Sydney First Impressions: Flat-hunting and Coffee Shops

Good morning from Sydney!

This is officially my first post written and published from the land down under. It’s been a hectic few weeks since we arrived. This city is stunning. And I am no stranger to big cities, but Sydney is especially expanded. A very simple commute can take you over an hour if you use public transport. And that’s the only type of transport that I will be using for now.

Finding a place in this city is like going through the most difficult level of a video game. You have to try again and again until finally your application gets accepted.

In fact, one of the differences between flat hunting in London and Sydney is the level of relevancy that you feel as a tenant when looking for a place to live.

In London, you are likely to apply online to visit a flat. The Estate Agent will call you back and get all of your details and requirements for the apartment you are looking for. The Agent will arrange a day and time to show you all of the flats that can be suitable for you. If you like one of the places that you have seen with the realtor, you will communicate to him/her the offer you are ready to send and he will contact the landlords and share your offer with them. If the landlord doesn’t accept the offer because it is too low, the agent will get back to you with all the minimum requirements from the Landlord.

Then, you can either accept or reject the place.

In Sydney, on the other hand, the system works through open houses. After you find a place on the website, you will apply to see it. After that, you will get access to the Inspection date. At this point, you still haven’t spoken with any Agent.

On the day of the inspection, you will check the place along with other applicants (around 8-14 in my experience). Bear in mind that everyone there has applied to see the same place as you and it is likely that a lot of them will be interested in sending an offer to live there.

After the inspection is done, you do NOT send an offer through the agent. Instead, you should do it online and wait to see if your offer has been successful enough for the Agent to call you back. And that will be your first contact with the Agent.

With so many people looking for flats, attending inspections and sending offers at the same time the market becomes extremely competitive.

Getting your offer accepted can be challenging, especially if you just arrived in the city.

It took us around 3 weeks of almost full-time research and inspections to get one of our offers accepted. Once accepted, problems didn’t completely fade since the minimum standards of cleaning for the flat weren’t met.

But now that we are relatively established, I have found the perfect time to do what’s still my favourite thing in the world: get in a cafeteria and write.

And that’s another difference that I notice between Sydney and London: the cafe culture.

The entire city of Sydney is decorated with welcoming cafes in almost every corner. Most of them are tastefully decorated and offer high-quality coffee. Nevertheless, unlike London, where cafes are usually occupied by focused loners working on their laptops, cafes in Sydney are often busy with groups of people talking and socialising.

I have tried sitting down with my laptop and earphones, trying to make my coffee break productive, but I feel like the odd one out when I do it. I am normally surrounded by groups of coworkers, friends and families having brunch and I’m often the only person sitting with a laptop.

Oh, almost all of the coffee shops close before 4 pm!

But today I decided to come to one of the Starbucks in the city. It wasn’t easy. I had to take two buses, one of them with severe delays. But I made it and I am loving it here!

Oh no, it has started raining!

The weather here is insane. You can get a sunny morning and a tropical storm by lunchtime.
The thunders and bolts of lightning were frightening last week. It was thundering for almost two hours before it started raining. It was pouring for less than 30 minutes. A few minutes later the sun was out and bright again.

With all the moving, jet lag and novelties, you probably think that I haven’t had any time left to watch movies.
You are wrong.

I will get my bedtime story regardless of whether I am in Spain, England, Australia or the very moon!

Some of the films that I have watched lately have been surprisingly good.
I will share a short list that I made in a couple of weeks. Most of the movies are relatively new so I hope you guys find some movies you fancy watching.

Thank you for reading me today and have an amazing weekend!