Key Factors for Finding a Dream Location

Are you looking for the ideal place to live? Not happy in your current home, suburb or even a certain part of the country? While everyone’s idea of the ‘dream’ location to live is different, let’s take a look at some of the key things to consider while you’re on the hunt to find your new place to call home.

Cost of Living

Unless you’ve just won the lotto, a location’s ‘cost of living’ should be a key factor in your decision-making process. You may have heard the term ‘liveability’ or how ‘liveable’ certain locations are? Cities from around the world are ranked each year for their liveability and the cost of living is one of the key economic indicators taken into consideration. It will determine how much you’ll pay for everyday essentials as well as big ticket items like real estate. So what sort of things does the ‘cost of living’ cover? Here are just a few:

• average house prices and rent
• food – groceries, takeaway and restaurants
• transport costs – fuel prices and public transport
• energy, water and waste costs
• taxes

Demographics

Specific locations are well known for attracting a certain type of demographic, for example, retirees. If you have a young family, heading to a place like this probably isn’t what you’re looking for. Instead, you’re going to want an area where there are other young families and neighbourhood kids for your children to play with. Equally so, if you’re a retiree with grown children, you’re going to want to avoid areas full of young families!

This is probably why master-planned communities have become incredibly popular. They target and appeal to certain demographics based on the design of the community, infrastructure and accessibility. They also offer affordable house and land packages (like those provided by http://www.coralhomes.com.au) which allow buyers the opportunity to design and build a home tailored to their needs, without breaking the bank.

Infrastructure

Another key thing to think about when choosing where to live is the availability of infrastructure such as roads, public transport and hospitals. You want to know that you can move around your suburb and city with relative ease and that you can readily access key services such as healthcare providers, schools and shops.

Climate

If you’re looking to relocate somewhere substantially different to where you are now, have a really good think about the climate. While moving to a warmer climate might be appealing, try taking a holiday first to see if you can handle peak summer temperatures. The same also applies for moving to colder climates. If you’re dying to live by the sea, the reality is seaside areas suffer from corrosion, sticky and salty sea-spray and strong winds. Often, we have concept in our mind of what it might be like to live in a certain location, but the reality may be very different.

There are a lot of things to consider when looking for the ‘dream location’ to live. So make sure you do your research and before you the bite the bullet and move; invest some serious thinking into your decision-making process.