VIC Bendigo

Hi

There are separate threads for Geelong and Ballarat but none for Bendigo, the other big regional towns in Victoria.

My agent friends there told me that the level of buying activities in Bendigo has increased since early this year and it seems to be getting better. Prices of well located houses, esp walking distance to the CBD and the hospital have gone up. Could it be the effect of the new hospital which is due for completion soon? On the other hand, house prices in the "lousier" suburbs like Long Gully, Eaglehawk and California Gully seems very much suppressed. And that itself might spell opportunity for certain buyers as many houses here still have large plots of subdivable lands, plus they are actually not too far from the New Hospital. As such, buying undervalued houses here could mean good growth for the astute buyer. Not sure how true that is? Where would you buy in Bendigo?

How's everyone experience or sentiments regarding this regional town? It has been pretty bad in property investment here for the last 3 years at least. But like Ballarat and Geelong, Bendigo has all the ingredients to boom again, just not sure why that didn't really happen..

 

I own in Golden Square, on a 1050sqm dev site. Market has gone up since I bought in 2013, 10-15%

 

when are you going to build?

 

oc1 did some feasibility for me a year or so ago. However with all the new built stock in Jackass Flat etc and the new nurses accomdation removing a fair chunk of rental demand, I have put in hold for a couple of years. Tenanted happily.

 

Out of Bendigo, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo is my favorite. I've had my eyes on a house down there on a 550ish sqm block tenanted currently to long term special need tenants only around 600m from the new hospital being finished next year sometime. Negative is i would prefer a bigger block of land, positive i probably won't need a property manager for this property and the yield is around the 7.5% if i go with 20% deposit. What to do, what to do....

 

As a visitor I really like Bendigo, the council seems to be on the ball and everything is so neat and well maintained.

 

And it is a busy place too.

Every month of the year, there seems to be some activity going on there which draws people from outside Bendigo into the city.

There's the just concluded Easter Festival which exploded Bendigo. Rock concerts, swop meet and agricultural fair at the showground as well as numerous plays and shows at the new Theatre (an ex-prision).

Bendigo is no longer the dull city. More people are moving in. The future seems good..

 

Does anyone know why prices in 3550 pulled back -7.44% the last 12 months? (source: CoreLogic)

 

@adrian_christian could be that mpre supply dumped on to the market and reduced asking prices for sales as a result? Only speculating; I don't know the are too well.

 

Thats pretty much it. From my earlier post, new land developments at Jackass Flat single handedly tanked Bendigo's price and rental markets in one fell swoop.

All of a sudden theres new 4br houses on the market for the same as an old one, both to buy or to rent as investors/developer couldnt get people in. Drove existing houses right down... I had to drop from $320pw to $280pw to get a tenant.

Yes the new developments are further out, but in a small regional city thats only a couple of minutes drive more....

 

Adrian,

Interesting question. This puzzles me as well as more than 7% drop is pretty big.

Well, my real estate friends told me that 2009 - 2011 were the boom years for Bendigo Real Estate where prices grew very significantly. From 2012 onwards prices start to stall and last year, agents were facing hard time selling.

Possible reasons :

- Bendigo council increased the amount of residential lands very significantly in the outer suburbs like Jackass Flat, Epsom, Strathfieldsaye etc since around 2010. So suddenly, buyers are left with so much new properties. And as with demand and supply rule, this lead to reduction in prices..

- increase in house supply depressed rents as many of the buyers are investors, buying to let, not to stay. So with more rental properties on market and with not so many tenants, rents fell. This in turn put off new buyers esp investors. Naturally, it affected the demand of properties here causing price to fall further.

- Bendigo after all, is not a big city and doesn't attract foreign attention, unlike Sydney or Melbourne. So it doesn't has the added benefit of external forces to "support" it's real estate in times of stagnation or downturn.

It will be interesting to see how this town perform this year..

 

Its been a renters market big time for the last 24 months. Probably hasn't fully bottomed either.
They need steady upwards movement in population and those arriving having decent jobs / money to spend for things to turn around nicely. It *should* follow a similar but lagging cycle to Ballarat.

 

If you are looking at buying in Bendigo you have missed out on most of the Capital gain to be made. People who have made a gain in the area have bought in the region a bout 3 to 5 years ago.

 

Seems to be good news for Bendigo :

www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/3824618/bendigo-sees-population-expand/?cs=140

 

Whats people feeling for the bendigo vs ballarat debate?

I get the feeeling that bendigo is a better organised city but ballarat might hold more longer term potential with bendigo better short to med term

 

My feeling is that Bendigo's property market will improve slightly this year compared to last and probably be even better the next year. Bendigo has "suffered" in the last 3 years so it is reasonable that there's a bit of correction now.. Moreover, it has a powerful stimulator in that New hospital, scheduled completion end this year, which should create significant demand for housing.. So in the short term of 1 to 2 years, I speculate Bendigo should see growth in property prices.

But if compared to Ballarat, in longer term, i do feel that the chances of Ballarat performing better is higher. Compared to Bendigo, Ballarat is nearer to Melbourne and it seems to have a more balanced economy. As Melbourne keeps expanding rapidly westwards Melton, Ballarat will be "nearer" and "nearer" to it. But for Bendigo, Melbourne is further away. The fact that Melbourne did not expand much towards the Calder Freeway direction did not help this either. Moreover despite these, Ballarat house prices are still lower than Bendigo. This means there is more room for Ballarat houses to grow. As such, I think Ballarat is a better bet than Bendigo for the long haul.

 

Hi folks

Any updates on happenings in Bendigo? Hospital is going to open in 4 months time I was told. How's everyone's sentiment on this town regarding real estate movement?

 

I like Bendigo. It has a lot going for it & some significant manufacturing (which employs 10% of workforce) projects are in the pipeline over the next few years.

I'm still a little biased towards Ballarat though as median house prices are ~40k cheaper & it is ~40km closer to Melbourne. Populations are almost identical.

 

It is for this reason I just purchased in Ballarat. I weighed both towns/cities up for a long time and against almost every metric/score I assigned, Ballarat came out on top. But that isnt to suggest Bendigo isnt a good location - it is! - its just that, as others have said already, the Bendigo time to buy has laregly passed for this cycle. Who knows maybe in another 2 years the time might be right for Bendigo again?

Re: Ballarat I added my thoughts onto that that thread on PropertyChat. Some good threads going about it. One thing to watch/consider for both cities is the readily available land supply surrounding both. As annoying as it is that developers are sprawling out cookie cutter 'mini-mcmansion' estates in both, on the plus side, this infilling is starting to fill up land within the 5km rings of both. Over time this can only be a good thing for those holding in the inner rings of both. Sure, it may only be an extra few minutes drive out, but the walkable-convenience of the inner rings is valued in these areas. Food for thought. Couple that with heritage overlays which restrict several areas from building 'up' and maybe in ten years, at the projected population growth rates for both, CG will be there in the inner rings?

 

Some interesting figures here just with regards to train patronage to Melbourne from these regional cities.

"V/Line’s annual report for 2015-16 shows the Ballarat line has experienced a massive, if not expected, rise in passenger growth since 2012.

While Gippsland and Bendigo lines experienced a considerable drop in numbers over the past four years, patronage on Ballarat and Geelong services exploded, rising 72.8 and 18.1 per cent during the period.

Patronage on the Ballarat line for last year alone rose more than 12 per cent, with an estimated 3.79 million using the line.

'The Ballarat line now has nearly as many passengers as the Geelong line did five years ago, but the Geelong line is double-track the whole length...' "
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V/Line report damning for commuters