Best Australian House Sitting Sites For Digital Nomads

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As a digital nomad who has successfully done more than 25 house-sits in Australia in the past three years, what are my recommendations for the best Australian house sitting sites for digital nomads? Keep reading to find out about prices, ratings and recommendations based on my experiences.

Best Australian House Sit Websites

In early 2020, I found myself “locked” into Australia (and the state where my family live) due to overseas travel restrictions. Keen to continue travelling, I began house-sitting in and around South-East Queensland. House sitting in Australia allowed me to work from home, live rent-free and spend my time surrounded by pets. I loved it immediately.

Which Australian House Sitting sites did I use?

My #1 pick is Aussie House Sitters.

Aussie House Sitters has been my main source of house-sitting opportunities, with 20+ successful house sits on the site. It is $79 AUD/year and is “The largest, most trusted pet and house sitting site in Australia“. Easy to use, good search and alerts and price (for less than 1 night in a cheap Airbnb)! Highly recommended.

This is closely followed by Mindahome, an excellent supplement to Aussie House Sitters for filling in gaps. It is cheaper but has slightly fewer opportunities and a less intuitive user interface overall.

Best Australian House Sitting Sites (Costs)

There are a number of Australian house-sitting sites. Here are their costs (at the time of writing):

Australian House Sitting Websites	Rating / Location	Membership Costs
Aussie House Sitters (Best Overall Australia)	9/10 – AUSTRALIA	$79 AUD/year
mindahome (Best Australia alternative to Aussie House Sitters)	7/10 – AUSTRALIA	$59 AUD/year
Trusted Housesitters (Australia and International)	5/10 – UK/NZ/AUS	$129 AUD/year
Happy Housesitters (TBC)	TBC/10 – AUSTRALIA	$59 AUD/year
The House Sitters (TBC)	TBC/10 – AUSTRALIA	$50 AUD/year

Best Australian House-Sitting Sites

House sitting is a great opportunity for digital nomads, but we have a few requirements that make our search for house sits slightly different. Here are a few digital nomad-specific requirements and how the Australian House Sitting sites stack up.

Wifi and Internet

Australia is a big island that is a long way from everything and Australia’s internet speeds are NOT FAST OVERALL, ranking 56/101 in a “list of broadband internet connection speeds by country. While the internet is better in the capital cities, speeds are still very slow compared to the US or Europe.

Many locals aren’t really aware of this and will happily assure you that they have “good internet”, while the reality is that they are barely able to get download speeds of 20MBps. You may want to confirm the actual internet speed and any data/download limits with homeowners (you can politely ask them to do a speed test beforehand).

Other internet options:

• Consider a personal hotspot on your phone (Telstra has the best coverage in regional areas);
• Go to a co-working space, cafe or local library;
• Connect your device directly to the modem via an ethernet cable for the maximum possible speeds.

House Sitting Website Wifi and Internet Filters

Aussie House Sitters has a dropdown filter (on the right-hand side menu) to sort housesits by what the home offers (Pool, Netflix etc.). This includes ‘Internet’ and ‘Wifi’ (see below). I check both boxes as homeowners often use the terms wifi/internet interchangeably. Note: In regional areas, where satellite internet is more common, wifi may not be available – so double-check beforehand if you cannot live and work without it.

Mindahome also has this search function, in the ‘show additional filters’ drop-down of their search, although it is a little more hidden and fewer homeowners seem to check the boxes, in my experience.

House Sitting Duration

While all digital nomads have different needs, house sits of a month or longer have provided me better stability in which to get work done and are my preferred length. I’ve found the longest-term house sits via Aussie House Sitters, followed by Mindahome. Trusted Housesitters has a lot of short-term sits compared to the other two.

The longest house sit that I have completed is 10 months (via Aussie House Sitters), and a number of 3-6 month house sits. This is the minority, though. In my experience, they are usually 1-4 weeks (on average).

I share some of my long-term house-sitting secrets for Brisbane here, but they apply to most other cities too.

House Sitting Location

Especially in a major city, you might want to move from house sit to house sit in the local area. Similar to the others, I’ve found Aussie House Sitters has the best map function, with the ability to change the distance from where you currently are in the search. Mindahome and Trusted Housesitters have OK maps.

The majority of Australian house sits have been located in the major capital cities and regional centres as per the population (on average). Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart are all house-sitting ‘hot spots’, alongside regional centres like Wollongong, Newcastle, Geelong, Bathurst, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba and Hervey Bay.

Best Australian House Sit Websites for Digital Nomads?

Again, Aussie House Sitters is my #1 site for House Sitting. Using the site is a breeze and they have the easiest-to-use filters that allow you to find something that fits your needs.

• New house sit alerts arrive quickly in your email to make fast contact with homeowners;
• They have a booking calendar to track your ‘sits’ and a good messaging system;
• Communication with homeowners and the site admin has both been extremely positive;
• Competition is not as fierce as international sites.

Mindahome has been a reliable ‘gap filler’ to supplement Aussie House Sitters. I find their map and filters less user-friendly but otherwise, the site is OK. Overall, still worth the membership fee! Trusted Housesitters is new for me, and as I’ve not secured any house sitting there, I can’t yet comment on it.

Why Use Australian House Sit Sites?

Digital nomads in Australia can use house-sitting sites to save $1000s while surrounded by pets. What’s not to like? You’ll live in homes that allow you to work from home for a fraction of the cost of other forms of accommodation.

Using an Australian House Sitting site makes the search for house sits fast, easy and perfect for your digital nomad needs. Some benefits include:

• Secure communication between yourself and homeowners;
• A searchable database based on location, duration and available services like Wi-Fi;
• Showcase positive reviews to increase your chances of securing sits.

Each digital nomad will have different needs and requirements, but Aussie House Sitters has been the best Australian House Sitting site for me while house sitting over the past 2 1/2 years. Good maps, easy filters for internet speeds and a fast alert system have been invaluable as I house-sat my way around the country.

So, jump on their site and start ‘sitting’! You might even be lucky enough to meet a donkey while you’re there.

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