I realized that it's been a while since I wrote a post about life here in Sydney generally. And this past weekend reminded me that I haven't blogged much about actual "living"' in Sydney - the parts about finding and getting a place. But that side of life here is really pretty interesting. And stressful. And overwhelming!
To begin with, housing here is VERY expensive. To live on the train line and within a reasonable commute to the city, you would expect to pay at least $450-500 a week. That will get you a studio apartment, but things like air conditioning, laundry, or anything bigger than a dorm-sized fridge aren't guaranteed at that price. Designated, covered parking spots are also rented by the week, with $80 a week or so being the cheapest around our area. So needless to say, our ideas of the things we wanted in an apartment shifted radically when we got here!
Even though apartments are so expensive, there is still tons of demand for places near the city. This results in some weird quirks in the process of getting an apartment. For example, agents can basically set a time that's convenient for them and then expect renters to drop everything to inspect an apartment. And that's what happens. Apartments are open in 15 minute intervals for inspections, and you better be in and out during that window if you want to see it. These inspection times are often during the middle of a workday, say 3:20 on a Wednesday, which makes it even more complicated. And the inspections aren't just for you: you walk through the apartment with every other person that's interested. Sometimes that can be a lot!
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| A recent inspection with 50 or so people lined up to see the place |
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| A sure sign that an inspection is about to happen |
Another really odd thing that can happen is that current tenants sometimes just stay in the apartment while you're walking through. T and I find this incredibly uncomfortable, and I don't think we'll ever get used to it!
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| Some tenants simulataneously watching anime and playing a game while we look around |
Fairly often, the agent is late. In those situations, you have to decide whether to keep waiting outside for him/her, call them on the phone and ask if they're still coming, or ring the bell and see if the current tenant is still around and will let you in anyway. Every inspection is an adventure!
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| Sometimes it can be confusing getting out the way you came in |
We're not earnestly looking for a new apartment right now, but we are checking out some other neighborhoods, just for fun. We've had a few funny experiences during our inspections. Like the time when we thought someone was in the shower, but it turned out to be such a bad leak that it sounded like the shower was on. Or when the agent was taking us up in the lift and kept pressing the alarm button instead of 4. Or the not-so-rare apartments that come with an outhouse in the back garden - a holdover from not that long ago we've been told. (I've ruled these out, because there is no way I'm cleaning an outhouse with Australia-sized spiders around!) Pretty often the agents seem to have never seen the place before, so we spend a lot of time meandering buildings, looking for a certain door number. In older buildings that have shared laundry, the laundry facilities are on the roof, which is just as weird as it sounds.
Without a doubt, housing is quite the adventure here! We're very lucky that we havent ever been in a housing bind, where we had to find a place immediately. For now, we just get to enjoy the quirkiness and strangeness that is the housing market in Sydney!
