Apartment Hunting

Time flies so fast. Same time last year, Nat & I were still looking for an apartment or better known as condo unit in PI. We searched for rental properties thru realestate.com and domain.com . Unlike in Manila, real estate brokers go out their way to sell/lease out their properties while here in Sydney, the property agents are medyo walang pakialam. The demand is too high, there can be many applicants for one unit & inspection time lasts for only 15 minutes . During our apartment hunting period, there was a time when we have to line up to see the unit and twice the property agent didn't show up. Rental rates are quoted weekly and are either paid fortnightly (which is every other week) or monthly (computed as weekly rate/7*365/12). The nearer the suburb to the city, the more expensive kahit luma na yung buildings. But generally, rental rates in Sydney are very expensive and prices keep on going up.

The suburb where we live in, north of the city, is an hour commute to the city which I have somehow gotten used to already. In a way, it's better because I can spend the hour reading books (which i borrow from the library), solving sudoku, or reviewing our monthly expenses (which almost always gives me a headache afterward) unlike in the Philippines, I spend an hour driving which makes me feel more tired after a 10-hour work. Our apartment's location is very accessible and convenient as it is just 5 minute walk to the mall and less than 10 minute walk to the train station. Last year, a 2 bedroom, 2 toilet and 1 covered car space apartment in our suburb costs about A$350-A$380/wk. After a year, the rate has gone up to A$400-A$440/wk. Rental rates are cheaper in the west where most Filipinos are. For A$400/wk unit in the north, you can already rent a 3-4 bedroom house in the west. Most people say that's it's a bit 'unsafe' in the west so we're a bit hesitant to move there. We don't want to come home with our TV gone or our car's window broken. And with our friends living in the north, we decided to stay in the same suburb.

our dining room

our kitchen

our living room