NSW First Investment - Budget 650k

Hi all,

I am looking to pull the trigger on my first investment property within the coming month and just wanted to get your thoughts on what i have in mind.

Currently i am looking at oldish 2 bed apartments in Croydon Park which have a price point around the 550k-575k mark. Friends and family have told me that an unit investment is not that great and i should be looking towards house and land. The problem is that with my budget i can only afford in the 40-50km outer ring of the cbd (St Marys etc). My concern is that these areas don't have the same demand as the inner west and I've heard finding good quality tenants is a task in itself.

My strategy is to buy and hold as long as possible and to buy more properties when the finances and time is right.

Do you guys think getting a old 2 bedroom apartment in the inner west is still a good investment at this time, knowing that there's a massive oversupply of new units in Sydney?

Thanks

 

My investment philosophy is to buy houses. As they say in the classics, “buildings depreciate, land appreciates”.

When I buy units, I buy the whole block. That way I own all the land.

I don’t know Sydney but have you considered buying interstate. With your stated budget, one can get a pretty good house in other locations.

For example, Brisbane .

 

I agree, but a house not a unit, you won’t regret it in 10 years. So with that budget I would buy in the 20km ring around Brissy as opposed to 50kms from Sydney or Melbourne CBD.

 

Sorry “but” was meant to be “buy”.

 

Some great options with that budget - from units in Sydney to houses in many other markets. Really it depends on your goals first, your budget of course and your personal perameters for what you are hoping to achieve and prepared to input. IE do you want instant equity via a renovation or cash flow from dual income or do you want to learn to develop via a dual occupancy subdivision? etc etc. Many folk ringing at present are asking for yeilds above 5% and capital gains too. For that I think older houses with potential for a GF or subdivision seems to fit, but it is a more active strategy of course and requires some extra thought. Markets with constrained supply of homes, increasing populations and tight rental markets are best imo.

 

Other alternative is two is two further out in Brisbane .

Cliff

 

Thanks for your great input guys. In terms of investing in Brisbane, would it still be possible to get stamp duty exemption by the means of "living" there for 6 months? I currently work in Sydney so it would be hard to make this temporarily my PPOR.