City or Beach?

Upon arrival in Sydney and after Charlotte’s induction/orientation day it was straight down to the task of finding somewhere to live, no time for touristy excursions for us.

After our stay in the accommodation laid on for us in Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst, we are now staying in a friend of a friend’s apartment in Elizabeth Bay. It is a lovely art deco apartment situated in a quiet location right on the Bay. The balcony (and whole main room in fact) boasts amazing views straight out onto the water across the bay and it great to just sit and gaze out for ages. This truly was a great stroke of luck thanks to the many contacts that our friend Sarah has around the world.

View of Elizabeth Bay from the balcony

A key quandary for us this past week has been just where we want to live for the next 12 months!

Although we have visited Sydney on many occasions, it has always been as tourists doing the touristy thing (i.e. Sydney Harbour Bridge, The Rocks, Darling Harbour, Bondi, Manly etc etc) and we have just really been based in the CBD (Central Business District) and not really spent a significant amount of time in the many suburbs Sydney houses.  So when it comes to actually looking and deciding where we want to live on a day-to-day basis, all manner of things are thrown into the equation.

Sydney is a vast city with a lot of suburbs and a great mix of lifestyle options, from vibrant, fast-paced city life and leafy suburbs to chilled beachside living.

Where to live?

Did we want to be close to all the action in the city? the many funky bars, restaurants and iconic sights coupled with easy transport links for Charlotte to work (plenty of trains to the airport or free crew bus), but equally more difficult for me to get to work (my work is going be out of the city) or do we go for a place close to the beach? where we can enjoy a more chilled way of life. Or even half way between at a place like Bondi Junction?

This quandary of not really knowing the vast areas of Sydney coupled with no real idea of where we would like to live ensured that our urgent search for accommodation would be a difficult one.

We had been informed of how tough and competitive the rental/housing market is over here but boy did we underestimate it!!!

There’s no casually browsing through the rental agents portfolio, booking an appointment, viewing the property, sign a bit of paperwork and hey presto you’re in. Not only is it very strict in terms of providing heap loads of references, utility bills, proof of identity and filling out a huge application form, properties can only be viewed during designated ‘open houses’ whereby each property will be open for viewing (to anyone who wishes to rock up) for approximately 15 minutes. These open days are generally on designated days (Wednesday and Saturday) and more often than not all at either the same time or close together. So if you wanted to view multiple properties you either had to be Usan Bolt, carefully select the properties you wanted to see or split up….over the course of the week we have attempted all 3 options!

It is after the actual viewing that it gets tougher, if you like a property, you need to immediately gather and complete all your paperwork and get it to the letting agents office. Even after you’ve submitted the paperwork, the letting agent will vet the applications and send a selection to the landlord who will then make his own decision on who will be successful. Phew!!

Our first open house was in the lovely little beachside suburb of Coogee, which boasts a great beach, beachside bars, quirky little cafes and a nice chilled atmosphere. We followed this up with a viewing of a very modern mid-floor apartment in Bondi Junction which had a gym and swimming pool in the block and then many others around Potts Point, Paddington, Bondi, Surry Hills and the impressively named Woolloomooloo (not sure how I’d get on with directing a taxi driver to an address there after a few sherbets).

Over the course of a few days we have visited a lot of properties and covered a lot of ground. The search goes on…………