Finding a home
Finding a home in NSW
In New South Wales you can buy or rent attractive houses, apartments or property in cosmopolitan seaside cities, thriving regional centres or small rural towns. Communities throughout NSW are welcoming places to create a home and the state's quality of life is consistently ranked among the best in the world.
Finding a property in NSW
In NSW, as with anywhere in the world, it is best to inspect a property yourself before you commit to renting or buying it. However, if you're not able to visit the state, it is worth getting a guidebook to learn more about the area where you wish to live and work.
Real estate websites
Searching for a house or apartment in NSW from overseas or interstate is a relatively simple task, thanks to the rise of residential real estate websites. Some useful websites are:
- Realestate.com.au lets you enter a suburb, specify the number of bedrooms you need and search for a house or apartment in the price range you can afford. You can also view recent sale prices for houses and apartments in different areas.
- Domain provides comprehensive listings of rental properties as well as houses and apartments for sale across NSW. You can specify the number of bedrooms you need and your price range as well as access recent sale figures for different regions.
- Home Price Guide gives you the average real estate prices for suburbs and towns throughout NSW and Australia. This website also offers a breakdown of population, public transport and demographics in different suburbs.
Most property websites ask you to enter a suburb or postcode when you are searching online for real estate. If you know the name of a town or suburb but don't know the postcode, visit Australia Post's Find a Postcode tool.
Property prices in NSW
You will find that real estate prices in Sydney and NSW vary dramatically. Properties located in and around Sydney typically cost far more than those in regional areas. Houses in Sydney's most exclusive waterside suburbs, such as Mosman and Vaucluse, often fetch up to 10 times more than equivalent properties in Sydney's outer suburbs.
The NSW Government also offers comprehensive listings of median and average residential property prices and rental costs in Sydney and the rest of NSW, by individual suburbs. To view these listings visit the Housing NSW Quarterly Rent and Sales Reports.
In NSW, and Sydney in particular, you can experience substantial growth in residential real estate values.
To convert the cost of an Australian house into your local currency, you can use an online currency converter such as OFX.