WA Moving to Perth-Budget 700-760k

Hi! We are moving to Perth soon(hopefully) and looking to buy a house in a 'decent' school zone such as Duncraig High, Woodvale High, Greenwood College? Any other schools in the area ok? (mainly worried about socio economic factors(rough kids) rather than academics) We are happy to renovate(painting, kitchen, bathrooms) but want something OKish as won't want to renovate straight away. Are we dreaming? Are places way over our budget now? We need to live in a safe family area. Moving from NZ as we live in Queenstown and need more to do for our kids they get older so don't want to be too far away from beaches and city. Also, looking for good capital growth (not going backwards) as want to sell or rent out in a few years as we upgrade. Am I looking at the right suburbs? Padbury, Woodvale, Kingsley, Greenwood??? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated as may have to buy a house from here...Thank you!

 

IMO, I would be looking at Lake Coogee ( a few mins from the beach) . The areas you mentioned are all fine though.

 

Padbury, slightly closer to the beach, better high school "Duncraig high", good family suburb and you'll get something half decent in that budget.

 

Thanks for your reply! Do you know about schools in this suburb?

 

If you could get into Carine High School that would be my first choice. Then Duncraig HS, Greenwood HS, then Woodvale.

It may depend what your children’s interests are as each school has different specialist programs. Eg Greenwood has aviation. Aviation — Greenwood College
Carine
Gifted and Talented Selective Academic Program - Carine Senior High School

I’d be doing a lot more research into what each school is offering.

Demographics are good for all schools/neighbourhoods. If you join Facebook sites you may get a better insight of areas also.

 

How many bedrooms do you need and would you be willing to live in a duplex?

You could get away with Doubleview which would get you into Churchlands High if you were happy with a duplex, $550k example (yes it's on main road) https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-doubleview-139390495
or Woodlands (also Churchlands) https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-woodlands-139485615

Bob Hawke College About Us - Bob Hawke College is an excellent, newly built school and with some bargain hunting you might be able to get into something in Mt Hawthorn, Wembley in your price bracket but again might be a duplex. Excellent facilities and quite close to the city and would turn into an excellent IP though

 

PS Mt Lawley high also great school and good for city work. Not so peachy but depends what you want to do. Some areas like North Perth are in the catchment and still not too far to beach eg https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-north+perth-139454587

 

Hi, Thanks for your reply! I have done a bit of research and know about these specialist programs but really just looking for a normal school where teachers care and students are happy and come from decent homes. You say all these areas have good demographics , that's great but are there any that we should avoid? From my research, Warwick High, Kinross High, Belridge High, Clarkson High are no good and not nice to live in? I don't think we could afford Carine unfortunately.
Thank you : )

 

Thank you ! We are looking for at least 4 bedroom or 3 bedroom plus two living. We have 3 children and a dog so need some space and near a dog beach would be a bonus.

 

I met a real estate agent recently and he looked quite disturbed when he mentioned he went to Warwick High. I don’t like the look of it/language I hear from students after school. I know a few kids that went to Duncraig, Greenwood and Woodvale but all early twenties now. I have heard of people pulling their kids out of Woodvale and being happier at Greenwood. They felt their kids had been bullied. So the list I wrote earlier of preference of schools stems from what I hear locally and the preference I would want for my own kids but they are approaching twenty and early twenties now. I was faced with this decision also and was looking at the suburbs you mentioned also - plus Carine & Duncraig & surrounds also until I got priced out when I relocated from QLD 8ish years ago.

Hillarys/Whitfords dog and horse beach is good for us as not many people go there and my dog’s a bit nervous of other dogs. Lots of on leash and off leash areas - Bushland and parks around if your dog is sociable.

 

Very helpful thank you! So, where did your kids end up going to school? Is there a local private school that's cheapish or all long waiting lists. I will aim for Padbury or Greenwood/Kingsley and hopefully we can get in for our budget! (offlead parks and beaches are a must! Pretty spoilt here but looks awesome there as well!)

 

Carine HS.
I found it virtually impossible to get into a good private school even though my daughter attended a private school in year 8 in Brisbane.I don’t know much about the private schools but I hear they are popular. I think Duncraig would run as a good second choice.

 

There is a few cheapish (depends on your version of cheap but sub $10k pa) private schools with waiting lists that aren't insane. Check out St Marks, St Stephens which are close and popular in the area - but further away but cheaper again is John Septimus Roe in Mirrabooka (kinda bad location but the students live in the better suburbs around it)

Schools I would be willing to send my kids to (I have a 14 and 16yo) are Carine, Duncraig, Churchlands, Shenton College, Bob Hawke College and Mt Lawley High. The rest I would avoid if I had the choice.

Yup 3 kids and a dog isn't really going to fit in a 3 x 1.

 

These two FB pages - if you ask for an update on schools could be helpful. I don’t follow Padbury/Duncraig pages.

 

Duncraig HS is getting a facelift Media Statements - Key milestone for big project at Duncraig Senior High School

it’s also higher on the rating than Carine HS

 

Hatw to be the bearer of bad news but

1) close to beach
2) 4 bedder
3) in decent public school catchment
4) for 750k budget

Isnt going to happen

You say a big motivation for the move is your kids, if thats the case id pesonally , in your situation, move abit further from the beach ajd and send them to a better public school.

Padbury, greenwood etc arent the worst by any means but they definitely would have a easier time of it in carine or bob hawke or one of the others

 

Alternatively if youre willing to forego the beach then you would be able to just squeeze an older 4 bedder in willetton/rossmoyne high school zone, which would be school far superior to the options previously mentioned, but you would be a fair drive to the beach.

You would definitely be in safe, family area and the purchase would wnd up being a good outcome financially as there is never ending demand for those schools

 

Rossmoyne would be more suitable for students being pushed hard academically I’d assume?

 

Thank you for your reply. 750k budget I do realise won't get us into Duncraig or Carine. But pretty sure would be fine in Greenwood/Kingsley? I realise Woodvale and Greenwood schools are not the best public schools but realise we can't afford the 'best'. But we didn't want to go backwards from where we are now in Queenstown(NZ) where they would go to the high school here as it's the only one in town. The school here is very mixed with low to very very high socio economic backgrounds. A lot of kids end up going into hospitality/tourism/trades/construction here. 75% pass rate for year 13. If they have a problem such as bullying there is no alternative apart from homeschooling. The school here is very modern but has a 'modern learning style', no traditional classrooms and a lot of self motivation required which I don't think works for a lot of kids. So, I just didn't want to move them to an even worse situation. I will check out the areas you mentioned as beach is not that important. Thank you so much for your advice, I really appreciate it!

 

Not really into that and really don't think we can afford this area anyway...Our kids are at a new primary school which is a 'modern learning environment' No traditional classrooms, no homework, open plan disaster! Very happy kids as absolutely no pressure and a lot of play but they will not transition well to a highly academic , highly pressured high school. By the way, thank you for those fb pages! I posted a couple of questions and getting millions of responses about those schools (Greenwood and Woodale) , very helpful residents!!