Top tips for picking your ideal suburb

Whether you flourish in the hustle and bustle of inner city life, or you love to be surrounded by green open spaces, taking the time to find the perfect suburb for you and your family is a crucial step in the buying process.

Health benefits

Suburban areas with greater access to parks, swimming pools and sports ovals obviously encourage a healthier lifestyle. However, inner city suburbs can offer this, too. Consider buying in a suburb with bike tracks and close proximity to shops, work and other amenities, so you can accrue your ‘30 minutes a day’ through incidental exercise.

Family-friendly facilities

If you have little ones in tow, choose a suburb based on its proximity to family-friendly facilities. Primary schools, high schools, sports centres, parks, tennis courts and playing fields all make for a great family lifestyle. If the kids are at school, research the bus routes to make mornings much easier.

Assess each suburb’s immediate surrounds. Are you hemmed in by a six-lane highway or are you surrounded by safe, quiet streets where the kids can play?

Proximity to work

When buying a property, it is easy to get lost in the beauty of a white picket fence or the idealistic notion of acreage on the outskirts. However, for the sake of your own sanity, it is vital to consider how living in your chosen suburb will impact your work-life balance.

Are there buses, trains or ferries close by to transport you to work? If you drive to the office, what is traffic like during peak hour? Your selected suburb might be 30 minutes from the city on paper but it takes an hour and a half in heavy traffic!

“Your travel time to work directly impacts the amount of time you get to spend with your family, said homes.com.au Founder & Managing Director, Pat Carbone. “Take the trip in peak hour before buying!”

What does it look like?

Take a long drive around the suburb you’re considering buying in. What’s the local village like? Are businesses thriving or are there lots of empty shops? Look at the streetscape. Is council looking after the area or are there lots of potholes and cracked footpaths? How about the houses? Does it look like the locals take pride in their homes or do they look run down?

The aesthetics of a suburb will impact both your enjoyment of living there and the capital growth of the property you’re buying. You’re investing in a suburb when you buy there, so ask yourself whether the area is worth your hard earned money.