frankymacho

Does anybody know of a good, free website to find a flat to rent in the Sydney, Paddington, Coogee Beach areas? I'm not looking for a roommate situation or a room to rent in a house, I'm more looking for my own studio or 1-bedroom flat.

I just found a good one-way ticket to Sydney here, www.icheapairfares.com, now I just need a place to live!

Help me!

PS
If anybody has any advice for an American moving to Australia, feel free.

johhj_au

www.domain.com.au

sydney isn't a hell of a lot different to the west coast.

lancefan

also try www.realestate.com.au and www.gumtree.com.au . You'll find gumtree also has lots of other sections - for sale (you can get some good buys for your house there) and aslo community section for joining sports teams etc which may be good for when you get here. as for apartments in those areas - look at suburbs like potts point, rose bay, edgecliff, bondi junction, paddington, darlinghurst, surry hills, coogee, randwick, waverley. there's lots of units in that area, but I have heard it's fairly competetive to get them as those areas are very popular. I'd make sure you bring rental references from previous tenancies and if you have a couple of contacts in australia that could be personal references that would also help.

Neil_Oz

frankymacho, you've sorted out your residency and have a job here, then? What made you select these particular localities? Nothing wrong with them, but there are plenty more if you want a near-city location. There's never any shortage of advice, but the more specific the questions, the more useful it will be.

fuzzylogic

yep - online Domain.com is the place to go. But you could of course just pitch up and stay somewhere cheap while you sorted stuff out. The weirdest thing I found about renting here is that you can only view properties for 15mins at pre-appointed times. Makes it hard to see more than one or two place at a time.

So best of luck. And yes, why do you specify those particular areas? And, if you care to share, how did you get your residence permit?

Cheers.

frankymacho

Thanks for all the feedback, www.domain.com.au is an awesome site.

As for employment, that's fortunately already taken car of, I can work remotely from anywhere, so I won't need to look for employment while I'm there.

As for residency, I'm going to maintain my US standing for now. I might possibly move to New Zealand or Southeast Asia after Australia.

Thanks, I'll look into potts point, rose bay, edgecliff, bondi junction, paddington, darlinghurst, surry hills, coogee, randwick, waverley, too.

johhj_au

Franky...
make sure those visa/residency details are OK...villawood ain't quite as classy as paddo.

Neil_Oz

... Villawood being the site of Sydney's immigration detention centre! Yes, you'll need to make sure your (presumably tourist) visa doesn't expire. From there, you could be put on a one-way flight to Kabul by mistake.

I notice that you're arriving on a one-way ticket - this would be a good time to check out Australian immigration rules thoroughly if you haven't done so - www.immi.gov.au. A one-way ticket may be acceptable, but I wouldn't make any assumptions.