QLD Griffin and North Lakes

After thoughts on the Griffin and North Lakes area. I travelled up there on the weekend and was very impressed with the planned communities. They are very walkable and have parks everywhere. The houses are almost selling at land / build value and they are very new.

The numbers work with depreciation to be cash flow positive between $20 to $80 per week. I was surprised by the lack of interest in properties, most open house only had one or two other buyers and agents have been chasing me. This a different story to the inner suburbs where the market is much hotter.

If you are going for cash flow in QLD why would you NOT go for griffin / north lakes over Logan ?

 

Too much land at North Lakes, there will be too little competition from buyers. Too little competition = low or stagnant house price growth.
If you will buy up there consider buying at Redcliffe etc i.e. near the beaches because there will always be demand from people wanting the beach lifestyle.

 

I don't understand all the talk about too much land there. Too much land west of the motorway in Narangba and maybe further north in Burpengary, but North Lakes is bordered by Boundary Rd to the North, Moreton Downs and a creek to the east and Anzac Avenue to the south. There is hardly any land left, unless you mean the apartments going in at the centre zone. They intend to fit a hospital there somewhere too.

There is more space still in Griffin, but a lot of it is wetlands so not developable. This limits how far Griffin can extend south. Do check spruiking though. We were shown "investments" in Griffin at the start of 2010 and I could see it was a no-go zone back then, with prices stagnant all this time, even before the flood. In other words H&L was obviously overpriced and we bought established instead.

Let's see you find anything in Halpine estate (mango hill) these days.

 

On what basis are you making that conclusion??

 

Ok. I don't know the areas that well. But isn't North Lakes all same-same? Small blocks, big houses, little differentiation?

But.... I figure I'd buy in Redcliffe or any of the beach suburbs because there arent many beaches in Brisbane and they are putting in the Moreton Bay rail link that almost goes to the coast...

 

Dudette....you need to check it out before you post........

Do you know what is happening up there...ie. infrastructure and retail...etc.....

I am going to have to call you Awkie from now on....

 

I have friends who live at North Lakes and they like living there. I enjoy visiting them. That's all I've got to offer on this one.

 

But Redcliffe is close but has the bay going for it... North Lakes, sure it has shopping but
..... who cares? You can go shopping anywhere and you tend to not walk to the shops if you do a big shop, you tend to drive (too heavy to carry) so who cares if you drive 5 minutes or 15? Redcliffe has a hospital and the bay/beach and that's a driver... if you can walk to these places.... awesome.

 

There's more to property than just being near water.

 

Sure. But beaches are scarce... and in Sydney you'd pay ~2mill to have a house near a beach thats within about about hour of the CBD...

 

Brisbane isn't Sydney and you shouldn't compare it directly like that, there's a lot of factors to take into account. For example, you also would have trouble getting a house within 20 km of the CBD on a decent block of land in Sydney for under 1 mil but that doesn't mean that any suburb in Brisbane within 20km of the CBD is good because it's a lot cheaper.

Even if beaches are your thing, Redcliffe isn't like Bondi/Manly and the sunshine coast is a short drive away.

 

One hour from Brisbane you also have the GoldCoast,go another half an hour into Nth Nsw and some beaches around Pottsville if there is anymore then 5 people on the beach it's crowded..

This is also worth a look if your into music..The Moreton Bay Region's
https://www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/general.aspx?id=119400

 

But...but...but....you are thinking like a Sydney sider...think like a local ***** from Brissbaaane...maayyte....

North Lakes is getting all the infrastructure....look at the prices there, Murrumba Downs, and Mango Hills tells the story......

 

I am Sydney based and spent most of last saturday in the region. I drove from the airport to north lakes in well under half an hour including getting lost and getting almost to Redcliffe and arguing with the car I hired which turned out not to be fully automatic (fun times).

Later I went back down the to nundah area for an open house (about 25 minutes including traffic) and then back up again in about 20 minutes. I also visited the shopping centre in north lakes.

I went out to Redcliffe on my last visit - the beach itself was unappealing to me but the main strip seemed nice enough - kind of like Wollongong 20 years ago but with lots of public art. The houses are all a bit tired and crappy. I would still buy in Redcliffe.

North lakes / Griffin on the other hand is going crazy with infrastructure - the rail line is coming along, costco has opened, ikea is opening, there are huge business parks and the westfields which is already huge is expanding with a hoyts on top.

The streets are well planned and you can walk to the local iga and golf course, there are lots and lots of playgrounds and street trees. Most of of the streets I drove or walked around had very well kept established gardens. I saw lots of dog walkers and bike riders (what is it with queenslanders and bikes ?)

On the negative the brand new houses start on lots as low as 310sqm and go up to about 450sqm. The houses take up most of the block and you get a little strip of grass at the back or side. This is done better in some house than others. The streets are fairly narrow and there is not much on street parking where you wouldn't get your car clipped. I would only buy houses with double garages and a useable driveway. Some houses have driveways that are either too steep or too short to use for parking - this would be a pain.

Most houses are 4 bedrooms, some have two living spaces, most are electric cooktop with gas hot water. All have ceiling fans and ac that I saw. The smaller lots are basically townhouses without the strata. They can start as low as $370K with a $410 rent.

I did see lots of town houses going up and even looked through the 'griffin views' complex while I was driving around a bit lost.

Capital gains may be slow but I can't see them being any slower than the logan region, in the meantime you get an almost maintenance free house, good depreciation and tenants a bit higher up the socio-economic ladder.

I am not saying griffin / northlakes are the 'best' cash-flow suburbs only that comparing to others they seems like a good deal.

Just my observations and thoughts.

I have a contract out on an 'older' 6year old house on almost double the standard lot size.

I planting plenty of seeds and will be looking into the logan region for a house as well.

 

Agree with all of this

It amazes me how excited people get about buying in areas with big infrastructure/ shops

All the really blue chip suburbs around Australia have bugger all infrastructure

All the crappy ones have heaps

It's because the areas arnt as established and the land is available and cheap to develop

I'd much rather go for a walk down the beach than along a busy highway to a Costco

 

That is what makes an investor vs a specufester......don't let emotion dictate your buying preferences....

 

Hey, but emotion drives the owner occupiers... owner occupiers drive the prices up if the place is desired enough...

 

That's why people are buying in "North Lakes™" <title is name only, no actual lakes>

 

IKEA was featured on the news tonight. They turned the first sod for a new store at North Lakes.

 

Just had a quick look at North Lakes on realestate.com.au and the average blocks are 500sqmish and prices around $450K and rental usually around 5%. Depreciation may help in getting positive CF but having a big house on a moderate sized block, leaving little land, what else can you do to increase equity and CF? Is that why more investors head to Logan?