big houses, not too overpriced and big gardens. They have a girl aged 8yrs and she goes to a nice school. The marina looked nice for restaurants, etc. I think the new rail link with Perth will be near enough completed if not already. Have to be honest the closest I got to the North was Ikea!!! Dont know much about it.

Good luck and have fun.
Beers'n'cheers :scared:

Re: Perth Info please
 

I would add to Neil's list, Sorrento, Marmion, Duncraig, Carine, Kingsley, Hillarys. We are looking to move at the moment and are looking at all these areas. Good rentals are hard to find at the moment, hopefully it will be easier when you arrive.

Re: Perth Info please
 

In my opinion it would be easier to say which areas you should consider avoiding, as on the whole the Northern suburbs are generally ok. From what I have heard ...to add to Neils list of best left alone suburbs is Balga, Girraween, Merriwa...... ( not my opinion, just what I have been advised )
Good Luck !

Re: Perth Info please
 

Perth covers a pretty big area ;) , you might want to elaborate on a few things for people to be able to give you more specific advice.
Budget is going to pretty much govern where you'll end up, how much are you looking spend?
Define close to the city? (for Rush hour I would put close at 15-20mins others think 45mins is still ok)
how long do you want to travel in rush hour? do you want to use public transport or your own vehicle?
What sort of property are you looking for? beds/bath/garages/pool/land etc something to move into and do nothing or something to move into and renovate/modernise?
Do you want to be close to the beach (5-10min drive) or is that not relevant to you?

There are heaps more questions that could be asked, everyone is different and wants different things. So only you will really know what your looking for from this relocation.
Unless your a bit more specific with your criteria you'll get all sorts of different views from people which will probably wont help you narrow down what/where etc.
Steve :)

Re: Perth Info please
 

I reckon it'll be late 2007 before it's ready, longer if the pr1cks keep going on strike again.

Re: Perth Info please
 

for an up to date guide to prices have a look here. http://movetoperth.com/info/suburbs/suburb_browser.html

Lynn

Re: Perth Info please
 

Has anyone mentioned Iluka as being a pretty fabulous northern suburb? Newer than Ocean Reef, clean tidy etc

Lovin' it :D

Re: Perth Info please
 

and usually quite a hefty price tag :)

Re: Perth Info please
 

As the others have said, it's very difficult to know what to recommend without knowing your budget, what kind of house you are after etc. If I had unlimited funds, I'd be looking to buy in Cottesloe or City Beach but sadly the $3M+ price tags are WAY out of our budget! :D .

You might want to look at places like Shelley, Booragoon and Rossmoyne as Rossmoyne High School has for a number of years been one of the state's top state (high) schools. They are still relatively affordable suburbs and close to the Swan/Canning rivers with good freeway links to the City and close to Murdoch and Curtin Universities (20 mins max to either in peak hours, less in quiet times).

Michelle

Re: Perth Info please
 

Graham,

as you most probably know the rental market in Perth is very tight at the moment and prices go up. Close to the city might be costly. Friends of mine who recently moved to Perth eventually moved into one of these townhouses

<http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?id=madeley&a=qfp&cu=&t=ren&q=Go>

They are brand new, a new shopping centre is in walking distance. It's off Wanneroo Road, easy to get to the city. The houses in the area are all new. I don't know about schooling, but I would like first to find a decent place to stay which means something rather new.

Have a look on the map at the botom when you click on one of the houses.

Re: Perth Info please
 

HI h2oskineil thanks for the info it will help us to know where to avoid. Visited Sydney last year with the same intentions to find an area to settle. Spent 2 weeks constant driving around the suburbs with no luck. At least now I know where to concentrate our time. Many thanks.

Re: Perth Info please
 

Hi Steve thanks for your reply. Looking for an area roughly within 45mins of the city. Just now we live 35mins from Glasgow. At the moment we plan to drive to city for work but may switch to train if rush hour proves to be to time consuming. On the house front we are looking for a newish 4 bed detached home with pool and garages x2. Budget will be around $600-750,000 give or take a few $$$$. My son is 12 years and at high school and this will be key to the area we choose to settle.
We would love as all people would to live close to the beach but budget in mind we realise that this may not be possible.
We are travelling to Perth at the end of March to check out the suburbs and I was really looking to tap into other ex-pats experiences around Perth and get some idea of the good/bad North/South areas. If we are unable to find a house this trip then we will rent for a period once we arrive till we find somewhere suitable. Thanks again.
Graham.

Re: Perth Info please
 

Kingsley, Woodvale, Duncraig and Carine are all nice too, if anyone needs a place to rent from 1 May till 9 June , I have a 4 bedroom , 2 bathroom with tropical pool in kingsley ;) PM me if interested!

Cheers
Ross

Re: Perth Info please
 

I would think with your sort of budget somewhere like Duncraig, possibly Hillary's or maybe Sorrento would be a pretty good starting points. I dont have Kids so cant help on the school situation.
As general rule of thumb for that sort of money you'll largely be looking to end up on the ocean side of the Mitchell Freeway. You can pretty much look on the map where the river meets the ocean down at Freo, head north following the coast on the left and the river on the right until it gets up to the city, then make your right boundary the mitchell freeway and keep running north with that to around the sort of Mindarie area, generally the commute from here would be under the 45min mark, obviously the further north you go generally the cheaper it gets, likewise the further inland. Suburbs joining the river section and those on the beach below about Scarborough generally will be over $750K for a 4x2, so you may want to scan past those.
Happy hunting!
Steve :)

Re: Perth Info please
 

For your sort of money you'd get a cracking house in Mindarie. Peter moyes school has a good rep although I'm guessing there would be a waiting list.

Ocean Reef or Iluka could be worth a look too

Re: Perth Info please
 

you would get something quite nice in Duncraig and Hillarys for that. You will just scrape into a nice place in Sorrento. High Schools are Duncraig and Carine depending on where you live. Try www.realestate.com.au and www.reiwa.com.au. You will then see what kind of property you will get for your money. Personally I wouldn't want to be any further north than Whitfords Avenue but that is a personal preference and I won't be sharing my reasons on here as they could cause a bit of a riot!!

Re: Perth Info please
 

Too many northerners ?? :D :D

Re: Perth Info please
 

you wouldn't be too far from the truth, came here to escape my past! :D

Re: Perth Info please
 

Graham

I'd have to agree with Renth, with your budget you could get something to suit you in Mindarie, from here you can commute to the city by train in 35 mins and if you prefer the private school system you have the choice of Peter Moyes (Anglican) Quinns Baptist and Irene McCormack (Catholic). If your son is 12 then depending on when his birthday is he may still only be in primary school, all the above have primary and high school, or Mindarie primary is really good too. There may be waiting lists for the private schools but i know of people who have all recently managed to get pleces for their children so it would be worth checking out. The state high school is Clarkson which gets mixed reports depending on who you talk to, generally speaking those who's kids go there have goodthings to say about it, those who's kids go elsewhere will say only bad things about it, i'm not going to get into a debate about it here. Kinross middle school is the next nearest state school, it has a good reputation but will only accept students from within the school zone (Kinross and part of Currambine) in these areas $450-$550k will get you something nice.

Lynn

Re: Perth Info please
 

With regard to journey times don't forget to factor in walk/bus/cycle from home to station and same again from Perth station to office. My husband works on St Georges Terrace and we live in Sorrento. From door to door it takes him 40 minutes. Clarkson station to Perth station is 30 minutes train time + additional travelling from home/office.

Re: Perth Info please
 

If you want to consider a government secondary school, the best schools are reported to be Rossmoyne, Applecross and Willetton. These suburbs are south of the river and less than 30 minutes away from the city.

Re: Perth Info please
 

Rossmoyne has a good rep, but recently I was doing some research on property prices and noticed that Rossmoyne was one of the few suburbs in Perth where houses actually went down in value last year.

I wondered if it might have something to do with the school???

Re: Perth Info please
 

We're out here from Scotland on a temporary business visa and renting north of the river in Wembley Downs. It's a really nice area - reasonably close to the city, close to the beach, lots of families, but I think you'd be looking at at least $700,000 to buy here. The local State High School is Churchlands and it reputedly has a very good reputation. I think the catchment area for it is quite wide though, so maybe even if you lived a bit further out your kids could still attend it, although not sure about that.

Re: Perth Info please
 

Agree nice area but think you would struggle to get anything of any real size for under about $800K now, there are a few in need of major renovations (pulling down ;) ) that might be slightly less, other than that Wembley Downs does allow Duplex blocks so some of these would be around the $500 - $600k mark but blocks will generally only be around the 500sqm mark so you'd want a decent new 2 storey to accomodate a 4x2 with pool and garage and that would prob whack another $200k on, which prob isnt worth it for a duplex.
Woodlands is another area to be considered some of the older houses without lake views would go for under $700K I think.
Hale school also has a very good reputation from what a few of our neighbours have said.

Re: Perth Info please
 

Many thanks everyone a great help. Steve I will take a look at the areas you and the others have recommended. This makes area/house hunting so much easier and now we may even get some time at the beach. Cheers all. Graham

Re: Perth Info please
 

Hi..

When we arrived we stayed up in Butler for the first few weeks but found that it was too far out for our lifestyle, plus I work in Perth which means I had to get to the train and then down to the city. We moved down to Attadale (Bicton end) which we really liked as it is right on the river and near Point Walter which is a great spot (especially for young kids). Attadale would still be in your price range (just), we saw a 4x2 on a 800sqm block for just under $750k. We are currently renting in Mosman Park which is a really nice suburb but unfortunately is now very expensive and the availability of properties here is not good. The other areas to consider are along the Fremantle to Perth Train line, although these suburbs would be at the upper end of your budget. We have also been looking in areas like Mount Lawley, West Leederville (near Lake Monger), Wembly. Hope this helps.

Cheers

Paul

Re: Perth Info please
 

Yes, that's right, these are supposed to be the best schools in WA, my cousins son goes to Willetton and just received the honor of having the best marks in all of WA, so the school must be good, Rossmoyne is also excellent.

Nicanjoe

Re: Perth Info please
 

Hi graham we to are relocating to perth in august depending on visas, we are a family of 4 from south wales. My husband is already down there and me and he kids are going down for two weks starting on the 7th of april they are 18 and 14. I went down before xmas to look at areas to live and we fancied Canning Vale area it is quiet new but looked really nice and there seemed to be a wide range of childrens ages living in that area which we thought would be good for our own kids to make friends. Also willerton and riverton seemed nice. Hubby looking for rentals at moment but struggling with the fact that we have two dogs and a cat that we want to take with us. I am looking at any advice fro this forum as all advice will help. good luck and we may bump into you and your family when down there next month. Helen

Re: Perth Info please
 

My advice is do as much research as you can before you come, but leave your decisions for when you get here.

Once here take your time in visiting the schools and talking to parents. You do not need to rush your kids into a school because they may miss stuff when you could easily pick the wrong school, and then want to move them later. One thing I have seen a lot of is parents moving their kids into a different school - for a variety of reasons, but something that could have been avoided if more time had been allowed after arrival.

Searching this site for perth suburbs is a good start as the question you have just asked has been asked many times before.

There are lots of websites to look at for schools and houses, most listed on this site - take a couple of hours doing searches here and reading, picking through the good posts, bookmarking those websites.

Re: Perth Info please
 

This is just my personal view. Hope it's of some use.

If I was in your position and was starting again on your budget, I'd definitely be looking at the Wembley Downs/Churchlands area, even if it means buying an older place and maybe rebuilding or renovating later (look for a big block). Woodlands is an attractive suburb near Churchlands and may be slightly cheaper and still in that catchment area I think. If you can stretch the budget, get into Floreat, preferably the Shenton College school zone bit (one of the top state schools in WA, possibly Australia, it seems). May be nothing left under 800k there, and that's for a dump of a house on a big block, but very nice area and very close to the city, Subiaco, Kings Park, etc.

There is always a trade-off, and on that budget you could buy something that more closely resembles the Australian dream house (2-storey, ocean views, etc) if you go much further north. I live up there and don't commute so figured it wouldn't be a problem, but now I'm thinking I'd have been better in an older, established suburb closer to where the action is and still near the beach, and with good state schools. I miss old things and it's not exactly vibrant up here, although the ocean is stunning.

Depends on your priorities. Personally, I'd look at Churchlands or Wembley Downs. Just further north and a bit cheaper you have Carine and Karrinyup, which also seem nice and are in a good state school zone, and Sorrento by the ocean, which I think would get you into the Duncraig school zone may fall within your budget (Duncraig and Carine High Schools both seem to have a good reputation).

Just my view after thinking about it too much for the last two years.

Re: Perth Info please
 

Sometimes I think it can mean the schools have a high ratio of Asian kids who study like crazy (four hours unset homework a night, etc). These are great schools though, and having kids like that around sets a good example if you're after academic achievement.

We're not religious, so good state schools are the only way to go for us.

Re: Perth Info please
 

Hi hjw can I ask what you have been quoted for you cat to travel. I tried one firm who quoted me £1000.00 which seems a little expensive. Our cat has a few health problems and the vet has advised against us taking him with us. Unsuccessfully trying to re home him at the moment and may have to either take him to OZ or it's a one way trip to the vet.

Re: Perth Info please
 

For that price you can choose any suburb thats not in the western suburbs.... ie Claremont, Nedlands, Cottesloe Mosman Park etc. for a 4x2 with pool

Parts of City beach, Scarborough, Carine, Duncraig, North Beach, Marmion and you can keep on going north but obvioulsy the further north the more travel.

Re: Perth Info please
 

I think you'd struggle to get into City Beach at that price these days.

Re: Perth Info please
 

Your only chance would be one of the retirement villas ;)