House hunting down under

We had just one month to decide in which part of the big, wide city did we want to move to, shortlist a few apartments and go inspect them on Saturdays. Since house inspections happen only (or mostly) on Saturdays we effectively had just 4 days to make a decision. 

Choosing a suburb was the hardest part. We weren’t even sure what exactly we wanted but we eventually decided Atarmon to be that suburb – closer to office, on the train line and with a multi-cultural population. If you are coming from Mumbai where houses are generally pretty small and the vicinity stinky and dirty, chances that you will like everything you see here is quite high. I felt like that star-struck teenager who had accidentally run into Brad Pitt! 

As always, Prashant was more reasonable and grounded. He declared he didn’t like Atarmon and that wasn’t really where he would like to stay. I will admit, I was slightly miffed at that declaration after a week of internet searching and a few hours of walking in the sun. I wanted a closure very soon. 

While we were waiting for our train back home, it struck us that we could probably take a de-tour to another close-by suburb -- Macquarie Park. I quickly checked on my phone if there were any inspections planned and luckily found one about 1.7 kilometres from the Macquarie Park railway station. Having no idea of bus service, and with no cab in sight, we decided the best way to do this was to walk. 

It was an exceptionally hot day and the suburb was not as leafy, lined with glass buildings on both sides of the roads. Given that it was a weekend, the place was eerily deserted. Chances that we would say yes to this far-flung, remote property were diminishing with every step that took us closer to it. 

Once we reached there, a massive park welcomed us, the house was spacious with a big balcony and a backyard. I fell in love with it instantly. Prashant reasoned it was too far, inconvenient and remote. If I was working late or odd hours he didn’t want to be left worried all the time. Made total sense. We decided to look at more houses in the same suburb the following weekend.

But the following week was an utter disappointment. We didn’t like anything that we saw in that suburb. The question of it being too far always came to haunt us.

 When looking for a house in Sydney, it’s very important to be sure of the transport connectivity. Sydney’s transport system is appalling. The trains are hardly as efficient as Mumbai’s rail network, buses are often late and taxis are so expensive that they are out of reach. Then, some suburbs can be really remote and if you don’t drive you can be left feeling quite helpless. Although our two weeks of hard work went down the drain we are quite happy we followed our instincts in rejecting these places.

We zeroed in on ‘Lane Cove’, which is pretty well connected to the city by road, has a nice Indian store owned by a very helpful and chatty lady, and is pretty multi-cultural. 

I surprised many colleagues by preferring to be near the city, not on the beach. “The reason you are in Sydney is so you can live on the beach. It’s just another life. You can go surfing in the morning before you come to work,” a colleague suggested.  Sounds inviting, indeed. I would love to live on a beach in Sydney and the choices are galore. But, I also have long years here to enjoy the best of both worlds!