Saucepan77

Hi All,
I am moving to Sydney in just over 3 weeks with my wife and 1 year old boy. For the last 4 weeks we have been keeping check on possible rentals but it is just crazy (it doesnt help that we're moving over at peak time!).
We have lived in Sydney previously so we have a decent idea of the areas we'd like to live in. However, it is proving very difficult to sort from the UK. We have tried domain.au and realestate but no agents are considering us because we are in the UK and they have queues of people at the viewings. I have also tried short term rentals at a couple of other companies but they are asking between $1k and $1,500k per week! The others we have seen for less are pretty grim. I have found one furnished property which is nice but is a whopping $1,120 per wk. It's outrageous but we can have this for 2 months and its great for our boy.
I was wondering if anyone had used any other companies recently to source a furnished 2 bed property or am I going to have to fork out a fortune for a couple of months until we find somewhere cheaper.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks.

steen1976

Are you going to be both heading straight to work when you get there?

We may be moving over early next year and I've been looking at accommodation in Sydney too. Having read plenty of posts on this forum I've accepted we won't get sorted from here (though I have seen one or two success stories) and will need to arrange something short term then sort it once we can present ourselves in person.

It's easier for us as there is just the two of us but we've looked at hostels, serviced apartments and holiday lets. I've found some decent enough stuff for around $800pw and was thinking we'd book it for 2 weeks. My wife will go pretty much straight into work but I'll have to find something while there so have the time to look for a flat. I hope I could have something sorted within 2 weeks.

Sherlock Holmes

Hi there and welcome to B.E.

It's my pleasure to welcome you to the forum and give you a point of contact should you need any help with the site in general. You can contact me here.

A list of all the moderators and helpers with their relevant countries including Australia can be found here.

I see that you've found your way around okay but any problems, dont hesitate to PM me.

Alistair.

Saucepan77

Hi, I will be working straight away but my wife will be looking after our boy. Hopefully we will sort something soon. Good luck with your search and if I find any useful info I'll post it for you.

Saucepan77

Thanks Alistair, much appreciated.

steen1976

Cheers. I never saved any of the searches but sure one of the sites for short term lets was Stayz.com.auand I found some stuff on holidaylettings.co.uk too.

Early December is probably the hardest time to find accommodation I reckon mind - especially in an Ashes year.

Bermudashorts

You are not going to find permanent rental from overseas and might as well focus on finding suitable temporary accommodation. No reputable estate agent is going to rent a house to you that you have not seen, and trust me that is not a good idea. Those pictures can be very misleading in some cases as we found out.

$1,120 for furnished accommodation does not strike me as whopping. It sounds like an absolute bargain for a short term furnished rental. I am sure it is possible to find cheaper if you look around, but perhaps you need to be more realistic if this is at the whopping end of your scale.

You would probably only need the temporary accomodation for two or three weeks. I htink most people find somewhere within that kind of timeframe.

freebo

Can't remember the exact cost (about $150 p.n.) but we stayed in Goldsborough apartments on Darling Harbour for the first few weeks. I was OK, not the hight of luxury but decent, clean and in a great location. The other plus was it was easy to extend for just a few days at a time while we where moving into our perm rental. Be aware the car parking is about $18 p.d. as well (which is cheap for the area).

And Bermuda is spot on, don't trust the pics you see on domain, misleading is not the word for some of them

Rudi

I would be more worried about ONLY paying $1000 for a short term let in Sydney!!!! When you consider that in areas like Castle Hill, which is a good distance outside the city, that for a 4 bedroomed family home you are looking at rent of 700 - 1000 a week, you would expect that short term lets are considerably more than this - like 2 to 3 times more in some cases.

In a short term rental you will not have to pay for any utility bills and you are not tied in by a long contract.

Rudi

freebo

Its a fair point - when you say 'find somewhere cheaper' have you checked your expectations against whats available in budget for longer term accommodation?

Steve2009

Renting sight unseen is strongly advised against.

paddyo

It won't happen, you have to physically inspect the property before you can apply to rent.

B1K3R

I agree with all the previous posts but your statement is not 100% correct. I have managed to secure rent from outside OZ, but sent someone to check the place for me first. And it was not in Sydney where the demand for renting is very high, so I was a bit lucky in that sense.

I was heading to Sydney instead of Brisbane first, and like the OP was finding it a nightmare to find a decent non-expensive short term rent. Long term rent was expensive too and nothing special. This was one of the factors why I steer to Brisbane instead.

Good luck mate!

Cheers
B!K3R

paddyo

It is 100% correct for NSW, it is a legal requirement.

JoeBloggs80

Try apartmentservice.com.au they have lots of short term rentals.

I've been trying to find somewhere for my folks to stay while they're visiting over new years and it is tricky this time of year. In the end I actually got somewhere off gumtree.com.au through a private landlord who is out the country for a few weeks. Its worth checking there too as you can get a better deal and they dont charge admin/clean up fees, etc.