Monday, September 17, 2007

Househunting

Today we saw one apartment and one house. The apartment was in a brand new luxury building. Rent $A450 per week ($US1666 per month). It was nice with plenty of balconies etc. but maybe not my "cup of tea". Snork Maiden was impressed and seems that is the standard that other places will be judged by. Later we saw an old house in a suboptimal location. On the outside it looked nice. Inside the floor plan and decoration was chaotic, like a crazy maze. I always sketch out a floorplan of the places we visit to help me remember them. Halfway through, Snork Maiden said: "Don't bother". The rent was $A400 ($US1480 per month). In between we gathered plenty of information. We have several lined up tomorrow. Looking at one of the rental applications I am feeling a little scared about whether we will be accepted as I don't meet usual criteria for identification or income. How much rent will they allow us on SM's salary? I guess we'll soon find out. SM definitely prefers areas within walking distance of the city centre now. Before we came here, she told me she'd like to live further out in a house with a garden. But the reality is that even Canberra's centre is very quiet. This suits me, as long as we qualify for the rent on a place that is big enough for us.

3 comments:

Rafi (S) said...

Rent sounds real expensive there. How big are these places?

enoughwealth@yahoo.com said...

The house prices are even higher than rents in comparison to most places in the US. In Sydney you're lucky to get a rental return of 3% these days. Then again, it's always been the case in Australia - my parents were shocked when the moved to Australia in 1964 and found that the money they'd got for selling a good house in the UK wasn't enough to buy a similar place in Sydney. What has changed recently in Australia is that prices in other capital cities (such as Hobart, Perth and Darwin) have caught up with the Eastern capital cities.

ps. Moom - isn't it time to change you're "about me" blurb? Should read location: Australia, and "our" net worth... ;)

enoughwealth@yahoo.com said...

Oops - I just checked and you have already changed the location. D'Oh!