Schools/suburbs In Perth

[Laura & Martin]

Hello ?

We are coming over to Perth in October/November this year and was wondering what are the "nice" suburbs to live in? A good primary school is also a priority as I have a 7 and 9 year old...

Any info on good schools and suburbs would be much appreciated...

[zetman]

Hi guys,

Well, when coming to Perth one of the first big decisions you'll need to make is whether you want to live 'North of the river' or 'South of the river' - which is just local slang for exactly that; North or South of the Swan river which basically splits through Perth. For many this decision initially ends up being mainly down to where they find work, but there are good suburbs to live in both NoR and SoR. Generally most suburbs in Perth are pretty good to live in. The easier question to answer is often which suburbs to avoid rather than which ones are good. We've always lived North, so I mainly know the northern suburbs. I'd say some of the ones to look at are Darch, Landsdale, Madeley, Kingsley, Pearsall, Hocking, Joondalup, Conolly, Clarkson, Butler, Hillarys, Ocean Reef, Ellenbrook and Aveley. All these have good public and private schools within their reach,though we don't have kids yet so I can't really comment on specific schools.

Hope that helps. Copy and paste those in www.realestate.com.au and you'll get a feel for the houses in those areas, costs etc.

z

[Joeemm]

Hi There

Just to echo what Zetman said, we've been in Perth for almost 6 yrs and always been north of the river, Padbury and Kingsley, there are good schools in both including very well know private schools like St Stephens. Friends of mine have their sons at St Stephens and are very happy with it, it has a long waitng list. We stay about 5 blocks from Goollelai Primary school where my neibours boys go and again prety happy with it. We are sending out son Michael to Kingsley Montessori and I've had some good feed back from parents with children there as well.

Hope it helps a bit

[candivw]

I too dont know south too well, we live in Ellenbrook but agree with all the neighbourhoods listed above.

[maxi]

We live in Shelley ,SOR. Our 10 yr old goes to shelley primary school and our older boy goes to Rossmoyne senior high school.We are very happy with both. They are both government schools. Rossmoyne High is a sort after school to get in to. That is why we are living in the zone.I did a lot of research before we came here.

www.rossmoyne.wa.edu.au

Both my boys love going to school, and they where the in thing when they started last year.Knowing they are happy makes us have peace of mind.

[odelia]

We have lived in Carine, currently Duncraig. Our kids go to Duncraig Primary, a lovely community school. All the schools in the area are good, Davallia Primary, Poynter Primary, Duncraig High School and Carine High School. Suburbs surrounding - Duncraig, Carine, Marmion, Hillarys, Kallaroo - all close to the city and most importantly, close to the beach I often come from work, grab the kids after school, let them put their bathers on in the car and we go for a swim in the ocean for an hour. then we go home and do home work. how good is that. by the way, it is NOR and about 15 minutes from the CBD. Schools I mentioned are all state schools, but the private schools here also have good reputation.

[Leon]

Been in Duncraig for almost 6 years, great area to live in, close to everything. Even have our own South African shop "African Heritage" which normally provides Saterday lunch in the form of "vetkoek met mince". My son went to Carine high school and I think it is as a good school as you are going to get.

[CK1]

Hi there Laura and Martin

I get asked this a fair amount, and actually saved a version of the standard answer, which I'll paste here - hope it helps, and apologies if there are parts not entirely relevant to your question! Please do understand this this is a completely biased opinion, I am sure there are loads of people who will have other perceptions.

Have a look at this http://www.aussiemove.com/aus/rekkDtl.asp?th=19450 , it gives one person’s idea of Perth

The easiest is to go to aussiemove.com, and spend some time there. http://www.aussiemove.com/city/city.asp?c=7 There are two major decisions – North or South of the river, and then city/sea/river. North has better beaches, South towards Freo is more “arty” – we live North, and I have a perception that there are more South Africans north. Beaches are apparently better north. The closer you are to the city the more expensive it is, the closer to the sea and the closer to the river the more expensive it is. To buy the equivalent of a house in Illovo would be around $3.5 to $5 million – close to the sea in the houses that I looked at (in Swanbourne/Claremont).

I've lifted this from the Aussiemove website – just updated costs a bit - http://www.aussiemove.com/city7/whichSub.asp?f=9&c=7 -“Beachside suburbs are expensive, but less expensive the further north/south from the CBD you go. Have a look on reiwa.com.au to give you an idea of prices once you have an idea of which direction you want to go in.

So, for $2.5 million you’ll get a house in Cottesloe (regarded by many as the most desirable, trendy beachside suburb). Looking further north, for about $2.5 million you're into Waterman's Bay, $1,000,000 for Sorrento, $850,000 for Ocean Reef, $800,000 for Mindarie and $500,000 for Yanchep, where you're 48km north of the city. But if you don't want to be so far from the city, look further east. For example, median price for Hillarys (0-2km from the beach) is around $750K. In Padbury, the next suburb along, you'd be 2-4 km from the beach and the median is $421K.

Pretty much the same principles apply to the southern beachside suburbs, although there are some industrial areas in the south which make them undesirable even though they're by the ocean. And the same process applies if you like "the river" - Swan and Canning rivers - the most expensive suburbs of all are on the north bank of the Swan River.”

If I had all the money in the world I would live in Peppermint Grove – it is Australia’s most expensive suburb, but stunning. I also really like Floreat – close to the beach and to the city. Suburbs to look at in the range that two engineers working full time can afford – well, to a large degree driven by the high schools in the area (more later) – Leeming, Rossmoyne, Shelly, Waterford. Lovely but too expensive – Applecross, Nedlands, Dalkeith, Crawley, Claremont, Swanbourne, Dagleish, City Beach. Lovely, redeveloped, homes are new on small blocks – Scarborough, Doubleview, Wembley Downs, Karrinyup – a mixture of old and new homes. Gwelup – small blocks, new homes. Gosh, I can carry on forever in this vein – in short though, as far as north is concerned, I am not a huge fan of the suburbs more inland than Wanneroo Road (avoid Balga and environs if at all possible), and I wouldn't go further North than Ocean Reef road - but that is becasue I loath being stuck on the freeway in to work, and prefer to live within a 45 minute rush hour radius. South I don’t really know well, but I would stick close to the city. East to the hills – houses and properties are larger and much less expensive, you will typically travel for about 45 minutes, it is lovely out there but during summer the flies are annoying, and amenities can be a bit light on.

We bought our house in Marmion, 5 minute walk from the sea, for just over a million in late 2010, it was a bargain at the price, and needs a lot of work done to it. Renovating here is expensive, slow and difficult – bear this in mind.

The newer suburbs obviously have more modern houses, and mostly tend to be further out from the city. New developments are Ellenbrook, Lansdale, Butler – I have been told that these have loads of South Africans living in them, however be wary, as I have also been told that they have suffered the most in terms of falling land prices.

Schools – there are three options, government, independent and Catholic. Primary schools tend to be much of a muchness, most people send their kids to government public schools and then Catholic High Schools. There are some very good state high schools, trick is to buy in the enrolment zone – Rossmoyne, Churchlands and Carine High School are very good, as is Applecross and Duncraig. My son will be going to Duncraig High School as part of a state academic program – he was really lucky to get in, but there are schools devoted to gifted and talented children, and specialist programs at the various schools.. Duncraig is very academically focused, my daughter will go to Carine, which is more arty. The schools reflect the demographic of the area, which is why choosing your suburb based on the high schools is pretty much the thing to do.

Catholic school vary from the very exclusive Trinity High Schools and Mercedes College to the $2,000/annum Padbury Catholic School, and everything in between. Difficult to get into if you are not a Catholic, but not impossible.

Independent schools like the Catholic school range from $2000/annum to $20,000 annum – the latter are Hale, St Marys, MLC, Scott etc. Lists to get in are long, but if your children are still little, and if you put their name down for a “whenever a place comes up” then you should get a spot. If I wasn't a closet socialist I would have sent my son to Hale and my daughter to St Mary’s.

Wiki and the aussiemove website are really handy at giving you an idea of the suburbs, as it the reiwa site and realestate.com.au - unfortunately I left RSA too long ago, and before the house prices went up, to be able to guess equivalent prices - I guess though that you are looking at roughly double what you would pay for an equivalent house in Johannesburg. It takes a while to get used to the much smaller gardens too (remember - it is very unusual here to have a gardener or domestic cleaner, so bigger is not always better!)

Good luck!

CK

[Laura & Martin]

To all thank you so much for all this information. Now the deeper research starts.

Thanks for all your input.

[CharmyWarmy]

Wow!

We are looking to move to Perth beginning of January. Your post has been the most helpful so far with regards to schooling and suburbs. It's so difficult to try and figure out where to stay and what we can afford.

Thank you sooooo much.

Charms