Hey good BE folks.
What do you think one should spend on rent in % of salary. I am really struggleng to find something in my budget and considering paying more, but this frightens me as I dont know what % I would need to live on. Any wise words out there ?? For living expenses I would after paying rent am thinking $3000 for 2 adults and 1 child. Wife plans to get work next year.

Rule of thumb I used is no more than 30% of income in rent, Sydney is expensive IMHO - we wanted a larger house, so ended up living further out - in the Hills District - now I have a long commute!

I am also looking in the hills at the moment. It just seems a bit far from everything...

I live alone and pay 1800 per month rent for a 2 bed apartment in neutral bay and seem to manage ok,

Budget 500 pw for a decent 2 bed apartment though, Neutral bay seems to be quite cheap with really easy access to the city, I even have harbour views from my living room

I am in the hills and its not that far 35km or 21 miles from the city ....about a 30 min drive or 40 mins on the bus, Peak rush-hour traffic add 30 min & 20 mins respectively.

Depends what you're after. Its quiet leafy and as you say a bit far from everything. But you get a bigger house for your money. Other end of the scale is as the PP said an apartment somewhere like Neutral Bay, near everything but for less than $1000pw you're looking at an apartment, town house or tiny house.

I agree with Freebo on 30% of pre-tax income for rent. That's the figure we used, and we based it on my partner's income only - it's better to err on the side of caution rather than find yourself unable to pay the rent if, as happened with us, one of you ends up out of work for a while.

If you're considering Neutral Bay, Cremorne is worth a look too, being the next suburb along. We got very lucky with an apartment in Mosman for a very reasonable rent; my advice would be to not rule out a suburb based on average rents, because it is possible to get lucky and find an absolute corker.

I reckon I've spent about 90% of my non-work internet time trawling domain. Rents are scarily expensive and some of them are absolute sh!tholes too. Some don't even have cookers in them. We're looking at a $500pw max at the minute. Looking like it would be Maroubra. Some decent looking apartments available which have modern kitchens. Close to Anzac parade to get into town and nice and close to where the wife will work - if we go.

Yep, thats about the size of it.

Then you realise that in most cases the rent doesn't cover the interest the sal price would earn in a bank deposit and you start to think...

P.S. The crapholes are not confined to the $500pw bracket - I saw some places that I wouldn't keep a dog in for nearly double that, the only difference is the more expensive ones are bigger. We started looking close to the CBD and during about 40 viewings moved further & further out. I now commute about 2.5 hours per day door to door but live in a nice large house with a pool (living the pommie dream!) Longer term I'm not planning to remain in Sydney, for this and other reasons, the city center is lovely but the burbs can be disappointing, even the North Shore which people rave about is nothing special IMHO. Sorry to say $500 will not get you much of a house anywhere within 1 hour of the CBD, I just looked at apartments in Maruba and the seem OK, but this would be a hike into town also.

P.P.S. 5-1

Thanks
Can I ask how much you pay in rent and in which area?

I'll tell if you do!

I pay $800 pw in the Hills District.

January and the chance of saving some face cannot come soon enough!

Lived in Maroubra before and it's about 40 mins into town. Plenty of buses along Anzac parade and crucially there are night buses coming back too. Mrs will be working in Malabar so it's a handy place. I actually quite like it there but will look around elsewhere once we've something to start out at.

I do know the feeling, I was at SJP when Shearer missed a pen against you lot in about 96. And the year before when Gullet left him on the bench, no roof on the stand, soaked through, we lost both. Was working in 5under1and too at the time, ooh the grief I got.

Tell me about it - I worked from home all last week!