Brisbane, good areas??
Chris
Can anyone tell me what are good areas in and around Bris and or
Sunshine Coast, to buy or rent. Preferably within half an hours
travelling to Bris, and near the coast would be good.
Also I dont see many houses with air con, is this normal for that
part of Aus?
Ta,
Chris.
--
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dotty
Very few houses have airconditioning, it has always puzzled me, the cost
is the reason I usually hear, ducted airconditioning is about 14 - 20
thousand depending on house size. Becoming more popular after this
summer tho I believe it was the hottest on record. A good real estate
website for all of Australia is www.raywhite.com you can go into each
state then into each area. What work are you planning? Sunshine Coast
has about 17% unemployment, much lower in Brisbane. Hope that helps.
dugongs
really possible to commute as journey can take double that in rush
hour traffic.
Nearest costal areas to Brisbane are the Redcliffe and Redland Shires
which have several areas which adjoin Moreton Bay (no surf beaches
though). All these areas are within 30 mins drive although takes an
hour in morning rush hour. Placenames such as Manly, Wynnum, Wellington
Point, Scarborough, Redcliffe, Shorncliffe - all these areas are
growing rapidly.
Aircon is not standard in older houses although is becoming more
frequently specified in newer particularly better quality housing and
apartments. The climate is such that you only really need it for about 2
months in the peak of summer and 2 months in winter (for heating). The
rest of the year you can live without it although ceiling fans are
common to help circulate the air.
Shaun Nell
would be interested in looking at other stats for other areas.
Thanks
Shaun
"dotty" <for...@britishexpats.com> wrote in message
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Chris
Andrew
It depends on 2 factors: how you define "a good area" and what kind of
work you would be looking for. Brisbane is very large in area and
there are plenty of jobs in the nothern 'burbs. However, the majority
of professional jobs are located in the CBD, and this will create a
longer commute is you want to live close to the coast.
The Sunshine coast is too far away to be practical to commute to
Brisbane every day. Redcliffe is the closest area close to the sea,
but even that will require at least 1 hour commute each way during
rush hour.
Good areas close to the northern "edge" of the city are (1/2+ hr
commute):
Aspley
Bridgeman Downs
(lots of new housing and a quick escape to the Sunshine Coast on the
weekend)
Good areas (north-western) inner city areas are:
Toowong
Taringa
Indooroopilly
(older houses, more expensive, close to the CBD but a "long" way to
the coast!)
There are plenty of other good areas - but these areas are the only
ones I know fairly well.
Air con. is still pretty rare but it is slowly becoming more
commonplace - newer houses usually have at least one in the main
bedroom. Even older houses are being retrofitted with small units.
Good hunting,
Andrew
P.S. Bring as much money as you can. It goes a long way but when it
runs out I will quickly realise how low Oz wages are!
Chris <for...@britishexpats.com> wrote in message news:<3ca741bf$4...@usenetgateway.com>...
Johnny Boy
"Andrew" <jah4...@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
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> Redcliffe is the closest area close to the sea,
> but even that will require at least 1 hour commute each way during
> rush hour.
Hey Andrew,
What about Sandgate,Wynnum, Manly, Wellington Point, Ormiston and
Cleveland - all good areas, on the water's edge and much, much closer to the
Brisbane CBD than Redcliffe!!!
Cheers,
John
Andrew
I've been in Brisbane for 3+ years and "most" of Brisbane are what
migrants (esp. from the UK) would call a good area. I don't know much
about about "Sandgate,Wynnum, Manly, Wellington Point, Ormiston and
Cleveland" though I've been briefly to Manly and Cleveland and thought
they were looked like great places to live.
How long does it take to get to the CBD from any of thse places? I
thought it was at least over an hour by car or train? If you can get a
job near one of the sea-side areas than any one would be ideal (for me
at least). But my line work forces me to work in the CBD so I have to
consider the daily commute.
See you later,
Andrew.
"Johnny Boy" <bo...@nospam.com> wrote in message news:<3cab...@dnews.tpgi.com.au>...
A+V Johnson
it depends what you want we are moving to Brisbane next month and we are
moving into an area of Pine Rivers called the Samford Valley around half
hour from Brisbane. Lovely area most houses we have looked at have air
conditioning although we are going to build our own house. We will need a
house to start with and I will be getting one with some sort of air
conditioning good luck
Roninews:622bf0ca.02040...@posting.google.com...
timsorrell
house? There are good areas, and there are outstanding areas! To some
people their ideal home would be waterfront property - but waterfront
property has a typical block size of 800sq metres, (around 1/5th acre),
or at best a double block 2/5ths acre. Waterfront properties are in the
places mentioned before - but don't forget the Gold Coast, such as
Runaway bay area. To others, upmarket areas as close to the city as
possible is what is their ideal property - and Windsor is expensive and
upmarket suburb. But for others - and this is where I'm biased - like
large houses on acreage, and dislike suburban areas for living in. On
acreage, some prefer seclusion - and some prefer open views - maybe
elevated with mountain views.
When we emigrated from the UK, we looked for areas that we would
consider you'd get more for your money - and initially we looked at 1/2
acre to an acre as being ideal and ended up getting a 2 acre property;
now we feel that for our next house (which we hope to build), 5 acres
would be absolutely ideal - room to add fruit trees here, garden there,
pool, allow the house to be set well back from the road yet still have
large front and back gardens, room for extension in the future and still
have large expanse of playing area, but not too large to manage. (I used
to absolutely hate gardening by the way in the UK, but here it just all
seems worth it!).
Acreage areas are likely to give you between 1 acre and 5 acres and the
areas we found were: Pullenvale, Bridgeman Downs, Samford Valley
(&surrounding areas Camp Mountain, Cedar Creek), Eatons Hill, Kenmore
Hills, Brookfield. I'll go into detail on my own site soon
(www.hotshopping.com.au/emigrate) but for various reasons such as no
village/shops nearby, less polished, over expensive, further away from
city, no views etc, we rejected the other areas, as one place stands out
as the ultimate area which is Samford. It's just 30mins from the city
centre - has a great village with good facilities - 30 mins to the coast
(Redcliffe/Scarborough), and has a number of areas including Samford
Downs with mountain views and a very polished appearance.
Amazingly Samford has cheaper land prices (and thus also property
prices) than many other acreage areas, yet has the best appearance with
the best facilities. After 2.5 years and having visited these other
areas on several occasions out of interest, we think Samford and the
surrounding area was still the right choice. All the acreage houses I
have seen are very individual. For a nice 2500 sq foot house on an acre
it will probably be £130k ($350k). Move up to £185k and you get
something very large and with the wow! factor. Move to £220k+ and you
have prestige 6000sq foot property with excellent location and also
intercoms, central vacuum, aircon, landscaped gardens, but will be hard
to find (unless you build!). Move to £260k+ and you'll not find
anything at this level in Samford - though with this budget you'd be
best to build something very nice (there are a couple of projects at
this level I have seen). $1million = £370k gets you a nice house on
good Waterfront in the Gold Coast on a double size plot (2/5ths acre).
It will also get a nice house on 1/2 acre close to the city but of
course the costs can get higher there.
Typical building cost is $550 per sq metre (£19 / sq ft) but add 20% if
you want high quality fittings or special brickwork etc. Also add up to
$40k for landscaping, driveway, patio, tiles, gates, etc etc all of
which can make you go over budget. I think a large house (on acreage) is
considered to be over 60 "squares" = 465 sqm = 5000 sq foot.
There are still wonderful land blocks being sold and it's quite normal
to buy the land and have a house built. I'd recommend first renting or
buying, allowing a considerable amount of time to design your dream home
to try and avoid mistakes and regrets. If you can, of course buy the
land as soon as possible to secure it.
Re aircon - yes it's amazing how few houses have it, even though we only
use it ourselves when it's around 34 degrees or over, or when the air is
unusually still at lower temps. It's even more amazing how Brisbane
residents put up with the cold in the winter. Typically if you don't
have central aircon, a woodfire or gas fire in the central living area
would be used - and maybe an infrared heating bulb in the bathroom, but
many don't bother lighting the fire and put up with the cold in their
jumpers thinking surely it shouldn't be this cold in Brisbane! The house
temperature probably drops down to 15 or 16 degrees if you didn't heat
it in mid winter which is uncomfortable. If using aircon to heat the
house, the air is circulating, so you end up having to heat it to 25
degrees to make it comfortable, in order to compensate for the breeze
you create in the house. In upmarket area you'll find more homes with
aircon (and even more pools), but frequently perhaps aircon is only
installed in one room like the living room or perhaps the master
bedroom. Ducted aircon throughout should be in your £220k+ houses but
not necessarily!
--
sophia x
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timsorrell
In fact a smaller house on Samford Downs was asking Ł280k and will
probably sell for 250k but presently being rented. Just seen a 3 bed
house (not acreage) in Samford for $240k. So you should find something
nice. Or look at Camp Mountain, Cedar Creek, or Eatons Hill area up
towards Albany Creek - and you should find 4bed home with verandahs on
1/2 to 1 acre. If it doesn't have aircon, you can get a room aircon unit
added for say $1600 - (<Ł600).
PS - To the UK family A+V Johnson arriving here in Samford next month,
would you be interested in a houseswap / or rental - for our house in
Samford Downs, mid June to mid July ? We return to the UK - first
time in 2.5 years - hoping for Dorking/Epsom or Southampton
areas+carswap.
Chris
I'm getting is that overall we would be hard pressed to buy in a bad
area, or what we would call a bad area over here!
We dont want to live too close to the CBD as we're not city folk and I
guess our budget will be limited to around £120,000 as we're both public
sector workers and probably will be over there, at least to start with.
Thanks to everyone,
A+V Johnson
We are actually looking for a rental property in Samford for June for at
least two months.
however we have sold our house unfortunately otherwise the house swap would
be a good idea.
I do Agree with you Samford is beautiful and out of all the areas we have
seen we keep coming back to it.
We have actually bought five acres of land in Wight's Mountain, and are in
process of designing our own house.
Well do keep in touch
Love Adrian & Roni
"timsorrell" <for...@britishexpats.com> wrote in message
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dotty
twice during the last month and not on board much. I only knew the
unemployment rate on the Sunshine Coast as my husbands business was
looking for staff there and that figure was given to us by a employment
agency there. last months national unemployment rate was 6.2% but I have
no idea of individual area rates. Sorry Dot.
Martin
If you want to live 30 or so minutes from the CBD and on the coast, your
best choice is Wynnum, Manly or Lota. Very up and coming areas but still
a village feel to the place. It's a very easy drive into town. Brisbane
is not the UK, living in a built up area here is hardly a drama. But, be
quick prices are going up sharply - a good house in Wynnum/Lota 500m for
the water is $300k +, Manly $400k +. Houses with good views cost $600k +
Brisbane's main problem is the beach, it doesn't have a good one until
you hit either the Sunshine or Gold Coasts. Redcliffe has a beach but
it's not the white sand, clear blue sea of the former two.
timsorrell
built up area or on acreage, so here's an opinion coming from someone
biased towards the latter. In the UK, acreage is very expensive and
unachievable for many unless you are quite a long distance from a city.
Since acreage is so much more affordable here, if you are fortunate
enough to have in the order of $300k (£110k) or more to spend or can get
a mortgage for it, I would personally much prefer to have wonderful
views, space to spread your wings and a good feeling that you got more
for your money, than living on the usual 1/5th acre block! Sure, here
it's not like some heavily built up areas in the UK, and also there are
plenty of smart houses with wonderful features that are close together
on pleasant modern estates, many in areas with access to parks and of
course everyone shares the good weather. But I feel that once you've
lived on acreage and enjoyed seeing your children run and play around
the whole property, as long as you get the hang of some gardening
(personally I used to loathe gardening in the UK and avoided it at all
costs!)... then I think we would now find living in a built up area to
be claustrophobic. Certainly I feel if acreage is achievable, why have
something smaller for the same price for the sake of 15 minutes drive?!.
Each to his own!
--
nick
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