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on Sep 7th, 2012 and filed under I am moving to Brisbane with my wife to study in QUT. I have checked the rental prices in both realestate.com.au and Craigslist.com, and the difference is astonishing! The prices in Craigslist are 1/4 of the ones in Realestate.com.au. Also, the prices in realestate.com seem astronomically high compared to Vancouver, Canada (where I come from) which is statistically the least affordable place among Canadian/American/Australian/New Zealand/UK cities. Realistically, what price can I expect to pay for a furnished place as described above? Also, can I rent (or even buy) parking spots in the buildings? Is street parking easily available in CBD? If I commit to a one-year lease, can I get a discount?
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Aussies don’t use craigslist- the REAL prices are on the realestate.com site.
You’d be better off getting a two bedroom over a one bedroom as they are actually cheaper and easier to get!
Brisbane is now the most expensive city in Australia to live in- rents are higher than Sydney’s and Sydney is notorious for being ridiculously expensive.
If you are moving here as a student you want to live in the suburb of Yeronga or in QUTs student accommodation, which IS cheap!
You can expect to pay $ 450+ per week for a fully furnished 1 br place in the Brisbane CBD but at least some of them will include a car space which will make it reasonably good value. Until a couple of months ago, we were renting a secure 24/7 car space in an apartment complex in Alice Street (on the edge of the CBD opposite the Botanical Gardens) and that was costing us $ 400 per month which is a good price for the CBD, so paying a bit more for a place with parking is well worthwhile. The very small amount of on street parking in the CBD is metered and short term so it’s unsuitable for most residents and parking in the parking stations is incredibly expensive and not available around the clock. You may get a discount for a 12 month lease though it’s unlikely. Owners who are prepared to accept short term rentals generally prefer them and won’t be interested in a longer term lease, and the ones who want a 6 month lease, will probably prefer to stick to that so they can raise the rent every 6 months. It’s always worth asking though.
I think the main reason apartments in the CBD are so expensive is that until 10 or 15 years ago, people simply didn’t live in Australia’s CBDs and that applied particularly to Brisbane – it wasn’t part of our culture. So few people lived there that there weren’t even any real supermarkets and residents had to drive out to the suburbs to get most fresh food and groceries. When the nature of our cities and lifestyles began changing and people wanted to live close to their workplaces and the other things that the city had to offer, developers started doing trendy conversions and building large, up market apartment blocks – all at the peak of a housing price boom. Apartments were sold ‘off the plan’ and there were many, many instances of places changing hands several times before the building was even finished; each time at a massively increased price. Those expensive apartments are what are now available for rental and the owners are looking to get some return on their large investment.
I had a look at the Craigslist listings and the apartments in Albert Street seem a bit too good to be true at the advertised prices. Well worth checking out, but be wary.