NSW Pennant Hills

Hello everyone

We're looking to buy our first home - a 2BR, pet friendly apartment.

We've mainly been looking in the Penshurst / Mortdale area, but recently went to a property at Pennant Hills (www.domain.com.au/53-298-312-pennant-hills-road-pennant-hills-nsw-2120-2014354728) that whilst on Pennant Hills Rd, ticked all the boxes for us.

The only hesitation we've had is that there have been no other people coming through at the 2 open houses we've been to, and the property is fairly new to the market. Is there something were missing??

We're not very familiar with the area, so any feedback would be great !

 

Property seems to be right in between the train line and Pennant Hills Rd. While Pennant Hills Rd may become less horrible when the North Connex opens, you are still going to have ongoing noise even all through the night from the trains. I would try for a better location.

 

There are barely any windows in that place. Seriously it’s like a dungeon! I would look somewhere else. I don’t belive it’s worth that price at all.

 

Thanks for the comments!

It's been hard finding a place that will let us keep our cat and is also within our budget, so I guess we just latched on to the first one that met this criteria!

 

Thats a weird jump from Mortdale to Pennant Hills?

Renting I get, but how can it be hard to buy a 2 bedroom that allows a cat? Loads of choices of 2 bed units around 600k.

 

I’m just guessing now. But if you own an appartment, surely you can keep a cat. It’s not a cow or a horse.

A strict prohibition on the keeping of pets within a strata scheme may be deemed to be invalid under the new section 139 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015.

Not a legal advice.

 

We thought that keeping a cat would be a no-brainer too, so we were surprised when we put in initial pet applications and they were rejected. We queried this with our solicitor and they said that there werent really many options besides going to the tribunal, which we dont really want to do.

Might have something to do with the fact that we're mainly looking at older units (~1980s) for our budget (<$600k).

 

Describe the process. You are looking to buy a place. You went to the body corp, applied to have a pet, owners had a vote, and a majority said no?

 

Thats pretty much it - we've gone through the strata manager and then been told that the application was not successful.

 

So is this right. You are submitting pet applications for a place you want to buy (not rent)?

If it's a place for owning then it should be that its allowed and only under exceptional circumstances that it's not permitted.

In any case, please keep looking.

 

The bathroom, en suite and laundry have no windows - that would be a turn off for most people.

 

the price is lower than surrounding areas due to it location ( it has been like that in the past), I visited the complex a few years ago, it is right in between train line and major road, not many ppl's favor.

have you looked at Hornsby? much nice

 

Hi Firsthomebuyer,

Thank you for sharing on the post.

I do like Mortdale and Penshurst and have done business there before. Great village feel around the stations there.

May I ask, from a decision making perspective, how did you jump from Mortdale/Penshurst to Pennant Hills? These are in very different parts of Sydney.

Best,
John

 

Fwiw, 10 years ago we too looked at Oatley/Mortdale/Penshurst region (Even bid at auction for 12 Mountbatten but eventually we were the underbidders - another couple were willing to pay more) but we also looked at Burwood/North Strathfield. Spent most of the time looking at the region between West Ryde/Eastwood/Epping/Thornleigh though, it’s close to where I grew up. Btw, Oatley‘s nice, and I have an Aunty living there. But at the time a lot of the other St George/Southern region didn’t feel like it had such a good reputation (if I compared it to the Northern districts).

Access to transport was important.

 

Well, the other contributors to this post are correct regarding why this apartment has not garnered much foot traffic: 1) it is on a main road, which is a significant problem, and 2) it has a very strange layout.

Taking a step back and looking at the data, Pennant Hills units have had a tough year, and are down -16% over the past year (Corelogic). The vacancy rate in Pennant Hills is also higher at around 2.8% which suggests that this area is still working off some over-supply.

If you were looking for an investment property, I would probably encourage you to take another look at some pockets of the St George area. However, for an area that you intend to live in, the "data" are not so important, and Pennant Hills certainly has some great advantages. It ultimately come down to which suburb you want to live in.

Once you decide, this, it just comes down to asset selection.

All the best in your search.

 

We liked pennant hills as it's closer to family, but on the other hand we like the good transport from Penshurst/Mortdale to the CBD and the closeness to beaches.

We're planning on living in the place for 6-7 years before selling to upgrade to a house.

 

Pennant hills Rd is extremely noisy . So many trucks day and night scare the hell out of me waiting for the bus! So combined with train line I would hope the windows are double glazed

 

Buy an apartment that can also work well as a rental later. Who knows what your situation will be like.

 

I thought I read somewhere that bylaws can't actually prohibit you having a cat and if they do, you can ignore it without worrying too much about it (as long as you don't mind ******* off a neighbour or two).
Obviously confirm this first, but that's my understanding.

 

Yep, that was my understanding as well.