Coming Soon to Adelaide

[IceCandy]

Hi!

I have been going through the website for a few days and have really found the posts to be really helpful to me and my family. We have just been granted our 190 PR visa for SA and we are really thrilled to be coming to Australia.

 

I have been doing my research over the past couple of months but I am thoroughly confused on which suburb to choose as right now all are just names on the map for me. I have received mixed comments on various forums I have been going through and find it really challenging to make up my mind. Looking through the posts on this website, I am really hopeful that somebody could just help take a decision.

 

We are a family of four. My husband and self are in our early forties and we have two daughters aged 11 yrs and 14 years. We are looking for affordable rentals, good schools for our girls and a safe and friendly neighbourhood. I did like Woodville, based on feedback through various forums and did like Golden Grove and Blackwood in the South as we prefer the hills to the beach. Woodville was given priority as it is close to CBD, but we really dont mind the extra commute into the city as we spend close to an hour and a half commuting to work daily here in Mumbai, India.

 

I would really appreciate if somebody could help me decide on which suburb I should consider and if the suburbs I have mentioned have me on the right track.

 

We plan to move to Adelaide in early September or October 2016 and would like some clarity on the suburb we choose to stay in.

 

Do write in.

 

Thank you!

[Jessica Berry]

Welcome to the forum. Do you have jobs to come to in Adelaide?

[IceCandy]

Hi Jessica!

No we do not have jobs in hand for SA. We will need to come there a get jobs for both the husband and myself.

 

Husband is working in the IT sector and I'm into office administration and facilities.

[Jessica Berry]

Just something to consider as you mention coming in September/October, generally the job market slows down in Nov/Dec/Jan for the Christmas/summer holiday break so it could take you longer to find work over this period. Office administration positions are very competitive and usually receive large numbers of applicants. My OH works in IT and has had no issues finding work, but it depends on your skill set, salary expectations etc.

 

In terms of suburbs, everyone will have different opinions. In might be useful to find temporary accommodation first and then use that time to familiarise yourself with the suburbs and areas to see what feels a right fit for you and your family.

[IceCandy]

Thanks for a word of caution. I shall be stopping over at Melbourne to spend Christmas with my sister and will move into Adelaide in mid January. I am aware that the market is competitive for my line of work but I am coming with an open mind and am ready to do anything till I find a good paying job. Schooling for my girls is top priority and I would like to put them in a good public school as both are intelligent and love sports.

 

I am hoping for some helpful hints of which suburbs/schools can be considered as I am still geting mixed reviews on just about everything.

[John Browning]

Just something to consider as you mention coming in September/October, generally the job market slows down in Nov/Dec/Jan for the Christmas/summer holiday break so it could take you longer to find work over this period. Office administration positions are very competitive and usually receive large numbers of applicants. My OH works in IT and has had no issues finding work, but it depends on your skill set, salary expectations etc.

 

 

1. In terms of suburbs, everyone will have different opinions. In might be useful to find temporary accommodation first and then use that time to familiarise yourself with the suburbs and areas to see what feels a right fit for you and your family.

 

Yep...got to agree with that:

 

Even if you are desperate to get the kids settled in a particular school, it's likely to be easier to get a temporary lease first, then familiarise yourself with the peculiarities of the Adelaide Real Estate Market.

 

- some suburbs are a great deal easier to commute from, even though they are relatively some way out of town

(eg Gawler has an express train service into the CBD, and people in the North Eastern Suburbs, such as Modbury can get into town

on a dedicated 100 kph bus track).

 

Believe it or not:

 

-there are over 350 suburbs in Greater Adelaide

 

-some of their names are almost identical at first glance

 

-the Pommy names they have been given bear little or nothing to their English equivalents ( eg Picadilly is way out in the Countryside and Felixstow is nowhere near the sea, and -you've guessed it...there are very few Druids around Salisbury Plain on 1st May

each year) *

 

 

- Each suburb belongs to a Local Government Area, but the name of the LGA may not bear, or even include the name of that

particular suburb.

 

of course, this nowhere near confusing enough, so we often call the LGA's " Cities "

and oh yes....... we love switching which Suburbs belong to which "City"

 

 

- So, just to recap:

 

People refer to living in the City called Adelaide, but their Suburb might be part of, say, "the City of St Peters, Norwood and Payneham".

 

So.... if you "go into the City: you're going into the C B D. But then again, you might just as easily be going to play golf in North Adelaide.

 

( and, by the way, North Adelaide is part of The City of Adelaide, but is entirely separate from the CBD)

 

Oh and just to really stuff things up....... North Adelaide is nowhere near the Northern Suburbs of Greater Adelaide)

 

or another example:

 

John lives in Marden ( no, don't worry which one right now..)

 

Jan has told John that he must register his dog today

 

So, John needs to get on a bus into The City. But then he needs to transfer to another bus out of The City to the City of St Peter's , Norwood and Payneham

 

 

John's head hurts (- he would rather be playing golf )

 

 

 

 

(are you lot following this?? ........ we will be setting a test later on*)

 

and here's where it gets totally weird

 

.....we employ a "Geographical Names Board " to regulate all this

 

I often sit at the bus stop on Payneham Road watching Ambulances and Fire tenders pull over while try to work out whether they are supposed to be saving someone's life in the western half of Marden, or completely the other side of the Main Arterial Trunkroad that divides this from the other half of Marden ("...... or was it Marsden we were going to, ?!!!?")

 

Yes..... it's times like this we should all be glad of the tireless efforts of the Geographical Names Board

 

 

2) Then there's the process of buying the house

 

Always remember, Real Estate Agents are a delicate other-worldly group of ethereal beings. They are not used to the hurly burly of common peoples lives.

 

In particular, they are tremendously sensitive people

 

-Don't upset them with devilishly awkward questions like:

 

"so..... where's the electricity meter"

 

"can you tell us anything about the foundations"

 

" are we liable to pay GST ( -the local equivalent of VAT-) on this property"

 

"do you have a copy of the declaration documents on you, please?"

 

"when was the last time the house got treated for white ants"

 

"why is this Open Inspection only scheduled for a maximum 30 minutes?"

 

"what is it you do you actually do for a living"

 

 

 

 

John B

 

 

 

** curiously there are even people at the bottom of my street who are strangely snobbish about living in a suburb called Royston

.....presumably they've never been to the mining town by that name, and have never lowered themselves to watching "League of

Gentlemen" on the TV (and -no, please don't ask me about The Local Shop)

 

*just joking - we won't be setting a test, of course

 

(- we'll just expect you to buy a house, presuming you already know all of this)

[PatP]

Wow John you explained that one well having lived at Happy Valley ( lively suburb lovely name ) I watch the new series Happy Valley on UK TV rough and tough

real estate agent oh joy son has just sold his house agent turned up late for viewings with a queue at the gate

They open for 30 minutes to get a crowd in ,in the hope that one prospective buyer hears what anothe one says and divides to go for broke and put an offer straight in

I would definetly rent and search because as has been said what suits one does not suit another and everyone has a different opinion

[IceCandy]

Thank you John! Appreciate your advice. Taking Jessica's advice, I have decided to come down and personally have a feel of the suburbs I have shortlisted and then take up residence accordingly. What I want to know is should I take a decision based on schools and their zones or choose the suburb first and then look for the school.... I am of the opinion that the first option is better. What do you have to say?

[NicF]

Thank you John! Appreciate your advice. Taking Jessica's advice, I have decided to come down and personally have a feel of the suburbs I have shortlisted and then take up residence accordingly. What I want to know is should I take a decision based on schools and their zones or choose the suburb first and then look for the school.... I am of the opinion that the first option is better. What do you have to say?

 

We did a bit of both. We had a good look around suburbs and had a good idea of which suburbs we liked then we looked at the schools in those suburbs to see what they were like. This resulted in us ruling out one of our favourite suburbs as it was zoned for a high school we did not like. We focused mostly on high schools as my eldest was getting close to high school age and there are fewer high school options and pretty much all public high schools (except Urrbrae) are zoned. While some primary schools are zoned quite a few aren't so that was less of a concern, although I wanted to live within walking distance of a primary school so we would have been in the zone anyway. Fortunately half of my favourite suburb was in the zone for the high school we liked so we ended up there. There are other schools we preferred and even suburbs we would have liked to live in but we had to rule them out as houses are expensive and we didn't think we would be able to afford anything we would have been happy to live in.

 

It's probably worth me pointing out my OH is from Adelaide and we had been on holiday several times before moving so we had a pretty good idea of the general area we wanted to be in and my OH has preconceived ideas about some of the areas and schools here that, rightly or wrongly, made him want to avoid them.

[snifter]

Thank you John! Appreciate your advice. Taking Jessica's advice, I have decided to come down and personally have a feel of the suburbs I have shortlisted and then take up residence accordingly. What I want to know is should I take a decision based on schools and their zones or choose the suburb first and then look for the school.... I am of the opinion that the first option is better. What do you have to say?

 

We did a bit of both but mostly narrowed down the suburbs we liked that we also liked the schools in. If we didn't like the schools, even if we liked the suburb, we didn't consider it. In the end, when we started looking to buy about 4-5 months after arriving, we narrowed down the areas pretty quickly. We had some towns up in the hills and some hills suburbs and that was pretty much it. Didn't look anywhere else as we didn't want a beach suburb, didn't want to be down in the metropolitan area and had our eye on about 5 or 6 schools so that is where our efforts went.

 

If a school is zoned and applying it, they won't consider you unless you are living in the zone and often they will want to see a years lease to prove this.

 

ETA - Like Nic, I am married to an Aussie and had spent time here before. However, moving here, I did a total 360 on some areas and flat out refused to consider them based on crazy prices (land division, small blocks, long narrow houses) and also was put off beach suburbs living in one for 7 months after we arrived. Yet when I used to visit or stay here for a month or two I loved the beach suburbs but having a child, wants and needs changing, I just didn't feel it for the coast in terms of wanting to live along it. I was drawn to the hills and am very happy up here

Edited March 18, 2016 by snifter
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