Worth it for fully furnished?

JohnK

Is a fully furnished 1 bedroom apartment in the centre of the city worth about €300/week?

I’ll be heading to Sydney in 2 weeks and I’ll be staying for anything upto about 10 months. Since its not a permanent move it doest seem to make sense for me to get an unfurnished place and buy what I need since I’d end up dumping most of it when I leave. The fully furnished places I’ve been looking at are coming in at about the €300/week mark. Would I be mad to pay that or is it somewhat normal? Some of them do have a pool & gym included in the cost but not all of them; realistically though I’m unlikely to use them even if they’re there.

I’ll pay what’s necessary but I don’t want to be fleeced although I do want to be comfortable since I work from home so its not like I’d just be there in the evenings. I’ve never lived outside of home before so not really sure what to expect. I’m assuming (hoping!) that the cost includes things like electricity/gas etc.

I suppose basically what I’m asking is: Would you pay it?

patrickolee

what city? what country? aus, or here?

electric/gas/cable are usually not included, in ireland

copacetic

patrickolee wrote:

what city? what country? aus, or here?

electric/gas/cable are usually not included, in ireland

he says sydney?

patrickolee

yeah, but I wasn't sure if he meant to get a place for the two weeks before he left? Probably not... probably Sydney. It's a long time since I've been there, so I'm sure everything's changed. But for what its worth most places back then came furnished and the type of place that would rent to likes of us, did not have a pool. Usually people used to hook up in a hostel into large gangs and rent a place out for a year. From memory I think the leases used to be at least a year (and I think it was so as to avoid backpackers), but people got around that by passing on the lease from batch of backpackers to batch of backpackers. Maybe you should wait to get accomodation until you get there and talk to people on the ground? Hostels are very cheap and high quality over there.

BC

Its a few years since i was in sydney but rents were an awful lot cheaper than here so 300pw sounds like a lot. Having said that, most places in australia are not furnished so it will save you the hassle. Have you had a good look around the internet to see whats out there?

mickoneill30

Sounds about right for furnished. They're a fair bit cheaper unfurnished. If you did buy furniture it's dead easy to get rid of. When I was moving out I just threw a list of stuff into all the apartments near me. Got rid of everything in a couple of days.

Some good sites are
www.myhome.com.au
www.realestate.com.au
http://www.fantasticfurniture.com.au/default.asp

JohnK

Thanks for the replies

Yeah I'm talking about renting in Sydney (Aus) alright. I won't actually be doing anything until I get there I'm just trying to get an idea of what I'll be spending and if I'd be better off just ignoring certain places due to cost.

The main site I was looking at was http://www.realestate.com.au and the price of €300/wk is for the very centre of the city so maybe that’s why the price seems so high. It’d be great for getting around and that’s a high priority for me.

I don’t want to go in with other people because I like my space and I’ll be working from home so don’t want randoms wandering around while I’m trying to get things done.

I might have a look at the unfurnished route alright but then I’d have a lot of expenditure at the start which is something I’d like to avoid if possible. Suppose it’ll depend on what I see when I get over; they might have better offers if I’m there in person as opposed to just browsing by online.

the_syco

JohnK wrote:

Is a fully furnished 1 bedroom apartment in the centre of the city worth about €300/week?

How much will be getting paid, per week? Me, I'd bring a sleeping bag, and buy a bed over there. Also, a not so fully furnished place may have all the furniture you need.

JohnK

the_syco wrote:

How much will be getting paid, per week?

Thats a surprisingly difficult question. If I work the full week then about €900 after tax but I dont always work full months. Some months I might work every available hour of the day yet others I might not work at at. Suppose you could say the adverage month is about €2,500 give or take which would put weekly average at about €625.

Victor

50% of pay on rent is a lot: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=89285

Try posting here also: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=213

Would it be worth your while sharing?

JohnK

To be honest I just don’t like the idea of living with people I don’t know so I’d like to avoid that if at all possible. There's 1 maybe 2 people in Sydney I'd consider sharing with but they both leave shortly after I get there so that’s no use.

50% is a big chunk to be spending but its going to be for at most 10 months so with my current savings I could get away with it. If it was a more permanent situation then I wouldn't even think about it.