We are young hindu asian family Child 5yrs moving to Adelaide soon, which suburbs do you recommend?

This is a vague question. What are you looking for? There are a lot of Hindus and Asians in Adelaide, so you will be accepted wherever you move. What is your budget per week for rent, or budget for buying a house? Start with that, and then compare the schools, services and public transport in the areas you can afford. Let StreetAdviser users know your interests and hobbies and what you are looking for in a house or flat, then we will be able to help you more. If you or your spouse already have a job lined up, take commuting time into account.

@Pmax thanks for your comment. Adelaide has been our choice based on its image as a large town with nice park-lands, paths and your answer reaffirms our image of a global city (town). That said my question was restricted by the 250 character limit and also designed to attract quick comments giving me some sense and feel of the demographics. I would be hunting for a job in CBD hence a 2 bed room rental would be ideal however other restrictions are proximity to a primary school, groceries - close to central market would be perfect, gym etc. As wife doesn't drive yet and would play homemaker for settling in period, prefers to walk to school, grocery shopping etc. Would living in CBD be good? especially in the nights does it get deserted? The plan with the house is to rent first for couple of months/year where we can make friends (Similar age groups community or couples with kids the same age) basically devote our social time to be part of the community and then may be take a decision to buy. Rental budget is really unclear it depends on the pay but anywhere between 1200$ to 2200$/month should be doable I am guessing and also assuming that is the only cost of renting a place, not aware of any other additional monthly costs? Please advise. What areas fit into this budget - I don't know.
I am a fitness junkie - bodybuilding is a hobby so gyms in the area would help. We also like to walks and want to invest our time into knowing the place, ensuring our child finds friends his age to play and interact at play areas etc. We enjoy beaches immensely hence weekends would surely be at the beach where I can windsurf and wife and child can swim. We also enjoy family drives together Barossa valley has already been shortlisted as a must drive. We tend to be foodies so we are hoping to raid the restaurants once there.

The $300 - $500 a week rental budget can put you in a large variety of places. The CBD is expensive to live in in terms of rental and there are no large homes within that budget (the best you'll find will be a 1 possibly 2 bed workers cottage. The CBD does become deserted at night, except for Fridays and Saturdays when you have to put up with the clubs etc. There is a Primary School in the City which services the Southern Residential portion of the city square mile. What I would recommend is a) really finding out how much you can afford on rent - is it $300 a week or $500? Don't try and stretch yourself to $500 when you really cannot afford it (I'll explain why) b) EVERYTHING is within EASY drive in Adelaide - you can live in Tea Tree Gully, enjoy the hills, be a short drive through those hills to the Barossa and yet straight down Grand Junction Road 20 mins later to the fantastic beaches at Semaphore and Grange. Don't limit yourself to renting near the beach (which is pricey) when it's something that for so many, ends up being a fad they pay for but wears thin c) Community is everywhere - doesn't matter where you send your child, they will find a good community. All schools are multicultural, and they all fit in well (I've just had to relocate from the East to NE and can attest to this). d) Gyms - the things are like mushrooms - everywhere and open 24hrs. e) Restaurants - there are awesome restaurants again EVERYWHERE - don't limit yourself to the City on this - Norwood, Prospect, Torrensville, Unley, Nth Adelaide, Glenelg, Henley, the list is endless of strips of places to eat and that's not the half of them! Personally, decide on rent price, decide on house (with a child, 3 bedroom and a backyard might be the go), then look at schools (do you have a particular ethos in mind? or needs? Gifted? Steiner? Private?). Once you do that, you may find that the needs of your child start to dictate the needs of the family :)

@willowtea Absolutely - "Child is father of the Man" and they certainly didn't mean it in this way ;) Well, I believe the best way to absorb the culture would be to get into one of the public schools. Ok.. from what you said a range of 300-400$/week should land me a decent place. However, I need to factor in the distances from school and groceries to zero in on a place that suits me. Also, there is another requirement that I missed to mention in my earlier post - the need to have an extremely friendly community where there is almost daily interaction between neighbors cause my wife being away from the country of origin for the first time and in a new place may require more help with everything than others (though I may be over cautious here) while I am out working or hunting for a job. Hence that should narrow down the search to fewer neighborhoods.

I totally appreciate your concerns about your Wife. Currently, I'm in the same situation as her being a stay at home Mum and my child is 6. Schools themselves are a great way to get involved. They have parent groups/catchups, volunteer programmes, school canteen, in class reading you can help with, the list is endless. Schools are exceptionally common in Adelaide, including the Public ones. While there has been some creation of 'Super Schools', in the metro area, you'll hardly have to go more than a kilometre for a school. Travelling further than that may be through choice. Schools can be tricky however, as many Public schools are 'zoned' - you have to live in the zone to be able to unconditionally send your child to it. They'll only take a child from outside the area if there's room. For a list - http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/locs/ - you can see on the left the schools by zone etc. If the school isn't listed as a 'zone' school, it generally means they don't have an enforceable zone (but always check). With neighbours, they can be a funny thing. I've had some really great neighbours and some, quite frankly, I'd rather wish didn't exist. I've been in this house for 13 years and you see people come and go. The relationships you make with neighbours is only as good as the effort you put into them. And, to be frank, people are busy, they work long hours and just aren't interested. That's why I like the idea of parent groups or community groups - people are their because the purpose brings them together, not geography (if that makes sense?!). The biggest thing about Australia in general is, ask for help. Because it's here. Whether it be run by Government, Council, Schools, Tafe, Charities etc etc there is so much help, you just have to ask :)

@willowtea OK cool! that is what I thought! Schools are a great place to get to know people around you. Yes, neighbors is the same thing like family in that context - you cant really choose what you want! :) you just have them. I look forward to join such school groups for my wife to interact and hoping to get a zoned public school. I deeply appreciate your replies willowtea they have cleared many things in my head. cheers!

Never a problem! Good luck in your search and I hope you find an area that you love. You are doing the right thing - rent first, even if it's just a 12 month lease. Spend your weekends driving around, getting a feel for the different areas. Focus on how YOU really live. Don't worry about your child so much if they have to move schools either - kids are so adaptable, especially if they know it's part of the fun of finding a more permanent home! :D

@willowtea Thanks !! Sure....and never know we could bump into each other since our "decision influencers" are in the same age group. What area are you in and how do you rate it against my requirements? e

I'm currently in Ingle Farm. I've been here a long time and so I've seen it change from retirees and tradespeople to younger families and first home buyers. My background is somewhat mixed - I grew up in Elizabeth (which some people would regard as very rough - it was different 30+ years ago), moved a lot, spent a lot of time in country Australia to then do my final teenage years in the Inner Eastern Suburbs (which are beautiful but expensive and elitist with their own sub cultures). When it came to buy a house of our own back in 2000, we had to go where we could afford. My Husband worked out at what is now Mawson Lakes (it was called The Levels then and was paddocks) and Ingle Farm was good housing stock in the $80-100k price range. Of course, houses here are now $220k for a bulldozer job, to $250k for a do-er upper to $300+ for a nice, well done home. We were about to move actually back to the Eastern Suburbs this year and had sent my child to a local school there in anticipation but there was some bad bullying and so we pulled him out. We're now sending him to a school in Modbury which is able to cater to his specific needs and the bullying issues have gone away. Now that that's happened, the plan to move has gone! We'll be here for another 5+ years so we're now planning to add on a nice entertainment area for when friends come over. I like this area because it has potential. It's close to everything, has buses to the city and the north, you have huge shoppings centres nearby and are spoilt for choice in schools (inc private). Most importantly, the houses are on good blocks (650sqm+) so it gives you options to either a) do it up and it becomes a family home or b) sit on it and demolish it to sub divide and build 2 (which happens a lot). Some people don't like the area - the thing with Adelaide is the North doesn't like the South and vice versa. You'll get people who say 'anything north of Gepps Cross is bad' and the truth is, they've only been down the main highway and have no idea what's up NE way. Personally I wouldn't go into Walkley Heights (overpriced, bad infrastructure) but Valley View is very nice. So is Modbury North/Heights etc - all good housing stock and you can find some real bargains and good rentals. Do some research on the O-Bahn - you'll love it!

Hi Ameet! I apologise for the late reply - I have had trouble logging on. Anyhow, it looks like Willowtea has got everything covered. Like she says, your child's school will be a big deciding factor. I also recommend you rent a 3 bedroom house with a garden as that is the usual lifestyle for a family here - our flats may be smaller than what you are used to (50-60 square metres for a 2 bedroom flat). I recommend you live within 500 metres of a go-zone for public transport since your wife doesn't drive. Central Market is on a lot of bus routes from the suburbs, so you really don't need to worry about being walking distance from the market. Gyms are a dime a dozen here, and we also have a lot of parks. The public transport, school and budget will narrow suburbs down for you. www.adelaidemetro.com.au has public transport route information. One thing to note is some of the rail lines are closed until mid year, which slows commuting time down from some suburbs. It takes me 50 minutes to get to work in the morning on the bus down Main North Road, which has very heavy traffic. It was a lot quicker getting into town when I lived in the Western suburbs (Henley Beach Road bus route). Once you have narrowed the list of suburbs down, find out which council areas they are in and then check the council's web sites. That will give you a good idea of community activities such as volunteering opportunities, language lessons and library services. Good luck with it all!

Both Kilburn and Oaklands Park have Hindu temples so if you need to be close to one I would choose one of those two suburbs.