Living in Sydney

To be honest, Sydney must be one of my dream cities although I've never been to Australia. But I learned so much about the city, that I can write a book of it and it will look real.

Wouldn't you write a little bit about this fantastic city on Expat.com?

I'm pretty sure there are Sydneysiders that can do it around here

Sydney is amazing!!!!!!  I moved here 6 months ago from Cape Town, South Africa.  To begin with, I was incredibly intimidated.  This place is ENORMOUS compared to Cape Town!!!!  It was really overwhelming.  But hubby & I acted like complete tourists for the first few months and have now really got our bearings here and are starting to know our way around.

Gosh!  There's so much I can tell you about Sydney but I'm about to leave for work.  I'll come back tonight and give you a fuller account with regards to the more practical stuff like finding accommodation, getting all you gear through customs & quarantine when you arrive & generally settling in.

Cheers for now,
Mandy

My husband, 2 year old daughter and I are moving to Sydney in November.  I am really looking for some information on flats- furnished 2 or 3 bedrooms.  I also want to try to find out the good neighborhoods for families.  My husband will be working in Artarmon. Are there playgroups for children?  What about daycare for kids?  Any info would really help!

Thank you,

Christine

Hi Christine

Artarmon is on the North Shore train line so my advice would be to look further north from this.  There are some fabulous suburbs along the line - we presently stay in Wahroonga which is beautiful - very leafy & a very "well-to-do" suburb. 

The best place to start with regards to searching for apartments are the following websites:

www.realestate.com.au & www.domain.com.au
Real Estate has the best selection of rented accommodation.  Domain has a better search engine but the selection of accommodation isn't as good.

The areas you need to search for are Roseville, Chatswood, Linfield, Killara, Gordon, Pymble, Turramurra, Warrawee, Wahroonga, Waitara, Hornsby (make sure to tick the box which will search the surrounding suburbs as well). 

I can't really help you with pay groups as I don't have kids - sorry.

There's a wonderful tool on Google Maps....
Go to www.google.com.au and click on the maps tab.  We now have a street view where you can actually view photos of the street.  So what I did when I was searching for apartments was have 2 windows open - one with the Google maps and the other with Real Estate.  As I found a property I liked, I looked up the address on Google & got a look at the street.  A VERY handy tool indeed!!!

You won't be able to rent accommodation without viewing the property first so I suggest that you book yourself into temporary accommodation (motel/holiday apartment) for the first 2 weeks at least. 

Let me know if you want any more info!

Cheers,
Mandy

Thank you so much for the info. I have been checking the domain site, but didn't know about the other site which does seem to have a lot more. 

I am really excited to move to Sydney and be able to discover a new country and a new city.  My husband and I have been on the move for the past 2 years, it's been really crazy, but fun.  We are packing up from San Francisco to head back to LA (our home base).  We are there for 2 months and then head to Sydney.  In the past 2 years we have lived in NY, Tennessee, Palm Springs, CA, Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

We have travelled all over the world, but had not made it to Austrailia and so we're looking forward to Sydney!  We also plan on doing some travelling on that side of the world at the end of our stint.  I am also really excited because it's about the first time since in my life that I haven't had a job!! I have always been the career oriented type!  Even with all the moving I have been able to hold down some pretty intense corporate jobs. 

Again, thanks for the info!

Christine

The info has all been really helpful. We're just not sure exactly when we will arrive in Sydney so i don't want to spend a ton of time looking at places until it gets closer to our arrival.  Right now it's looking like the beginning to mid- November.  I am excited because it will be summer there.  We are from LA, but for about 10 months have been living in San Francisco and there is no summer in San Fran.  We're back in Southern California now and I am loving the warm weather again.

What is it like there November to March?  Are the summers very hot?  I know the sun is intense and both my husband and daughter are extremely fair skinned and blond. 

I did look in Pymble and there were a couple of really nice furnished houses for rent.  What I am thinking is to book a place for a couple of weeks when we first get there and then figure out the public transport etc. and where we might want to be.  The nice thing is that I won't be working, this is the first time since I was in high school that I won't have a job, so I will have the days to check things out.

Thanks again for the help.  If you think of anything else please feel free to post!

Christine

Hello Christine,
The weather is pretty hot during November to March.  If you need some info re Sydney, feel free to let us know. Maybe we can help.  I was born here in Sydney and lived overseas so I can appreciate what it is like to live in a foreign place.

Regards
sfu

I posted this elsewhere, but maybe I can find some help here..

I am moving from San Francisco, California to Sydney. I haven't explored all the resources on the Web about living here, but I was wondering where a 39-year old professional, single gay man should consider living. I currently make $170K US (not sure what that translates to AU$), and ideally would like to live in the city. Does Sydney have a gay neighborhood like most big American cities? How much would a 1br/1 bath flat/apt? What are the some of the biggest differences I can expect from a city like San Francisco (besides the weather)?

To the gay man- if you google gay living in sydney or cap capital sydney it well tell you - darlinghurst or newtown. Oxford st darlinghurst is where all the gay clubs are etc.
You will pay about 500 to 600aud for a nice 1 bedroom appt or 1200aud for a terrace house.

Do you have a job secured in sydney?

And to the lady who started the thread-
Childcare in and around sydney is from $70 to $120 a day. And you would not get any benefit from the government not being a citizen.
You would need to have a secured job for quite some time before anyone leased or sold to you and also mortgages and costs and phenomenal.

How we're you able to just up and move here? Husband get sent here for work ?

I find Sydney great, but expensive, Its growing, huge and there is plenty work. There hundreds of beaches to visit and drive past. the transport is good and there are schools in every suburb - read infrastructure is good. The only neg thing is that its expensive. If you are coming on a budget you need to be hard and live in a small place to get ahead.

Hi Ppl,

I am currently a student at University in the UK and may have found myself a year placement close to the macquarie park area. I was wondering realistically what i can be expecting to pay weekly on rented accommadtion in a relatively nice area.
Cheers, Phil

I think http://sydney.gumtree.com.au/ is the best option if you are looking to rent - there are tons of listing here! Good luck!