Finding your First Home

I think it is safe for students to book the temporary accommodation arranged by the university for the first week or ten initial days.

Then, you can always find a home with the help of real estate agents (free), newspapers or even university notice boards and discussion forums.

You can start your search from these links..

www.realestate.com.au/ - for any type of house hunting throughout Australia
http://www.bcl.com.au/adelaide/realestate/
http://www.truelocal.com.au/ - to find real estate agents
http://www.domain.com.au

Also look for
The Advertiser - Wednesday and Saturday editions

And meet us at
http://groups.google.com/group/adelaidestudents
www.orkut.com search 'students in adelaide'

I reproduce a write-up by one of the current international students who would like to warn incoming students..

"I guess UNISA has Student Living Apartments but
they are terribly expensive therefore I have no idea about cheaper
places since I checked the UNISA website from India and booked in one of
the apartments listed on the Accommodation list. I transferred an
initial sum of 500 Australian Dollars from India. I guess it was not at all a good
thing to do for sure. I guess it is good to advise students to arrive in
Adelaide and then try and find places of accommodation. I guess most
students do that. I was stupid.

And now I have ended up paying 650 dollars a month and an years contract.
That reminds me about the fact that students need to be warned before hand
that they need to be careful when they sign contracts for their houses.
I guess the best way to go about it is to sign for an initial 6 months and then assess the
situation later after 6 months.

Basic Information like Bond Money,Administrative Fee, Rent paid either weekly,
or monthly these are the type of things they need to know. Some houses are
fully furnished, some are partly furnished some are just not furnished. Then what are the
options for people whose houses are not furnished."