If you are planning on buying a new home its a great idea to visit the street in the weekend and have a walk around. See if you hear or see children playing, dogs barking like crazy, loud music, etc. It can give you a good vibe on the area.

I don’t think it’s always possible to have medical facilities immediately in your area but having them a close drive away is a consideration.

The readily available medical services is definitely a consideration regardless of the age of your family – and you too. Unfortunately very few Family GPs do home visits these days. In a geniune emergency it leaves you with 2 options – a locum – some now will not do some areas – or hospital.
Availablility of public transport if needed……. Is it a “high crime” area? Some are well known for it.

I agree with the points you have raised.

When we built our current house, we were happy and satisfied it was in a long, closed court where our child would grow up with other children in a safe area. Unfortunately for us, the developer went bust and sold off many of the blocks to out of town builders who have since cut the large sized blocks in half building as many smaller houses as they could. We now have more rentals in the street than homeowners with a high turnover of people. It’s not been the dream family area we had hoped and wished for. Definitely not. We asked all the right questions, but didn’t account for a developer who didn’t care.

i agree with some of the other comments. I grew up on a street with a bunch of similar aged kids. Unfortunately where we live, there are more older couples but this changing slowly.

Unfortunately our neighbours don’t have children, which is sad that she misses out on that like I had growing up. However, we have everything else on the list close by.

I agree with all these points. We live in a quiet Cul de Sac where lots of kids live who play all together on the street, I’m blessed to call my neighbour my best friend and we’re nearby a shopping centre, schools and multiple playgrounds.

Have all these wonderful things around me even though I no longer need them, but the greatest thing to have is wonderful neighbours.

Well located parks are essential.

I would love to afford a place that ticks all these boxes. But where we are, we are lucky enough to live in a quiet area, safe streets and walking distance to 2 playgrounds and a tiny corner shop. Makes for good outings.

You also need safe areas when you can take your children for them to play and meet other children, especially if you move during school holidays, especially before 1st term of the year. A long gap often results in children having more trouble settling in a new school, made worse if they don’t know anybody. They don’t know the teachers at all, or childcare or kindergarten staff if the children are in that age group.

There are some great tips here. When we were looking for a house the only criteria in the very hot Melbourne market was “can we afford it”. We are lucky that the first house we could afford (in 18 months of looking) ticks many of these boxes.

We have a shopping centre 10 minutes away by car, but due to terrain, it’s not walkable. We really wish we had at least a corner shop in walking distance.

Great tips here! It’s easy to forget these things when buying a house. Quite often the price takes over everything

Thanks for the handy tips. Sometimes people get swept up with all the emotion of the perfect house & forget about the other important factors

I live in a cul-de-sac and I’m very happy we decided to buy in this street. There are a lot of kids here and a cul-de-sac gives more protection.

I agree with all these tips and would add nearby green spaces are also great for families.

All such important things to look for – the internals of the house are just park of the equation.

You have listed alot of the important issues to consider,good article!