Melbourne or Canberra for an investment in 2017?

@Mon - I think go werribee - this is an area I personally am looking to buy.

 

I think a 600k house in Canberra (as you know, you can buy within 10kms of the city for that) has far more upside than a house in the likes of Broadmeadows and the other suburbs listed.

As you already own in the ACT, Melbourne would be good to diversify but not with those suburbs at this point in the market IMO

 

I agree - broadmeadows is not for the average person to invest in. though some pc members have success there like @MTR and she's not even from Melbourne. But she made gains in manufacturing growth through subdivision permits etc

Relying soley on organic growth will be hard nowadays in melbourne

 

I see, ok. I am a new investor so won't touch Broadmeadows.
Yes, I have been monitoring the Canberra market too but still can't make up my mind on which suburb to focus on. There are still a few new suburbs coming up in Canberra everywhere. Thanks!

 

can u plz elaborate this?
i`m looking forward to buy here

 

Well first - I think you need to know the streets and areas well - also it has a high middle eastern demographic. Broadmeadows is one of the places where they put refugees when they come over hence communications btw neighhours or your ip might be more difficult. Crime is pretty rampant and obvious there.

Quite a few of my trades I had used in the past for ips not in broadmeadows had properties in broadmeadows and one who was Lebanese even complained how hard it was there things get pinched all the time (mailbox, lights fittings outside, graffiti etc) and there was the constant issue of quality of tenants. more of less, I heard quite a few horror stories and a Turkish builder whom I have had many conversations telling me he had a dev site there and one day while about to inspect, there were 10 guys looting the place - he said "I rather not confront them" and just call the cops later to claim insurance. these guys also only managed to rent out their places and collect rent regularly from their tenants due to their networks in the middle eastern community.So unless you are up for the hassles and challenges of crime and tenant issues - it maybe something consider first

 

Plenty of options in Canberra for the budget - I'd just stay away from units/townhouses and focus only on detached homes - preferably with a bit of land.

If you can get one that needs cosmetic touches - painting, new kitchen, flooring, landscaping then you're onto a winner.

Cheers

Jamie

 

Yup, ok. Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

Hi Mon, fellow Canberran here, not too sure about the Melbourne market but I would love to give you my 2 cents on where I might think is a fantastic opportunity for the ACT ATM. I went to an auction earlier today in Cook for a townhouse at 88 Dexter Street, I was expecting a price of around $520k but sold under the hammer at $472k, I thought it was an absolute steal - Unfortunately not my steal. Other than the townhouses in Cook, I would stay away from all townhouses, especially those in Ngunnawal, Calwell and Banks; oversupply and body corporate, not my cup of tea. Unit market as a whole, wouldn't touch it with a 10 ft pole, don't have to be a seasoned investor to spot the oversupply and price stagnation.

Sections of Canberra broken down -
Inner South - Out of your budget

Woden - Overpriced for it's distance from the city, out of your budget anyway

Tuggeranong - Has potential with your budget, Wanniassa and Kambah seem to be very
underpriced compared to their neighbours in Torrens, Farrer and Fisher. Wouldn't go for the deep south suburbs at all (Banks, Gordon, Conder).

Inner North - Same story as inner south

Belconnen - Absolute hot spot at the moment, I think you would be crazy to put your money anywhere else. Single detached places in Page or Scullin have serious future following what we have been seeing with prices in Weetangera, Hawker and Macquarie. New builds in Macgregor have potential and if you can score a bargain in the Charnwood area I believe you will see some more performance.

Gungahlin - Same story with Belconnen, big demand spike. One suburb that I think is very un-noticed is Palmerston. One of the closest suburbs in Gungahlin to the city, is slowly becoming established and has significantly lower prices compared to Casey and Harrison.

That comment went a lot longer than I expected, apologies. Overall I'd say go Belconnen, the demand for cheap living in an established suburb is sending prices there through the roof, not to mention Canberra as a whole is in a very good spot in the property clock.

 

Good post Sunny. good to see another belco fan...i agree best value for money in canberry. Hawker and Weetangera are much bigger blocks/houses obviously compared to Page or Scullin, but yeh they latter two do look like relatively good value. evatt is up there too

i must admit i got Gungahlin wrong, done a lot better than i expected over the last few years.

 

I think almost everyone got Gungahlin wrong, but it is still so early to say. What might happen to those Crace, Franklin and Casey 150 square metre separate title townhouse blocks in 30 years? Not much development or revitalisation potential there. It's popular at the moment because it's one of the only places in Canberra to buy a new build, will be interesting to see how it is down the road.

 

@Booming Sunnyvale Thanks so much for explaining in details. Yeah, I have been monitoring Belconnen area in the last month but not seriously. They get snapped up pretty quickly and everything is going to Auctions these days. I really should start going into Auction to see what is happening though. Macgregor usually has smaller block size like 300sqm which are around $420k. Not sure the small block size there would be good for investment?
What do you think of Ngunnawal? I am not looking at units or townhouses at all but I think Watson might be ok for townhouses?
@S1mon Thank you. My PPOR is actually in Evatt.

Is there any meet up for Canberran investors at all? I'd love to come along.

 

thats good @Mon , at least you should have some equity.! the evatt median graph doesn't look too shabby



and no, no meet ups, its either too hot or to cold to leave the house

 

@Mon I think with the demand in the market at the moment you can't really go wrong with any free standing house. Something to consider though would be these apparent public service job cuts, we wouldn't want to see another Perth v2, but you know how reliable the Government is with actually going through with what they say they going to go through with..

As for meet ups, no. Australian Property Institute does events every few months that are normally like networking and meeting people in the industry, I think the next one is at highball express on the 30th of June. Not really investor meet ups but about as good as it gets.

@S1mon where did you get that graph? Is there one for every suburb? That's awesome data

 

If you want a meetup, post an event in the meetups section. You may get a few takers....

 

@Booming Sunnyvale it is just from http://house.ksou.cn/ , seems to update a lot quicker than most (maybe is more inaccurate too), but its useful

 

That's a boom curve. 15% in less than a year.

 

Hi Geoff, how sure are you on this? Could you please provide any links with details?
Thanks!