NSW Metford Area

Hi All,

Pretty new to this forum. I'm looking at purchasing an investment property around the Metford Area.

What are your thoughts? Any specific areas to stay away from?

Thanks!

 

Hi @Melissa Williamson

What are your reasons for selecting this area?

This is @Propertunity 's backyard, Alan may have views on this

 

Metford:
Close to new hospital
Connecting new hospital to train station
Close to Ashtonfield (more expensive suburb)
Close to Stockland Green Hills shopping centre (recently expanded)
What's not to like?

 

Avoid being close or next to the Housing Commission properties there.

 

Exactly what Proportunity said! From a little research I came across these things. As well as close to a railway station and within commuting distance to Newcastle.

Where abouts is the housing commission area?

Thanks for your advice guys!

 

There's only 10 or 11 according to my records. They appear in the following streets (I have removed the street numbers for privacy considerations).
CHELMSFORD DR
BOTTLEBRUSH CL
EUCALYPTUS CRES
MARSHALL AVE
O`DONNELL CRES
YEOMAN AVE
YEOMAN AVE
BOYD AVE
COBURN CCT
LOWE ST
TENNYSON ST

 

Thank you!

 

Also commission housing areas in order to at least not sound trashy, have often very floral names
Eg wattle, eucalyptus, willow

I think it might be a nsw thing.

 

Hi TMNT,

Haha. That’s very creative!

 

Metford also sprung up on my radar today....interesting
Thanks for the list @Propertunity

 

I have rented in Metford and East Maitland for a few years until Feb this year. Metford prices went up with the Greenhills redevelopment. Most good houses going over 500k.
IMHO,the area estate agents pushed the price up quoting the "massive" Greenhill Mall project but once the Mall finished I couldn't see many new businesses other than the Dan Murphy, a few massage palours and couple of bank outlets. Existing shops,which were in the old mall got a new facelift and of course David Jones was not open till February.
I can see some of the houses which were sold during the last year has not gone up or in fact slightly down.(source Bank valuation website).
The new hospital would not create new jobs and even bed numbers will be same or bit lower. Unlikely people will move to the new hospital area which is between the 2 cemeteries and the rail line. There are plenty of land around esp towards the Raymond Terrace too.
Do you think there will be a good long term growth?

 

@Tony66 Currently looking to by an IP either in Metford or Kurri Kurri, reading your post concerns me a little. Do you think kurri kurri might be a better place to put my money

 

Kurri-Kurri,Weston, Pelaw Main and Cessnock has lot of affordable houses/land but it is low socio-economy so not many people wanting to live there. I am sure if you hold a property a long 10-15 years it might go up but please read about the Hunter regional development plan.
Hunter regional plan
The new developments in Huntley,lochinvar, Cliftleigh and Gillieston Heights are the places most people wanting to live. A lot of people moved to this area because of affordable property, easy access to Newcastle through the Hunter expressway, access to the public hospital and also well established NDIS services.
I saw there were a plenty of people interested on rentals but some areas have no mobile signals due to being a black spot, so your tenants may not stay longer as soon as they find out.

 

@Propertunity
Thanks for the post on this forum. Im also interested in looking at the metford, thornton and Beresfierd pocket. From the data it appears its had great grown the last 1-2 years. Is it to late to enter this market? If Newcastle has hit its peak is there expected to be much ripple effect in these affordable corridors or has that already taken place?
Cheers

 

Hi @YoungBull. As you can see from the chart above, prices are still rising, which is what you'd expect to see when Newcastle takes a breather.

None of them could be described as displaying stunning capital growth (although a higher rental yield is partly compensating for that). Out of the 3 x suburbs you asked about, Beresfield has almost seen prices double in the last 15 years. Will it keep doing that or will the others catch up and surpass? ( I don't do predictions - all out of tea leaves and chicken entrails).

 

Thanks for the response. Much appreciated. Do you see one suburb in this pocket performing better than the others or should I say gentrifying quicker. On the ground are we seeing it being a much more affordable option for a young professional couple from Newcastle that they are prepared to move into this region due to affordabilty or is the stigma still to much of a deterrent. Do you have feel of what's happening on the ground?

 

I do, I live here and work in Metford.

Notice some of the housing commission roads earlier posted are a bit off, and the worse street of them all not mentioned in Metford.

 

Had my wife's mobile stolen by a resident and they fled to a home in Willow Drive, police didnt want a bar of it. That's the worse street in Metford. Chelmsford Drive is fine.

 

Living in the area for 13 years I've noticed a pattern of Maitland area taking off after Newcastle does. The suburbs Id look at are East Maitland on the Greenhills side of the Highway (Greenhills and Hospital growth factors, 28 mins to beach), Thornton (proximity to Newcastle families choosing to buy there for affordability) and Metford (same as East Maitland but hsa a less gentrified reputation).

 

Think you summed up Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3 of the shopping centre now open make it about 80 odd % of the size of Charlestown shopping centre, its pretty big, finally have an entertainment hub up here with TGI Fridays and Hoyts.