Can anyone recommended one, we need to have a some of our stuff put into storage and the rest moved across town, its a 4 bed houseful and time will be limited so hiring a van & doing it ourselves isn't really an option.

Thanks all!

You are moving from the Hills?

(sorry don't know a removalist)

Yes, we're in the hunt for an apartment, ideally on Pyrmont, Mrs Freebo has just got a job in a Financial Services company on Darling Harbor, just down the road from my office - so makes sense and the walk to work should be more pleasant than 2.5 hours on a bus every day. A flat in town will cost us similar or slightly more than the big house we're in now though!

We find the Hills very nice but where we are there's not much to do nearby. I'm sure we'll miss the space but the current house is too big for the two of us and we spend more time cleaning the pool than in it!

How are you finding it? I know you're closer to the city than us and probably have a better journey.

My recommendation is here: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=674281

I would quite fancy a couple of years in a fab Sydney penthouse but I have my responsibilities (cats). Could be difficult with them.

I still find our commute a pleasure really, five minute walk either end of a 40 mnute bus ride, sometimes a bit longer. Most of my commuting has involved a much longer journey so this is fine for me.

We are happy in Collaroy, finding plenty to do and love being able to walk to the beach and see the sea. But we are spending a lot of money on rent, a third of our income and I think we will stick out the year but we will be reviewing the situation.

Thanks Seasider, will check them out!

I know what you mean Bermuda, rent can be unreal here in Sydney, even in the Hills (although you get more for your money there than in some areas). I guess in some ways we're in similar postions, we're here until we decide not to be, until now we've been on a single income (mine) and doing OK and putting some away but we hope to save all of the second income as well. In purely material terms we where better off in the UK, and I'd guess you where too, at least until the GFC which impacted IT contracting like many other industries.

As I'm sure you know I bang on about the cost of living and a housing bubble here, time will tell but as an newcomer it doesn't seem sustainable, I lived here (well QLD) from 90-95 and back then folk on average incomes had a comfortable living. I honestly can't fathom how anyone on an average wage moves to Sydney, but I know they do and hats off to them.

I'll post back if/when we find a city pad, we seem to be in competition with corporates renting places for their execs, and even though we have all the references, two good jobs etc the landlords will probably prefer them, competition is fierce. Anyway, more viewings today so back into the fray!

freebo, if you're not too bothered about the harbour view or living on the beach you can find some great apartments on the city fringes. We live in The Hudson at Alexandria - it has a pool, gym, barbie area, great cafe, is five minutes from all the Newtown shops and eateries and close to the city centre too. Our apartment is lovely; check 'em out on domain. (We looked at Pyrmont as I work in Ultimo but I thought it was a bit isolated, TBH.)

If money were no object of course we'd be harbourfront, but (and I mentioned this on another post recently) we had to compromise on something, we wanted more space so the location had to be the compromise. Then we found we like it! Despite backing onto Botany Road.

If you're a childless couple, like us, WTF are you doing in The Hills?

you're right, the Hills is more a child friendly area and not a good fit for us, our original plan was the North Shore but to be honest we didn't find a house we liked for our max budget ($1,000p.w.). So we gradually looked further and further out until we did, and the Hills is where we found it. Its a fab house (bit of a McMansion in fact), we wanted to live the dream of a big house with a nice pool but we've come to realise we actually don't need all the space and I find the commute tedious and a waste of time.

We went to the U2 concert last month and had a couple of drinks & a nice meal in town before and said "we've got this all wrong, we need to be near work and all the entertainment Sydney has to offer", living in the Hills isn't like living in Sydney at all (not knocking it, as I've said its a lovely peaceful, safe area), just that its too far from work and its lacking on evening entertainment for us. The couple of pubs within driving distance of us are like huge warehouses, and again seem more geared to families.

We're hoping for Pyrmont as we want to be able to walk to work and as we're both working on Darling Harbour it seems the logical choice, we did look at the CBD but Pyrmont has less traffic and gives the option to walk into town anytime we like. We'd like a waterview and have some applications in but its a very in demand area (and we're quite difficult to please, e.g. don't like having other apartments/balconies overlooking us), so time will tell.

By the way Bermuda, we saw a nice apartment with views of the Harbour bridge the other day in beautiful condition where the current tenant had a cat, so its not impossible (Mrs is a cat lover, but we don't currently have one), I saw another advertised as pet friendly so its not that unusual.

Well that is decided then. I thnk we would like to stay where we are for the full year but as another childless couple I think the city would be a great experience for us, for a couple of years anyway I think ultimately we would like house, but maybe not until we buy our own.

We have all this unused space at the moment and frankly, we don't have the visitors to justify it, we will probably get family visit this year but after that I am not sure who willl make the repeat trip so I don't think we should keep the extra space for that.

Agree with your thinking, Bermuda. We have 3 beds/2 baths but they're for us and our cats None of the bedrooms is huge (par for the course in these places) so I have the smallest one as a dressing room, and we also have an office cum guest room (that also has my clothes in it )

We decided long ago that we would go for places that suit us 48 weeks of the year, rather than visitors 4 weeks a year. However we do give them the en suite and make do with the guest room.

Our complex is pet-friendly, but of course each landlord is different. (We bought.)

Did you find anywhere yesterday Freebo?

We have applications in on three. Had a call from an agent last night on one we liked "the owner has accepted your application but has decided to try to sell for 3 weeks, if he can't sell he's happy to rent it to you" - gee thanks!

We're got apps in on a couple more but quite a few other people have applied too, we should hear something in the next couple of days To find the three contenders we've probably looked at about 25, which is a higher success rate than when we were looking at houses just after arrival.

I'll report back when we're sorted

Just an update that we used the removal company recommended by Seasider - now called the Red Truck removal company, and they were great, many thanks for the referral

Phew. I'd hate to hear they were crap!