Hi All, New member, but very long time lurker (maybe 3 or 4 years on and off). I never really took the somersoft site too seriously, as all the suburbs people talk about are not really something I'm interested in (ie mainly lower price median suburbs, and suburbs outside of Sydney which I have no idea where they are, and Somersoft people seem so opposed to OTP apartments). Everyone seemed to have an opinion of this suburb and that suburb will do well. Guess what ? Every suburb in Sydney has kicked arse big time. It did not really matter where you bought in Sydney in 2010 to 2012, you be making killing now, and probably another 18 months runs left. This certainly smells like the boom of 2002-2003, where every suburb rose without discrimination. When it comes to finding out information on Sydney, I know it very well as I am from Sydney and been buying properties for last 15 years ( yes, i could have thrown a dart in sydney map and easily doubled my investment). So now with this boom in Sydney, I think it will run out of steam very soon. So finally I have found Somersoft to be very useful as I am reading more about places in Brisbane. The information provided by members have been very useful for me. Thanks to everyone who contributed. So I think it is only fair that I will add to the chat and provide my 2 cents worth in return for those that helped me. I read in another thread about someone travelling interstate and buying property and what approach he took. I did 2 months of research and following of Brisbane suburb listings before I landed one last week. I did 2 trips to Brisbane, and inspected aboout about 20 properties, in northside around Nundah area, Southside areas Morningside, then Sunnybank and Logan Central. After 2 months, I thought I had the feel for the suburbs, surroundings, and prices such that i was confident to make a bid at auction, and I did win it. My view of Brisbane price is that it is very affordable and yields are great. However, my concern is the population of Brisbane is small compared to Sydney, and a lot of the suburbs I looked at, there are over 50 houses/apartments for sale and 30 for rentals, you do not see that many in Sydney suburbs. The days it takes to sell in Brisbane is like 70 compared to Sydney under 30. The positive thing I found about Brisbane is that in that 2 months I was following the properties on the market, most of them eventually got sold, and more recently the properties that were newly listed already had offers made within a week so the agents told me they could not show me the property unless the offers crashed. And the agents I spoke to have told me they are getting more inquires from people like me from Sydney (and also Melbourne). I'm betting on Brisbane to take off (yes the experts have been saying this for 3 or 4 years) such that I'm looking for a second and possibly 3rd property in Brisbane. The yields are so good that it does not take much at all to finance it and there's not much chance of a crash as prices have hardly moved compared to Sydney. I just wonder if there will be a boom in Brisbane like Sydney where every suburb has rose strongly. However, one thing that startled me was on a meeting with an agent, I asked what they thought of a prospect of a boom in Brisbane, and she said no, she's been in the real estate business for over 20 years and it has never boomed to the extend like Sydney. She mentioned that Brisbane is not an auction culture, which is one of the reason driving up the prices. But 10 years ago, it was pretty rare to get houses auctioned west of Strathefield. I guess if auction become more common that would help to drive up the prices somewhat. thanks for reading
Welcome aboard from a similarly new member - only have come on board after hearing about Somersoft via the main Twitter Commentators. All the best with your next steps, I'm Sydney based and have NFI re Brisbane's prospects but keen to observe from a distance Cheers
Hi mate, welcome aboard (from a newbie member) Congratulations on winning your bid! Coming from Brisbane, I read your post with great interest, but I strongly disagree with what the agent says. The rapidly increasing rate of urbanization is increasing due to the movement of Australian industry from a manufacturing country to a skills and research based economy. The increase in education has reduced the value of Bachelor and Masters degrees to an extent. With the largest population growth in Australia, more people are finding the need to be employable means moving closer to urban areas, where jobs are, and by location, where education is. Whilst an auction culture in Sydney exists with 4 million people, Brisbane with 2.3 million isn't doing badly by comparison and the limit in Sydney for owners to bid on their own properties once doesn't exist in QLD (yet). What you may see with the impending Casino approval to be announced this July budget and the increasing investment on the Gold Coast is Brisbane starting to take its place alongside Sydney and Melbourne. Add in the changes to Victorian stamp duty for FIRB buyers, and the expected $1 million house price median for Sydney early next year and you have Brisbane set to fire up until around 2018.
