Living in St Ives

Well we finally found a rental in St Ives and accepted it by force as we ran out of time. (and we looked for 2 months)


St Ives is a very upmarket place. For South Africans I would compare it to Constantia in Cape Town.

Typical Houses with 6 - 10 rooms are the norm with large pools and large gardens and shedloads of trees, but thats typical Of Sydney all over(the trees).

We found the place to be rich rich, with kids doing ballet and horse-riding.

Its too spread out for my taste - ie there are areas in St Ives where the nearest newsagent is either damn expensive or not in walking distance. You must have a car..

We are renting for 750 a week and thats a killer and I believe thats cheap for St Ives.  We really should have started in a lower income area and worked our way out.

It is close to a number of shopping centres(5 - 8 kms(20 minutes)) and the schools are good. The junior School is EXCELLENT with good teachers and an energetic and caring Headmaster.

I think the high school is mediocre with large amounts of kids bussing in (who knows why)

Large amounts of kids all have iphones and so on although there are people on a budget like the rest of us.

All the surrounding areas are a similiar. ie the whole of north Sydney is totally safe (Im talking as a South African/Londoner).

Australians talk about dodgy areas - dont believe em - dodgy to them is a few fisticuffs some years ago. There are bad areas, but nothing worse than the middle class-ish estates in London.

Most people in St Ives have snazzy car - specially 4by4's

There is no way your gonna buy here without a fat deposit as the houses start at about 900k and move up to the millions fast.

My next blog will be on how expensive Sydney is.....



How I got my visa, Life, Lumps and spirit, Hate your new country? Your not alone! A good Furniture Rental company in Sydney,Why do immigrants leave Australia?, Sydney - Scotland island - hidden gem, Malls in Sydney, Living in St Ives, Arriving in Sydney, Driving through Sydney - first day, How expensive is Sydney