Hi everyone.
I'm planning to buy a property in Sydney, my budget is $570000, and at least 2 bed house or unit.
I'm willing to spend 2hrs commuting.
Are these good suburbs?
Wentworthville NSW 2145
Toongabbie
Pendle hill
West mead
Thanks everyone.
Why not try renting for 3 months and see if you like the area first. Once you are familiar with the area, you will know which areas are better or most suitable. I prefer not to commute much, I value time with my family and 1 hour commutes equals 10 hours (unpaid) lost each week that I could spend with my kids.
Try 91 bridge rd monarco estate in Westmead. I got a friend living there and it's quite safe with actual security guard hired by body Corp for evening and weekends. It's in your budget but on the con side got pretty high strata
The fact that this place needs a dedicated security guard just implies that the area itself is unsafe.
That was two years ago.. Name another suburb (any suburb), and search google, you'll find some crime story there at some point in time..
The address happened to be bridge road same as suggested,. Note it was a sublte, probably shit, joke continuing on from the logic of the guard making it safe. I couldn't care less. I had a guy get his throat slit in the units carpark 4 doors down not long back. My home is safe. I do like seeing all the westies jumping to defend our turf though :p
edit: I just got back from an hour walk. I am not a hero. It just seems so apparent this day and age people live in fear for little reason. Random attacks on people aren't really common. I was a victim of a random one punch attack 3 months back in Canley Heights. Funny thing was the perpetrator was some idiot from Randwick happened to be out here for the night. Seems he mustered up the courage to knock out someone from behind. No "Westie" has ever displayed this much courage in my lifetime.
Inner West you can get a newish 3 bedder duplex for around 600 in Elizabeth Hills.
95% owner occupied, family orientated estate.
Respectable neighbours throughout.
Thats not even remotely close to the inner west. Thats well and truly west!
i stand corrected.
i failed in geography.
but its just food for thought as OP
said he doesnt mind travelling
Literally 0 public transport though and in the middle of nowhere.
@blighst:
there are buses that go through there
and if you have a car the M7/M5/M4/Hume
are all close by
Inner west is Glebe, Leichhardt, Balmain. Hard to find an apartment for $600k 2bR.
Agreed with xconcepx, it's definitely a far way from the Inner West. Although it is really interesting to see different people's definitions of the Inner West. In my head, it stops at Homebush, but like Cronut, a lot of my friends only define the Glebe/Leichardt area is Inner West.
Strathfield
Hi there, i have very high regards for Mount colah, it is one of the best suburb in your budget, 2 BRB apt around 600k. I am living here for last 9 years it's so safe for family and kids.
it's so safe for family and kids.
Hi neighbour… awkward…
I feel as though this is changing though :(
We are getting new neighbours, and they are bringing their noisy as cars / bikes. You will hear they literally SHOUTING on the road at 11pm, and doing burnouts at 1am. Also the new neighbours aren't as friendly as the ones that have moved out.
New neighbours are of the newer young couple with little kids age. I wouldn't call them bogans per-se, but definitely are not open minded (judgemental, unfriendly).
HALP
Thats unsual in mount colah, call police and let them know while the neighbors are noisy, hopefully that should stop them.
Can't help you on Sydney info, never been, but you can get a 2 bed apartment in Perth 5 mins from the CBD for that price.
Move out West, we have Quokkas haha
Fairfield
no way, lived there 15 years ago definitely not safer than Wenty.
pretty sure he was joking XD
Glenfield
Ingleburn
Campbelltown
Pro
45 mins train to Central. Lots of family around. Have all the amenities you can think of in McArthur Square. No traffic so you won't be stuck in traffic going around the area. Lots of tree and green. Lots of open space. I'm not putting Macquarie Fields because of the high concentration of public housing.
Con - people perception of the west
Is public transport a factor? My uncle used to work at Campbelltown as a cop and live at Camden. He reckons it was horrendous at Campbelltown and great at Camden re crime and he put it down largely to public transport. I don't know whether the facts support him but I do know it is a widely held prejudice/opinion whatever.
I've lived in the western suburbs for 15 years. From my experience, I would avoid toongabbie. Westmead, wentworthville and pendle hill has a large south-east asian population, and being one myself, they don't cause too much trouble and keep generally to themselves. There are also alot of apartments and townhouses which may suit your situation.
If they don't cause much trouble why avoid them?
My impression from glancing at ACA during the ad breaks is that most of the neighbours-from-hell are Anglos.
Didn't say to avoid all of them: there's a full stop between some of those suburbs… Though, probably should have inserted "however" to be more clear….
Kings Langley would be my pick for the price.
I doubt it… Kings Langley would be higher if Glenwood is 600k+
Might be able to afford an older townhouse/unit in Chipping Norton (south-west) for that sort of price … a very safe suburb and arguably the most affluent in the region. I've lived in Chipping Norton my entire life and can't remember the last violent incident that occurred here. There's a train station in the next suburb (5 minute drive) and from Warwick Farm, it takes about 45-50 mins to the CBD.
Reading through the other responses to this thread, I think you might want to clarify your starting situation.
Are you migrating from Singapore, so the idea of some litter on the footpath makes you worry about safety (for example, an issue mentioned by one poster).
Or are you moving from Inala in Brisbane, so have already a good idea what life is like in a lower socio-economic suburb in an Australian city?
Or have you been living in Toorak in Melbourne, so the idea of kids leaving a bike on the front lawn sets off alarm bells for 'those people'.
Basically, I think a lot of posts in this thread are racist/classist and have little relation to reality. There is one post saying people from the sub-continent are dangerous, another saying they keep to themselves and are good neighbours. One says anglo Aussies with young kids are intolerant, others recommending the upper north shore - one of the whitest places in Australia.
If you are from a Chinese background, you might feel most comfortable in an apartment near a train station, while if you grew up in a country town in an Anglo family, a quarter acre block you need to drive to is probably an arrangement you are more comfortable with. Similarly, if your kids are 2yro, then access to nearby entertainment etc. isn't a big deal, but a 15yro with no access to public transport in a far flung suburb is going to have issues.
The truth is, that in almost every suburb in Sydney, the neighbours are normal people who will be average neighbours. The worst street in Potts point is much more dangerous than the best in Kings Langley - even though the first is in an upmarket, wealthy area and the second is next door to Parklea prison.
Try get something in the Inner West I.e
Leichhardt
Marrickville
Ashfield
Burwood
Haberfield
Strathfiled South
Also try suburbs like
Canterbury
Earlwood
Penrith to Central is <40 mins by the express train. You can go up another 20 mins into the mountains.
Richmond to Central doesn't have the dedicated train, but you could time it to switch onto the Mountains Line express at Blacktown.
We looked at Bowen Mountain, North Richmond etc. when we were looking before staying in Canberra.
For the suburbs you mention, away from the stations are fine. My parents in law live in Old Toongabbie (their annual income is $500k/PA), my wife went to Pendle Hill High and finished uni on a scholarship and PHD.
There's not too many issues around there; just keep to the edges of the most dense areas. Try to keep closer to the T-Way, seems most of the riff-raff populates around train stations. I'm from Kings Langley, and there's also Seven Hills North that most people forget about (the triangle bounded by Abbott Rd, Seven Hills Rd and Old Windsor Rd) - SH-N Primary is a decent school; my niece went there.
A sad state of affairs when people have to ask "where can I live safely in Australia?"
It's all relative. I'm sure even Singapore has some unsafe areas
Except those areas in Australia which are considered unsafe are the result of naive social experiments whose experimenters bore none of the consequences.
Are you suggesting the gun murders, rape and terrorists suspects hiding in the west are naive social experiments?
I beg to differ, it happens more frequently in the south/west for a reason.
Personally I am hesitant to even go to those areas, some of the folks on the street aren't the nicest kind.
@victorheaven: When I was living in a nice suburb in the south Sydney (5 mins drive to the beach including parking), I thought my neighbour was a bit dodgy. That was confirmed when the police dragged him out, and carried out a sawn-off shotgun, handgun, ammo, steroids, counterfeit Viagra, and a bunch of stolen goods.
What surprised me most of all was that the drug dealers across the road hadn't shooed him away - they were pretty good at keeping the street peaceful otherwise. Except for the time that someone got stabbed in the street. But they did do a good job with the guy who was beating up his girlfriend downstairs - the girl was crying in the street once and their wife came over and talked to her.. And the problem soon went away. Which was more than the cops did when I used to call them up about it, although I suspect she didn't want to have them come to talk to her seeing as though they were growing marijuana in their unit.
The only time that I was personally involved in this sort of stuff (in Sydney) was when someone tried to carjack my wife and I in the CBD. They weren't very good at it though.
To Juddy's point though, I would certainly stay away from Claymore and the surrounding suburbs. It's so notorious that I actually had it covered in high school geography 20 years ago (specifically as a result of an experiment in public housing). My wife was going to apply for a job near there and it's one of the very few times I have asked her not to do something.
Where we live now in far SW Sydney is great.. People are friendly (or at least mind their own business), you can walk around safely, kids play outside without fear of various things, etc. But probably a bit too far for the OP - 1.5 hours each way commute to the city.
No. My point is that those who advocated naive immigration policies created the environment which eventually resulted in racial and religious enclaves, which in turn produced the likes Khaled Sharrouf & Mohamed Elomar.
It's easy for politicians and lefty drop-kicks to engage in social experiments when they know they'll suffer none of the consequences when it goes sideways.
I say all of this as someone who considers themselves a lefty. For now.
You get a public beating if you chew bubble bum, i would say its pretty safe
You may get fined, bit there's no caning for that offence.
I would say it's relatively safe, that being said, when I was there a little while ago, there were many billboards around the place advising women about the dangers of molesters….
I've lived all over western Sydney and have finally found a safe, nice, convenient place to live. For the past four years I have been living at Winston Hills (2153) Perfect access to the M2, easy transport to Parramatta including the T Way system and close-ish to Westmead hospital should you need it. Honestly 570K won't buy you much here but it is definitely worth looking into.
Where do you live, which ones are the safe suburb in your area?
OP Did you also consider other factors such as good public schools, proximity to public transport and alternative places you might work in future (other than CBD e.g. North Ryde, Parramatta or chatswood)
Along with night life (if it's important), food/eateries and entertainment as other parameters in selecting a suburb.
Hornsby, castle hill, baulkham Hills area, Gosford and few other suburb surrounding there should be good in terms of meeting your travelling/commuting not of safety statistics there but I know schools are great in baulkham Hills.
Good luck
Ryde probably ticks a lot of those boxes, easy commute to North Ryde / Macquarie and buses not too bad to CBD / Chatswood. Only problem is budget but it's cheaper than a lot of its neighbours, an older renovated place should be possible within OPs budget
Redfern aren't so bad as per people comments above. But not for raising family, of course.
Comparable suburb in Melbourne would be Richmond.
Wentworthville (near my parents' place a few years ago):
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/wentworthvill…
On your budget, aim for Hornsby.
Looks like Wentworthville would trump it for night life…
Hornsby ranks 10th out of 225 Sydney suburbs on the Urban Living Index if you think that's anything to go by.
I keep on hearing lots of good things about Lakemba from Today/Tonight & A Current Affair… worth a shot?
It has a local mosque, so a high proportion of muslims. If you follow Allah, that is an advantage. If you are intolerant of that religion, not so much. In either case, there is some great food in the area.
It's not really the buyer being intolerant of "that" religion, it's more the people who are already living in that area. Just imagine if the buyer were of an opposing religion, the buyer may be tolerant of all religions, but his neighbours may not be.
Lots of comments re public housing tenants and to avoid them but keep in mind that they have to behave themselves or face eviction or being transferred away. My last house was next door to the biggest mansion in the street and I suffered for years at their hands. Single mum Of disabled kids they made our lives hell and I could not do a thing because they were private. Had they been living in housing commission they would have been moved I was assaulted. Our dog was baited as was the neighbours and even with them verbally admitting it nothing could ever be done they played the racism card over and over and even the police feared them it seemed. As soon as I moved and the house sold they bought it pulled it down and built a massive duplex one home for each twenty something son. Being confronted on a daily basis by up to six Lebanese Muslim men for almost five years was something I wish on nobody so think carefully and look carefully at the neighbours before buying. Some housing commission tenants want the same thing your liking for too - good luck
I live in the east. Pretty safe here.
Havent caught the bus for years but still the same routes getting to Bondi junction.
Nice walks along the beach, lots of boobs on the weekend.
Just have to put up with lebs and their doof doof music doing laps on fridays.
Good luck with that price range though.
maybe no such deal on the beach front side area anymore but some 2 bedder deals do come up in the surrounding suburbs and doupperers around the area. Just depends if op is up for some handywork.
Ditto. I
Wollongong !! Yes itsnot a suburb of Sydney but its one of the best places to live in Oz with its Beautiful beaches and and nice people (generally). The distance from Wollongong to Sydney is about 80-90 kilometres.
Ive been living in the Gong for the last 9 years and ive never had any problems safety wise.
Agreed, I would love to be able to live there as well. However we couldn't make it work due to job's commute and children commitments :(
Sooooo much ignorance in this thread.
But some have commented based on their actual experience and its been an eye opener. Thanks everyone for sharing.
Also, while Hornsby is a good choice to consider, if its out of your budget, try Asquith (next door). They have heaps of apartments being built in the area and one stop away from Hornsby.
I live near the area so I see them when I drive around.
I've not looked at what apartments cost recently but why not have a look around the Campsie/Canterbury area. Sure, it might not be the newest thing but i'd rather suffer old than the horrendous commute. Long term, if you do some renos, an apartment is going to appreciate more closer to the city than out of it.
Lived all over Sydney and in various cities around the world (#brag).
If you're a white male, you'll be safe everywhere without concern.
If you're not a white male, you'll be safe in 95% of Sydney and if you keep your wits about you, you'll be safe everywhere.
Completely agree, it all depends on how street smart you are. There is very little difference around Sydney. Yes some suburbs/areas have a few more problems than others, but listening to people on here telling stories of people being mugged in certain areas is completely meaningless. Crime doesn't discriminate, criminals are in EVERY suburb of Sydney. The suburbs between Parramatta and Blacktown are fine, nothing wrong with them at all. I bet 99.99% of people who live in those suburbs have never had any major problems. Don't listen to anyone who tells you 'not to buy into a particular suburb'.
570k, dont forget the money for stamp duty and other things
Which suburbs have the most gangs, violence, drug dealers and criminals?
Are there some stats available?
Looking to score? Or trying find a niche for your start-up gang?
Lol. More like looking to avoid :)
I am also in the market to move out.
Check inside the Gladesville/Rhodes/Epping triangle (i.e. Ryde for instance)
Unfortunately I think this is out of his budget. I myself am looking for a 2 bedroom unit around this area and they're going for at least 650-700k.
Glenwood is good, proof I live there… bad thing is that it isn't convenient and you probably wouldn't get much with $570,000…
Having said that, I don't see any safety issues in Blacktown or any of the suburbs you mentioned, but according to everyone that doesn't live there, it's like hell on earth [rolls eyes]
One more thing, with $570,000 I don't think you'll find much in the suburbs you are looking at… best bet would be to go further south or west. However, safety wise would be purely based on the people you talk to.
Slightly off-topic..
I was schooled in one of the Shire suburbs 2 years each for primary and secondary, it was the best times til I moved to the St. George area also changed schools, MISERABLE and still haunts me till this day.
If I was buying I'd look somewhere between Arncliffe and Cronulla along the train line. It's a big area so plenty of flexibility to find what you need. And the commute is easy, not nearly as packed as the commuter trains from the West.
Property is going to be more expensive but I would guess it's going to appreciate more in value due to the limited land area. Unlike the West where the council sees the solution to the housing crisis as churning out bulk new builds.
Redfern. Safest place in the world.
I live in Wentworthville for the last 4 years and it's a peaceful suburb, I would say. I don't use public transport, possibly that could be the reason I find it safe.
Agreed, I've been living in Wentworthville since last five years, there's plus and minus just like any other suburbs, I take trains everyday, works out well for me, although can get crowded at times. I avoid going out late at night, but that's just me. I don't think i'd go out late in any suburb irrespective of whether it's "considered" safe/not safe.
Re crimes, yes there's been some petty and some serious (car broken into and recent raids in lane st, wentworthville), but then we're kidding ourselves if we point one suburb and say it's going the be the safest suburb for next 10 years..or to assume that the suburb is safe because it's never had any incident. Not saying you ignore crime stats, but don't base your decision on isolated incidents….Well at least not until we have the Minority Report technology!
Very appreciated for all the comments, you guy's been very helpful.
I'm glad that I asked!
I have lived in Westmead for last 8 years and found it pretty safe. I dont think we should mark off a suburb because of 1 or 2 isolated incidence.
I live near Pendle Hill and visit both Pendle Hill and Wentworthville frequently. From what I've seen and heard, they're relatively safe suburbs, pretty decent public transport (buses and trains), supermarkets nearby with other street shops such as green grocers, fish, meat, hardware, etc. Plenty of GPs and specialists close as well. Large population of those from the Indian-subcontinent, but that just means great curry places are everywhere. There's a scattering of bogans in the area but they're in every suburb anyway.
Not sure if you'll be able to find a house for that price though in the area. If you do find something, it's most likely going to be a dump. Also, bad street lighting at night, but Holroyd council is working on fixing that for both Wentworthville and Pendle Hill.
Have you thought about the shire? You might be able to find a 2~3 bed unit for that amount. Engadine, Heathcote, loftus, Kirrawee, Sutherland.
570k for a 2 bed room house?
what
You can be lucky, obviously… I don't think ANY of the suburbs you listed would be what I would call "safe", but post after post has made comments like "I have lived there for x years and have never had any trouble." I guess most people in those suburbs would say the same thing…..or else no one would live there! However, to STAY safe you have to be prepared to put up with bars on windows, high-security provisions, and a knowledge of which are the "no-go" zones for you or for your parked car. And, of course, also with neighbours and their problems just a wall away. You can be lucky.
The less you have to spend, the more of this ambience you are going to have to put up with… And, frankly, it's getting worse every year, because these areas are usually being given over to ever-more-sardine-like medium density housing.
You can live with that, I guess, or you can change your criteria. It's not all that easy to change the one about purchase price… Obviously you have to spend what you have to spend. But there is one you can CHOOSE to compromise on. Change that two hours' round trip commuting to three hours, and you can look at, say Blaxland, Mt Riverview, Warrimoo, Valley Heights, Faulconbridge, Woodford. Suddenly, for your money, you are starting to talk houses with backyards and trees. But you have to plan your commuting time carefully…not such an impost for being able to leave your car unlocked in the morning ( by error, of course) and probably returning to find it intact in the evening (don't make a habit of it, however!).
How about Holsworthy? I am also searching for a house that area. But I doubt $570K can buy a house there.
NestPilot is pretty awesome for this kind of thing (if you can get a beta invite). Uses Google Maps data to help you find your perfect place to live based on your most common commute(s).
i heard of a guy called Trent he recommends Punchbowl
Crime rate is escalating up there though. They're having a couple of break ins a day between Gordon and Hornsby. A unit should be ok though.
I like the suburb though, train station is good, good trails and good westfield.