where is a good place to live in ACT

[Lirael]

Hi to evryone down in ACT im currently in Qld and would really like to move some time in the next year. I have a few questions as i have never been to Canberra. I would very much appreciate any info or suggestions you have.

What suburbs are good,family friendly and close to shops and good schools(primary at this stage)
How is the rental market looking in these areas?(price wise)
Can anyone recommend a particular place to live?

also any good or bad comments would be appreciated(ie suburbs or places to avoid)

thank you so much for taking the time to reply.
cel:wave:

[MrsMiggins]

I actually moved the other direction!! :laughing: I am a Canberra ex-pat now living in QLD.

I lived on both the Northside & the Southside (raised a Northsider) and I'm not sure how familiar you are with Canberra, but you're probably going to get a bit of Northside/Southside bias!! Friendly bias! :p

I'm a bit biased toward the Northside. I grew up in Spence & while there are good areas & bad areas (which I think you can safely say of many areas of Canberra), I thought it was lovely!

I have family in the Gunghalin area & the schools there are apparently very good. There are many young families living in the area, so facilities are growing & tend to be pretty modern.

I also have a friend with young children who lives in Calwell (Southside) and she thinks where she lives is a great area for kids.

I reckon that pretty much wherever you go in Canberra, you find great things if that's what you're looking for.

Canberra is a wonderful place to grow up! :thumbsup:

[HoopDeeDoo]

Canberra is pretty expensive rent wise. Some of the cheaper suburbs are Gordon, banks, Condor, Gowrie, Issabella Plains in the south

Then you've got Gungahlin in the North.

Canberra is not very big, so even if you live a the edge of Canberra it's only 40 min maximum to the other side. There are 5 main shopping centres so wherever you live you are close to shops.
I myself am a southside girl, the houses are newer and a bit cheaper.

if you want an idea about rentals this website is a must http://www.allhomes.com.au

for example we are living in Gordon in a smallish townhouse in a complex, three bed one bath, lounge and dining, single LUG, we pay $250 per week

Hope this helps PM me if you have any more Qs

[mummybunny]

to be honest i think that if ur planning on moving to canberra it comes down to personal oppion. u are going to get a different answer from ever person u speak to so u would need to see for urself!
personly im a southsider and love it over here but its got its bad areas which every place does! im not a north side fan tho everytime i seem to be over that side something bad happends (maybe im just bad luck)
as for prices southside (eg gordan bonython calwell isabella plains) are about to go up hugly in price centerlink is making there new head offices over this way so there will be a huge demand for housing in the near by areas... our house is right behind the building we bout it in december for 320,000 or something like that and the price has already increased...
so i think ud just have to look around for what u like and what u wanna pay as far as pricing goes!
have fun

[mummybunny]

oh and where r u living mumofnoah? im in gordan atm but moving to bonython in november!

[lovingmotheract]

any where but in the city there is a web site www.allhomes.com.au is a good place to start but it rent here is a bit much i'm a northside and have been my hole life. :smiliedance: and look up school's in canberra to so u can see what some school have. let keep me posted.:)

[DQ]

(Slightly off the topic) But I am about 2 hours from Canberra, but I visit there twice a year every year. I just love Canberra. There is something about it!!! I would absolutely love to move there and we just might later on in life!

Good luck with your move, I am jealous!!!!

[whatwasithinking]

I moved from Melb to Canberra in February and pretty much had the same questions as you.

I moved to Nicholls (northside) and work in Belconnen so it is only 6minutes away. The city of Canberra is only 15minutes away.

Pretty much all has already been said by the other ladies. If you want to PM me feel free and ask as many questions as you like.

Rental can't help with though as we bought.

Most of the other ladies probably will know heaps more as they have lived in Canberra alot longer than little old me. But if I can help I will.

Talk soon.

[sweetvanilla]

oh my....

we are moving to ACT in Feb nxt yr and am researrching as well. meybe we cld meet up?

i m in qld now. Lookinh to rent our brand new house and yes, we r moving again it seems! arghhhhhhhh.....

[whatwasithinking]

I PM'd mum-of-preston with heaps of links and advice if you want to PM her. (I deleted my pm's). There was heaps so it may be worth asking her.

If that fails then I'll PM you both with the info that I remember.

[Lil Mamma]

Hello!
I grew up on northside, and hubby on south so we are both a bit biased :D
We currently live in belconnen near the mall, before I got married I lived in Nicholls (gungahlin) with my parents it was lovely!! I think gungahlin is a really nice, clean, new area that is rapidly expanding. My hubby grew up in tuggeranong and weston and those areas were both good. As another poster said, I'd stay away from the city and surrounding areas. I've heard alot of bad things about charnwood as well. Good Luck!

PS hi sweetvanilla! id love to meet up with you when you move to canberra

[Rhys'Mum]

I moved to Canberra from WA years ago and ended up Northside because that's where I was going to work. Seems most people who come to Canberra (rather than grow up here) move close to work or family and pretty much stay in that vacinity sp - which says to me its all pretty good.

We live in Gungahlin in a newish house. Its demographic has been pretty heavily double income no kid professional 1st home buyers, but over the last couple of years there has been a baby explosion (my understanding is similar thing happened southside in Tuggeranong about a decade ago and there is a bit of a revival there again at the moment - girls in that area might have a better idea though).

We have great facilities, lots of open space and parks. Brand new shopping precinct that is currently expanding (Big W,Aldi,Coles, Woolworths and some specialyt shops). A couple of childcare centres that I'm told are pretty good but have long waiting lists - I'm really happy with ours. There is a new major road going in that is supposed to improve travel to other areas of Canberra but even at present its 15min to centre of town, about 20 to Woden, 10 to Belconnen, 30 to Tuggeranong centre, 20 to Fyshwick and 30 to Queanbeyan add up to 15min if its peak hour. I do a lot of travelling around Canberra in my current job (when I'm not working from home) and really, nothing is very far, traffic is really good and it all looks lovely. Public transport isn't as good as some cities though so without a vehicle it is good to be new facilities you might use and/or work.

[singingscooby]

i live in amaroo and like it but the houses are a bit too close together for my liking. you can hear all your neighbours phone calls lol. i think belco is nice though .

[shinebrite]

Im a south girl! started on the north but came over to south bout 3 yrs ago its a lot more hillier over here than north. and i find tat wen im over the north its a lot windier than south cause we have the hills to block the wind. Also I find it so beautiful in the winter cause the moutains behind us fill up with snow and its lovely to look at!

I think housing is a bit cheaper though over north...dunno mayb im wrong but wen we were lookin for houses we would always consider north cause they were just cheaper...

I think u kinda have to live on both sides to kinda hav an idea personally south is better for us cause we have friends here. my hubby works all over canberra so thats not an issue... spose where u work is a good place to live I hate travelling too far for work and then havin to pay for damn parking!!!!!

sorry to blab...lol

ETA I live in theodore! and I think canberra is a great place to raise a family...something bout it? everything is close so thats good.....PM me if u want anymore info? oo the house next door to us just went up for sale! we hav a great street and our neighbours have 2 bubs one 9wks one 2 1/2 yrs and then theres my lucy who is 13wks so yeah u could move here!!! :laughing:

[IheartOman]

Hi Cel,

I have lived in Canberra for 3 years. The great thing about Canberra is it has many benefits being a city but many benefits of being a country town! If you choose to move right down south you are looking at a drive of up to 50 mins into civic but the closer south you come in the shorter travelling time. Almost anywhere you live to anywhere you want to go will take about 20 mins and no more than that.

It's great because there are shops in (almost) every suburb. A grocery shop and petrol at the minimum! Normally a school too.

Personally, I prefer north side -Belconnen, Kaleen, Giralang, Evatt, and surrounding suburbs or inner south - Kingston, Manuka, Griffith. Depends on what money you can spen on rent etc really!

Regardless of what you choose I think Canberra is a place you can love living in and if you move somewhere and dont like it it's easy travel time to try another suburb!

On where not to go- I dont want to offend anyone may read this so I will tread lightly. I find with MOST suburbs there is a 'safe' area to live and a 'not the safest' area to live. The suburb I know more known for 'not the safest' almost all round would be Charnwood, which is far far north!

Hope that helps!

Good luck! :fingerscrossed:

[Mrs Potts]

Hi Cel,
On where not to go- I dont want to offend anyone may read this so I will tread lightly. I find with MOST suburbs there is a 'safe' area to live and a 'not the safest' area to live. The suburb I know more known for 'not the safest' almost all round would be Charnwood, which is far far north!


That was the case up until a few years ago. These days it's not really any worse overall than any other suburb. There are some new townhouse complexes, and many people moving in to the area are renovating. In the past it was predominatly public housing which tended to keep property value in the area down, and kept the "snobs" out.

[IheartOman]

As I said.. I wasn't trying to offend anyone. And I made a point of making it clear that it was simply MY opinion based on MY experience. As that's all we have.. our own experiences.

[pixietrix]

I don't think you will regret moving to Canberra. I came here 10 years ago for work (moved from Brissie) and would now never live anywhere else. All the advice so far is great- use allhomes website and both north and southside are wonderful. I'm southside and think you just can't beat views of snow on the Brindabella and the paddocks full of kangaroos down Athllon Dr.
There are no real slum areas, it's more like good and less good patches in most suburbs. Govt (housing commission) houses are spread right across Canberra not crammed into any one area and I think this helps.

The only extra advice I would offer is to check that your suburb will have a local school. Recently a lot of the smaller schools have been told to close:( so its worth a check to see whats going to be available.

Good luck and we hope to see you when you get here.:)

[lovingmotheract]

Hi Cel,

On where not to go- I dont want to offend anyone may read this so I will tread lightly. I find with MOST suburbs there is a 'safe' area to live and a 'not the safest' area to live. The suburb I know more known for 'not the safest' almost all round would be Charnwood, which is far far north!

Hope that helps!

Good luck! :fingerscrossed:

hey i have lived in charnwood my hole life and it's not bad at all i was about 10years ago now all the ppl have moved over to red hill and the city

[Mrs Potts]

Shanilee - I wasn't offended, just mentioning that Charnwood these days is much the same as any other suburb...