Brisbane Living




	Renting Brisbane Living Brisbane Living Brisbane Living Brisbane Living		Useful websites
	Renting in Brisbane is just the same as any other major cities in Australia. If you are a new immigrant or an international student, take notice that renting may be slightly more difficult than local residents. In Brisbane, a point system is adopted for renter qualification. Such a point system assigns certain points to a few pieces of identity documents, e.g. passports, photo IDs, driver's license, bank statements etc., and a potential renter in most circumstances have to score minimum points to qualify. If you have a passport, a credit card and a driver's license, you are most likely to pass most minimum scores put out by different rental agents. If you have ever rented before in your home country, do bring along a referral letter from your previous landlord, that should help too. Rent is quoted on per-week basis, and a renter can pay his rent weekly, biweekly or every 4 weeks. Here is an important website to earmark, the Queensland Residential Tenancy Authority. Go over the Tenancy Info section if you have time to familiarize yourself with your rights and responsibilities. Typically a bond equivalent to 4 weeks of rent is required in a rental contract. The rental bond is held at Queensland RTA, and you should obtain an official receipt from your agent for your bond. When the contract ends and you have evacuated the apartment, the agent will inspect to see if any amount should be deducted from the bond. If the rental agent is satisfied with the apartment inspection, he will send you a bond release form with his signature on it, along with yours, you can mail in the form to obtain the bond from Queensland RTA. There is also no charge of agency fees to renters, it is the landlords who foot the bill. There are two types of apartments for rent, furnished or unfurnished. There will be an inspection by you and the agent together when you first take over the apartment, primarily to document the state of the property. For furnished apartments, you will have a much longer inspection list detailing every single piece of furniture and utensil that comes with it. You will be given a couple of weeks to finish such inspection and pinpoint any discrepancies from the inspection list. So if you find out some damage or issues not described in the inspection list, remember to document them carefully, because such an inspection list represents the as-is state of the apartment and the state that it is supposed to be in when the contract ends. The peak period of renting is around late January to May, while the slow period starts from late November to mid January. Therefore, the landlord may be hesitant to let you end the rental contract during the slow period if he can help it. Also, if you arriving in Brisbane during the peak period, do a bit more homework before you come so that you can be more efficient in searching for your ideal spot.		Queensland Residential Tenancy Authority Rental listings on realestate.com Rental listings on brisbaneproperties.com Rental listings on SEQrents Rental listings on rentalcentral.com Rental listings on domain.com
	Types of Apartment		Apartments I recommend
	I rented two furnished apartments in the first 16 months of my arrival in Brisbane, since I didn't want to commit myself to new furniture and appliances when I was still trying out the city and learning about different suburbs. A furnished apartment usually rents for AUD50 - 60 more per week than an unfurnished one. However, the minimum rental period for a furnished apartment is usually 3 months while an unfurnished apartment generally demands a minimal commitment of a year. Sometimes if you are competing with other potential tenants, the minimal rental commitment may be raised to 18 months. Brisbane has quite a few furnished apartments that are part of a hotel, e.g. Quay West Suites, North Quay Hotel, The Sebel Suites, etc.. The rental stock from hotels typically come from small investors who buy up individual units in an all-suite hotel establishment from the realty developers for investment. I won't recommend staying in these hotels for beyond a couple of months, although the rental is about the same as furnished apartments in a residential complex. First, these hotel apartments don't come with a mailbox, you can only receive mails from the front desk, which is quite a hassle. Second, the refrigerator space and kitchen facilities are quite limited, Third, all hotels are equipped with a central ventilation system, which means, you have a higher chance of being exposed to all sorts of virus brought along by the hotel guests who come and go. Since 2003, there has been a frantic build-up of apartment complexes (or condos) in Brisbane CBD. The largest rental stock is 2-bedroom apartment, while 1-bedroom supply remains quite tight, especially that of a furnished one. Here are some photos I took of a fully-furnished apartment that I stayed at in the popular Rivercity Apartments complex, so that you can get a good glimpse of what to expect. Generally speaking, these fully furnished apartments are extremely stringent in cleanliness requirements, so if you find the apartment to be a bit messy, do lodge your complaint to the agent who is obliged to deliver the apartment in a spick and span fashion. However, when you evacuate, you are subject to the same standard to qualify for a full bond refund. The prevailing definition of a fully-furnished apartment is inclusive of essential furniture such as sofa, dining table, bed and mattress, as well as major appliances like fridge, cooking range, washer, dryer and TV. However, smaller items such as coffee maker, ironing board, hair dryer etc. are subject to negotiation between the tenant and the landlord. If you are living in the CBD, very few 1-bedroom apartments come with a parking space, so budget extra for CBD parking. If the apartment has an installed phone line already, you need to pay AUD 59 out of your own pocket for phone connection. If the apartment has never had a phone installed before, your landlord will be responsible for the entire AUD 209 phone installation fee.		Rivercity Apartments (CBD) Riverplace Apartments (CBD/New Farm) The Gardens Apartments (CBD) Casino Towers (CBD) Greenwich on Cordelia (West End) Arbour on the Grey (South Bank)

	Phone, broadband and wireless
	Apart from Telstra, there are quite a few providers that offer more competitive phone rates. I have been using Digiplus and have been quite happy with their rates and service. If you need to make frequent long-distance phone calls, it will be worthwhile to shop around for phone cards at a convenience store in your neighborhood. I myself have been using MSN and Yahoo messengers for free voice chats with family and friends. As regards to broadband, there are lots of ISPs to choose from. The prevailing standard is ADSL, while Telstra is the only game in town for cable modem. Unlike some other places in the world where all-you-can-eat pricing model is adopted, Australia ISPs meter your usage and charge accordingly. There are packages touting "unlimited usage", but the monthly cost runs at a staggering AUD100 and beyond, typically appealing to gamers rather than an average home user. I personally use iinet, and have been quite satisfied with their customer service with whom I have spent tens of hours mainly due to my own technical incompetence. You should go search for options on Brisbane broadband choice. A backup dial-up line is always included in your broadband plan. As for wireless plans, if you are not originally from Australia, be prepared for a shock-and-awe pricing. Before you commit yourself to any monthly plans, you can start with some prepaid phone plans which cost around AUD 20-30 for some minutes that will expire in 6 months. I have been on prepaid plan with isim for almost a year. Although it doesn't have the lowest per minute rate, it doesn't charge a flagfall rate which suits my usage pattern better.		Telstra Digiplus Bdigital Brisbane broadband choice Virgin Mobile Australia Isim Prepaid

	Brisbane Suburbs
	Before determining where to live, perhaps you should first visit ourbrisbane to get a general idea of Greater Brisbane. Brisbane's inner suburbs include all those within 2km radius of CBD including Spring Hill, South Brisbane, West End, Fortitude Valley and New Farm. Since the Brisbane River is the soul of our city, any suburbs directly bordering the river is considered nice or going through a rapid face-lift if it was once depressed before. Also, the eastern suburbs closer to the ocean will have a slightly milder weather than the western suburbs. If you are looking for a flair of heritage and culture, Hamilton, Windsor, Paddington, Chelmer and West End are still homes to many old colonial Queenslanders that have stood the test of time. If you are looking a relaxed lifestyle in a mild weather, the bayside suburbs of Cleveland, Wynnum, Manly and Wellington Point may just be your dream neighborhoods. If you crave for a bit of a change in the landscape, The Gap, Chapel Hill and Kenmore Hill are just perfect. Those who want to stay close to the University of Queensland typically find residence in St. Lucia, Indooroopilly, Taringa or Toowong. Here are some photos of different suburbs (constantly updating), some are taken by me, some from realestate.com.au Ascot/Hamilton Bulimba Chelmer Clayfield/Windsor Cleveland/Manly Fortitude Valley Indooroopilly/St. Lucia New Farm Paddington Spring Hill MacGregor/Sunnybank Teneriffe/Newstead Toowong West End/Highgate Hill (my favorite neighborhood, of course)		Suburb map and profile on ourbrisbane.com Suburb profile on domain.com