What do you do with your furniture?

[Die Krugers]

Hi Everyone

My husband and I am planning to use the meet and greet housing once we arrive in Adelaide, and then look for a rental property asap.

From what I've heard, you cannnot always get the meet and greet accomodation, and it's difficult to get a rental house, especially if you're not from Oz and don't have Ozzie references. Now I am worried that we cannot get a rental house soon enough, and what do we do with our furniture if it arrives? If it has to go into storage, then the removals company will probably only unload the container into the storage space, and we will be left with having to move it to our new rental house once we have one, and you cannot just get someone cheaply like here in RSA to help with carrying everything, and I will never be able to lift some of the heavy stuff.

Has this happened to any of you, or isn't it that difficult to get a place to rent? How did you time the whole thing? We will probably try to pack the furniture as close to our flight time, if possible, to give us maximum time to find a place to stay first.

If we cannot get a meet and greet temporary accomodation, we will probably use Bob's generous offer of using his trailor and staying in a caravan park until we have a house.

I dont think we could afford staying in the chalets of the caravan park for three months, especially on RSA money!

Cheers

Tania

[Pixi]

The guys at Mount Barker Caravan Park said as long as its not in their high season, you can rent a cabin for between 250 and 300 per week. Its in a gorgeous setting with hugh trees - or you can pull Bobs caravan there. But the cabin has everything as in table and chair, aircon, tv . We're defnitely going to stay there for a while - even if its just for the fresh air!

[Gizmo]

I guess you have quite a long time to decide what to do before your application gets approved.

But, I suppose the early bird catches the worm - probably best to be organized as best as you can be well in advance!

We are sitting in a similar position to you - haven't put too much thought into it yet, since our application only went in mid September this year. So, we probably won't hear anything before next year winter at the earliest.

Initially we decided to travel light - ie only take our have-to-have electronic equipment like our laptops, hi-fi system, and hubbies electronics work-related equipment, baby toys and our books. However, since hearing that furniture prices seem to be higher there than here, we are considering buying new here and shipping over. I guess that shipping things across will take quite a long time - at least six weeks and once it arrives, I am sure one could rent a container to use as storage if you are not settled yet.

[Mupersan]

We still cant make up our minds on what to take, so we are getting a removal company to quote and then decide. As to accomodation, it is a bit Daunting to think that you might have problem s getting accomodation, so where do you stay, In a Hotel? Backpackers? Hmmmm. I thinks that after our visa comes through we will discuss with my employer.

[Nilo]

Hi Guys

I can only speak for Brisbane, here's a huge shortage of rentals especially very close to the city but most people get sorted within 2 to 3 weeks. I am sure it's not worse in other areas.

If you open a bank account asap on arrival and have your passport and bring allong any reference you can get and as many as you can you'll be fine!!

It's is daunting this whole where, what, how, but I promise once on this side things do fall into place rather easily!

[Marius]

img004.pdfHere in Adelaide many new people get suitable rental accomodation in between 2-4 weeks, a container takes about 6-8 weeks to get here so there is some "buffer"time. I am not aware of someone that could not find a rental before their container arrive, but I assume it has happened. There are several options, one the removal company on this end can store it, the other is you can rent self storage facilities all over and can move the goods in there untill you are ready to move into a rental. The last scenario would be the worst case i think as it would cost additional money in storage and haulage. The best in my opinion is on arrival to rent a cabin in a caravan park, they are clean and resonable value for money, but prices can vary on the season.Many newbies opt for cabins in caravan parks initially, some for back packer type accomodation, a bit more basic, sometimes with shared facilities but cheaper. Then hit the estate agents and newspapers like the Advertiser, especially Wednesdays when there are plenty of rentals advertised. You can also use the internet, but im my opinion it is better to see the place yourself and the area before comitting, for that you of course have to be here. In Adelaide the avarage 3 bedroom house rent in a reasonable area would cost roughly between $ 250 - $ 300 per week, more of course if you get to the higher end of the market or closer to the city..You will be lucky to find something like mentioned for less rent, but it does happen. Generally rentals in the 10km raduis around the city are higher due to the close proximity to the city, keep that in mind. I have attached a basic map of Adelaide for reference in case you do not have one.

Hope this helps a bit, let us know if you have problems or need help.

Byt vas and good luck. See you here.

[martyn]

I am sure you will find something as long as your expectations aren't too high. Otherwise the removal company themselves will normally store it for you (for a price) and deliver it to you once you are ready. One final thing there are some inexpensive movers if required, we used Mini Movers (in Brisbane) and they were cheap and very good

[Die Krugers]

Thanks guys

Yes, Gizmo, I am a planner , but the way I see it, the quicker I can get all my info, the better, then I know where I stand and can prepare beforehand. For instance, hubby has to do a few courses from here, otherwise he won't be able to work once in Oz, because they do not have any temporary licenses in South Australia, and are not allowed to work without a license. If he can do them now, while waiting for the visa, he can have everything he needs to be able to work once he's there, and if we didn't know that now already, we would have had to wait until he gets the courses done.

Anyway, it's a relief to know that it won't seem to be a problem getting a rental house. We are not too fussy, and have looked around on the sites, and we will probably rent in the area of $310 per week. I have seen some nice decent 3 bedroom houses which would suit us fine (we are even prepared to rent 2 bedroom houses, but there do not seem to be many of them).

Thanks again for the help.

God bless.

Tania

[Annette]

Hey Tania,

Our furniture arrived only days after we did, but we were still in meet and greet accommodation for 3 months after that because it is so cheap and gave us a good chance to properly have a look at the rental market. Our furniture went into storage, which was arranged by the removal company. You need to find out from your SA removalists who will be their agent here and contact them to arrange it. I think we paid $105 per month, or something like that and the company then delivered the stuff to our house after that.

It took us about 6 weeks to find somewhere suitable to rent and we had to wait another 6 weeks before we could move in, because the house was not available yet. That suited us though