Furnished Properties

[Ashleigh]

Does anyone know if furnished houses are something that are offered in Adelaide? We are debating whether to ship our stuff over or sell it all and rent furnished for a while until we get on our feet and properly settled.

 

Any help/advice would be appreciated!

[snifter]

Furnished would cost more. I don't know its a common thing.

 

Generally people ship out what they want and/or buy once there and rent a short term furnished rental while looking for a longer term rental. By then usually the container is close to arriving or arrived with your house contents. A short term all inclusive rental would cost a small fortune if you rent it too long. Time frame people take them seems to be anything from 2-6 weeks, sometime a bit more.

 

We are shipping our stuff a bit before we leave, not all of it so have some this end also pretty much up till we leave.

 

You could easily get the basics of furniture sorted in the first few weeks if you don't ship. I don't see why you should rent a furnished place for much longer than that tbh, just a case of finding an unfurnished.

[NicF]

Agree with Snifter, furnished properties tend to be short term holiday lets and are priced accordingly. There are some longer term properties around but they tend to be geared towards student lets. Some people ship everything, some ship just small amounts and some come with nothing but the suitcases they are carrying, but pretty much all will rent an unfurnished place long term. Whether it's worth shipping stuff or buying new here will depend a lot on whether your furniture is stuff you love or all cheap or second hand stuff. We had some quite expensive bits that we love that we would cost way more than the cost of a container to replace here.

 

Personally I would ship everything as then you haven't got the bother of starting over again and having to buy everything from scratch, and not because it's expensive but because when you first arrive figuring out where to go for the things you need takes a while. Also it means you have all your own stuff around you and some familiarity. However you do have that period while you wait for your stuff to ship over to consider. For us it wasn't a problem as we stayed with my family in the UK for 7 weeks first and then at my mother in laws house here in Adelaide for two weeks. At which point our stuff arrived and we were able to move in to our rental. It might be different if you had to move in to your rental without your stuff, but lots of people have done it before. You need to decide what's right for you and go with that, but make sure you research the cost of things here before deciding one way or the other.

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

Hi Ashleigh,

Furnished rentals and semi furnished are few and far between. The ones that are available fall into the short term / holiday rental bracket.

 

Snifter is right...most people rent furnished for a while and then secure a long term unfurnished rental. Some people do decide to have a clear out in th UK though and don't bring much with them. The thinking around renting a long term furnished place is based upon a few things like whether it's easy to find work in your occupation and the possibility of relocating to another state. It has to be said that many new migrants find that Adelaide or Australia in general just doesn't tick all the boxes for them and they end up selling all their recently purchased goods again. These goods are often listed on this site for a fraction of the purchase price which is maybe good for new arrivals getting bargains, but an expensive exercise for the seller.

 

It might be an idea to contact some of the owners of these properties and see what discounted rates they offer for a longer stay. Winter rates are very competitive and likely only a little more than an unfurnished place.

 

Tamara

[Diane]

They are around - when i was looking for clients of a friend's resettlement business a while ago, I found quite a few and have a few real estate agents that still call me up when they have one come available. The best place to search I found was http://www.domain.com.au - as opposed to the more well-known http://www.realestate.com.au - mainly because they have/had a search feature on there where you could put in the search term "furnished" - although that does still occasionally come up with something which lists "unfurnished"! You could also look on gumtree - a few private rentals on there, some of which are furnished.

 

A long term furnished rental tends to be cheaper than paying for somewhere short term. Although one of the reasons less landlords let furnished is that they then have to pay insurance on all the furnishings, so that can sometimes account for slightly higher rental prices

[Guest Sarah Bradley]

We landed, bought a house and managed to move in 6 weeks, which was 6 before our container arrived. But we had already decided not to bring furniture as we wanted to buy things to fit the new house rather than try and fit our old stuff in. The only furniture that came with us was the dining room table and that was only because it didn't sell on ebay and the movers came on the day the auction finished so we just added it to the pile. Buying a house can be much quicker here if that's what you are planning to do. We hit the ground running when we arrived and went out looking at open inspections and schools the first day we arrived and had found a house and a school we liked in about 2 weeks. We had done quite a lot of research beforehand and knew what areas we prefered so that cut down the leg work a little. Good luck.

[likesshopping]

Hi Ashleigh

 

SHort term furnished rentals are on the whole more expensive to rent out - however, if you are considering to stay longer than 8 weeks, then many landlords are open to negiotate prices lower...just a thought!

 

We did like the previous poster...we didnt bring any furniture at all - same reasons, didnt think our old furniture would go with our new house etc and wanted a fresh start. It completely worked for us and I would do the same again...The money that it would have cost us to ship everything over, we bought new stuff that fitted into our new home correctly.

 

Horses for courses!

 

 

Sarahxx

[Guest Russ c]

Hi, we arrived just over 2 weeks ago and are staying in a short term furnished rental for two weeks. We shipped our furniture 2 weeks before and it arrives mid september. We have secured a long term rental and move in mid sept. we have noticed furniture is more expensive. We used the large move cube as it only cost £1000 and glad we did this as it has saved us a fortune.

[Caz and Ian]

Hi Russ, just out of interest what is a large move cube and how much did you fit in that? these shipping prices are looking really expensive and not sure where to sell all our furniture and start again? good luck with everything X

[Blossom]

We came with just our 20kg luggage allowance and hand luggage. We got a fair bit off of freecycle until we were more set up, and then just replaced things. Buying everything new I found very stressful. I'm not a born shopper, and the prices here were a hell of a shock too. The quality of white goods were nowhere near as good as my old ones in the uk, and much more expensive (they have got much better in the time I have been here though, but still expensive in the whole).

If I could go back I think I may have shipped my sofas, dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer. Ohhh and nick nacks. Coat hangers, plates, cutlery etc. It all adds up, especially if you don't know where to shop.

We didn't see any fully furnished places when we were looking, although some places have dishwashers..

[Guest Russ c]

I will pm you caz & Ian with info