NSW First home in Sydney

Hi all,

My partner and I are moving to Sydney at the start of next year and are looking at buying our first home. We are looking in the 700k-800k range, but could maybe push slightly higher.

We will be living in the unit for at least a couple of years, with the intention of renting it out after if we decide to spend some time overseas (we are both early in our careers). We would then be likely looking to sell after around 5 years.

We will both be working in the CBD and so are looking for something fairly central. So far we have been considering either Darlinghurst, or a bit further out east in somewhere like Bellevue Hills.

I've had a read around the forums and the general consensus is to focus on older buildings with a small number of units in them and no gym/pool/lift, and to steer clear of apartment buildings in general, both due to possible price drops and quality issues.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the suburbs I've described and any advice. We're still figuring out the balance between proximity to the city and quality of the unit. We are both new to Sydney and it would be great to be close to the CBD and city life, but we also recognise that if you go closer you are forced into larger apartment buildings. We also think that a year or two down the line we may come to appreciate somewhere a bit further out.

From our initial looking, Bellevue Hills seems to have some nice art deco units in small buildings and the prices have come down a lot since 2017. Darlinghurst has a lot of nice apartments/townhouses, but we want to make sure we can find somewhere that will maintain its value and not have quality/strata issues.

Thanks for the help!

 

welcome to the forum @Jeff12 .

the 2 areas you are looking at are quite expensive ( will hold value well I guess), but might be a bi t stretch to get something at $800k

have you looked at Stanmore, Newtown, ....? they have train, easier for you to go to CBD.

 

Thanks @Eric Wu for the welcome! From our initial looking there seem to be some properties in those areas at that price point - for example this one. Or will there not be many of these available on the market?

 

Welcome to the forum Jeff!

The approach you've explained is how I also like to look at these types of property. Minimal outgoings and always going to be in a blue chip area with high rental demand. My personal preference as an investment is to have a 2 bedroom rather than 1 bedroom (if budget permits) as we find it appeals to more tenants (where they can share with another room mate).

Just note in those areas to keep an eye out for company titled apartments. These are often at a significant discount when compared to their strata titled equivalent units. They can be pretty prohibitive from an ownership perspective and also not every lender will finance them. Bit more info here:
Strata title & company title: What’s the difference? - realestate.com.au

We have some stuff in Darlinghurst that we've owned for a long time and have proven to be a good investment over time, and we live in the east too and love the area

 

Thanks @Morgs for the heads up about the company titles.

Out of interest, what sort of properties do you own in Darlinghurst? Would you steer clear of apartment buildings and more towards townhouses and smaller units?

 

We've got a couple of 2 bed apartments there... but lower maintenance style boutique strata blocks. Nothing new & nothing flash