Good suburb for primary schools and links to city

Hello!

My OH has just got a new job offer so we are moving to Adelaide from the UK in January!

I have never been and would really appreciate some advice for where to live! We have a daughter who will be 6 and so need to be near a good state primary school, we would like to be within easy reach of a nice beach (not necessarily beachfront but within a 15 minute drive would be nice) and need good transport links in to the city. Also it needs to be not crazy expensive!

Some places I've read about include Brighton and surrounding suburbs and Glenelg (but this might be too pricey for us). Any help would be fab!

Thanks!

Hello and welcome

Brighton and Glenelg East are both pricey suburbs. And tbh unless it's the high school you are looking at, you can find plenty of as good options primary school wise elsewhere IMHO. You won't get as much for your money round there but they are good suburbs. If you look around there I'd recommend Paringa primary but it is zoned and they will require you to live in the zone and it's pricey to rent there partly because of this. And rentals are in demand.

We we started off living in Glenelg but didn't like Glenelg primary one bit (huge, 800 odd pupils and right on busy main road and tiny grounds) so went a bit further afield for our son's first primary school. Then we bought a house further up in the foothills and changed schools. Great school, lovely area but not a beach suburb, though you can get to the beach within 10-15 minutes depending on which one you go to.

Hallet Cove may suit. Not my sort of suburb nor did the schools there appeal but many like it. Personal taste and all that. That is within commute of the city and is a beach suburb although the beach isn't a golden sandy one. Port Noarlunga further south might appeal. Again, I'm not a beach suburb fan so it wasn't for us but many settle there. Inland a bit you've Sheidow park, Flagstaff Hill, Happy Valley, Aberfoyle park, all within easy reach of the beaches. School wise it will vary but it's what you like at the end of the day.

eta - as a new account your posts go into moderation and need to be approved by a mod first. No biggie, just we've had a few problem accounts in recent times so take a few precautions

There are loads of beach suburbs going from Semaphore in the north west right down to Moana in the south west and ranging quite dramatically in price. If you come inland a bit from any of them property generally becomes that bit cheaper, although it becomes more expensive again when you get closer to the city. I wouldn't get too set on a particular suburb from researching on the net as often what ticks all the boxes on paper doesn't always feel right in person. I would start by ruling suburbs out, on the basis of house price, distance or travel time to the city or because the primary school doesn't look that great. Then when you get here rent a furnished place near some of the potential suburbs you have identified and have a drive round them to see what you think.

To research house prices have a look at realestate.com.au. Google maps is good for travel times, both driving and public transport, although you can also check public transport times on the Adelaide metro website. For schools have a look at myschool.edu.au. Also there is a sticky on here with some good links for other websites for schools.

We arrived 2 months ago and came over determined to live by the beach. Then it became apparent how far a commute it was to the CBD and we have ended up living in the East and love it here. We researched the school ratings online and then only looked at houses in the zones for those schools so getting the kids enrolled was really easy.