VIC Best Melb Strategy (600-900k)

I finally got fed up of losing out at Auctions in the West and North and bought one in Albion! Smaller block and paid more than I wanted to but it should do ok in the long run as buy and hold.

 

buy a two bedroom townhouse in clayton, @700k. 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. three bedroom town house are selling over nearly 1 million at the moment. land with big block are close to 2 million

 

The best Melbourne strategy with 600-900k is simple: Brisbane

 

Just to add my 2 cents on Melbourne strategy:

I have been buying IP at Melbourne, with budget of 600K. I bought a double storey pretty new 3 bedroom house at Preston late last year, to keep the negative cash flow low. What we really wanted was to buy as close to CBD as possible but a house of some sort. Land component is small, but we are buy and hold person, and have no interest in development, and we don't have deep pockets to hold large land size every year.

Afterall, if people are willing to buy small land at outer Melbourne (say Officer, Point Cook etc) and they are not cheap anyway, then I may as well buy a small house much closer to CBD.

I am in the process of buying another IP at Melbourne, again with budget of around 600K. This time though due to the heated market right now, we will buy a townhouse in small complex with low strata/body corporate fees instead. Still looking at 3 bedroom as I believe that there will be a lot of 2 bedders townhouse in the future as people get priced out of 3 bedders.

I think a lot of first home buyers (esp from July 2017 onwards!) would want to buy small, low maintenance properties closer to city. A lot of them cannot be bothered with lawns etc. They prefer to go out and party or having coffee and smashed avacados.

For us, 600K is a good price point, as I really cannot get anything decent in Sydney for 600K. But 600K can get decent property much closer to Melbourne. Also, with the new Labor initiative, it should push my properties higher in value.

 

@kamchatsky, u can get old two bedroom unit in 600k only in Coburg, preston. That is also a rare case. With the budget of 600k , it is difficult to crack nearby city especially in Melbourne and Sydney. Eastern suburb (25km)

 

Ive been looking in the west....Whats peoples view on Albanvale?

 

Hi All,

Thoughts on Dingley Village?

 

DV looks ok @Reinwood however for the prices there I would look closer to the city. Maybe sunshine west, epping, St Albans, Lalor.

 

Hi @ Y-man whats your thoughts on Deer Park & Albanvale?

 

Thanks for resurrecting this, I'm still looking & in the same position TBH. I've taken a break from looking as I'm not desperate to buy just yet and renting walking distance to work is still fine. Gave up smashed avos for a little while, but the habit seems hard to kick as we've been back to brunching again lol

Still sitting on decent combined deposit which we really should've used before this boom, but enough spilt milk.

What's interesting is - there are daily media articles on bubble this, bubble that, amidst other articles saying how wealthy Australians are. Overall there are more articles about 'RBA/APRA/IMF' concerns though.

I modelled the areas in the North by manually scraping information from Ksou & smaller blocks between 500-600sqm are still attainable for less than 600k in Thomo/Lalor but usually approx 2km from the station. If buying in the outer ring I was hoping to keep to the fundamentals of <1km to the train station especially as other threads on PC have stated that outer rings tend to be more affected in down turns.
- Does anyone know an automatic way to compile lists of stats like prices/sqm, etc on ksou?

I'm still interested in Braybrook for proximity to city but recent sales are around 700k or so now for old blocks.

Melbourne is way too hot - of course I don't know what's going to happen and expert economists don't agree on anything. I think a crash is probably unlikely, but there's gotta be flattening or retrace due shortly. The FHB exemption will artificially keep prices high and I expect 13% or so growth this year in Melbourne. I wonder what's going to happen in 2018?

As stated in my original post, I will have to do further training & work overseas in 2019-2020 so on balance perhaps I should ride it out because the upside in my 5 year plan is diminishing. I'm not sure I see Thomo/Lalor becoming 900k-1 million suburbs to give me the growth that justifies jumping in now vs prior to next cycle. Having said that Reza is already there....

The more I read, the more confused I get!

 

Congrats for taking the plunge =)

Good luck! Melbourne 110k historic immigration record. The CBD on Friday nights after work is choca block, people everywhere. Still plenty of demand I reckon for houses.

 

Yep so true. Very confusing as every pickle has an opinion on the markets. Let's hope Melbourne doesn't become as bad as Sydney. Imagine Thomo at 1millin plus suburb....everyone will be driving C63 AMG's.

 

Again, I think we are in a similar boat albeit different stages, I actually live in Chadstone PPOR (but was once my ip whilst I was working in Sydney, I'm originally from Melbourne - St. Albans to be precise.) There are warning signs EVERYWHERE if you read propertychat forums and numerous news on the fact that the RBA says 1/3 of new loans would be under risk.

There are still some affordable suburbs in Melbourne - don't get me wrong, a lot of properties slip well below the $800K mark for a decent sized block (600-650m2) and I think they're decent buys, though I really don't know how bad the commute is on the Hurstbridge line and how back traffic can get coming in from the North East. I am looking at these suburbs BUT having said that not all out gung ho n them, just keeping a close eye on auctions and see how hot they are:

- Macleod
- Bundoora
- Watsonia (personally I like this one best atm)
- Montmorency
- Briar Hill
- Eltham

I wouldn't venture beyond anything North of the Metro Ring Road and the above areas just seem a lot more green/lush than T-Town/Lalor. Prices wouldnt be that much more also in the aforementioned suburbs plus I dont think there is the issue of new land. Epping the next suburb from Lalor has room for new land development!

My colleague just purchased a house recently in Dingley Village for $980K (780m2) decent 3.5 bedder (3 bedder plus study) 70s BV. He initially was looking in Hampton/Cheltenham but was eventually priced out (1m+ props). Heck, I was surprised and in the back of my mind I really thought it was an unwise move (but thats just me) seeing interest rates have gone up and there is uncertainty about the market, but good luck to him.

I think Braybrook is even red hot with now high 600ks and 700ks even not uncommon, it's quite and ugly area (imagine Rezza, Chadstone or Heidelberg West) with a lot of old commission type housing and not very accessibly by train. It's not like Sunshine where you get pockets of lush green and beautiful Californian Bungalows (RHS on Ballarat Road behind those take out joints). A better bet would be West Footscray (better access to PT but more exxy and I think some parts are on street parking only) or Maidstone (more exxy but had bus services and closer to PT).

My take is that Melbourne is 10-11 on the clock now, so probably very near peak and my own guess is that the market will stall and remain at this level or drop back say 5% at least for the next two years, so I mainly agree with you. Having said that I wont be holding my breathe for fire sale properties like $500K in Rezza or $400K in Sunshine, the number of cashed up people I know (circa $250-$300K in banks) is not funny!

I don't really see Thomastown / Lalor going up to 1 mil, but you never know, I'd never imagine places like Springy one day hitting 1mil or close yet there are properties there that sell for that much. Heck, there are apartments in Springy next to nowhere selling from $450K!! some are $700K in the Springy CBD! Aikes!!

Good luck whatever you do, wouldn't mind sharing notes and experiences with you! Keep us posted!

 

THIS! Stay North of Athol though and preferably as close to Heatherton as possible - its not so bad to access Springy Station of Sandown Park. Anything South of Athol is WAY too far from the station for my liking.

 

@willister. All the hustbridgeline suburb are red hot. They all are nearly 1 million suburb if we add the stamp duty . I am talking about 600m2+ block. Exception maybe diamond creek. If u have the budget of 1 million then, I would give a try in clarinda, Cheltenham, heatherton

 

@google boy, I am looking at 3 bedroom TH at Reservoir instead. I somehow cannot stand 2 bedder TH as I think there will be more of them around.

 

If you MUST buy in a red/white hot market right now, I think the smart money is out West. St. Albans. 17-18kms from the CBD.

Not sure if it's because I'm familiar with the place but I surely didn't feel all that dangerous when living there. Sure it's not Surrey Hills and I know half the area is probably involved in some illegal trade but for large blocks (700m2) for low 700ks or even high 600ks it offers exceptional value.

Job prospects are good - Vic Uni, Sunshine hospital, a thriving Vietnamese town and the station (both Ginifer and St. Albans) are now underground. A comparable suburb is Springvale 22-23kms in the South East. Heck, even throw in Clayton, they average at least 800-1mil for a similar sized block. Really, what diff is there between the three except Monash is a much better uni?