澳洲自由的文化，与海为邻的绝伦景色，以及特有的朴实气质使其成为“世界最适宜人类居住”的地方，如果你有幸踏上了这片红土地，我愿意将我多年的海外生活经验分享给你，希望能帮助你找到心仪的“海外小巢”。

　　Australia is reputated as the most livable city in the world for its multi-culture and picturesque coastal landscape. If you are lucky enough to step on the ‘red-earth’, i would like to share with you my years of oversea experience and wish you could find a satisfactory place to live..

　　澳洲的住房大概分为House, Townhouse, Unit, Apartment, Flat和Studio六种形式.

　　The housing in Australia can be categorised into House, Townhouse, Unit, Apartment, Flat and Studio.

　　中国学生通常认为house和home没有区别,在我的口语课上经常会听到学生说“my house is in...”或者“go back to my house”。初听时，我很诧异于国家这些年发生的巨大变化――班上所有孩子都住上了别墅，听过细节后才发现原来同学们想说的是Home(家).在澳洲，house专指独立的房子也就是国内所说的独栋别墅，由于澳洲地广人稀，在澳洲拥有别墅不像在国内那样是富人的专属品，所以对于海外学生来说，租一栋别墅做“寝室”，既惬意又安静，是专心学习，享受生活的上好选择。如果你的校区刚好远离城市喧嚣，又有几个“有识之士”愿意与你分摊房租，那么住house是再好不过的了。但是在入住之前，需要特别注意的是房屋周边的公共交通情况，以及日常生活必需品的购买是否便利，因为house普遍远离市区，在没有私家车的情况下，出门是很不方便的。

　　 Chinese students find it hard to distinguish between house and home, because i can always hear people say ‘my house is in...’ or ‘go back to my house’ in my speaking class. Initially, i was shocked by the great change that has taken place in China for the past few years―all the kids are living in the ‘house’ now. After further discussion, i found the real meaning they wanted to express is ‘home’. In Australia, ‘house’ only refers to those what we call ‘villa’ in China. Since the continent of Australia is massive with relatively small population, owning a ‘house’ in Australia does not necessarily belong to the rich. For oversea students, renting a house as a place to live is a good choice both for life and study. House would no doubtedly be a good option if your campus is in the suburb and you are willing to share the property with others. It is worth mentioning that before you decide to move in, it’s of high importance to check the surrounding facilities such as public transportation and supermarket, because most of houses are distant from the city area.

　　Unit从字面上看是指单元，但是和中国的单元房意义完全不同。Unit往往指单层的联体小楼，一般是两室一厅或者三室一厅。与house相比，unit更具现代气息，也更受年轻人的青睐。这类房屋一般靠近学校，或是其他设施，客源丰富，租金不菲。Townhouse和unit比较相似，占地面积都较小，但townhouse通常是2-3层高的上下体别墅（这种房子在中国叫叠town,最近几年也慢慢时兴起来）。这两类房屋的租赁形式一般都是大学好友合租或是一人单住，虽然房屋租金较高（280-350/周），但在拥有自己私人空间的同时，又能与其他同学相互照应，并且距离学校、超市、公共交通、甚至娱乐场所较近，是年轻人的首选。

　　The meaning of unit is far from what it is in China. Unit generally refers to the single-storyed semi-detached house, which has only 2 or 3 bedrooms. Compared with houses, units are new and more popular with young people. This type of property is closer to school and other amenities, therefore it is popular in the market. Townhouse, which is normally two or three-storyed, is similar to unit but much smaller. Although the rent is not cheap($280-$350 per week), due to their closeness to facilities such as school, market, and public transportation, these two types properties are generally welcomed by oversea students.

　　Apartment在澳洲是指那些装修精致，家具齐全，服务周到的豪华公寓，这类豪华公寓往往都在市中心，有中央空调及24小时保安巡逻，并且公寓顶层通常提供免费休闲设施可供住户选用，如游泳池、健身房、温泉等。此类房间以其安全，整洁，舒适、人性化管理的优点，受到了很多城市白领的偏爱，它距离市中心的酒吧、餐馆、电影院之类的文化场所都很近，如果你是喜欢享受城市生活的年轻人，那就一定要选择Apartment，你会在享受生活的同时，也享受到别人羡慕的眼光。

　　Apartments are renovated, furnished and fully-serviced. They normally locate in the city center and all-airconditioned with 24 hours of security. At the same time, they are equipped with free leisure facilities such as swimming pool, gym and spa. They have become the best choice for white-collars and student for their coziness and personalised management. Besids, they are just a stone’s throw away from bars, resaurants, and cinemas. If you want to enjoy colorful city life, you have to live in the apartment.

　　Flat在字面上虽然也是指公寓，但是大多是指那些只有两三层高而且比较老旧的公寓房，并且设施不够齐全，有些甚至是给难民住的，学生一般不推荐选择。

　　Flats are shabby and generally two or three-storyed. Since they are not well equipped and mainly provided for even refugees, students are not recommeded to choose flats.

　　在所有住房中，最小的就要算Studio了。除了卫生间被独立划出外，其余空间均为一体，你可以按照自己的喜好和想象任意划分他们的区间，如果你渴望亲手“打造”自己的“蜗居”，那么Studio完全可以满足你的要求。这类房间租金适中，是同学们可以考虑的房型。

　　Of all the properties, studio is the smallest. Apart from the toilet, all the facilities such as kitchen and dinning room are all together with bedroom. You can unleash your imagination and divide the studio in the way you want. Last but not the least, the rent for studio is moderate.

　　一旦你已经有了心仪的房型，寻找房源将是“筑巢”的下一诉求。房源的找寻方法有两种，一是看招租广告，二是自己去中介签房子。前者的信息多是来自租房网站和学校公告板上的学生留言条。这种方式优点是省钱省事，缺点是无法确定是否能与室友和睦相处。后者，中介则会按照惯例对你进行信用审核，要求你提供一系列证明过去租房信用的材料，这对于刚刚在澳洲开始新生活的留学生而言还是有一定的难度的，但如果银行帐户中有足够的存款作为担保，签房子也并非不可能。这种方式的优越性就在于，租房者可以选择自己的室友，并且根据需要通过不同的分租方案来减轻自己的房租压力，缺点则是手续繁琐。

　　Once you have decided the type of property, finding the source of it would be the next step. There are basically two channles, leasing advertisement and signing with a real estate agent. The information of former mainly comes from relevant website and students’ messages on school noticeboard. It really saves time and labour but the shortcomming being, you never know whether you future housemates are esay-going or not. For the later, the agent would check your credit, requiring your previous renting history and bank statement. It is a kind of hard for newly arrivals, however, it is not impossible if you have sufficient balance in your bank account. The merit is that you can select your housemate and release the pressure of the rent by subrenting, while the disadvantage being complex procedure.

　　希望我的海外经验能真正给予你们帮助，同时愿同学们在这片红色的热土上，释放激情，以你所向往的方式享受属于自己的生活！

　　Hopefully, my oversea experience in Australia would be of help to you and you would really release your potentiality when landing on the lovely ‘red earth’.