A
friend of mine once told me that “Making a new country your new home is fun, but
getting to that point where you can call it home is not”. I couldn’t actually
relate to that statement till I moved to Australia to study. All my initial
euphoria and excitement about studying overseas was overshadowed by a sense of
urgency and stress to find a place to live. It’s hard to call a place your home
if you don’t have a home yet!
Before
moving to Australia, I had known that it was expensive and that the housing
rental and sharing market was fairly competitive but I also assumed that since
cities such as Sydney and Melbourne were some of the best student cities in the
world, affordable student housing wouldn’t be hard to find! That assumption was
challenged within a few days of being in Sydney. Websites like gumtree, domain
and flatmatefinders became the first thing I would see each day and the last
thing I would search intently at night, flats and terraced houses were all the
sights I saw in Sydney for that first week, budget and location preferences
started altering (can’t be too picky if options are limited), every other
exchange or international student I would meet would share a similar story.
Nobody said it was easy, no one ever said it would be this hard!
After
almost 2 weeks of relentless house hunting, I found a place I could call learn
to call home some day! The house didn’t match the rosy picture I had in my head
before I moved to Sydney but moving to a new country is all about adapting and
challenging your preconceived expectations and this was one of them. The point
of this blog is not to scare prospective international students but to help
them. Based on my experience of looking for a flat in Sydney, I have some tips
and advice for you to help you to find a place you can call home in your new
home.
- Living on campus: Universities in Australia usually have catered and self-catered on-campus accommodation, especially for first-year undergraduate and international students. The demand for these can be high so it’s important to apply as far as possible in advance to increase your chances of securing the accommodation option of your choice.
- Before you arrive: Start looking for places and rental agencies before you arrive in Sydney but do not make any permanent arrangements for private accommodation prior to arrival as it is important to inspect properties before committing to any tenancy agreements. Also, make arrangements for temporary accommodation with friends or family or at a hostel till you find a place to live. Try to get in touch with other students from your cohort so you can look for a place together. Ensure you have enough money to pay the bond and/or advanced rent. The bond here varies from 2-4 weeks rent.
- Living off campus: There are several options for accommodation off campus. You can either choose to live in student residences that are in the close vicinity of the campus such as Unilodge (http://www.unilodge.com.au/sydney/) or Urbanest (http://www.urbanest.com.au/). They comprise furnished rooms in shared or self‐contained houses/apartments in residential buildings for students but might be more expensive than finding a room in a shared flat. The other options for living off campus are room-sharing, flat-sharing, living as a homestay or living in a studio-apartment. The rent you would pay per week would depend on the type of accommodation and the area you choose to live in. Usually areas close to University or in the centre of the city tend to be more expensive. Some good websites to explore the accommodation options are Domain (http://www.domain.com.au/), Gumtree (http://www.gumtree.com.au/), Flatmates.com (http://flatmates.com.au/home.html) and Flatmate Finders (http://www.flatmatefinders.com.au/).
- First contact: It is important to read the advertisements online carefully before contacting the person advertising. Please ensure that you have relevant information included in the email or message you choose to send or the profile you choose to make on the accommodation websites e.g. your age, sex, reason for being in Sydney and the duration you are looking to lease a place. Also make sure you ask them some crucial questions before you inspect the property e.g. bills per month, pets, other flatmates, distance from public transportation etc.
- First in, first served – The early bird get the worm in this case. The faster you contact the person, the sooner you go to inspect the property and the sooner you confirm your interest, the more likely you are to get the property. On a couple of occasions, I was delayed by ten minutes to view a property and the room was gone! Make sure you are on time and make sure you have enough money to pay the bond or advance rent on the spot to confirm your interest.
- Expand your search options – Be more flexible when searching for a place. It is hard to find a “dream first home” during the initial house search. It helps if you expand your search options to areas that might be a bit further away but well connected by transportation or if you opt for an unfurnished but cheaper room or opt to share a room. Also, spread the word through social media and peers when looking for a place. There are several Facebook groups for international and exchange students where people advertise rooms to rent and form groups to find a place to rent.
- Keep it legal – Make sure you set clear expectations with the person leasing the room about things such as bond, rent payment, duration of the lease etc and that you sign a tenancy agreement. Accommodation services at your University and websites such as Tenants NSW (http://www.tenants.org.au/factsheet-03-bond) can provide guidance on your responsibilities and obligations. Also, there are ways to negotiate rent or the duration of your contract (e.g. giving 2 weeks notice before you choose to move to another place) but make sure that is clearly established with the landlord.
The key is to be patient,
persistent and positive! It takes a while to make a new country your new home
but hopefully these tips would help!
