VIC PPOR house at 600k

Hey guys - was just wondering to have some opinion around suburb selection in Melbourne for a PPOR house at around 600-650k. I've been looking at south morang and thinking of thomastown, Epping and even Craigieburn. As all these areas might be within my budget. Any advice from the experts on expanding this list would be great. Cheers

 

Thanks for the reply Y-man. I know this is a rookie query and I am a bit embarrassed to have asked. So, I did a bit of quick search on my affordability and a distance to CBD constraint ( not more than 20-30kms). It looks like, I can afford a house with that budget and constraint only in the west or in the north.

The following is a quick shortlist of suburbs in the West and in the North -

Williams landing, Truganina, Point Cook, Deer Park, Taylors hill, Taylors Lake, Sydenham, Taylors, Keilor Downs, Keilor, Keilor Park, Fraser rise

South morang, Mill Park, Dallas, Coolaroo, Craigieburn, Epping, Thomastown, Lalor, ( Mcleod/ Watsonia/ Greensborough? ), Greenvale, Campbellfield, Broadmeadows, Meadow heights, Jacana

I am just a newbie, starting my research with an end goal of buying a house in the next 4-5 months. So, at the moment, I have no strong personal preferences with regard to the things you mentioned. I guess every suburb will have some strengths and weaknesses with regard to these criterion. I am a single guy and my plan is to live in the property for sometime and then maybe move elsewhere within Australia / overseas depending on my circumstances. Therefore, I don't necessarily have to buy a house in the hottest / fastest growing suburb; but, don't want to buy in a suburb where no one wants to live in either.

The next obvious step is getting my facts / research on the aforementioned suburb list; and ranking them as per the criterion you mentioned. I will of course google, search on this forum, talk to people who live there, go for a drive to know better. Is there anything else, I should be doing to help me decide that these are the right suburbs for me?

Thanks

 

better off buying in geelong and taking the vline into southern cross (if you work there), which takes an hour, same time as peak hour traffic from western suburbs

you better have a good cctv setup in all the places you mentioned, and maybe a black belt in karate

 

Haha. Olof.. I wish I had trained for MMA at a much younger age ... Jokes aside, which of the Western suburbs you think have security issues or higher crime /theft rates? I guess Caroline Springs has a bad reputation for that. But places like Deer Park, Point Cook are "safe" , no?

 

And yeah, albeit I believe wfh is going to stay for long ;but commute to cbd still matters..

I'm afraid of places where it's a major hassle finding a parking spot during peak hours for the train ride to cbd. If I have to travel even 3 days a week, I don't want to leave really early, say at 7 in the morning for work just because I can't find parking at 8:30..

 

Thanks Y-man. Question with regard to commute to city.. How far is considered too far from the train station? A house that's more than 10 min drive is ok but not a house that's more than 20 min drive?

The reason I ask is, I saw few properties in T-town that are like 2 min drive from station or a 10 min walk.. And they are going on auctions. However the properties are quite old and smaller dwelling to the land plot ratio.. But looks like they are going on auctions just because they are at a 10 min walk from the station..

 

What if I get a black belt in karate and kill all the monsters.. You'll be tempted to buy IPs in my suburb then

 

Thanks for the recommendations Y-man. I had a close look at both of them. I really liked the interior of Carlisle Drive property and its distance to station is good as well (5 min drive). However, I have a strong preference for a better proportion of land allocated to the dwelling than allocated to the backyard, verandah, etc. So, the Glendale avenue property has a decently big plot of land - 531 sqm, however, the proportion of that land allocated to dwelling is pretty less. There isn't even a second bathroom!

I think I should be clearer with my preferences - a 3 Bedroom house with a master bedroom that is more than average in size (say 3.8 x 3.8 excluding robes) with an en suite bathroom. The rest of the house has decent area allocated to living, dining, kitchen, bathroom and laundry. Even if all this means that the backyards are smaller or the verandah is smaller. I guess I don't have a family at the moment, hence, such preferences. But maybe, working professionals with kids still prefer not so big courtyards as they hard to maintain?

Given the above preferences, which suburbs do you think I should be focusing at? Few additional preferences will be new-ish house (good structure) and of course not too far (<= 5 min drive) from the train station.

AFAIR, you or someone else on this forum recommended "hawkstowe estate south morang" to be a very good location for buying.

 

Sorry, I saw that before as well. I have used 901 at thomastown to alight at Betula Avenue before. Decent service, just that sometimes the wait times are large. So you reckon, parking is a bit of a challenge at the Epping station?