NSW Sydney exodus is looming?

Not too sure whether residing in the outer western suburbs of Sydney and having a 3hr daily commute time back and forth from their employment (CBD) is actually Living or simple Existing. Sure some are fortunate enough to live in the more desirable locations and even work reasonably close to their home; but for many this would not be the case.Seems to me to be a huge sacrifice in order to own a piece of real estate. Most I would think settle for what they can afford, not what they desire. I can think of nothing worse than sitting in a metal coffin looking up the backside of another metal coffin each day at red lights!
Apart from employment opportunities, I can't see any magnetism for people to stay.
There are great beaches, restaurants, panoramas outside of Sydney and guess what you don't have to crawl over one another to enjoy them.
Sydney is a congested nightmare, why wouldn't people look to relocate?

 

Guess what I'm coming back to Sydney from the perfect life on the Gold Coast. I have 3 young kids and a dog! Everyone thinks we are insane. I'm looking forward to a diverse mix of people, good schools and some traffic. The rent is cheaper in Sydney than the Gold Coast. I have found a 4 bed house for $550 a week close to transport and 15 mins from my work. Of course no beach around the corner though I might find that hard. Sydney is what you make of it and you can live as cheaply in Sydney as you can anywhere else. If you missed out on the housing boom than yes buying a house will be tricky. But there are opportunities and even the GC is getting expensive to buy now.

 

Hit the nail on the head. This is why we moved and heaps of my mates are considering doing the same. A bloke across the road lived and worked in Sydney with his wife until the retired 2 years ago. Struggled to make ends meet. Couldn’t afford to travel before retirement and promptly bought a caravan when they retired and moved to the central coast. Unfortunately she passed away soon after. So they worked their whole life to pay a loan to get ahead and never really had a chance to enjoy it. What’s the point of owning a piece of land and some bricks if you can’t afford to actually life life. That’s existing not living. Makes zero sense.

 

He worked 40 years to pay of his house he bought in the 1970s.

Spare me the sob story or tell the whole story.

If it took him 40 years to pay of house at a time when average was 5 he was doing something terribly wrong.
Dont blame Sydney for incompetence.

 

Jesus Christ...some of these replies...

Just live where you want. There is no right or wrong, everyone's situation and circumstances are different.

 

I agree with the first part, but disagree with the second.
If the second was true, most comparably large big cities would also have bled dry...
Nope...cities especially large ones will find solutions to problems such as high traffic congestion etc.

 

I'm not sure why people keep mentioning traffic while the key criteria of liveability is the walkability score. If you have to drive anywhere, you have chosen the wrong place to live. Been here since August and I really only use the car once a week for groceries and I do it because I need to get the engine going every so often otherwise it's easy to walk or take the train anywhere! I've yet to experienced Sydney as a "congested" nightmare.

I disagree, you can easily enjoy Sydney on a household wage of around $120k/year by spending wisely. $700/week for rent is a lot and if you want to spend that much it's up to you, but don't complain about it when there are plenty of choices around 500-550/week. Canberra is too expensive and you can't do anything most of the time due to the weather... well not that there is anything to do anyway.

The good thing about the brain drain from Sydney is that there is less competition for me to get those $200k jobs now haha!

 

Good luck to you - you sound extremely defensive although I'm not sure on what planet Canberra is expensive relative to Sydney. Housing is the biggest expense most people have by far - saving $2 on mushrooms doesn't make much of a dent on anything. Maybe you've been buying a different kind of mushroom

My income is not 120k - not everyone is on the high banker salaries that people on here seem to think is the average.

 

Gee mate you’re a real hero! Who knows maybe he started a business that went wrong? Maybe he worked a job that was extremely low paying but which he loved? Plenty of assumptions made.

Judging by your reply you’ve obviously perfected the art of investing. Might now be time to turn your focus to improving your spelling and grammar. Everyone has weak points

Cheers

 

household wages... if you're not even on that then I completely understand why you would move.

I was just saying that everyday expenses is much cheaper and I named some examples. In Canberra I wouldn't eat out at all but here I eat out every two to three days which is equal to eating out once a week in Canberra, groceries constantly double what I pay here, forced into using a depreciating asset like a car to get around and not much to do. Not defensive at all and I've got no reason to be, just annoyed at people who constantly ***** about Sydney whilst eating cloudy eggs or smashed avos in a cafe outside their rented house close to the CBD. I'm probably the most objective one here as I lived in Tassie for two decades, worked in Melbourne for a year living in Carlton, 3 years in Canberra and only 7 months in Sydney. FYI I only spend $350/week on housing with my wife Easy and just three mins walk to Strathfield Station (express line to CBD)!

 

You sharing aren’t you? Yeah?

 

If your key criteria of liveability is walkability, try walking to your closest beach! That's right you have to hop on the train! If there is no congestion problem then why is so much being spent on new road infrastructure? Not everyone wants to use public transport.
You pay $550 a week to live in Strathfield....... Poor you!

 

You do know that I include public transport in my walkability and from a quick look at Google, looks like most scores includes it too.

Australia's most walkable communities: Suburbs where you won't need a car - Rent Blog

Strangely you couldn't even read my response properly, I said $350/week, not $550. Barely makes a whisper in terms of expenses. I never said there is no congestion problem, just that if you relied on using your car, you're obviously living in the wrong area.

Well I'm only living with my wife if that counts? But $350/week is really nothing even for one person.

 

@Pentanol
$350 per week in strathfield without house sharing?
Where? How?

 

I had no idea that Sydney rent is as cheap as that of GC in apple to apple comparison of suburbs and properties. Hard to believe. All I know is the rent for ****** 1 bed, 1 bath units is no less than $400 in desired areas.

 

It's a 1/1/1. We are likely to be here when we have a kid for the first few years as they do not need their own rooms yet if the LL allows!

I think we were just lucky as it was advertised for $350 and on the day there were over 15 groups there lined up on the stairs. We were considering offering more but decided to take a punt and just offered the amount but I ensured that my wife put circles on her title so that they knew that she was a doctor. What LL doesn't want a Dr tenant? Turns out the LL was a GP and they picked us so we were happy

 

I too feel the same but when you get stuck in traffic everyday after/before long office hours, life reminds you of what's right and wrong.

 

@Pentanol
Nice one. Slightly older unit im guessing?
When i rented back in Strathfield over 8 years ago, the rent for a 1/1/1 was $400 per week - that was in one of those more modern apartments.

 

No traffic for me. Middle ring yet convenient to most parts of Sydney I care to go to

Gotta love buying preboom.

 

Some people think traveling is enjoyment and others think peacefully living is enjoyment. Everyone has different definition of it. For many, it's parties and alcohol, for some it's meditation and social service. Hard to say that they didn't enjoy just because they had a housing loan.