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

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

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

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.

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

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:

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.

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 !

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

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

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

Lynn

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

Lovin' it

and usually quite a hefty price tag

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! .

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

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.