QLD First investment property, looking for advice

Hi All,

Stumped across Somersoft and it has brought me here

I've been looking at the Sydney market for quite some time now and have eventually been priced out

I've started looking into Suburbs in Brisbane and did quite a bit of reading online but still struggle to narrow down to particular pockets. I live in Sydney all my life and would generally know the good and bad areas, however when it comes to Brisbane I have no idea, I read mixed review etc and currently have analysis paralysis.

My Strategy is Capital growth and hold. I have roughly 100k deposit and not sure whether I should buy 2 properties with 10% or a single property with 20% - was hoping if I can get 2 decent growing properties it will outweigh the cost of LMI and be better off.

Still tossing up between units or houses, what are your thoughts of 2 bedroom apartments in South Brisbane or areas that are within 10km from Brisbane CBD. Was also looking into some of the Suburbs up north - in particularly North Lakes with all the infrastructure development happening, but the high vacancy rate is slight turn off..

Any help will be appreciated as I've currently hit a rock, and would love to purchase my first IP soon.

Thanks in advance for your help

Andrew

 

@Steven Ryan will be able to give you some sound advice

 

I am sure some senior members will have better suggestions but this is probably what I will suggest:

1. Define your goal. e.g. are you planning to retire in x years with $y passive income?
2. Educate yourself by reading some books on property investment and articles in this forum (and Somersoft).
3. Define your strategy on how to achieve your goal. For examples some people may want to buy property with renovation potential or build granny flats. It seems your strategy is buy and hold but you may change your strategy if you can't achieve your goal.
4. Build up a team of people: mortgage broker, accountant, solicitor, etc.
5. Define your ownership structure. For example do you want to use a family trust to hold the properties?
6. Do due diligence on the area that you want to buy. For example check the vacancy rate, etc.
7. Take action according to your plan.

 

FireDragon has given you great advice. However it is time for action, you need to have skin in the game and stop your procrastination.

IMO you should;

Go to your mortgage broker and confirm exactly how much you can borrow and at what LVR.
If you can go to 90% I would say that makes things easy - Get two, one house and one apartment/townhouse. That will give you experience managing both and expenses related to both, you can even buy one North and one South.
Don't buy anything costing too much out of pocket.

Now you have taken action and bought something define your goals clearly, past "capital growth" or "rich". It would be ideal to do this first but if you haven't been able to do this or take action after reading and waiting to be priced out of the market I think you need to just jump in and get some momentum.

 

As well as the above, do some research on projected unit performance and availability. Mostly picked to be oversupply and flat prices for some time.
Large developments are a dime a dozen, and BC rates can be really high.
Small unit blocks may still do well, but if you can afford a house it would probably do better - but still need to research the particular suburb and if it has already had significant growth recently.

 

If you haven't already read the "Brisbane looks good in 2015" thread. Lots of great advice on where and what to buy in Brisbane.

 

Others have had some good input

If you're looking for capital growth, $100k will get you close to $600k of property which would be a good house on decent bit of land within 10km of the CBD (south).

e.g. I just paid $612,000 in Moorooka (great potential) for a 658sqm LMR corner block with good 3 bed high set house on it.

Think a little bit about your strategy in terms of whether you may want to do renovations, develop etc or just buy and hold.

And ensure sure your broker talks through the implications of a proposed purchase so you now how you're getting from IP1 to IP2 to IP3 to IP10.

Doing things right from day one will set you up for the future.

Units may perform well but keep in mind there is apartment oversupply in the CBD and more to come which may keep prices and rents soft for some time.