Surjeet Singh

Hi,'

Help me .....

I am moving to Melbourne, Australia by the end of March 09 on permanent residency visa ..... with my wife & two year old son from India... I have booked youth hostel for firt 14 nights in melbourne....

kindly suggest how can I arrange a rental accomodation in melbourne, preferably how can I arrange the same from India...

ddb

Dear Surjeet,

You have posted it in the wrong forum.
I am sure, very soon the moderators will move it to the correct forum and then you will have enough replies to your query.

Out of curiousity, can you tell which visa are you migrating on and your timelines, your profession etc.

Surjeet Singh

hi ddb

I am migrating on Skilled Independent Visa sub class 136 and I have to moved before end of June 09 ,,about my profession I am a qualified chartered accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountant of India....

ddb

For the time being, you can try these:

http://www.realestate.com.au
http://www.wotif.com
http://www.stayz.com.au

Hope this helps !!!

Deutschmaster

It might be best that you choose which areas you want to live in then just go around all the real estate agents and find out what is available.

Preferably try to hire a car - places can be far apart and it's not much fun trying to walk/getting buses between places.

Since you are in a hostel you can probably just extend your stay - perhaps even on a day to day basis - should you not find somewhere within that 2 weeks.

TiddlyPom

Hi Surjeet.
Welcome. I hope everything goes smoothly for you.

You can get a family room for you and your family at the Youth Hostel. If it's the one in the city, you'll be well catered for. It's good.

Now, yes, the links to realestate.com etc will help you for sure. There's internet access at the YHA in Melbourne, or there was last time I was there.

You can't actually book any rental accom from India. You really have to be present in Australia for them to take you seriously I'm afraid. So once you're here, then you can go to a real estate agent and ask for their 'rental list'. They'll usually hand you a printed sheet with all their latest listings on and then you can see if there's anything on there.
You then ask for the address of the property you want to view and usually, the real estate person will say 'Go for a drive past' to see if you like the area or the property itself.

Once you've been for the drive past, then you can ask the agent for an inspection. Sometimes they will open the property for you, or they will tell you that they're having an 'open house' on the weekend and you can go along and inspect.

You will need a bond of a months deposit plus a months rent, plus any work references. You'll need good ID - passports are worth 100 points in your first few weeks of being in Aus - also a driving license or something like that depending on how much you will be asked to provide.
If you have a job, get the offer letter and how much you will be paid so you can show it to the real estate agent.

I believe you can open a bank account from India and just validate it when you get here. You'll need it pretty quickly.

Rental properties go quickly, so provide as much evidence for your case as possible, and if you are desperate, offer to pay a few months up front to the landlord because that will help too.

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Pomster

The biggest issue to help you though is which area?

Do you have a job, or will you find one when you arrive?
Is it likely to be CBD (main city) or suburbs?
These all make a difference to commuting times.

Does your wife want to work, and therefore will you want good childcare for your son?
What sort of weekly rent will you want to pay?

All of these are big factors to find an area (very tough choice when you do not know the city!), let alone a rental property. Rental vacancy rates are low at the moment, so you may have to apply for a few before you get accepted. Sometimes agents are desperate for tenants- unfortunately for you, at the moment tenants are desperate for properties, but they do exist. 2 houses opposite me are up for rent at the moment....

Surjeet Singh

Hi Pomster,

Thanks for information, and I know situation is not good but we have to face the problem, one of my friend has moved to Melbourne last week on PR Visa and he is also looking for a rental house for his family (family will arive in the m/o May 09) as you mention there is two houses are up for rent, can you please give me the exact location of the property, so that he can visit on the site & booked the accomodation for me & his family....It will be nice if we have your contact so that he can fix an appointment with you


Thanks a lot

Regards,
Surjeet Singh