Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450

We did extensive research and certainly considered all the reviews on Homely before we chose to call Coffs Harbour home.
We lived in Europe for the past 10 years and it was time to come back and give our kids the sort of upbringing they deserve.
It was a toss-up between Pt. Macquarie and Coffs, and arent we glad it was Coffs! Our kids enjoy lessons at the wonderful Coffs Music Conservatory and we attend classical concerts like The Coramba Music Festival. We joined local clubs, and patronise local businesses and local people have hearts like people anywhere, they see when you are trying to understand them and be a part of things.
The Coffs Advocate - our local paper, is full to the brim with community spirit and creative goings-on. There are so many intelligent and interesting people here who either have money or dont, and want exactly the same thing - an easy-going lifestyle in natures paradise.
When people ask us why we chose Coffs Harbour, we facetiously reply `the Big Banana! `. Its no-ones business, but with the choice of amazing local beaches ( Emerald, Moonee,Sandy, Woolgoolga) or down south ( Sawtell,Mylestom,Urunga), the fact that our kids rarely wear shoes ( seen the price of kids shoes lately?!),we are quite happy to don tattoo sleeves to fit in with the locals.
We have noticed plenty of South Africans, who have worked out that this is a great place to be also. Both of us had international careers and are priviledged to spend our mini-retirement here reconnecting with our kids and keeping life simple. Dont let media turn your kids into mindless consumers. Consider selling the house in Sydney and spending time with your children doing outdoorsy things before they turn into nasty city-teens or screen-heads. Life is fast enough so chill-ax and go slow-mo. You will only have regret for the things you did not do in Life!
The catch is that you MUST have a financial safety net of some sort, a plan B, or a sensible exit strategy. Kids dont stay young forever, and certainly theyll move on and its for the best. Everyones days here are numbered, it just that we want to number plenty of them in this lovely place.

Moved here with my young family from Melbourne 3 years ago hoping to establish quality family life as a country doctor. Beyond disappointing. Have seen only a community entrenched in the failures of inept governance with no hope of change. Unemployment has been a problem for decades here. Now it’s beyond a problem… there are literally no jobs. A plethora of useless, government funded social services that just band-aid the issues without any real solutions. No growth. Massive drug problems. Kid in year 9 was stabbed and killed on the beach next door to us last year over drugs. Another stabbing on the beach in town a year later. Every month we get SMS notifications for missing persons - all high school kids. So sad. Schools are shocking. Biggest tragedy is the notoriously high suicide rate here.

Health services are terrible. The hospital has no public outpatient clinics and no intention to establish any because it would undercut the income of the established, near-exclusively private-billing specialists. Patients are forced to pay enormous fees for essential health services or opt to travel to a capital city for public outpatient health care. There seems to be little to no interest on the part of council to change this to either retain and attract rural doctors or to invest in innovative solutions to improve accessibility to health care.

The patients I see every day bear witness to the tragedy of this place - suffering, poverty, homelessness, depression. It’s a retirement town - always has been and there is a critical shortage of doctors caring for nursing home residents and the established aging population. Now there is an insane housing market that is less affordable than Melbourne. I don’t know who is profiting from this madness but it’s clearly not going into any meaningful infrastructure for this dead-end town. I know a town needs people for growth and it can’t improve if people don’t come. But be informed.

Coffs is a great place to call home especially if you are tired of living in big cities.

Warm and sub-tropical weather

Rippon Close, Merino Drive are some of quite and popular streets in the residential pockets

Beaches are excellent and just can’t get enough of Muttonbird island views and Marina walkway

I came here as a single guy during the covid pandemic. I needed a job and decided to come here. There is literally no nightlife and is a very clicky town. Only suited for people who have ties to the area or a young family. Once ur out of the circle you’re out. Feel very excluded with not much to do. Felt like I wasted my life here. I was warned by someone that there isn’t much going on here but I always want to experience things for myself. Unfortunately my friend words were true.

Great location, great community!

We moved to Coffs from Melbourne 4 years ago and it is THE BEST decision my husband and I made. FYI we absolutely DO NOT know anyone from coffs - ZERO.
We were in a hunt for a coastal town to move into and luckily my husband can do an internal transfer within the company. The area that is covered is within Port Macquarie to Yamba and forunately Coffs store has an opening.
I had a harder time to get convinced as I will end up the doing is looking for a job, the move timed with me going on maternity leave which means I have my parental leave pay that kept us going for a year. I have a well paying job in Mebourne for a government agency which means the longer you stay the higher your salary will get.
But I have to gove it all ul which was really really hard to swallow at the beginning.
The reason I am telling you about our story is so you can understand my review which really affects how everyone will think about the big move. It is a HUGE decision and honestly, I have read reviews from homely that we also considered when we decided to move.
Ok I decided to categorise this into different secrions which I think were imporwhen we moved.

JOB SECURITY - I cannot stress enough that at least ONE of you (couple or couples with fam) have a job set up when you move. If you don’t have a safety net to fall to.

HOUSING CRISIS - We had the toughest time looking for a place to rent. It was highly competitive and I find very stressful. Every home we checked there is about at least 50 people viewing. My husband spoke to his colleague who then spoke about us to her Poperty agent friend and what do you know, we were able to secure a home after almost 2 months of searching. Prior to moving to a tental property, My husband moved to Coffs 6 weeks earluer than us and he stayed at a share home and when we (me and kid) stayed in a small motel. He has been looking home for weeks and cant land one. So in our case it helped to have some sort of connection. Price wise - we paid More than what we were paying in Melbourne in a much smaller townhouse. During that time a townhouse within 1k from city centre was 400 per week.
And after the pandemic, it is much harder as what my friend had said.

INFRASTRUCTURE -
Hospital - Check
Police/fire/ambo - check
airport - check
Schools - check
Mall - check (not that important for us but added for fun.
Accesibility to big cities were also considered if we need to travel international. Brisbane is about 4 hr drive and Gold Coast about 3 hrs
Libraries, aquarium, cinema, bowling alley were good plusses as well

FOOD SCENE - here we go, you coming from Melbourne, and working in Bourke St for 8 years you will really get used to hundreds of choices of food. I am not even an elitist, I just happen to love food. There are plenty of good restaurants in City Centre (which is where Coffs Central Mall is), Jetty area and Sawtell. You will NOT be able to go karaoke on a Wednesday night FYI :)
Although limited cuisines are available, example there is no Korean restaurant here. A few cuisines have emerged within the last four years which is very exciting. But keep your expectations on the down low ok?
But when it come to coffee you will have loads here PLUS coffee with a view is something melbourne rarely has :)

CRIME RATES (drugs etc) - ok let us be real here. We searched this prior to moving and read nasty things about Coffs specifically saying there is a drug problem. It was hard to really dig into this as we do not know anyone from here so we can ask questions. We then trusted the advise provided by people who have made reviews about this. Lef’s say it is not ZERO but it is not everyday that you will hear crime has been committed. I guess this is a hard part of your decision making but for us we feel very safe in our community and the neighbourhood we live in.

TRANSPORTATION - ok so if you are a commter, prepare yourself. There is a busline but it does not go everywhere. See if you are a family you might end up needing to have two cars. Fortunately for us me and hubby works 200m from each other and school is 100m from our work so one car is ecomical and practical for us.

COST SAVINGS - aside from that rent that we end up costing more. A lot of the things here cost leas or FREE. Plenty of beaches to go to, walking trails and there are a lot of free activities for kids that are set up by either council or nfp organisations. Guess what city dwellers??? There is no prking ticket machine!!! (Say what?) and prepare yourself for finding a parking spot everywhere you go (except for events ok)!!

LIFESTYLE - we go to the beach at least 3 times a week and almost everyday during Summer. You cannot ignore how much beaty there is in and around Coffs. You go to the boardwalk for a bit and you will see turtles or stingrays or dolphins just having a swim :) there are waterfalls just 45min to an hr drive from here. Lots of nice spot to go fishing, relaxing, and watch whales swim by! You will get really connected with nature and love the world we luve in even more.

COMMUNITY SPIRIT - i did a bit of research and found that there were a lot of people from the same country were i was born here and it was such a treat! I connectwith my community here. As a parent with young kids, there are a lot of fb groups and playdates which I attended to when I first moved in and luckily met one of my closest friend here in Coffs because of that. :)

Me and my small family absolutely loved living here. We go on adventures and wxplore all the little nooks across this coast and we feel so lucky to be able to have this experience. My kids love the beach and I think (hope) they will understand why we moved from the big city to this beautiful East Coast :)

It was amazing there were a great antique shop called old memory and treasures, there was a beach and much more .

We had been coming down to Coffs for years on holidays and two years ago we decided to take the big step and move down here and we haven't been disappointed.

One of the best spots in Australia with the gorgeous beaches and nearby mountainous hinterland. Coffs has everything you need and you can be there in ten minutes.

A bypass is looming as well as a convention centre and a new high rise in the Jetty precinct which will further put this place on the map.

Obviously being a small regional town, employment opportunities are limited so it doesn't really suit the younger people but it was a town made for retirees, professionals or established city folk looking for a lifestyle change. It's diversity is also a major quality as well.

There are a few "undesirables" around but that number continues to dwindle with increased housing costs as they scatter to places like Grafton or Kempsey . A few of the older folk are set in their ways as they hate seeing change but thankfully the next generation are very proactive.

Overall, a fantastic place to live with extremely nice people living in the best climate in the world in a region with amazing potential. Definitely onwards and upwards for this town.

Easy to get around, the people are friendly, great beaches with walking pathways, enough good restaurants and cafes and a decent variety of shopping. Downside is a lot of buildings and landscaping is very dated and this is reflected when driving through Coffs on the main highway. On the upside it looks like some new construction projects are being started. A pleasant place to live.

Used to come to coffs for work there is NO jobs in the entire area they say unemployment is 7% on the stats but thats bs there is so many job agencies that leech off the govt and dont actually help anyone find work.
Mainly because there isnt any.
If your moving here for work DONT its absolute aweful seek has thousands of ppl going for the same jobs its just a joke absolute joke mate
Now onto the locals... unfriendly everyone bands together and alienates ya for no reason not only does this obviously effect your job/looking for work but its literally jobs for the boys if you dont have mates your not getting work no matter how qualified you are or suitable you are for the job.
If your a younger fella like me DO NOT move here
If your unlucky enough to get work be prepared to get treated like crap underpaid abused and taken advantage of nobody wants to be your friend here just use you.