How long in short-term accommodation?

[Guest roula]

Hi everyone,

 

We're new to the site but I've been doing quite a bit of reading and have found a lot of useful information on here.

 

We are coming to Adelaide in November, husband, 2 kids (2&4) and me.

 

I have found short-term accommodation that we like but not sure how long to book. I know this question is like, how long is a piece of string? But it would be great to hear others' experiences and how long it took, on average, to find somewhere. We will also have to look at primary schools too, so that will add on some more time I think.

 

Thanks!

 

roula

[fluffy]

Hi we arrived last week and booked accomodation with roo rentals who are fantastic. We initially booked for 2 weeks but have extended it. Are you shipping your stuff? as we have and it is not arriving for a 8 weeks so it is easier to stay in fully furnished (including bills) so we can travel around and look at areas and schools (which we still can not decide on) Do you know where you are staying?

any questions just ask.

 

Fluffy

[jo_marnes]

We stayed in our OAA for 5 weeks. Finding a rental is tricky, especially when you dont have transport to start with and there is a fair bit of competition for decent rentals. Saying that, if you have money to offer up front, references and proof of income then you'll be fine! xxx

[kizzy]

Hi

 

We booked three weeks in short term rental & found a long term rental during the third week.

 

Tracey

[Guest familygood]

Really hard to say like you rightly put but we had 6 weeks but actually didnt need that long and ended up renting two places for a couple of weeks hence wasting lots of much needed money!! So maybe 4 weeks? Its such a gamble especially with kids... I guess it depends on where you want to live and how many essentials you have for a rental.

[Guest watts10]

hi we managed to find a long term rental in one week, then got the keys 2 days before our short term was up!, pm tyke on this site as he has some rentals, the house of his we stayed in was spot on! couldnt of wanted more!, and he is a pleasure to deal with and very helpful,

the renting over here is a bit mental as you only get 15 min to view along with everybody else, so depending on what area you are planning to live i would give yourself atleast a mth to make sure you find the place you want,

we started to panic a little bit but ended up getting offered a couple of houses!!!

good luck!

[scooterdan]

Hey,

 

We booked 3 months in short term accom.. we spent the first month getting our bearings and buying cars etc.

 

Once we started looking for a rental we had one with in a week and moved in a week later....we stayed in out short term a total of 7 weeks!

 

Dan

[Guest Allie Bloss]

Hi we came over last Oct and stayed with Roo Rentals (Roo1 on here) can highly recommend them. We booked for 4 weeks and it was only just long enough, we secured a long term rental in the last week. We spent the first week looking round and settling kids in to childcare, buying a car, looking around areas hunting for jobs etc But also we wanted to have some fun time out with the kids as they got pretty bored looking at boring grown up stuff!!

Depending on what sort of long term rental you are after & where they are getting more difficult to secure now.

Sorry the answers so vague but hope it helps a little. xx

[Guest WhatNow?]

If you are coming over mid to late November be aware that it is the run-up to the long school holidays and Christmas. We have found that it is more difficult to get things moving quickly on rentals at that time of the year as people a) don't bother to advertise as they don't expect much interest b)are hard to get hold of as they are on holiday themselves. Think of it like late July/early August in the UK. Last year we had clients who arrived at the same time and struggled to find any long term that was suitable as there was so little being advertised. They also could not extend their short term rental as it was booked solid through December and January. They were lucky enough to find alternative short term (through Donna Jacobs who posts here as jarnasa) and decided to stay in it until after Christmas, then started looking again for long term unfurnished. This meant they did not have the upheaval of moving over the Christmas period and by the time they were ready to move, their furniture was about to arrive.

 

You may not find this a problem but it is worth thinking about - Christmas and the long school break are the hardest times to get anything sorted. Any other time of the year we recommend 3-4 weeks is enough to find a rental and move in for most folk.

[Guest clare]

We also booked just 2 weeks through Tyke and he was amazing with us so helpfull and friendly just what u need when you arrive here.

The house was fantastic spotlessly clean and everything that you would need, i still miss it when we drive past i was that attached:)

We managed to get a rental easily, the first 1 we viewed we were really lucky we got the keys 5 days before we moved out so we had plenty of time to get everything in. Obviously as people have said time of year etc could be a problem? well good luck hope it works out as well as it did 4 us it can be difficult with little ones

[Guest roula]

Thanks for all your replies and advice. It is great to hear everyone's experiences.

 

We will book at Margarita's Place, run by Kris, who posts on here and will go for 4 weeks. We'll need to be near the city as that's where Mr. Roula's job is. Land in Adelaide Sunday, he starts work on Monday. Not wasting any time there!

 

I understand November could be a tricky month to find a long-term rental and we could have come in January, but I prefered November so we could visit the schools whilst they're open.

 

Also, we'll ship our stuff at the end of September and live with a few 'basics', so hopefully it'll have arrived when we find a place. I guess a lot is down to luck and how quickly we can get over the jet-lag and start looking!

 

Fluffy, what areas/schools are you looking at?

 

roula

[fluffy]

Hi Roula,

 

we have looked at a few schools, and it depends if you want private or goverment the privat schools are not as expensiveas the u.k and you will find most catholic school are private. If you have more than oine child attending it is not as much. I was given a really good web site www.myschool.edu.au really helpful when choosing an area then a school. We have looked at lockleys junior school and had a visit and it seems very nice. However we are fortunate that our child are baptised catholic and we have an interview at St. Marys school, croydon park this is close to where we want to live and 10 mins from where I am working.

My children were in yr 3 and 6 in the u.k and have been told they fall into the same school years. All schools we have looked (and there has been a lot) have a uniform usually bought from the school. They all have fees goverment are less than private about $250 - £300 per year and private start around $1000 and go up, you also pay upfront fro stationary, trips bokhich is about $300 per year.

A lot of schools also have a catchment area, so we have been looking at areas which the schools fall into.

I hope I have not over done it on the info. But please feel free to ask anything pm if you prefer.

 

Fluffy

[Guest roula]

Hi Fluffy

 

Thanks for the website, I will definitely check that out.

 

Good luck at the interview, it sounds like you are happy with your choice of school.

 

I will be looking at state schools I think. I am a primary school teacher so I hope I can spot some good ones. I was thinking at looking for the schools first and then looking for somewhere to live. I'm not really sure about areas, but fairly close to the CBD (where OH will work). It's hard to tell until you get there and see what areas are really like. Also, I saw that Unley Primary School does Greek as LOTE and I need to phone the education department to find other schools that offer this language. My children are bilingual, so want them to keep up with their Greek.

 

Good luck and thanks for the info.

 

roula

[Guest Peachie]

Hi All

 

we arrived at the end of Nov last year we had 3 weeks hols cottage in forestville pre booked and rented a car (a must for house hunting) we looked at henley beach lockleys areas as brill for city and chioce of schools I work in woodville so easy commute for me too and linear park is fab kids love the bike trails and parks

 

we found 2 suitible places 3 bed long term letts in budget and got the bigger house its in underdale but in a loveley close overlooking the park we chose st francis school (we are not catholics but liked the school) private is cheap here anoolsd includes the books fees its $4200 a year for both kids and less than youngests nursery fees for 3 days in uk!!!! we signed the lease for the house we wanted on the tuesday had furniture we picked out on monday dilivered wed and electricals on thurs we moved that day then had to clean our holiday cottage as we were due out that friday its doable but hard work we also looked at 6 or 7 schoolsI was so knackered and bought a car in the first 2 weeks I was so knackered then had to go xmas shopping for the kids (new bikes dead easy) hope than helps!!!!

let me know if I can help with anything x

Deb x

[fluffy]

I have to agree with peachie as I took her advice before coming to adelaide an rented in brooklyn park, lovely area (just by lockleys/underdale) thanks peachie!