500/650k Brisbane house or Sydney Unit

I am planning to buy my first house. I stay in Sydney. I have savings of 90k. With 10% down payment + LMI + Stamp duty + BA fees, I can afford either house(500k) in Brisbane as IP (I need to pay stamp duty) OR unit(650k) in Sydney (with no stamp duty) as PPOR. I am keen on capital growth as I can afford negative cash flow as of now. In both cities I prefer to the property to be closer to CBD rather than far suburbs. Which option should I choose - house in Brisbane vs unit in Sydney ?

 

It depends on your plans. If you're happy buying a home and living it and plan to grow a portfolio from there it's probably best to buy a PPoR first and leverage equity from that into IPs later (better for tax reasons). If you're unable to buy where you want to live but would happily rent in that area then a house in Brisbane would be fine, however take life plans into account as often people get too deep into portfolio building and then realise they want a home and run out of equity and/or borrowing capacity.

Start with what you want in 3, 5 and 10 years and work backwards from that.

- Andrew