House Hunting in Australia

If there is anything us British folk love talking about more than the weather, surely it’s house prices.

Before we went shopping last Saturday, we did a little house hunting. I don’t know why it is called house hunting, because, after all, houses are rather big, they’re everywhere and pretty easy to find. Houses are also one of the most stationary objects that I can think of. Which kind of takes the edge off the chase.

Perhaps you may be thinking that the hunting part is all about finding a house for sale that you can fall in love with. But calling your local estate agent or “realtor” as they are called everywhere else, will soon see you staring at the details of more properties than you can wave a stick at! Properties with addresses and postcodes. I hardly consider the hunt to be a challenge. How hard is it to program your sat nav?

Anyway, house hunting here is like shooting fish in a barrel. Or smacking cane toads with a spade, if I may get colloquial. You really are spoilt for choice.

Let me give you some examples.

We looked at a couple of houses right opposite each other in the same street. Just about here…….

Two Houses Within Shooting Range

The smaller one, which you can’t see, (it’s somewhere behind the balloons) has 4 bedrooms, one with ensuite, 2 bathrooms, laundry room, study, lounge, rumpus (toy room), family room & meals area. Assuming 2.2 AUD to the pound, it’s yours for around £217,000.

The bigger house, (white, left,) and it was BIG, had 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 5 huge other rooms, call them what you like: lounge, family, study, rumpus, dining, whatever. Then downstairs was a ginormous office with a (second) kitchen attached. Outside: a pool, large gazebo and full length veranda at the front. When I say full length, this place was about 120 feet wide and it ran the length of it. It really was a dream home. Price? £360,000 – that’s before you start haggling!

It’s a great street to live in, high set with excellent views. Cars don’t normally park in the road here, but there was a party going on. Looking the other way along the street was like this…..

Not Too Bad Is It?

As for those who just want to buy a starter home, this is what they call a starter home over here. Detached, three bedrooms with a double garage. Prices start at around £145,000. But if you’re looking outside of Brisbane suburbs, there’s plenty available at around £115,000. Yes, 3 bed detached with double garage.

Just like the weather, this is a subject on which I will return.