Hi there

We've been living in Hills District of Western Sydney for the past 6 mths. Although there are no problems in living here and we've settled in to the ozzie lifestyle well, the itchy feet issue for us is house prices.

Although we can afford a lovely house here in the Hills, the power of the internet (and Phil Down Under ) shows us that we can afford the ultimate dream home if we moved elsewhere.

We had travelled to Brisbane (but not GC) prior to moving to Sydney. We were also well aware that Sydney does have higher house prices. As I said, we can get a lovely house here but when you're seeing waterfront houses that are close proximity to beach for the same money in GC, it opens your eyes a bit.

Hubby works in IT so would probably need to work in Brisbane.

I know the first step would be to have a bit of a reccie in GC and plan to do so to think about areas we perhaps would want to live in. Just thought I'd post to see how others viewed GC, any recommendations or indeed how others had compared Sydney to GC.

For our initial brief search, we have looked at places such as Monterey Keys, Helensvale and surrounding areas. I have a 4 year old and 2 year old (another one on way as well ) My 4 year old is due to start school next year so I'd be interested in areas that can be recommended with great state schools.

Many thanks for your help.

I like Monterey keys, it was one suburb on my list and the only negative I have heard about it are mozzies. I don't know from experience, I did ask someone who lived there on another forum but never had a reply lol! Here's a link to some waterfront properties there http://www.realestate.com.au/buy/pro...ce=refinements

Both Helensvale Primary and High school's have good reputations too.
http://helensvaless.eq.edu.au/wcmss/
http://www.helensvaleshs.eq.edu.au/old/about/

There is one snag as far as Brisbane is concerned. I am not an IT person but I heard many times that there are fewer IT jobs in Brisbane compared to Sydney.
Sydney then melbourne are the main IT hubs in Australia.

Hi

The Gold Coast is the place to be, you have the best of it all, beaches, mountains, city living etc. We are in Upper Coomera and about 15 mins to beaches, 20 mins to Tamborine Mountain and 40 mins to the city.
We also get good weather here on the coast.
There doesn't seem to be a problem finding work here either, but being only 40 mins drive to Brisbane you would find work there fairly easily. Also public transport is pretty good here too.

If you can get hold of a copy of this book 'Where to live in the Gold Coast' by Chantal Dunbar ISBN 0-9581050-1-4 it is worth every penny as it gives you an insight to each suburb on the Gold Coast.

I have several friends and some family who have moved from Melbourne and Sydney areas and they love it here on the GC.

Hope this helps

It's true that Brisbane and definitely the Gold Coast are getting cheaper at the minute. Find a job though and then start looking at the rest. There is a reason Brisbane has cheaper housing.

absolutely. Job is the most critical part of this. If he can't find work, it knocks the idea on the head.

excellent, thanks for that. I'll try and get a hold of that book you mention.

40 minute drive to brisbane, if you leave at 5am it can take an hour, if you leave at 630am, two hours following the floods with all of the tradies heading up to brisvegas. Get the train, it is far less stressful :-)

Having spent what seems like half a lifetime on the Gold Coast highway just going for the odd weekend, I think you'd need rocket skates to do it in 40 minutes.

The locals call it Gods Country. Career opportunities though to lack compared to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Very rough comparison I just made up on the spot.

Population from wikipedia:

Sydney: 4,504,469
Melbourne: 4,000,000
Brisbane: 2,004,262
Perth: 1,658,992

An example searching for ".net" in seek:

Sydney: 1013 (4446 people per .net mention)
Brisbane: 251 (7985 people per .net mention)
Melbourne: 469 (8528 people per .net mention)
Perth: 89 (18640 people per .net mention)

An example searching for "java" in seek:

Sydney: 2054 (2193 people per java mention)
Melbourne: 974 (4106 people per java mention)
Brisbane: 439 (4565 people per java mention)
Perth: 190 (8731 people per java mention)

So per head of population Sydney is well in front, Melbourne and Brisbane seem in the same ball park, Perth way behind. I'll have to give my new scale a name

You should be prepared to face a grim and scary job market on the Gold Coast. The city is in recession. The story below tells lot about the situation over there.

Still jobless after 200 applications on Coast
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/...oast-news.html