Apartment hunting in Sydney is pretty painless. Here’s how we did it.
First, Margaret and I gave ourselves a whirlwind walking tour of some of the Sydney suburbs that we thought we might want to live in (they call them ‘suburbs’ even though some of them are not at all suburban). Here’s my quick take on the ones we visited:
- The Central Business District (CBD): way too much like NYC.
- Darlinghurst and Surrey Hills: cute and bohemian.
- Mosman: quiet, leafy, but a little too expensive and not near enough public transportation.
- Kirribilli: very cute, friendly feel, convenient to train and ferry. One of our favorites.
- Milson’s Point: surprisingly dead (for being so close to Kirribilli) and too business-y.
- Crow’s Nest: another favorite with plenty of cafes and shops along it’s main drag while still feeling like a small, friendly neighborhood.
- St. Leonard’s: pretty boring and business-y.
After scoping out the hoods, we started our apartment search online at Domain.com.au. We restricted our search to furnished apartments in Kirribilli and Crow’s Nest, our two favorites of the suburbs we saw, and found a bunch of listings in Kirribilli (and none within our price range in Crow’s Nest). Happily, many of the Kirribilli listings were all by the same real estate agency: Deborah Richardson Real Estate. So we talked to Naton, the agent, and booked appointments to see three apartments in Kirribilli.
Out of the three places we looked at in Kirribilli, one clearly stood out above the others. The flat was in a modern building with a nice lobby and elevator, had a roof deck, and was well furnished. And, well, no surprise here, we liked it so much that we decided to put in an application to lease it. What is surprising, though, is how low-stress it is to lease an apartment in Sydney (compared to, say, New York). I didn’t need to show any pay stubs to prove my salary level. I didn’t need to sign some crazy landlord-specific lease with clauses about what percentage of the floor I had to keep covered with rugs (leases in New South Wales are regulated and standardized by a central body). And, best of all, I didn’t need to pay any sort of broker’s fee for getting the apartment (10% of the annual rent is typical in New York). All I had to do was fill out an application, then wait a day for them to process it and tell me I was approved. Then I just showed up with the security deposit (they call it a ‘bond’ which, incidentally, is held by some standard third-party New South Wales Bond Board, not by the landlord or leasing agent) and the first month’s rent and I signed the lease and got the keys. This is a proper country.
OK, so what’s the place look like? Check out the pictures on Flickr.
