Dog-Friendly Budget Rental in Sydney
Today's post is a question for a SMG email subscriber.
Hi Lauren, I too, am moving to Sydney in September from Seattle! I loved reading your story.
I am bringing my Rhodesian Ridgeback Knox and am nervous that I am not finding many terrace spaces that accept dogs. I would like to rent near the train since I won't have a car.
Which neighborhoods are the most pet-friendly and most convenient for public transport? My budget is ~$800.00 per week.
Thank you in advance!
Lauren's Reply
So love it when a Seattle-ite stumbles across the site. Surprising how many of us are in Sydney. I think it's between us and Texians which is kind of weird.
Ok, first there is the step by step guide for importing dogs that you need to read and read again. I'm sure you are already familiar with it. Notice the timeline as 180 days is the minimum for the time you will need to import your dog.
Second a site called Pupsy that has all the dog parks in Australia.
With finding a place to rent, usually the smaller the dog the easier it is to convince the owner to give the ok. Not the case for you which means you will have to negotiate to pay more per week. Something that will have to happen face to face to be successful. Most owners do not advertise that they accept pets until it is brought up with a good candidate who wants to rent their unit. You might have better luck with Gumtree.com.au, the Craigslist of down under.
As far as neighbourhoods, Sydney Park, close to Newtown and Erskineville has a nice off leash area and both those areas kind of remind me of the U-District but better. Much better.
Centennial Park has a very nice off leash area too. For that park you're looking at Woollahra, kind of expensive, the Eastern Edge of Paddington, Queens Park, and Bondi Junction. BJ is not the most attractive part of the city. Mostly just concrete apartment buildings and the shopping mall. But it is close to the beach and train station.
Glebe has Bicentennial Park with a dog park. Very nice but again pricey kind of walking distance from the city but also light rail access.
Those are the three areas I know of, Pupsy has many more listed.
Since $800 is your weekly budget, I would say start looking at $700 to $750 as you can then give yourself bargaining room for the dog bribe when you start talking to real estate agents.
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The truth is you don’t need to know right now, for sure, what’s going with you.
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When filling out the form below…
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