Monday, December 13, 2010

Where to stay when Immigrating to Sydney

Hi,

well almost everyone immigrating to Australia needs a place to stay for a short period or short stay. It leads on from this to say that almost everyone would then be looking for cheap or reasonable accommodation rental prices. I don't want to put anyone off, but Sydney is a huge tourist destination. They actually have a shortage of long term rentals! - so you may as well just resign yourself to it being pricey! It will save you time in the end.

Sydney Hotels

There are various hotels in Sydney and Greater Sydney, which normally cost a minimum of 700 - 1500 a week! ouch). The Greater Sydney area has numerous Hotels and resorts but they are all pricey. Don't even waste your time scouring for something cheap hotel wise - it aint gonna happen!

There are a few backpacker hotels, but these involve dodgy characters, room sharing, bathroom sharing and kitchen sharing... hmm only for the young and hardy?

Furnished Short term apartment or flats

There are a few companies that manage blocks of flats with serviced apartments, but these are usually well booked in advance. A two or three bedroom flat that is furnished will set you back from about $750.00 to $1300.00 per week. Believe me, I looked! These are normally situated near the larger cities and suburbs in the Greater Sydney area. These are good for people who are on a look see and need easy access to transport etc.
Sydney short term Accommodation.

You can find short term Sydney accommodation such as rooms to rent, flat shares etc. if you know where to look.

Gumtree Australia has a lot of people advertising for room-mates. This will set you back from $150 to 400 a week which is more reasonable than the hotels. Please watch out for con artists though.

There are various websites dedicated to shared accommodation etc in Sydney and Australia. They are useful, but they are watched continuously by scam artists, who try to get scan of your passports, your address details and so on. You will even get a whole montage apartment in pictures sent to you. These people must be dummies as they advertise flats with pool rooms combined with 2 metre square images. I once even googled the image names and found some of the "advertised" rooms and lounges on google images where they had copied them from.... You have been WARNED!

Cheaper accommodation - Further out from Sydney - makes it slightly cheaper.

If you need a cheaper long term rental you can try renting in a rough neighbourhood or you can stay about one to two hours travel out of Sydney. This does reduce the costs, but you are effected by travel limitations. If you are planning on exploring Sydney or its suburbs and you are one hour South, it will logically take you an hour before you even hit North Sydney in order to explore. I am talking Car travel here.

Sydney is the largest City in Australia and it will tale anyone immigrating to Sydney at least six months to a year to partially figure out where everything is.

In terms of driving Sydney is one hour north and South, and at least 2 hours West. Its huge!

Don't get me wrong its definitely not all CBD as Sydney is quite small with some satellite CBD's like Parramatta. The Suburbs just seem to be endless.

You might want to look at a few of my earlier posts about Scotland Island, Sydney which is cheaper, but has some cons in terms of easy access.
Alternatives.

Try house sitting - I have seen a number of adverts for house sitters,

Join a few immigrating to Australia forums and advertise the fact you are looking for somewhere to stay - you might find a family who are going home on holiday from Australia who need someone to look after their house or flat and maybe make some cash at the same time.

Good luck on finding your cheap accommodation in Sydney Folks. Or, if you have accommodation to list, let me know - I'll put it up here :)

Later you'all


Hi,  Immigrating to Australia?, why not use our community forum - all about living, working, playing, moving and studying in Australia.



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