QLD Bellbird Park - Ipswich

I'm looking at buying my first property as an investment, and have been looking at Bellbird Park and surrounds. I live in South Brisbane and don't know the area at all really.

From what I've read online, Goodna, Gailes, Redbank Plains, Redbank and Collingwood Park sound like low socioeconomic areas.
But on the flipside Augustine Heights, Brookwater, Springfield and Camira sound quite nice. Which side does Bellbird Park fall? Or is it somewhere in the middle?

There are also quite a few potential problems with the suburb, such as no public transport at all in some pockets, and the high availability of land. Am I correct in thinking that unless undeveloped land is a park or reserve, its intention by council is to be made available for housing?

Does anyone know where I can also find maps of the reactive soil parts throughout Ipswich? I've had a look at the PD online map, but it doesn't have anything about it.

Ideally I'm looking for a property with at least neutral cash flow, in an area with potential for high capital gains in the near future.

I think Bellbird Park fits this criteria, based on the current median price of $378K, and considering its neighbour Brookwater has a median of $673K, and its other neighbour Augustine Heights seeing an annual growth of 19% to $515K.

Thanks

 

Welcome trp35. There is a forum member who renos and develops in BP, has done very well. Set and forget, maybe not it's a long way out.

 

Are you saying I should ask them?

 

Sent you a conversation

 

Hey @trp35, I know all of these areas very well (sometimes I think I know a few of them too well… Goodna, I’m looking at you).

I’ll break it down into a quick summary of each suburb, keeping in mind that these are large areas. Every place has good and bad spots, but we’ll need to generalize here.

Goodna- Large suburb with some great spots, generally considered to be utter rubbish. Avoid 90% of it, lots of flooding too.

Gailes- Mostly pretty rubbish and has the added problem that it’s not a well-known area, so we don’t actually get a lot of tenants searching for rentals here, can make it hard to rent.

Redbank Plains- Has had a lot of attention from investors, especially with lots of new housing developments. Some are turning out well, others awful. It’s quite hit and miss, but I’m fond of the location- It’s right next to Augustine Heights, has decent highway access and some parts still have a nice semi-rural feel.

Redbank- Like Redbank Plains but worse. Sure you have better highway access and the train station, but the demographic is terrible and there’s a bad stigma.

Collingwood Park- Considered to be one of the better areas here, with some quality housing and neighbourhoods. Interestingly has a history of strong suburb growth (in fact, sometimes 1st in Queensland) and sharp declines- one of the more volatile suburbs, but I’m not really sure why. I’d say statistical anomaly has contributed to a bit of hype in development and investment.

Augustine Heights- Personally I think it’s a bit over-rated… so expensive!!! Good safe spot, quality tenants and nice neighbourhoods.

Brookwater- Similar to Augustine Heights.

Springfield- Same as the above two, better amenities and comes with the name everyone knows and loves. I’m not a fan of a lot of the newer spots with narrow winding streets and tiny housing.

Camira- Used to be as plain as Gailes but with the creeping quality homes from below it’s become a bit more desirable.


Bellbird Park- Generally considered the cream of these areas. We often get people asking specifically for Bellbird Park and turning their noses down at the neighbouring suburbs. I honestly can’t see what all the fuss is, but that stigma is important for growth.

I suspect council will continue releasing quite a bit of the land here and surrounding, but probably not in huge clumps. You need to consider this in any newly developing area, it doesn’t necessarily mean no growth. A lot of it is protected, but Ipswich council has been known to side-step such things. I wonder how the recent restructuring within the council will affect these sorts of decisions…

There are no maps that accurately describe what areas of Ipswich are riddled with the dreaded ‘black soil’. It IS a major concern, probably your biggest long term issue, I see a scarily large proportion of modern project homes having problems with soil subsidence and movement all over Ipswich. If you buy an existing house, talk to the neighbours. If you buy new, just make sure you’re 100% happy with those foundations.

I think you’re on the right track with Bellbird Park. Not far from the city, has a good reputation and it’s cheap. There’s a few other forum members here who are fans too.

 

What are considered the good areas of Goodna? I'm currently looking at properties around Dowden and Cramp St.

I also see a huge range in prices in Goodna. For example 122 Queen St, and 5 Hillier St. $95k difference in price, when the main differences is Queen st needs a good paint (and it has 1 less bathroom)

I'm probably considering Bellbird park the most seriously at the moment just given there are a few properties around 300K, and look semi-decent.

But on the other side

 

Dowden and Cramp are pretty typical Goodna, but at least they're high up!

From what I can see, 5 Hillier St is a MUCH nicer house than 122 Queen Street- which needs work. Neither of them are flooded though, which would have been my first guess.

I do know what you mean about price discrepancies though, which seems to be a thing in suburbs with low land values and a wide variety of property types and conditions. Just recently in Boronia Heights I saw a fully renovated highset 3/2/2 go for $320,000 and another in arguably poorer condition for $420,000!

If you can avoid paying too much of a premium, Bellbird Park is the way to go.

 

Probably depends on what your budget is also? If you have more to spend then obviously go for the newer/more expensive properties, however if you are on a limited budget then Goodna/Gailes you can get some bargains, closer to public transport/highways/shops etc. Just make sure you avoid problematic areas in those pockets.

 

Where are the problematic areas? I'm not familiar with the area

 

Visiting a Correctional Centre

 

Hi @trp35,

We have a property at Bellbird Park, it is an older bread and butter houses (3/1/1) brick veneer on a slab foundations. I usually buy houses with a bit of renovation work to add value. I like bigger blocks – mine is 780 SQM land. Which is a bit different to what you are looking at.


I did the renovations for that house myself with some help from local tradies, and spent around a week in the area, going to lots of shops around, and buying lots of things from nearby suburbs. The suburb is well located. You can find 2 Bunnings nearby, schools, plenty of shopping around. It have the older established houses, and the newly subdivided bigger blocks of land into housing blocks, you will find lots of those around jones road.


As I see it, I really like Camira / Augustine Heights, but there is a price premium to this


Bellbird park is a quite suburb, the area I bought in is where the older houses are. Neighbours all know each other and friendly, they were quite supportive, they all came to say hello and offer their tools, mowers,…etc for my renovations.


I bought this house around 2.5 years ago, It went up around 20% in value. Please note I really bought this house well. It was one of the best prices I ever bought a house for. The house was in the market for 3 months as it required renovations / previous owners had like 4 dogs inside the house. It put off a lot of potential buyers. I put a low ball offer, and it was accepted. Renovation cost was minimal, as a fresh coat of paint, new lights, change of vanity, 2 days for 2 cleaners, replace shower screen did all the job. I spend around 3K’s altogether, and it added around 20K’s instantly. I bought below 250K though.


Hope This will assist you with your decision

 

Just out of curiosity, where does the demographic of this suburb generally work ? Brisbane is a tad too far and I don't think ipswich has too many jobs.

 

Flood risk being the main one, but also check this thread - QLD - Why I bought in Goodna - See Change

 

@aussieB There is a train line from Goodna and also Springfield which Bellbird Park is right in the middle of both suburbs.

I live out on acerage now but back 4 years ago I was working in Brisbane CBD and caught the train daily into the city. A very easy commute to the city

 

Good to hear from you again R.B - you bought well at the right time, and put some hard work in too.

 

Lot of work in the 'switch. Trades, services, mining, retail

 

Check out the new industrial development at Richlands for new potential tenants, it's massive.

 

I love this! That's why I always tell interstate buyers that they need to get themselves or someone trusted on the ground to "feel out" the area. Ipswich and Logan in particular can have one street full of ferals and the next street full of long term owners, good families, etc. It looks like you picked a great street, and that will really pay off on a number of grounds into the future.

Also nice to see that you looked past the immediate condition, even many shrewd investors struggle to do this. One of my clients is selling a house that just needs paint and carpet once the untidy long term tenant leaves, but no one can see past the clutter or wear and tear.

On a side note, Augustine Heights is so different, almost entirely new houses and it's a bit of a premiere suburb. As for Camira, I actually prefer Bellbird Park- easier to rent!

For those that work, it's perfectly positioned for jobs in Brisbane, Logan and Ipswich. The commute to Brisbane isn't very long at all, especially by train. This has to be the cheapest area this close to the city that doesn't have a severely negative stigma about it.

 

Hi Tom,

how about 31 Harris street, Bellbird Park? it appears that there is a creek from 27 Harris street, but very shallow? i heard that the ones from 35 harris street onward to 51 harris street are for sale soon.

What's your thought for subdivision on these ones with a creek, and oil pipeline overlay at the front?

can i search the property details from Ipswich council website?

Thank you.

 

When they're working, Ipswich's council website will contain all the information you need.

See HERE to start with.

For some reason the PD Online maps just aren't working properly at the moment so I can't take a good look, but that's an interesting block. It's reasonably flat, doesn't flood, very close to schools and other new developments. It is still zoned low density residential but I'm sure that's not for forever.

The OV5 catchment flow path doesn't look major so I would suspect there's a work around for that. The OV11 Oil Pipeline Buffer seems to run over the ENTIRE block, but I'm not entirely sure whether that's an insurmountable issue or not?