WA Perth - is the grass greener over there??

Hello fellow forum folks,

It's been a while since I have been active but after a recent investment property purchase in Quinn's Rocks followed by a subsequent visit I'm hooked for a move from Sydney to Perth's northern beachside suburbs anywhere upwards from Hillary's.

I want to escape the hustle and bustle and the deteriorating Sydney demographic and move for a quieter beach life.

I'm interested if anyone has done the same move and has any insight into the negatives that I may have overlooked by my quick visit.

Some negatives I can think of are as follows....

- availability of restaurants with different cuisines
- distance and remoteness to any other Oz city
- availability of equivalent high paying IT jobs
- super spread out nature of Perth (i.e. a car city)
- new friend networks need to established
- distance from existing friends and family

I'm really looking to be challenged by rose coloured glasses but think selling up Sydney PPOR 1.3m and maybe 1 other IP and moving to Perth to buy a property with the proceed will have serious financial uplift and lifestyle benefits.


Thoughts......?
q

 

Do it! I’ve moved from Brisbane to Perth to Brisbane then back to Perth. First move was to Bassendean and Morley areas. Second move was to Kingsley, ten minutes drive inland from Hillarys and Sorrento. There is lots of quality bakeries, coffee shops, delicatessen, fish/chips, Thai, Chinese, Indian, Italian, etc from Warwick, Greenwood, Kingsley, Padbury, Duncraig, Woodvale. I mainly eat out at Scarborough, Hillarys and Mullaloo. It’s easy to jump on the train to the city or Leederville. I find there is so many food choices in this area there is a lot I haven’t tried - Wanneroo has a few good places I hear also.

I find people are fairly friendly. There is a lot of immigrants. There is some Facebook groups for meeting friends. You can invite people for a Perth PropertyChat meet up.

I love the Perth beaches and slower pace of lifestyle. Traffic is easy and public transport good. I love the northern beach areas too. It’d be pretty hard to leave this area now.

 

Hey mate, i grew up there and lived there until 2014 before heading east. some thoughts:

- availability of restaurants with different cuisines: there's heaps when youre central. i always said Perth has at least one of everything, you just need to know where to find it. definitely since ive left the restaurant scene has only got better.
- distance and remoteness to any other Oz city: true, but on the plus side you rarely get surge pricing on airlines because planes dont book out as much. Its just an extra 1-2 hours on the plane vs. Syd to Melb. If youre not a frequent flyer its very manageable.
- availability of equivalent high paying IT jobs: suspect there will be stacks. skilled workers command a premium there and it has the lowest unemployment in the country. Try talking to a recruiter before you go to get a feel.
- super spread out nature of Perth (i.e. a car city): very true. i grew up in Joondalup, then moved to Scarborough to be closer to the action. Scarborough was nice to go for a beach run on the weekend/evenings but my work commute was still a drive/train or 15km bike ride. I then moved to highgate to cut my work commute. I loved highgate, stacks of restaurants and entertainment, close to everything and buzzing, but yeah had to drive for the beach. If you just want a nice beach in the northern suburbs, look around Mullaloo. After Mullaloo the sand ends until Mindarie/Quinns, but even then i find those beaches have exposed rock and arent as nice. but as you get further away from the city, the cultural side of Perth can get very far away.
- new friend networks need to established: this will be a challenge. Perth can be quite clique-y, particularly in the suburbs and people tend to have a different mindset to big east coast cities (though i imagine thats part of the appeal). Every time i go back i find myself more of a different person to my old friends there, but i guess most people say that of their school friends. There are certainly some wonderful people over there, you might just have to put yourself out there to find them. Working will be a great start, and finding a hobby group will help even more.
- distance from existing friends and family: this is certainly the toughest one for me. However, i recently moved from Melbourne to Canberra and found that equally as hard just being a 1h flight or day-drive away. Fact is as soon as you leave the city and you're not able to just drop in after work and say hi to someone, your relationship changes. You cant console them in person when they're sad, or go for a spur of the moment beer after work. The only people i know who have successfully moved to another city and maintained very close ties did so because they retained a house in the former city and spent periods of time there each year. So on that, i would say this is a consideration for any move you make, be it Perth or otherwise.

In general i have to say that living in Perth is a genuine post-card life. weather is amazing, beaches are next level, it has a great restaurant scene, and big events go there. I honestly think more people would live there if they got past the fact that its a 3-4 hour flight away. What stops me moving back? jobs in my industry were non-existent until about a year ago, so i had to be based east. now all my friends and family are here, and being relatively young/starting a family that's keeping me here (i'm actually moving back from Canberra to Melb). and actually, that in its own is a good comparison - i moved to canberra to get away from the cabin fever that was stewing in melbourne through covid. it didnt work out and i'm moving back, but i have zero regrets about trying it.

I say if you're thinking about it, just get out there and do it. Best case you love it, make friends there and have a fantastic life. Worst case you find out its not for you, but it will remind you of all the little things about Sydney that you love but forgot in the chaos of living there. Either way, the long-run outcome is a greater appreciation for the life you're living.

 

What was meant to be a couple of months over in perth is nearly 18 months.

Below is only comparative to Sydney

1) Food - Middle eastern food here is overpriced/bad - Needs an El Janneh/Jasmine1 badly. But most other cuisines are pretty readily available. Though Northern beaches is probable more anglo orientated (lot of British though if your into fish and chips and British Indian)

2) Car - definately need a car. Even the train stations in most suburbs dont really cater for walking too (catch the bus or park at the station - though they actually have decent carparks). In saying that roads are pretty decent relative to the low population. Free unlimited parking is possible 20 mins walk from CBD.

3) Remoteness - Yea this one is tough. Living on the east coast travelling between capital cities is like $50 and a couple of hours while perth will cost a lot more and take time. While it might not seem much it will get you after a while. On another note travelling to Asia will seem easier (and probably cheaper than east coast

Socially - Found Perth more chilled and friendly. Though it depends on who you are and not the location. Not many expats around when I moved (covid) but locals are definitely are friendly.

Cost of living - Im finding it a bit higher than Sydney. Groceries outside of Woolies/Coles, eating out, drinks etc. Accomodation is off course a lot cheaper (even if the locals think its crazy expensive)

Pros - Definitely nature - there is so much to do here - beaches/mountains etc. Just need a 4wd to access 99% (what I feel like it haha). Beaches here to me are the best in world. 12 hours drive in winter to Ningaloo reef feels like summer - Another 6 hours and at probably the worlds best national park. And yea few hours south is apparently meant to be amazing too (personally not a fan of sth west WA)

Note - Im not actually saying the grass is greener. It could be for you, it could be for you for a while. I still call Sydney home

 

What hobbies do you enjoy? Sports? Are you coming solo or do you have a partner/kids?

Depending on your exact budget you could get much closer to CBD.

No toll roads.

Weather - today I had a bush walk and golf - with kangaroos watching - in the sunshine.

 

This is interesting thread. I'm on a similar boat, really tempted to move to Perth at the moment from Melbourne.

One of my main drive:
1. Cheap flights to Asia
2. Suburb with good school is relatively cheap compared to Syd/Melbourne. For example, WIlleton/Canning vale still around 700-900k ish, while in Melbourne for something with good school & twice the distance to the CBD probably around 1.2-1.3 ish.

Main consideration for me against the move is also availability of equivalent high paying IT jobs. This is not only on the salary itself but the type of work as well. Having talked to my colleagues who's coming from Perth, normally in Perth the type of work (local company) is mostly dealing with legacy system, which is not my cup of tea.

Having said that, these days there are a lot of remote opportunity available from all the big tech companies that are based on the east coast. The availability of course is less than the on-site opportunities, but it is available.

Might worth trying to rent there & rent out your current sydney PPOR, see if you like it or not before commit into buying PPOR in Perth.

 

Perth is cultural backwater don't come here. Sydney and Melbourne are the only cites that matter. So much so the we want WA's GST argument is back in discussion.

 

Cottesloe today
Just gorgeous - have your own space to swim

 

Good sharks too in early spring

 

Haha, yep, we had some fun looking over the ocean from the pub trying to start shark rumours every time a helicopter flew over but we failed

 

It did look a bit like a shark though

 

Jobs: my understanding is that it depends how high paid your IT job is. Upper middle of the field you'll be ok but there are lots more 160k+ IT jobs in Syd. Friends I know have moved to Syd from Perth for this reason. These are typically the people who work long hours and don't miss the WA outdoors anyway.

Lifestyle: I find inner Perth, Western Suburbs, Fremantle surrounds are too busy now. It's all relative, go for what you like.

The grass is typically less green because it doesn't get rainfall across the year, it almost all comes in winter.

Social: Can be cliquey but there's plenty of people who didn't grow up there so that helps. Probably a bit like Newcastle. In my brief experience in Newcastle it was generally a cliquey place but have had lots of people move to their city in the last decade so it's diluted that a bit.

Speaking of Newcastle, aren't there closer less busy places with decent housing? Or would the distance of Perth give you a reset and a new place to enjoy. Generally, I'm in favour of moving every 5 years as it prevents me sliding into terminal ennui.

 

I moved there for work at one point in my life, Perth was fine, much slower than Sydney but not bad, eventually distance between me and long time friends & family became too much, I moved back. You will realise there's a lot more to your life than cheaper houses

 

After holidaying in Perth in early May, I thought it was beautiful.
Sunsets over the beaches at Fremantle, Coogee were magnificent.
No tolls, we went to Kings Park in the city one day and found a good spot overlooking Perth and the river (did I mention no parking fees either)..
Rottnest Island has fabulous coastline, Margaret River great wine (3 hour drive south).
If our children were really young, we would consider living there.

 

I find there is a lot of food options/cuisines here but it can be quite suburb specific. Is there any cuisine that's a must have?

I've worked in IT and it depends what your niche is but generally you would be able to find something well paid here too, especially at the moment.

It may seem like Perth is spread out but when compared to Sydney you'll probably still spend less time travelling from place to place as it's actually not that big and the traffic isn't as bad. But the public transport isn't as good so if you want to use the train system then you'll need to select your suburb and note the bus and train selections that are available.

The distance from friends/family can't be fixed but even though it's cheaper to go to Bali than it is Sydney you will find a way. And they will come visit too. Just get ready to moan about people from the East forgetting about the 3hr time difference in summer and calling you at 5am for a chat on the weekend

Cons:
- most of your cuisine options will close wayyyy earlier than you expect and many close on a Monday night to give them a night off
- we don't do NRL, don't know the rules, don't care and if you find someone that does then they are an import
- we think the Queens Birthday is in September but don't worry we still get more public holidays than most states
- you will have to relearn words for bathers, frankfurters and a few others.

 

Best of both worlds - buy a bit under budget and visit friends and family whenever you want. I used to travel back every 6 -12 months. I’m still friends with a lot of old friends from ..eep 40 + years ago and less. Your friends and family will visit you also.

 

I really appreciate the response that I have received over this thread and apologise for my tardiness in taking the time to respond.

The reason is is that shortly after I posted, we made the decision and secured a property that we loved that was within budget ($1.3M) and only 5 mins walk to swimming beaches with water views from the upstairs balcony. We decided in the area around Mindarie, Quinns, Jindalee (won't share the exact location on a public forum).

Anywhere on the east coast in a Capital or Regional City we would probably be looking at over $2.5-4M for the quality of house and location.

I did manage to read everyone's responses and factored much of that into our decision but none of the responses were any thing that we hadn't already considered.

The only exception to this is the prevalence of sharks, I used to do a lot of fishing, scuba, freediving and water sports in Sydney & Wollongong and never really had encounters of any note and am a little curious if Perth would really be any different.

Now, I'm trying to juggle the sale of our PPOR and another IP which will enable the move without a mortgage (woohoo). Trying to do this within the constraints of the purchasing contract 28 finance + 45 days settlement is causing a little stress but I'm sure it will be worth it in the end.

I'm really looking forward for our move for a slower life next to the beach and want to thank everyone for your responses

Thanks Again @Propin @JL1 @gach2 @Millie @propertynewbie @Shogun @Sam123456 @frankjeager @Perky29 @Westminster

 

Here’s some info on shark nets. Ive never had issues or seen sharks. Cottesloe beach has previously. Sorrento beach also had a trial type of shark barrier which kept breaking so it got removed, it may get replaced. Shark nets on the beaches of Perth and WA’s southwest

 

I only mentioned sharks to put the wind into people but I probably wouldn't go early morning swimming at Cottesloe in early spring but ymmv.

Great location you have chosen but a long drive to Taco Bell (Midland)

 

I used to free dive Weekly but sold the gear as the fear of shark got to me

do we have a Taco Bell ?!