First property in Sydney - apartment in Surry hills or house in st Mary /mt druitt?

Hundred percent Surry Hills or Paddo for a far better lifestyle at your age

 

You need to becareful with lifestyle choices. Very very careful.

Some of my closest friends chose lifestyle over investments throughout their mid 20s and into their early 30s.

Now they have gotten married and have a small child. At this point they really need to buy a place and they can hardly afford anything in Sydney at all.

I had a catchup with a few of them last weekend and they were all saying instead of partying every weekend, fine dining, buying $100k cars and going on 6 month+ holidays all the time they should have bought property when I did.

Dont get me wrong I still travelled the world, had several girlfriends and got whipped badly with one of them, still partied hard (and I mean real real hard during my university days) but I always chose to invest my money into growth investments.

If I was you I'd but the house 100000x over. Its not even a debate for me.

 

But with no lifestyle those same friends would probably not be married with kids.

Not talking about wasteful spending tho.

 

I tend to think if you but a house on land, it will appreciate over the long term. That can set you up for a property portfolio. If you get stuck with a dud for a first purchase, it can really set you back/you can't progress, so it's better to buy well from the first purchase.

 

Hey, hey!! by all means put $ into super, just be aware you can't take it out until retirement !!! you seem rather young to wait that long...

 

Also remember when it’s 40c in Surry hills is 45-50 in mt druitt during summers.

This is a mega factor as it’s only gonna get worse

 

Clearly you've never been west. Yes, it's been known to get into the 40's, but it's not every day. I could be wrong, but I've never witnessed it get as high as 50. The highest I recall is 47 one day, a few years ago.

 

The Sydney suburbs that hit 50C last summer


47 is 7 degree to many for me.

again this is me, not everyone is the same,

i am very much aware different people have different like and dislike and tolerence.

 

I can assure you that I am very heat intolerant. I also live in the Penrith Council area. Maybe I was on holidays during that period, I don't know, but I've never witnessed temperature that high. I personally know of one occasion where the mercury got up to 47 degrees, and I was overseas on a cruise at the time, with a much more mild temperature.

 

Can you do both @Llamallama99 ?

Like you could buy a lifestyle unit you live in and maybe a higher-yielding house in Melbourne or further out?

That way you'd have somewhere to live but also some spare cash to keep putting into your ETFs.

 

I would go with Option A - my brother purchased a terrace in Surry Hills a few years ago and loves it. Great lifestyle and so close to the CBD. He walks everywhere.

 

I am on a very similar boat - work in tech, high salary, thought of same options (but no gifts from parents !)

I ultimately went for B:

• apartments around 1m$ are actually quite underwhelming in those areas (surry hills, e/bay, kx). Even the one you linked... Is it something you'd actually be excited about owning? Wouldn't you be able to rent a much nicer place?
• 6 months are short
• land+house will always do better, imho. Exception would be very high end units (full on water views etc) - those that attract people for whom money is an afterthought. They have done quite well the past 1-2 years, in contrast to all the rest of the units stock. But 1m$ won't get you there.
• owning a house where the main goal is to make CG will create opportunities for decreasing your taxes. I.e., even if your rental return will be lower, there will be a massive discount on the diff
• can find something with enough land to further develop. Even if you don't develop, I'd overindex on attractive land rather than the house (which will depreciate over time, in contrast to land)

 

If you're after an investment, always go for something with land. Apartments will just depreciate overtime and will require a renovation to keep them up to date to achieve market value.

Houses on the other hand, can get to the point where they are dilapidated, rundown and downright disgusting, however the land value is at a point where it is worth so much more to an investor or developer.

 

"land" in country like australia, is artifically valued-up by zoning. is false scarcity at best.

so as long as the government (which i believe they will) continue to do so, land will have value,

Australia is bigger than Europe with a population 1/3 of Britain, how could land be valuable without "zoning"

 

Because large areas are uninhabitable

 

lets be honest about this

from north qld all the way down to tazzie,?

enough inhabit 500m people no stress, and everyone still can have their aussie dream of a 5 bedroom house with a pool and granny flat,

singapore have 5m+ people

act have 450k, its 3x the size. act alone can have another 4.5m PEOPLE and its still Habitable.

 

I guess the question is do you want to live in the property at any point in future or it’s just an investment decision.
If it’s just for investment living in Mt Druitt for 6 months if you don’t have kids is a sacrifice you can make, that some people can’t make because of family situations. So you’re lucky to be at the age where it’s possible, don’t be influenced by fear of the unknown, 6 months will fly by quite fast. If it’s the better option investment wise don’t be afraid to do it knowing that when 6 months is over you can get back to your usual life whether it’s moving to Melbourne or whatever and you have peace of mind on your investment.
You are young and can buy something more suitable for PPOR in time