Hi guys,
What are your general views on living on the Central Coast?
I have been looking at properties there for me, my wife and 3 young kids but some of the reviews of the areas and schools don't fill me with confidence. I've been looking around Woy Woy and Umina.
Thanks in advance.
Yeah, I work in st Leonards so the commute would be pretty good too.
I've lived on the CC for 15+yrs, however for most of that time I've worked from home so its a different story vs commuting. The South (eg Woy Woy) and North (eg Wyong) ends are less desirable and generally cheaper suburbs. The better suburbs are Terrigal, Avoca, Kincumber, Erina, Wamberal, Saratoga, Green Point etc but that is reflected in the prices. Schools generally follow suburbs, however they are hit & miss. We do have a public selective school at Gosford which has an excellent reputation and attracts many NW Sydney kids.
Its a mistake that MANY fall into to think that you will do the same commute in peak hour as the freeway is the only road to Sydney so a weak vulnerable link - major accidents are regular and bushfires block it off. Try driving to the CC Friday afternoon about 5-6pm before you commit to moving here, or follow the RTA traffic reports for a few weeks! Kariong is the "commuters suburb", not really the central coast although the intersection upgrade at west Gosford could make it more accessible.
thanks for the feedback. I won't be driving to work as we only have the one car so I'll be getting the train.
@onetwothree: In that case, catch the train one day as a trial, or chat to commuters. I only do the train trip occasionally however it can be a slow and unreliable trip due to bushfires, trackwork and no spare seats at times.
It seems like many people are getting a sea/tree change for the much cheaper properties and living environments. On the other side the most important drawbacks personally are employments, educations and hospitals. I have relatives from the South Coast that moved back to Sydney when their kids approached high school age for the same reasons.
So yeah, I wouldn't mind living in the Central Coast or even the Blue Mountains if I could secure a long term job without the hours long daily commute and also if my kids gets quality educations.
It currently takes me an hour to get to work so the trip to work wouldn't be much different. I'm mostly concerned about taking my kids out of a nice school and putting them in an average school. Not saying the schools are average on the CC but I'm trying to find out if they are or not.
Ended up sending mine to Grammar school, a number of other private schools are also good.
Pubic schools can be hit and miss depending on teachers and principals
Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to afford the fees for private schools.
This what woy woy is like lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RjC-vh06_c
Nah it is not all bad but there is heaps of deros like living in Sydney south eastern suburbs back in the days so nothing to out of hand!
when i went to school at Matraville high school it was one of the worse schools in NSW and most of us turned out okay so i think it is more temperament of the person them selves… but then i had mates move from here to Gosford and they went to Erina high. they said the school was better and now they are opposite to us. Always drinking and taking drugs and getting into fights!
I have been looking out of Sydney also but further then you some where around batesman bay ….my partners parents live at Morriset that isn't to bad lots of older people and younger couples wanting to start a family and plus you are right next to lake macquarie
I guess the biggest issues will be facilities having a young family and every thing will be a bit further away. so that will mean more time driving but on the plus side you get bigger land and fresh air and less people.
so basically it is like every where you get packets of deros and drop kicks in certain areas. i should also add some mild racism lol but lots of people just like you who work in Sydney but live around the coast…
Hi I live on Central Coast and love it,I have been here for 12 years and still feel like it was the best change for me,I wouldn't change it for the world,great beaches,bike paths,restaurants,we love our sport,and just the relaxed atmosphere it has.
I came from Sydney and wanted to get away from all the fast paced life, and also the sometimes politically inclined things that are happening there,influenced me to come here.
I have made great friends and love every day I am here.
Schools are great,public,christian,catholic,Rudolph Steiner,their are many to choose from.
Really its like any other place for school,whether public or private,it can be a student or teacher who may just be the problem not the school.
Like life itself,things change sometimes.
To sum it up I love it here and their is much potential for growth.
There aren't many jobs for kids when they go up. If I could get work up there I would move no questions asked.
WOW,this is a little spooky seeing this here right now i must say (i'll explain later)
We bought an investment property on my beloved Central Coast,and we dream constantly of packing up here in Sydney and going to a place where life would be slower,after work would be runs on the beach and fishing,commutes would be a 15 minute walk to work (there is an early childhood centre around the corner from us for me,and hubby would leave the hospital system to work at Bunnings…his ultimate fantasy), and shopping would be "hang on,i forgot the bread,let me just walk the 200 metres to Aldi /Coles / Woolies and i'll get it.Perfect little life.
The thing that stops us ? Work is not in huge supply (although hubby did a few months ago get offered a job at a big hospital there…we just got cold feet),schools ???? I have one i will work hard to send any child we may have to here in Sydney (a private school),and i don't know of any schools around where we would live that have the same quality of education as this particular one does…..and the school quality is our top priority as to where we end up staying.Evert time we go there for a weekend,i find myself so settled,so calm and so happy,that i wonder why we don't "just go" there.
The last drawback is that where we bought seems to be a little on the,ummmm…"rougher side",and i think about having kids in that sort of environment (it isn't all bad,and every place has it's areas like that,but if we could buy at Terrigal…..damn i'd be there yesterday.
If commuting isn't an issue for you…that a plus,if crowds that could rival NYE in Sydney during summer holidays aren't an issue( that's a negative..take it from me,who asked about that with the locals)and you want to change the way you spend your downtime….then for sure,go).If you want,PM me and i can give you names of a few Real Estate agents who can give you some honest (yeah,i know…oxymoron right there,but i do know of one in particular) advice and guidance.
The spooky bit ? I only yesterday was doing my own pros and cons of a move to the house there.It just feels horrible when we leave and so calming when we arrive…who wouldn't want that calm never to leave ?
agree mostly with what everyone else has already said.
the low price reflects demand - you get what you pay for. cheap areas have huge amounts of social housing and crims just like trent above - would you like him as your neighbour? the services and jobs are poor. if you have children do you want them to be raised around an area like that and hanging around kids like that? woy woy and umina fit into this area a lot of strange people live there. its alright to go for a short holiday but I wouldn't want to live there.
As affable said:
The better suburbs are Terrigal, Avoca, Kincumber, Erina, Wamberal, Saratoga, Green Point etc but that is reflected in the prices
the train - go for a train ride and take a look for yourself - you wont get a seat if you intend to travel at peak time. your not the only person who thought about moving there to save money - there is a reason its cheap and everyone else still hasn't moved there. if you lose your job there is no work in the area and it will make competeing for a good job in Sydney harder to obtain because employers will see you as less desirable than applicants who live closer.
the low price reflects demand - you get what you pay for. cheap areas have huge amounts of social housing and crims
this is the case in big cities but not but not necessarily the same everywhere. e.g. you could have cheap suburbs that are out of the way that can't attract people to move there. It doesn't mean it's full of crims but it could just be that it's hard to get to places of work/education.
employers will see you as less desirable than applicants who live closer.
Maybe if you're going for jobs in maccas or stacking shelves in a supermarket or other entry level roles where they have a high turnover of staff so hopefully it won't affect me. Maybe it will my kids when they are grown up but they can choose to move closer to Sydney if they need to.
*I didn't neg you btw
this is the case in big cities but not but not necessarily the same everywhere.
within that proximity to the city it is otherwise everyone would move just because its a tonne cheaper.
It doesn't mean it's full of crims
are you looking for an honest answer or are you just trying to justify your decision to move there? I have been there and it is full of crims.
Maybe if you're….
look I was telling you from experience, it might not be the answer you were looking for but there is no point arguing with me, its not going to change the problem. the area is what it is.
it would be great is some decent working class people moved into the area made it a bit better, better services and more investment but you just have to tolerate that its less desirable than other places and that's why the price. there is a review website if you google, it confirms what everyone said here
*negs don't bother me :) thanks for letting me know though, that was sweet of you (it probably came from one of the weirdos of woy woy who took insult to being called strange :)
You do realise even Woy Woy which is generally regarded as the worst part of the Peninsula has a higher median house price ($542,000) than most suburbs of Newcastle including Charlestown ($492,500)? Not to mention the surrounding suburbs like Umina and Ettalong being significantly higher than Charlestown. You also know Trent from Punchy is a comedian right? It's not real….
I live in an admittedly nicer area nearby, and getting on the train in the mornings, the station is packed at Woy Woy not to mention the surrounding streets and massive station car park full by about 7:00am - 7:30am every morning. You know all these hard working people aren't criminals right? You also know Umina is the most populated suburb on the whole Central Coast of NSW and Woy Woy not far behind, which is pretty scary when everyone there is a criminal yeah? You also know the area has experienced some of the highest capital growth in NSW and driving through the place you see tonnes of houses being knocked down and redeveloped with modern brick homes and villas popping up everywhere?
I'm sure you also know the beaches, waterways, national parks, mountains, climate, proximity to Sydney (Faster to get to the Sydney CBD via public transport than the upper northern beaches of Sydney) is pretty unique right?
Yes there are still a heap of bogans there, but there is a huge amount of good hard working people who have also relocated there, and working in the job I do, what you notice is a lot of Sydneysiders simply don't consider the Central Coast an option, they automatically assume it's too far away (I've had people at work ask me in the past if I was affected by the QLD floods years ago). They will pay the same for a place in Penrith or Campbelltown with a similar commute time just because it is part of Sydney.
Not to sure when you last visited the Criminal Coast but Kincumber, Erina and Green Point are not regarded as great expensive suburbs. The house prices are more expensive in Ettalong than Kincumber for example. & Umina and Kincumber are virtually the same.
Best suburbs would be: Terrigal, Avoca, Saratoga, Daley's Point, Killcare, Macmasters Beach, Copacabana, Holgate, Wamberal.
Unfortunately the suburbs you mentioned as being best aren't really convenient to the train station for the commute to Sydney.
Daley's Point and Killcare are not bad for the commute. I missed Pearl Beach as a great suburb which is also ok for commuting.
If people are wanting to commute to Sydney (and aren't snobby) the Woy Woy Peninsula and surrounds is hard to beat. Some mostly decent, affordable suburbs which are easy to commute to Sydney are:
@Alleviate: yup, those suburbs are much better suited to a train commute. Some might do it, but I wouldn't be too keen to travel from Killcare and then finish the commute by train. Then again, I think my ten minute commute is long enough! I spent a bit of time with an hour+ commute and won't be going to back to that without a fight, unless it was an hour bike commute that is worth the time for the gain in fitness.
the train - go for a train ride and take a look for yourself - you wont get a seat if you intend to travel at peak time.
Thats true if you are travelling to the City from Woy Woy, but not true if you are leaving from the City and boarding at Central, (Unless you get there just on departure)
You work on Sydney's lower north shore……why not live there? If education is important, I don't see why you would consider anywhere else.
Because I don't want to live in a shoebox so that I can live close to work and send my kids to a slighter better public school.
Slightly better? Err no don't think so. But good luck.
Mate, if someone could afford to live on the lower north shore I doubt they would live on the Central Coast and commute to Sydney.
The Central Coast is a good alternative to a lot of Western & South Western Sydney, not the North Shore.
Haven't lived on the central coast for quite a few years. Spent my high school years there though. Umina and Woy Woy always had the reputation as rough schools, but don't know because the rough school was always not the one you went to when in high school. Other probably thought Erina was rough where I went.
Keep in mind if you are going to catch the train you'll need to take into account getting to and from the station. I lived in green point and the station was fairly close. Kincumber, saratoga etc were still close to the station, but if you added that onto an hour and a bit of train travel it made a very long day. There used to be a lot of people move from Sydney to mcmasters, Avoca etc because they wanted the beach location and prices were good. They soon sold up though if they couldn't get a local job as it took a good 30min to get to the station, and longer to get to the freeway.
One thing about that commute distance though was while my dad worked in Sydney he never went to work on a Saturday, unlike when we lived 15min drive from work. It as, for him, a 12hr day every day taking into account the commute times.
What I found on central coast though was the weekend traffic was a nightmare. At least during the week the traffic was pretty much all going in one direction and seemed to flow a bit, weekends everyone was going in all directions and everything would choke up worse.
Still go back to there regularly on weekends and am glad I moved to Newcastle.
It interesting to hear peoples thoughts on the area I moved to Umina Beach a little over 4 years ago now and can say we are so much better off for it. I was like you sick of apartment living and wanted something bigger but Sydney prices are ridiculous. West st has come along way in the last 2 years a new Aldi, a new woolworths, refurbished coles a brand new bunnings store and Maccas have all opened up so we are glad we moved when we did. I have come across the odd ball in Woy Woy but that's to be expected anywhere where there is a Centrelink office. if I was you I would look at Umina beach over Woy Woy better shops and closer to the beach plus most of our neighbours are retired so they always look after our place when we are not there and bring our bins in etc most of the people are quite nice and not crims. I still work in Sydney and drive everyday its mainly pacific Highway in that can add to the travel time. Let me know how you go or if you need any specific questions answered, happy to help.
Hi Just need to confirm the comments like always drinking or taking drugs,or derros,ETC… "
No its not all like that I have lived here a long time and actually have not en-counted many situations like that,maybe midnight on a Saturday if you are lucky.
It is not that bad.
I live at Wamberal ,Love it here.I feel safe and it is very family orientated.
Good Luck with your decision,holidays can be very busy ,but that is all sea side towns.
The OP is looking at Woy Woy
So Wamberal vs Woy Woy maybe the answer here
Mosman vs Mt Druitt in Sydney
Just have to comment back due to some of the silly things which have been written by one or two people. I will write based on fact and not emotion.
DISCLAIMER: I don't live in Woy Woy or Umina, but live not far from there and work in lending and valuations for one of the big 4 banks based in Sydney and work Australia wide. The Woy Woy Peninsula has changed a lot for the better in the past few years and deserves more than silly comments about everyone living there being criminal. In fact a recent client who we had contact with is the head of mobile telecommunications for one of the mobile networks and lives in Umina. Ditto a certain lord mayor of a major city having a holiday house in Umina.
The Woy Woy Peninsula is absolutely booming. People are paying a lot of money for run down places and doing them up. There are developers everywhere building new villas down there and price records are being smashed. Have a look at old houses going for $800K Plus near Ocean Beach Road in Woy Woy which is generally thought of as the worst part of the area. On the high end, people have paid close to $3 Million for houses in Umina on the waterfront. There is huge amounts of investment happening there, and this in itself is actually a negative in some regards which I will get to below. A common occurence with buyers I do approvals for up here, is they think when they are buying their first home after renting in Avoca etc. They can buy down on the Peninsula cheaply and work their way up. Lately, they are often disappointed when realising the prices aren't much cheaper than the better areas, and they end up buying in Wyong etc further up the Coast.
I don't think these properties are catering to low income criminals (All within 5 K's of Woy Woy)
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-woy+woy-1209…
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-blackwall-11…
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-blackwall-12…
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-booker+bay-1…
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-umina+beach-…
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-woy+woy-1210… (Near Ocean Beach Road which is arguably the street with the worst reputation in Woy Woy).
Pros are:
Negatives are:
This I think is a fair judgement on the area. I must say I laughed seeing a person from Charlestown calling people from Woy Woy criminals. Charlestown was always joked about as being Windale, Gateshead, Jesmond etc in a designer dress. Horses for courses.
Hi Rocky Raccoon,
No Woy Woy is not Mt Druit,and Wamberal verus Woy Woy,BOTH good places,I happen to live at Wamberal but its like anywhere on coast,or NSW, you will get trouble in Double Bay,..you just discriminate people for where they come from.
Getting back to the topic,Great up here,hope you give it a go.
Thanks for all the comments. We're now also looking at places like Berkeley Vale and Tuggerah, anyone know about these places?
This has been a really interesting thread. We are making the move in August. Likely rent for a few months around Woy Woy, Umina, Ettalong and see where we can find a long term "fit".
How did you end up going? Have you settled into somewhere yourself now?
Any new advice after going through the experience yourslef?
Many thanks
Steve
We ended up buying a place in Berkeley Vale, havent moved in yet as only just got the keys. Fingers crossed all goes well when we do move.
Good for you. We also like the look of Berkeley Vale stretch. Are any of you still working in Sydney?
Berkely Vale seemed to be a bit too far (from a "looking on the computer" perspective) to commute to Sydney as it was about 20-25 mins further than Woy Woy station…..
We will be returning to Australia in August and plan to rent a furnished place in Woy Woy to Umina/Ettalong area….then decide on a place to buy (or long term rent if we can't decide/commit).
Congratulations though on really "doing it". A few months from now you will be all settled in…..
Hi all,
I am going to move to Central Coast from Sydney.
We are a family with 4 kids at different ages.
I'll be happy to get a references about the schools in the area (Tuggerah,Woung) Primary and secondary as well.
Many thanks!
I love that area however I don't know about living there and the schools. Go out and talk to people, in the local shops, library, school, etc. Go to open homes and speak to the neighbours. I think that the central coast is undervalued compared to the Sydney market and it isn't that far, Woy Woy/Umina to Hornsby about 45 minutes by car.