QLD Our new purchase - Sunnybank QLD

Firstly I apologise if this is in the wrong category. I didn't know where to put it. "Investor Showcase" was more about overall portfolio and journey discussions.

11/8 Deason Street, Sunnybank, Qld 4109 - Property Details


Let me preface this by saying as a general rule of thumb, I don't like townhouses. Many of my friends and family were surprised that we bought this. So how did we end up here?

After a bit of a mad buying frenzy over the last few years, we were down to our last 400k of serviceability. And due to some personal circumstances I don't want to go into, time was extremely tight - buy now or buy nothing at all. The latter is very important to note - yes it is possible to buy a good house in this price range in the outer suburbs, though it would have taken a bit more waiting for it to pop up on the market, and what's that saying..."a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".

So, we had about 400k-450k left, but found ourselves stretching just a little because we really liked what we found.

So, where to start...

With a low to mid 400k budget, we had two options: a house in the outer suburbs or a townhouse in the area we really wanted. I think the former may still have been the better choice, but again...a bird in the hand etc.

With this in mind I narrowed my search down to literally 5 townhouse complexes in the whole of South Brisbane that I was even interested in. Townhouses in general are plentiful, but in Sunnybank, there are 15 townhouse complexes in the entire suburb. I drove through every street and literally counted them one by one. Of those, there were only 3-4 that I considered investment grade. Contrast this with Runcorn or Calamvale, where you looking in the hundreds (yeah, hundreds).

This one is 700mtrs from Market Square - the biggest drawcard for me (to add to this, there are no other townhouse complexes closer than 700mtr's from Market Square, this is as good as it gets). It's within the Sunnybank Hills state school catchment - the second biggest drawcard. It's a small complex with 22 units. It has no facilities - no pool, no bbq area. The on-site manager owns two units here (which alone is a big sign of confidence), and takes meticulous care of it. It's a proper brick build - not 90% fibre cement like a lot of modern townhouses. It's solid as hell (I come from a family of builders so I have a good sense of what to look for). I looked back at the original sale price 20 years ago and even then it was commanding a huge premium over other townhouses because of the quality.

Things haven't changed for me - townhouses are still second to free standing homes. But given that we wanted to get as close to Market Square as possible, and with the budget and time constraints, this is in my opinion the best we could have done and I'm very happy with it.

You'll note a certain obsession here with Market Square - I don't really want to get into specifics on this because it means I'll need to get into specifics about my overall strategy which is perhaps for another day and another post.

 

You can't go wrong with houses around market square, especially less then 10 mins walking distance. I purchased one 700m walking distance to market square 4 yrs ago has increased 63% (from recent sale around the area), but cost me $15k before tax each year to hold. Will offload it once market square construction is completed.

 

You smell those $$$ yet?

That development is going to be like an a-bomb. A good one, I mean.

 

Noice.

I was up there a few years and I liked the area. Big properties. Large parcels of land. I stayed at Eight Mile Plains (motel on cnr Padstow and Warrigul, opposite shops ).

That market place has a strong Asian flavour. I kid you not. Huge place, always packed and hard to find parking. Vibrant.

However , I did feel more at ease at the Logan Central shopping centre.lol.

 

That's the thing that worries me about buying in Eight Mile Plains. Even though it has less townhouse stock compared to Runcorn, there's still a few decent sized blocks that could be developed. Sunnybank however, there's pretty much nothing. And I literally drove down every street in the suburb to do some seriously deep research. Those 15 townhouse complexes...I think there's a high chance this number will never creep far beyond that. Stock is low, and potential future stock is low too, which is what attracted me to this.

And yes it has a heavy asian flavour

 

How much would a standalone house worth now in Sunnybank? My cousin owns a few there, all around 600, 700sqm block.

 

Within 200-400m of market square you’re looking at about 1.3 to 1.5m.

About 1km you’re looking at 800-900k.

Anything in outlying areas is about 650-750k.

As with any suburb there are exceptions to this when it comes to prestige homes.

 

Proximity to the CBD(Chinese business district) is good, but I'm not sure what the obsession with Market Square over Sunnybank Plaza et al, and to a lesser extent the complex on the other corner is?

I do actually - it's the market feel to the place. The redevelopment will make it a shopping centre proper, so that appeal will no longer be there. Tenants will need to find somewhere else to trade from during demolition/construction and the new centre will undoubtedly have much higher rents - will the tenants move back? The big drawcards like the grocer(and fishmonger), butcher and greengrocer may not return. Much of the new construction is set to be commercial from what I understand. Will the customers find somewhere else to shop/eat and not return once it's completed?

The elephant in the room, or the corner is the pub. It sits on more land than Market Square. It's a dud pub, but does good takeaway business and I guess they need it for licencing to have other bottle shops in the area. If that's developed to retail or commercial it will flood the area. I suspect if it's for sale that the hospital will buy it.

 

Did you stay at the pink poodle or sneak into the retirement village opposite. I hear the village has good ice cream.

Michaels restaurant next to the hotel is good but overhyped.

 

They are doing it in 3 stages from what I hear.

That’s why I’m going to capture them downstream. I bought a place just behind Pinelands Plaza too hahaha...like catching salmon (well salmon swim upstream but you get my point lol)

Yes that land is worth a mint. Wasted on a pub. The bidding war will be ferocious if that ever hits the market.

 

So what?

If they can move the Yuen's from the old to the new then they will stay, but I doubt it. The Yuen's will struggle to find enough cheap retail space in the area. Perhaps they could take over the grocer on gowan rd next to the runcorn pub? They'd need to do a lot of modifications. There's plenty of available land around that shopping centre to expand.

There may be family relations I'm not aware of.

I hope it's not that townhouse block. There;s a million townhouses going up on the other side of mains road soon. That ****** block around Nettie st is good - crapie old houses.

Pubs tend to hold for the long term due to licencing requirments for them to run retail outlets in area.

 

Bingo. The owners of Market Square themselves.

The one in the OP is the first townhouse I’ve ever purchased. The one I own behind Pinelands is a freestanding home on Lindis St.

 

Na not really. He went on a buying spree years back and bought a lot of the surrounding houses on Marelda and Hakea St only to be told by the council no no dream on. That’s why a lot of them sit empty now and are used for employee parking and to store stock.

He also bought the three houses on Mains rd and was going to expand there too but was also rejected, that’s why they sat empty for so long. Finally he got approval to put parking there but it’s a far cry from actual retail space.

The smart thing to do would have been to buy the blocks on Elva st 20 years ago. Or Pinelands Plaza when it sold for scraps during the GFC when Centro was having a fire sale.

 

Mr Barton, we share same holiday destinations. We may have bumped into each other at some time lol. You don't recall being grossly offended at some point of your holiday? Perhaps tyres screeching at 3 am?

Yes, the Best Western Motor Inn. That's the place. I vaguely remember that restaurant next door. But I mainly dined at Sunnybank market place.

Can't recall the retirement village, the pink poodle or any other place of ill repute.

 

At ease is not a way I would describe anyone visiting Logan Central shops. It has to be the dodgiest shops in South East Queensland. I've actually got to head down there this afternoon...might take s flick knife just in case.

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@jaybean I think you've made a great pick. It's really attractive, none of the styling elements have or will date(d) badly and it looks pretty big for an older townhouse. Also solid like you said.
The carpet looks a bit dirty which is the only thing I noticed that let it down a little (that and the balcony grout, easy wash), it's a cheap Polypropylene and it should clean really well. Let me know if you want the number of the best carpet cleaners in Brisbane, they'll make it look brand new.

 

Good on you! It's a good area - heaps of families and infrastructure. I think Brisbanites can get a bit weird about areas, but it wasn't that long ago that New Farm was a dump nobody wanted to live in!
Ok that was a long time ago, but you get my point.