Moving to Sydney in under 2 months. Any Aussies able to offer advice?

[Ember]

We will be landing in Sydney on July 26th. I am very reluctant to rent an apartment from North America, but is it possible to land and find a rental before Aug. 1st? Also, considering we'll be without a vehicle for the first while (at least) which areas are close to UNSW that would be the best to look in?

Thank you!

 

[queenie82]

Rental around UNSW is expensive and competitive due to the number of International Students. I assume you are going to be a student there given you are asking about there?
Are you single or looking for family accommodation? Would you want a whole apartment or room?

Rental generally in Sydney is hard at the moment with high demand. Certainly for anything good. If you are going to be a student have you asked the university?
There is on campus housing of single (private) rooms. Otherwise there are always flyers up about "room for rent" in a privately owned apartment. This will be from $150-$200 a week for anything ok usually.

Kensington, Kingsford, Maroubra, Randwick are the main areas immediately close by. But you can get a direct bus from Central station during uni hours (morning until 1pm from Central. From UNSW to Central from about 11am - 7pm) so Chippendale, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst are other options. Of course these areas service UTS and Sydney Uni so availability is not really any better.

There are NO train services to UNSW so you will rely on a bus service.

I would DEFINITELY try and get accommodation sorted before arriving. As I say there is a rental shortage and a mate who rents an apartment in Darlinghurst has had 3 rent rises in the past year. $$$

Best of luck!

 

[shushh]

Queenie's given an excellent reply! I just wanted to emphasise the high demand for rental properties in Sydney and also to mention the beach side areas close by which are a bus ride away eg Coogee. This would of course be more expensive!

 

[Ember]

Rental around UNSW is expensive and competitive due to the number of International Students. I assume you are going to be a student there given you are asking about there?
Are you single or looking for family accommodation? Would you want a whole apartment or room?

Rental generally in Sydney is hard at the moment with high demand. Certainly for anything good. If you are going to be a student have you asked the university?
There is on campus housing of single (private) rooms. Otherwise there are always flyers up about "room for rent" in a privately owned apartment. This will be from $150-$200 a week for anything ok usually.

Kensington, Kingsford, Maroubra, Randwick are the main areas immediately close by. But you can get a direct bus from Central station during uni hours (morning until 1pm from Central. From UNSW to Central from about 11am - 7pm) so Chippendale, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst are other options. Of course these areas service UTS and Sydney Uni so availability is not really any better.

There are NO train services to UNSW so you will rely on a bus service.

I would DEFINITELY try and get accommodation sorted before arriving. As I say there is a rental shortage and a mate who rents an apartment in Darlinghurst has had 3 rent rises in the past year. $$$

Best of luck!

Thanks for the reply! My husband is a post doctoral researcher, so neither of us is studying. I'm hoping to be working shortly after we arrive as well. So while I'd rather not pay most our or income to rent, we're not poor either. (The university has been very helpful in many regards, but not so much with housing!)

I worry about accepting an apartment sight unseen, which is why I was hoping to wait... Thank you for the information on the neighborhoods, I will start there and see what the rental sites have.

Here, many rentals don't come up until the month before you want to rent, is it similar there? (Meaning to rent in Aug, there's no real point in looking until July.)

ETA: We're looking for a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment. Ideally it would have air conditioning (as Canadian's the whole heat thing is kind of new...) and allow pets as my cat will be joining us once she's out of quarantine.

 

[Chesire]

We are in a similar situation, we leave for Canberra in under two weeks

We cannot rent without looking at the property first (they will not allow it) and finding anyone to work with us (because we have not arrived in Australia yet) has been incredibly difficult. Add to that we have a dog (will be in quarantine for 30 days) and we are in a very similar situation!

What I did was to set up a hotel for a week in Canberra and we are hoping to find a rental during that time. Until then, we have found there isn't much we can do from outside the country.

I hope that helps some!

 

[Ember]

We are in a similar situation, we leave for Canberra in under two weeks

We cannot rent without looking at the property first (they will not allow it) and finding anyone to work with us (because we have not arrived in Australia yet) has been incredibly difficult. Add to that we have a dog (will be in quarantine for 30 days) and we are in a very similar situation!

What I did was to set up a hotel for a week in Canberra and we are hoping to find a rental during that time. Until then, we have found there isn't much we can do from outside the country.

I hope that helps some!

It is a very similar situation! And we're thinking of a similar solution in getting a hotel for a week and then trying to find a rental upon landing. I guess it just feels insecure to not have a place set to go and to be unsure what the situation will be when you get there.

If you get a chance, will you come back and update how things went when you get there? That would be helpful.

Have you set up a bank account yet? That's our next step...

 

[5ofus]

UNSW also has a Housing Office that may be able to help you. They use to put up notices for apartments/rooms/houses for rent. Not sure if it's still the case, check out their website at http://www.housing.unsw.edu.au/housing/

 

[queenie82]

Well I'd certainly get in contact with a number of agents and line up viewings for when you arrive. So you're ready to go when you get here.
There really is a high demand for rental in Sydney at the moment so you need your foot in the door with agents so they'll let you know when things come up.

I wonder if any of the agents would know of any 'holiday' rental short term rental apartments? Rather than a hotel. Just brainstorming here...

It's a pity the uni aren't too helpful. They've been building a lot of on campus housing lately and I think they put in a few apartments in New college. But I think they're all targeted at postgraduates. I'd keep on them a bit to see if they can provide any further assistance or advice.

Best of luck

 

[Chesire]

Will do

I completely understand about feeling insecure without a rental set up! We tried for several weeks and no agents would email us back. We finally found out that it was because we were out of the country. We only found an agent after someone on a forum sent her our email.

We did set up a bank account through the National Australian Bank, but I don't think it becomes active until we arrive and meet with them (we can deposit now, but nothing else).

 

[Ember]

Well I'd certainly get in contact with a number of agents and line up viewings for when you arrive. So you're ready to go when you get here.
There really is a high demand for rental in Sydney at the moment so you need your foot in the door with agents so they'll let you know when things come up.

I wonder if any of the agents would know of any 'holiday' rental short term rental apartments? Rather than a hotel. Just brainstorming here...

It's a pity the uni aren't too helpful. They've been building a lot of on campus housing lately and I think they put in a few apartments in New college. But I think they're all targeted at postgraduates. I'd keep on them a bit to see if they can provide any further assistance or advice.

Best of luck

Thank you! The concept of agents for rentals is new to me. Here you deal directly with the apartment/management. I have been e-mailing agents from Canada, but am finding like the PP, the people are reluctant to deal with me until we are actually there. It's frustrating...

A short term rental isn't a bad idea, though, even for a month or five weeks... That would allow us to get there and then really look for an apartment. Thanks for the great idea!

 

[BecBennett]

In NSW (Not sure about the ACT) you can't sign a lease on a property until you, or someone on your behalf has viewed it. However have you tried contacting any relocation agencies? I used to work at a real estate in Pennant Hills and we dealt with relocation agencies all the time, specifically for this reason.

You can also consider calling a few agencies (I know the time difference sucks, but some things just can't be done by email) and asking them to email you copies of their application forms, that way you can fill out the applications and send them back in, so once you arrive you will already be that one step ahead. Some agencies will process them before you get here as well, so if you find a property you like all they need to do is call the owner and confirm it with them.

It is really worth while calling though, you'll be more likely to find someone who's sympathetic to your needs by talking to them, as aposed to emailing them. Chances are they get a sh*t load of emails a day, it's not hard for some to go over looked.

Another idea - to help your application - where the form asks for references (previous rental history, selling agent of your current home, work references etc. put email addresses as well as contact numbers. It will be a lot easier for the property manager to send an email through to confirm your reference, then to try and phone at odd hours to try and reach them.

If you have any other questions about renting feel free to PM me, I'm a property manager myself, so I can try and offer ideas and stuff

 

[Chesire]

In NSW (Not sure about the ACT) you can't sign a lease on a property until you, or someone on your behalf has viewed it.

I think it's that way in the ACT as well.

 

[amyy]

I have no advice but good luck. I would love to get the chance to live in Australia. Hope you enjoy your time there.

 

[cola]

Are you planning on having furniture shipped out to Australia or buying stuff when here?

Australia and Canada are on different voltages so no point bringing small appliances/electronics/white goods, UNLESS they are dual voltage. You can get inverteres to convert the voltage, BUT they are expensive, required for each bit of equipment, and can cause many more problems than it is worth using them. Depending on how long you are planning on staying, putting your furniture in storage in Canada will probably be cheaper than shipping it out here. You can hire white goods etc, depending on how long you are planning on staying it might be cheaper to buy, but be prepared for pretty much everything to be double what you would expect.

Most rental properties are rented unfurnished and without even a refrigerator. Short term, you are probably better off looking for 'serviced apartments', though you are extremely unlikely to find one that allows a cat, so it would only be of use before the cat is cleared.

Good luck. Sydney rentals are incredibly hard to get, and expensive. Sydney is ridiculously expensive, Sydney is in the Top 25 most expensive places to live 2010 NOTE: NewYork is 27 on that list, and the way the US dollar has fallen against almost every other currency New York would probably lower in the list now.

 

[BecBennett]

Good luck. Sydney rentals are incredibly hard to get, and expensive. Sydney is ridiculously expensive, Sydney is in the Top 25 most expensive places to live 2010 NOTE: NewYork is 27 on that list, and the way the US dollar has fallen against almost every other currency New York would probably lower in the list now.

That's so interesting!!