andyd5

Having rented near Rosemead Road, 20m next to the national park, my experience has been mixed.

WFH
- When I first moved to Hornsby, the nbn was not set up yet and would take a week. WFH was a nightmare as I used Kogan mobile, Amaysim, Woolies mobile as a hotspot (before the nbn was installed) and I had no reception. The internet telstra sim that came with my work laptop didn’t have any reception. Couldn’t take or receive any calls unless I walked out of the house to the road. Only Telstra works in this area if you want to receive calls, so no cheap mobile services can be used here. Very challenging time when I was looking for a new job and couldn’t receive any calls.
- NBN was also a bit patchy and would drop out with certain providers.

Humidity
- Bought many humidity meters (hygrometers) for the house. Averaged 75%-80% most of the time , which is very high humidity. Mould started growing on my leather bags, shoes, even if they were stored away in boxes or luggages.
- The white walls appeared dark during winter. It was previously badly wiped over by the owner in an attempt to hide the, you guessed it, mould! During winter, there was a stench of mould in the house. Landlord refused to do anything about it and told me to clean it up myself. So beware if you are a renter in this vicinity, the house will be cleaned up before you inspect it. I got sick more frequently, was lethargic and had many unexplained symptoms. I was WFH a lot which made it terrible.
- Was forced to buy a couple of desiccant dehumidifiers ($500 each) to stop the mould from spreading and get rid of the moisture in the air. Not a great experience as a renter, and given rents are so high in this area and the bonus of dealing with mould, I would rather rent elsewhere.
- Turning on the heater or using the wood heater made the mould spread like crazy during last winter. Absolute nightmare.
- The part of sydney is about 1.5 degrees colder than inner sydney in winter.

Inconvenience/inaccessible
- There are no nearby buses that stop along these roads or go near the national park near Rosemead road. Having young children, it would be inconvenient as you have to chauffeur them everywhere and the hills are too steep to walk up, it’s all right to walk downhill though. If you go to the office, you need to drive to get up and out of the forest as it’s too steep to walk up comfortably with a work laptop/bag.

Would I recommend it? Depends, you would be very car-reliant and would become an expert with dealing with mould in the winter.