michaelh34

My wife and I took the plunge and uprooted from Essendon in late 2016. We were planning on having kids and the thought of raising them in our two bedroom flat was frightening. Having spent a few weekends attending house openings we settled on Soldiers Hill owing to its beautiful old homes, tree lined streets and proximity to CBD.

What we found in Soldiers Hill were people our age (Mid/Late 30s), excellent cafes and stunning streetscapes that we fell in love with.

We bought a renovated miners cottage on a tree lined street for considerably less than what we would have paid for either a tiny flat within the city ring or around what a McMansion costs in Melton/Bacchus Marsh.

Soldiers Hill delivers 100MBS fibre to the home internet, neighbours who know your name (if you want them to), good schools and a wow factor that has every visitor from Melbourne second guessing why they stay there.

Commuting via train is doable while not particularly pleasant but compares to Frankston or Ferntree Gully. I'd normally take the 7:20am and hit my office around 8:40am. If you had to drive into the CBD for a 9am start everyday then its 2 hours of pain so keep that in mind.

Yeah its cold in winter but the locals dont even mention it. Buy a down jacket and head on out for some great, limited but growing food and night life.

House prices in Soldiers Hill are up 8.2% in Q1 2017 which is pleasing. http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/4642874/boom-time-for-ballarat-suburb/?cs=62

PS First child is due in a few weeks!