A house to live in

Rent or Buy
People keep asking us: "...but where will you live?!". Let me reassure you, there's houses in Canberra, most are pretty nice and people seem to live comfortably in them all the time. Our daring plan is to follow their lead and rent a house or duplex.
The housing market in Australia is very different from the Dutch market. House ownership is the norm (70%), there's no "hypotheekrenteaftrek", mortgage rates are at 7%, the auction system is fairly common, many people own and rent out second or third homes as additional income and the average listing time for a house is 28 days. Oh, and the country is 185 times bigger, leaving them just a bit more space to build. All this makes for a fast moving market, that requires for us to physically be there to actually claim a house.

More on the differences between Oz and NL: http://bit.ly/HksSNG

Work Instruction on How to find a house
We found that the best website is: www.allhomes.com.au (because they have... all homes, which realestate.com.au does not). Then the fun of filtering starts:

• Select buy or rent (choose rent, buying is to lengthy a process and too expensive right now)
• Choose search view (suburb view is just too confusing)
• Choose the area (all ACT)
• Laugh at the district names and realize you cannot seriously consider living in Jerrabomberra, Quenbeyan, Yarralumla, Tuggeranong or Wanniassa (clearly, drinking on the job was not an issue for the naming committee of Canberra Municipality)
• Select rent per week $375-$500 (yes, that is per week)
• Select property type House+Duplex (or All, if you have nothing better to do)
• Under bedrooms select 3,4,5 and 5+ (we want 3, but sometimes 4 is cheaper)
• Under features select "pets allowed" (this will get you from 380 to just about 40 listings)
• Find out that the differences are pretty amazing between houses amd appearances are deceiving
• Sit back confused and consider flipping a coin on it

$380/week will get you this on Yarrawonga Street in Ngunnawal (Seriously, not making this up)

3 beds, slightly outdated, two big gardens and enough space for Yumi to consider starting an alligatorfarm

$450 will get you this on Clement Place in Macgregor with the same # of beds but much more modern and so much space you could run for 30 minutes without leaving the backyard. 

We're still very much undecided at this point. Yumi wants the cats to be able to go outside, where there's about 300 insects smaller than your pinkienail that could kill them in a heartbeat, not to mention snakes, dingos. crocodiles and Bigfoot. Gil wants an apartment with a balcony because he hates gardening and anything resembling plants that keep growing and shedding leaves. Besides, the cats can still go outside and be safe. I mean, ever see an alligator climb up a second floor balcony? Exactly! 

We'll probably end up somewhere in the middle as we always do and post the pictures of our alligatorfarm once we find the right house. Either way, as long as we're together, we'll make it a home, Bigfoot or no Bigfoot.