VIC covid times to buy first home regional?

Hi all,
first time poster, long time reader.
keen to understand if my line of thought makes any sense.

I am looking to buy an investment property but don't have a PPOR as of now. with the COVID situations letting me work from home or literally anywhere, I can use the next one year to meet the first home buyer requirement and buy-in regional. After the first year, move somewhere closer to the city and continue to rent while the regional buy would become an investment property. is that idea reasonable?

also, keen to understand any regional areas that have decent growth prospects in the next 10 to 15 years.. am considering Bendigo, Ballarat, etc. too

any thoughts appreciated.
thanks,

 

Bendigo's housing market has been very hot recently. I was told by real estate agents here that prices have gone up about 15 to 20% since early this year and this trend is still persisting.

So if you want to go into Bendigo, do it ASAP. The window is closing very rapidly.

As for Ballarat, it is a similar story too though its rise is less phenomenal than Bendigo.

Both are good potential towns that should see good growth this and next year I feel.

 

thanks fo the reply.
the main reason of considering Ballarat is the triangle with Melbourne and Geelong. Also, truly said, seeing some activity in Bendigo which is positive too.

 

I have two investment properties in Ballarat and during the last couple of years I am a little bit surprised with low quality of tenants (or at least this is what the agent is telling me). In Jan 2020 for one of my houses I had about 60 applications and the agent told me that only two were ok. They were presented to me for consideration. The second house would be for rent soon and the agent got 40 applications, again it seems one or two might be ok but so far the agent did not provide a definitive answer. I am not sure if this is the agent doing something or the quality of tenants is not that great but this is just my personal experience.

 

A good property manager will always filter out good tenants out of those bad ones for you. I'd rather keep my places a little longer in vacant, rather than putting someone who might not look after the property in a hurry.

I think it's more like low quality tenants will be in the market a little bit longer, perhaps harder to land something to live in. The rental market has been good so far, even in the pandemic period. 2 tenants vacated, found new ones to replace them pretty much a few days after.

 

In 10 to 15 years, I'd be shocked if large regional cities like Bendigo, Ballarat experience less than decent growth.

Converting your regional PPOR into an IP to live closer to the city? I'd look more closely at what you want to achieve within that 10-year timeframe. Buying a PPOR or another IP is easy, as long as your servicing permits. But fitting them into your long-term goal is another story.