Hi all, I've had a good read of the forums and I know the advice has been to stay away from Sydney. However, for first home buyers with the stamp duty exemption, is there any value in buying say a 2 bed villa in Leumeah for 400K? Our plan would be to stay for the required 6 months or so then rent it out and rent ourselves elsewhere in western Sydney (but hold onto it for the long term). Alternatively, prior to the stamp duty exemption my plan was to invest in Brisbane in an area like Ferny Hills, maybe spend the same around $400K for something like a townhouse? I'm sorry if it's been covered before, I've been reading the forum before but never posted, I'd be grateful for any advice at all.
Im no expert but im not sure there is much driving growth in the campbelltown area. There isnt any major development in the area as far as im concerned.
That's true. Do you think anywhere in Sydney is worth buying in with a long term outlook? It feels like such a waste to pay $20K in stamp duty when you don't have to, although you may end up losing more in the short term if/when a downturn happens.
People will always need somewhere to live. Home is a very personal and lifestyle decision. Depending on one's ability to borrow combined with the use of post tax dollars sometimes it does make sense to buy a home. With the borrowing being much tighter make sure you do your numbers on home first or IP first... No right answer. Simply what do you want to achieve and what's more important to yourself. You won't go wrong in Sydney long term. Also remember with a home and correct lender selection you can adopt strategies to minimise non tax deductible debt and turn it into tax deductible debt for further investment.
Its quite difficult to get into the sydney market if your budget is around 400k. You are probably best off to look at other capital cities where there might be more growth and better yields. I wouldnt worry too much about the stamp duty savings, it is small in the grand scheme of things... if you buy in another capital city and say it grows by 10% (40k) vs say 5% (20k) then you have already made a gain which is equal to the stamp duty savings. If you really wanted to buy in sydney at that price range, I would consider the penrith area over the campbelltown area. Penrith and campbelltown are pretty much equally far from the CBD. However, penrith has better schools, has a univeristy (although there is a uws campus in campbelltown), is closer to badgerys creek airport, there is there is talk of a metro line going there to connect to the new airport and parramatta and the cbd, sydney science park will be built in the future close by... so in other words, there is probably more long term growth in penrith vs campbelltown as there is more major infrastructure going in there. Good luck with your decision!
Thanks so much for your advice. I guess that makes sense. I'm meeting with a broker tonight to see what we could afford if we "rentvest", I already know as owner-occupiers we can afford around $550K, but I guess I chose 400K to give us some breathing room. Anyway, thanks for your advice, I really appreciate it.
My family used to live in Campbelltown (Ambervale) in the early 2000's, I was actually browsing our old property just last week as I was curious to see where prices are at the moment. Our old house was sold for $325k in 2005 and today its worth around $520k, which is very poor capital growth compared to almost anywhere else in Sydney/Melbourne. Hope that gives you some insight, don't just buy cheap, buy quality. **EDIT** oops just saw this post if from 2017 lol nvm
What about now? Campbelltown and Leumeah area is a good place to buy the property (house) in Sydney now considering the price is now affordable or well below other suburbs in Sydney greater metropolitan area.
