Hello Ann, glad to hear your plans are coming along.

Please be very wary of what you rent, wherever you choose to live. Real Estate agents are notorious for using terms like "cosy" (read not big enough to swing a cat), "tidy" usually means it is old, "modern kitchen and bathroom" means at least the stove is not wood burning but is probably circa 1960. I would also be very wary of what would appear to be a bargain, $220 for example is very cheap in the Sydney market and anything with parking will be quite a bit more expensive.

I arrived in Sydney 4 years ago from Queensland, where I rented an absolute waterfront apartment on the Goldcoast 24th floor with 2 bathrooms, walk in closet, full bar and 2 bedrooms, with gym, 2 tennis courts, 2 car parks, 2 pools and a marina on site for $295 a week only to find that $365 a week got me a very old house with an outdoor dunny (toilet) and laundry with said "modern kitchen and bathroom" and no parking, no wardrobes and no heating.

That said, the prices for accommodation have come down a bit since the Olympics so you may do ok.

check out www.domain.com.au
and some of the real estate agents on line - www.randw.com.au (Richardson and Wrench) for example had quite a number of properties for rent in Concord when I just did a quick search. or www.ljhooker.com.au. If you want to search Concord and surrounding areas Concord is in an area known as "the inner west".

Most of the rental contracts are for 1 year, but you may find properties that are open to negotiation. Have you considered sharing with someone?

Thanks Danielle. I will probably be there closer to a year than 6 months. The new apartments advertised on one of the real estate agent pages in Strathfield seem to be a lot for a little - where is the catch? Prue, I meant spelling!