VIC Best Melb Strategy (600-900k)

There is no comparision between east vs other north or west. Majority of eastern suburb has better infrastructure and good neighbourhood. No way in 1 million, u can get 600 m2 block in clayton.. If u checked the recent sale price in clayton average price is minimum 1.5 million for old house with good block where u can subdivide it. It is the best suburb among the middle ring suburb in Melbourne. Melb uni, Clayton hosp, children hospital, chadstone shopping centre, two train line running towards ctity, Pakenham, Cranbourne, 10 min drive to brighton beach, close to monash free way, princess highway, food market in clayton where u can get all sort of fresh vegies and fresh meat. Good rental demand, main hub of greek and chinese people. Lot of people are predicting it will outperform mount waverly in future..

 

I disagree. What makes Eastern suburbs any better than the West infrastructure wise? I've lived in both by the way - grew up in the West and now living in East/South East (Clayton). I see no real difference. Best suburb? It looks a lot worse than Mt. Waverley to be honest, I think Clayton resembles more West/North than East! Err The two train lines are actually one ONE track!! It is not duplicated. Mt Waverley in many parts is lush green and simply gorgeous, Clayton *still* suffers from partially being industrial and also Clayton South tip is very close by!

 

Many parts of clayton are also lush green border to Oakleigh south or Oakleigh. I agree clayton south is more industrial but clayton and border to Oakleigh are residential. It has got all the amenities nearby. Even two train line are actually one track still u don't have to wait for another train for long time. Every ten min, there is a train to go to city. U can reach flinder street within 20 min. 3 bedroom townhouse are going for 610$ week for rent. I doubt western or northen suburb can match clayton rental demand

 

For a house on land, yes. Even for a townhouse could be pushing it now.

 

No way is $900K going to get you anywhere near a house and land. I think the minimum to get into Cheltenham would be something in the vicinity of $1.05 to $1.1mil these days. I just had a colleague who tried his luck there but eventually purchased in Dingley Village for $980k!

 

If you are shopping with a max of $900K in your pocket and you want a house, you are going to have to go much further down the beach than Cheltenham. Even townhouses in Carrum are fetching over that now.

You'll need to head inland from the beach, or try North or West of Melbourne.

 

This thread is more than a year old now.

Just wondering how are things looking now in melbourne in above mentioned pockets.

 

V

Very much stabilised / gone flat in terms of price. Good properties are still selling... inferior products are sitting on the market for longer duration.

 

Some BA's and Agents I've spoken to say Melbourne has definitely come off the boil.

They're reporting a real auction clearance rate of 40-50% in Inner South East (Armadale and surrounds).

They believe, together with the huge drop in foreign investors, Inner Ring Melbourne will be a buyers market in 2019.

 

Pure land is pretty much down around 10% from peak (Mid last year) around 10-15km East of CBD e,g, is same street, same side of street, similar size block and both flat knock down blocks
32 Cadorna Street, Box Hill South, Vic 3128 - Property Details
purple bricks with not much marketing budget sold for 1,505,000 in Mar 17
4 Cadorna Street Box Hill South Vic 3128 - House for Sale #126553118 - realestate.com.au
been on market for over 3 months and 1,350,000 will probably take it

 

Hi there again! Back after a bit of a hiatus.

All I can say is the tsuanmi is going to hit, most people who purchased after say late 2016 are going to cop losses.

 

I tend to agree with the above. Not sure things are so dire that we pump up the life boats and start paddling but if you bought in the last 24 months expecting a nice fat return you will probably be in for disappointment.

I just completed a major reno/dual occ at one of my properties with a very similar place for sale across the road. In short I think that guy has missed the market by about 6 months. Property in the same street and surrounding area was flying out the door late 2017 but for now interest is very low.

I rented both mine out and my rental agent who is excellent was reporting that since property sales have gone off the boil, so has rental demand. Once again, the situation is not dire with good property sill doing well but it is certainly not the same demand as in 2017.

Different market, but an associate put together a much higher end duplex in East Bentleigh which was on the market in late 2017. Demand was much lower than an inferior pair sold in late Q3 2017 even though the price point was similar. He sold and did ok but certainly not as well as he would have done 6 months earlier.

I think the major lesson learned is that there is still a $ in good developments but the days of roll up starts to make a ton just thru dumb luck of timing are over for this cycle. Of course what it means is a great opportunity for those cashed up to pick up some bargains at a discount and ride out the market trough during their design & town planning. The tricky bit is how long and deep this trough will be.

Time to give your crystal balls a polish I suppose

 

You are absolutely right. In fact, the Mornington Peninsula has become the 2nd top growth area in all of Australia for 2017/18. However, the most premium suburbs have performed the best in the past 2 years (Portsea, Flinders, Mt Eliza, Mt Martha, Sorrento, St Andrews Beach). So it really is a case of the wealthy Mornington Peninsula suburbs attracting new wealth from the inner city Melbourne property boom.

 

If it was me I wouldn't be looking suburb specific. More for a below market value property in any acceptable location.

I would've assumed I've missed the boat on them all and while some might still grow more you couldn't reliably predict it. Everyone has been on Melbourne for the last couple years. I'd pickup something cheap and add value and assume no short term growth. In a dream world I'm looking for places with quick attic conversion potential something that would even gain water views. Right now I wouldn't buy a home and expect it to go up without changing it.

Or maybe Geelong but I couldn't bring myself to buy in Melbourne everything cost too much already you'd be buying at the top.

 

Auction clearance rates are really poor at the moment in the mid south east ; blocks of land with crappy houses on them have come off 15% sometimes more in the past 9-12 months ; good product in great condition in locations people want to live in is selling well albeit at a slight discount to what it would have got at top of boom. most "meh" stuff is sticking around waiting for vendors to be realistic, or is achieving 2016-17 prices. Things have to be ticking every box to sell well. Inventory is growing. more choice for buyers. some sellers are adjusting their prices and this has a knock on effect. Who knows what next 6 months might bring. The danger for those who need to sell after not being in the market long is that it becomes a reinforcing cycle and if they have little equity it could get tricky. Don't even like to think about negative gearers they could be in a world of pain if declines in prices continue.

 

You can still get into the peninsula market with a budget of $600k-$900k. Even the more premium end of the market with suburbs such as Mornington, Mt Martha and Safety Beach.

 

Interesting reading this thread in 2020

Haven't followed all suburbs mentioned but I think most have stagnated?

However some in the west have boomed

Asian-preferred school-zone suburbs seemed to have fared well, no? Balwyn, Glen and Mount Waverly? Or am I wrong and these have stagnated too?

 

Thanks for your interest in the thread.

Long story short, I did some market research around bigger blocks in areas such as Thomastown etc & they had already gone up so decided to hold off. That was basically at/almost at 2016-2017 peak so instead have paid the same amount of interest in rent but in a much more liveable area in inner Melb without any CG differences. Unfortunately the only correct decision for me was buying after I started work around 2010.......if only I had a time machine.

With the RBA cuts, there's been a spike of 10% or so in units in the East in areas such as Surrey Hills. Not sure about the rest of Melbourne.

Somethings gotta give though - it's impossible there's another doubling in the next 10 years with stagnant wage growth. Baby boomer credit can only string out so far even with negative gearing and CGT exemptions. It's not like Melbourne is a financial powerhouse like London or anything.

Overseas atm but planning on waiting on the sidelines until we really need a PPOR which suits us fine as we won't need a house until a +1 comes along.