How are the regionals doing?

I wonder if the improvements in vacancy rates & property values have anything to do with all the activity surrounding the conglomerate gold rush?

Pilbara’s gold rush: a complete guide to the main players

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/census-2016-for-richer-for-poorer-the-battle-to-find-a-good-balance (link may not work without subscription)

"The richest of the 100 largest urban centres is the mining town of Karratha, which contains 16,000 permanent residents and 7500 households. The median income in Karratha is $137,000 (or was last year), which is more than 80 per cent above the Australian average of $75,000. Indeed, 59 per cent of Karratha households earn more than $130k.

Not only does Karratha have the highest proportion of high-income households, it also has the lowest proportion of low-income households (at 9 per cent)."
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Bendigo is a good town and worthy of investment
Especially if your buying an old house near the cbd for 250k
In my opinion its probably a better town than geelong and ballarat. Only problem is that its not on melbourne investors radars and its not commutable to melbourne.
Geelong is not a bad town. Personally i like it because i can go sailing there. It has more than its fair share of nuffos, druggies and gangs and it has lost a lot of its employment base
However due to proximity to melbourne it has boomed.
Geelong is the newcastle of vic but its nowhere near as nice

 

Been in Blackwater the past few days

Caravan park dongas are full of miners (probably 300-500 miners) and plenty of equipment being shipped into town.
Average household income at last census was about $2100 a week which makes it equivalent to or better than most upper class melbourne suburbs.
Strangely there is 60 houses for rent at $180 a week and youncan pick a house up.for 80k
Strange beast mining towns. If the caravan park closed the housing prices would boom

 

them older houses are so nice and would be so good to do a reno on... but like you said proximity to major cities...

 

Bendigo is still cheap compared to Geelong and certainly to Melbourne. Vacancy rate has declined significantly compared to 2 to 3 years ago which is good for investors.

Much has been talked of Bendigo being disadvantaged as it is "not commuter distance" to Melbourne. But if we view this from another angle, it could be a blessing in disguise as this enable the city to more effectively function as the Regional centre of a particularly locality - Central/Northern Victoria in this case. It is with this in mind that the largest govt hospital in regional Victoria is constructed and located here, not elsewhere. And if we look at it's population growth rate, it's growing slightly slower than Ballarat but quicker than Geelong. By 2035, it is expected to contain around 145,000 people, 40 percent more than now! Demand for housing will only go up.

With Melbourne, Geelong and to some extent Ballarat getting more expensive, Bendigo is the last 100,000 city in Victoria which has yet to grow much in house prices. It can't go downwards as it has been cheap for years! So the only direction is up. And it looks likely that this is starting to happen..

 

Your right
It will happen. Just keep watching the listings and you should be able to pick it like a nostril
Im not looking to buy at the moment but as i am doing a sub divide and build at phillip island i have been monitoring it very closely.
Land is now being listed at 80k than it would of 6 months ago and is in short supply and the new housing estates are selling out which is letting the older properties finally appreciate.
I would say its about to boom

 

Buy a few house then buy the caravan park and close it!

 

Mining towns are an interesting beast. It may be this way because the mining companies have a rule that their staff must stay in the camps. Enquire with HR if you are genuinely interested.

Remember there are huge benefits of living in a camp. The big 4 are entertainment, transport, food and cleaning. I've seen a very successful mining town campaign where an agent teamed up with local cleaners & a food delivery company. They furnished their houses and provided pay TV in each room. They also made sure each house they took on was very close to easy transport to the mines. They then rented these houses out by the room (Be careful with this, won't legally work in every state). These houses are now bringing in double the rent they would have for the investor AND companies are very attracted to putting their employees in them AND the town loves it as it brings business in.

Now you may not be able to provide all of this... However looking to add as many of these features as possible could have your house stand out.

 

Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Shepparton, Warrnambool, Wodonga property: The year that was and the 2018 outlook

 

In most liveable stakes, Melbourne's biggest rivals may be up the road

 

The main discouraging factor cited for regional towns to grow fast is always its connectivity to the capital city. If there is a "fast train" service, with speed of up to 150km per hr, for e.g. linking up Bendigo direct to Melbourne, this will certainly motivate many people to move up to Bendigo to stay.

Our train service, once the pride of progress a century ago, is now a backward form of public transport. Little has been done to improve its speed and efficiency over the years. But this has to end.

As we have been procrastination for years, the costs of building will be tremendous. To make it easier for the govt, it can consider collaborating with local or Chinese companies (very eager to break into our market) to finance and build new tracks along the Calder Freeway all the way up to Bendigo. In return, the govt will allow the company to run the line for X no of years to develop and sell lands around the upcoming train stations to recover the costs of building.

And if this works well, it can be replicated in the other Big regional towns? E.g. to Shepparton, Ballarat etc..

I know it's going to be hard but if the govt does not do anything quick to solve this connectivity issue, Melbourne could very well lose its most livable title soon due to congestion, pollution, cost of living etc..

 

Definitely time to start moving on fast trains. Japan also lined up to get involved. Fast trains will improve the quality of life for many melbournians as it will help take traffic off of the roads. Why would you commute from the outer suburbs when you can live in a lifestyle location and be at southern cross in half an hour.

 

I have held in a few regionals for several years, here are the results:
Toowooomba - bought for 220k in 2012, now valued 270k
Mildura - bought for 165k in 2010, now valued at 250k
Portland, Vic - bought in 2011, still worth the same. Manufacturing town and it is lucky the smelter is still operating otherwise i would have lost money.
Colac - bought for 260k in 2010, now valued at 360k. Colac currently on a strong CG rise though with the new road (dual carriageway Geelong to Colac) to be completed in 2019. Colac will continue its strong rise for 2018 i think as it's a really cheap alternative and will be under 2 hours to Melbourne once road has finished.
All have been cashflow positive/neutral, no tenant problems, rarely a vacancy.
No get rich quick properties here, and i am happy i also own in Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane where i have gained far more equity. I think if you are looking for 3-4% growth over a long time frame with positive cashflow large regional towns can work. I have made 245k of equity here with no tenant issues and postive cashflow over about 7-8 years. Better than nothing.

 

Anyone else own in Grafton? I've got a cheapie cash flow one in south Grafton. Bought for $115k in 12/13, got bank val's around $160k (full, not desk top) late last year which surprised me! Defiantly seeing some growth there now.......possibly impact of the M1 upgrades, new prison kicking off this year, apparently bringing in another 1100 jobs.

 

Rental markets in Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong crunched as first-home buyers snap up stock

 

Yeah saw this article too in my feed and I can definitely see the impact of the FHBs especially in the last few months - I'm completely amazed at the growth, would had been happy with the 3 months growth if it was the same annual growth. Are you guys seeing something similar in Bendigo and Ballarat?

I was previously interested in Bendigo due its diverse economy and beautiful buildings too but found other (better) opportunities.

 

Not a lot of price growth yet, but definitely the signs of improvement starting. If nothing comes along to kill it, it should keep ramping up.

 

Would have thought people deciding to buy instead of rent make the demand fall....

 

I can only assume that population growth must be part of the equation. The whole picture isn't really explained in the article.

 

Australia's three strongest residential property markets