Ballarat or Bathurst

There are other ways...but it is more an advanced strategy. You need to know what you are doing!

 

Sash I never know what I'm doing lol.

I can stretch it $450k but I still found Geelong tough in that price

 

Asking because I don`t think one single project will push the prices up. What happened with the previous 2 prisons? Isn`t the majority of people going to be employed locally? If it happens to be moved there for work let`s say 2 years wouldn`t you rent in a better pocket of Geelong at the same price, 10 minutes drive? My point is that the prison is a big & good news, however the suburb still needs the fundamentals to growth. Honestly I think Armstrong Creek is a better bet.

 

As you helped me out on the Ballarat thread, i can help on Lara!
I have family and friends here, and bought an IP here last year. Will live in it temporarily soon as we build the dream house a bit further out.
Lara is about 40 mins to SC station, and once the new train goes in, will be 30mins or less. Geelong is a 15 min drive down the road, and to Torquay, Anglesea, 40-45 mins.

So Lara is a little satellite suburb / town of Geelong. If you dont want Geelong, and dont want Melbourne, this is the place to be. Close to Avalon Airport too. There is a green wedge around Little River, so it will never attach itself to the mess of Melbourne's western suburbs.

Lara has a lot of spare land to the west, and this is where all the new estates are. Land size around 450m^2, so better than Tarnet! Investors (and OO) should stick to close to the town center, Lara Lakes and between the railway line and the highway. Some areas are worth avoiding to to train noise (we lucked in- did an inspection as the train went by!). Rental returns are fantastic (380-600/w depending on condition) and purchase prices to match.

Reality is, its peaked for now. Buy in time was mid 2018 to mid 2019.

 

$450k total including stamp/legal/misc?
There are a handful of properties in Herne Hill & Hamlyn Heights in this price point. They are great suburbs and still experiencing good growth.

 

I have an IP in Ballarat. I had no problems in finding my previous tenants. However, when they moved out, the agent spent 3 months to find a suitable tenants. We had about 60 applications in total, the vast majority of them were not really decent applications: people not working, sharing with no income, people with criminal history, etc. I am not trying to say that all tenants in Ballarat are like the above but just want to mention the fact from our journey. Btw, this never happened to me in Mel with my several IPs.

 

Out of interest, which agent did you use ?

 

My friend has 2 IPs in Lara. Both perform really well rent wise and grow wise. Lara is between Geelong and Mel and geographically is good. Unfortunately, houses in this suburb grew substantially and I can't afford my next IP in there, otherwise I would buy.

 

RayWhite

 

In terms of jobs, where do people work in Geelong? I thought all manufacturing is gone, so what they actually do in there?