Where are the good neighbourhoods in Brisbane?

Hello,
My husband and I will be moving to Brisbane in January of 2008. He is going to be attending the University of Queensland.

We currently live in Calgary, Alberta, and are trying to search and ask for advise on areas in Brisbane that good and the areas that we should stay away from.

We are looking to purchase a home - does anybody know if there are areas in Brisbane where they are building new homes (townhomes).

Where are the areas that are central?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for your time.

Hi there,

We just moved to Brisbane in June, from Fort McMurray of all places

There are so many suburbs around Brisbane to choose from. I think you'll find that money is the biggest factor, along with transportation.

First off, are you coming on a student visa? Do you know if you can buy a house on that? I know some of the temp visas you have to get approval first although that usually isn't a problem. I'm just not sure what the student visas are like. Or are you coming out on a different kind of visa? Also, will you be allowed to work on the visa you're coming on. Usually student visas have a lot of restrictions on how much you can work, although not sure how that affects the spouse.

Sorry for all the questions, I just want you to be sure of what money you'll have available and if you can work or not.

Which campus will he be attending. I just had a look at the site and there are several different campuses. So that will probably influence where you are as well. If you can tell me where the campus is I could give you a better idea of distances to suburbs.

Have a look at this site for the suburbs:
http://www.ourbrisbane.com/living/suburbs/

Brisbane is actually only the downtown area, or as they call it the CBD. Once you go outside of downtown it's all suburbs. We live in Wellington Point which is on the South East of the Brisbane area. It's just outside of the suburb map from the above link.

For housing prices have a look here:
http://www.realestate.com.au/

For some maps:
http://www.ourbrisbane.com/living/maps/

You can only look up houses by suburbs, so you'll need a map of the suburbs handy. Brisbane is booming at the moment so housing prices have gone up quite a bit in the last few years. You'll probably find that they're building all over the city. The general rule is the closer you get to downtown the more expensive it is.

I'm afraid I can't really comment too much since we've only been here a few months and haven't seen the whole city. If you're looking for central than anywhwere within a 5-10km radius around Brisbane downtown would be good. I would also suggest somewhere close to the train lines so you have more transportation options, although there are lots of bus lines too.

Here's the train map:
http://www.railmaps.com.au/brisbane.htm

Looking at the map I think I see University of Queensland and it doesn't look they have a stop on the train.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Lucia,_Queensland

I did a quick search around St. Lucia, houses/townhouses up to $400,000.
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rs ... 400000&o=p

Anyway, that's all I've got at the moment. If you have any more questions just ask.