Places to rent then buy but with no car

[Guest seayork2002]

Hi,

 

We will be moving to Adelaide (soonish.....we hope) and will not have a car and may take out time buying one...........We are tempted to either live by the beach or near/in the Hills.............We have a 2 year old monster and would love him to go to a school that has a garden (like the Stephanie Alexander kitched garden schools thingy) or some sort of "outdoor" extra's.

 

As we will not have a car and will most probably be working in some sort of University/Governement job I presume we will have to be central/near the centre or easy access to it.

 

Oh and to be even more picky we will be renting to start off withthen buying in the same area so our son will not need to change nursery/schools and the most we are looking at paying once we purchase £300 000 (approx)

 

The places we have so far looked into are Hallet Cove, Onkaparinga Hills, Mt Barker and a few surrounding areas, oh and since being back on here today I have heard Blackwood mentioned twice...............we don't see ourselves living totally in the sticks but not too busy either (we are not fussy:).......much!!!)

 

So thank you if you reply, but even if I get none thanks for listening as even writing this has helped clear the cobwebs from my crazy mind

 

Oh and sorry if I have posted this before

[Guest Kelly&Mike]

Hi there we are hoping to be in Adelaide soon, still waiting fror house to sell, the areas you have mentioned all sound good I would check out prices for house prices in Aldinga and Seaford rise which are both close to the beach, they seem pretty good for what you get, and I have heard gr8 things about these areas too through the forum. Were hoping to live not far from the beach too and have 2 girls Kathryn 3 in March and Jessica 6mnts so would love to be able to give them the Aussie beach lifestyle, Heres hoping we sell the house soon xxx Good luck with everything!!!

[Diane]

This is a useful site to look at distances and times to travel from one place to another:

http://www.raa.com.au/travel_trip_planner.asp?TerID=580 and for public transport you can look at the travel planner here: http://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/

 

If you are going to be working in the City then do bear in mind that the further out you go (to get cheaper house prices) then the harder it will be to get to and from work, especially during "rush hour" and your son will end up being in childcare for long hours.

 

Personally for me Aldinga would be a bit far out (the travel planner reckons it takes about 1hr 50 to get from there to the city - probably a bit much!), but have a look at areas such as Belair/Blackwood/Glenalta/Hawthorndene which are lovely, well served by public transport and have some great nurseries/schools etc, as well as being about 15 minutes from the beach. Towards the eastern side, look at suburbs around Athelstone, Dernancourt, Paradise, or a little further out towards Golden Grove - again good transport links and good schools/nurseries, but a little further from the beach. Mount Barker is a little further out of the City but I know of plenty of people who commute from there and house prices are a little lower.

[Guest lippy]

We travel each day to and from Adelaide from Aldinga by car not public transport. Generally it takes us on average, leaving Adelaide CBD at 5pm, approximately 1hr - 1hr 20min to get back to Aldinga. This was almost the same time it took us to get back to Hallett Cove.

[Guest kangomik]

Have a look around before you decide..... with that sort of cash you will not struggle with the houses. So it's down to what suits you. Or sacrifice the house and buy a car?

Everyone will reccomend their area, thats why they live there. After moving so far it's only best to spend a little time to find the right location to settle.

[Guest MarkIngram]

If you want somewhere near the beach that is easy reach to the city by public transport then Brighton is a good place to be....loads of reliable trains...but to be honest with you...you'll find very quickly that a car is essential to helping you settle and find out about the best areas - schools in this area the area of good also.

 

I'd recommend even getting a cheap runabout just to get you going - second hand cars hold their value so you may be surprised how much you have to pay for a 2nd hand car - but you'll need one - oh, and when you go looking to buy ANYTHING - from white goods, cars, ANYTHING....HAGGLE HAGGLE HAGGLE...do not accept the price on the ticket for anything...it certainly makes shopping interesting....and more fun.

[Guest Jo&Phil]

One person's 'in the sticks' is another ones 'centrally located '.... so it's good advice to look around before committing to a location. The places you mention in your post are between 25-45 mins from the city ... ish ... depending on time of day you travel and the joys of public transport

Most Govt jobs are in the CBD which is pretty accessible from just about anywhere. There are 3 universities in Adelaide with multiple campuses both in CBD and some distance from it. Eg: Flinders is about 25 mins from town (south) and UniSA has campuses CBD and metro area (Magill) and north of city (Mawson Lakes) and Uni Adelaide similar

I think you'll find you need a car soon as you can ...... it's much easier especially if you have a small person (and all their bags of goodies) to haul around!

Haggling (advice already given) is good, I'm a bit of a weed at it but 'himself' is a born haggler and nobody seems to mind and it does seem to work.

[Guest seayork2002]

Thanks everyone for your replies, I have heaps to think about!