Re: Sydney
 

Have you got any ideas on suburbs that you may be interested in yet ?

As others have said, it would be worth trying to be near a Railway station, as that is the fastest, and easiest, way into work.

I used to live in the Erskine Park/St Clair area, and the train into the city took one hour. Going by car however, was more like two hours !!
And $500k in that area would get something reasonable
Real Estate in St Clair/Erskine Park

I just checked on what's available in the area, and I may take Rog Williams advice and put mine on the market, there is hardly anything for sale in the area. www.realestate.com.au show only 5 houses in the area on 700+sq metres of land and more than 3 bedrooms.

Re: Sydney
 

To be honest, still gathering info on which sort of suburbs etc we'd like to live in, trying to get ideas on somewhere nice for the kids to grow up really. Thanks for the link to Erskine / St Clair, the houses there look very nice, what's the area like though ? Good schools ?

Cheers

Re: Sydney
 

It's not classed as the greatest of area's, but then the prices also reflect that.

It's "OK' for those limited on budget to the property in the price ranges for the area.
It is home to many commuters into the CBD. Shopping is good, close to both Penrith and Parramatta, but with its own pretty good local shops in the area.

Schools vary as with all areas. We used a local Christian private school at a cost of $2,000 per year. But a close by area is also famous for the Plumpton High School, with it's special facilities for the many pregnant students. !!

I do a better job of selling the area I now live in :D

Re: Sydney
 

Gosford is commutable into the central business district by train (very much so) but by car would be pretty awful - good motorway/freeway connections to the northern Sydney outskirts but then a 15-mile crawl down the Pacific Highway and over the Harbour Bridge, not to mention the return crawl in the evening. So if you're happy with a train commute, then the central cost/Gosford area is worth looking at.

Re: Sydney
 

Thanks CPW, I've been commuting for an hour or so into London for the last 12 yrs, so sure I could manage to do the same again.....

Re: Sydney
 

I suppose another possibility if you really want to be out of the urban areas might be the Picton-Bowral area, to the south-west of Sydney. Good road connections (as far as Sydney and good roads can ever be mentioned in the one sentence...) and probably reasonable train connections as well. Bowral would be more expensive than some of the places closer in to Sydney, like Picton. Anyway, these areas are definitely rural, with country towns, rather than being, in effect, suburbia like the Central Coast, which might make them more appealing.

There's also the Blue Mountains, but to be seriously considered for commuting it would probably have to be the lower Blue Mountains (e.g. up to Springwood), which doesn't have quite the appeal of the higher areas.

I'll keep thinking of things, no doubt.

Christopher

Re: Sydney
 

Thanks CPW, I really appreciate you taking the time to give me some ideas.

Now all I have to do is find a job.....easier said than done though !