Regional Property

The thing you have to remember is how council rates are calculated. Council works out how much money they need for the works they want to do for the forthcoming year. They divide that by the number of rate payers in town and bang there is your rates bill. The less properties in town to share the burden of infrastructure costs etc, the higher the rates. Same applies to water service charges.

This is a big contributor to why council rates can be so high in tiny towns.

 

Yep, there are a lot of people who are going to move to the coastal regional areas as well. Won't be long until we see a heap of those country/sea change shows. Again.

 

As the capital cities get increasingly crowded and the various state governments trying to disperse the population elsewhere, certain country towns might do well.

And with the capital cities getting so expensive, this gave another added impetus for people to move to these country towns, resulting in them growing bigger. Unfortunately, as said, this is only going to benefit "some" towns, not all of them. In fact, from demographics, it looks like many small ones (less than 2,000 people) will likely get smaller or even disappear altogether in the future. So the trick is to buy in the right towns.

How is Bendigo? It seems to attract lots of attention in the past but now seems to be void of attention and activities?

 

I heard it s boom is over, now there is a surplus of housing, the previous low vacancy rate is increasing and rents are falling.

 

From my readings in this forum, most country towns - big or small are suffering from low rents and High vacancy rate. Probably the low interest rate has encouraged many former tenants to buy their own house, resulting in over supply everywhere? So for country town like Bendigo, the strategy might be to buy a desirable property in a good area, rent it out cheaply if need be and bank on capital gains in future?

 

I don't know about most.
Head for the coast and there's plenty to choose from.
Although it's sometimes strange to think of these coastal places as regional when they're really busy.
Good to visit mid-Winter to see what it's like when it's quiet - and make your offers then too.

 

Good idea.

 

Many are not regionals.

Shoalhaven City Council
Wollongong City Council
Orange City Council

 

Nowra is city-ish.
Huskisson, Vincentia, Jervis Bay, Sanctuary Point not so much.

 

Most of the discussions about the regional cities are in NSW. How about those in other states like Victoria and WA? Places like Bendigo, Ballarat, Warnambool, Bunbury, Mandurah etc? Are they worthy of investment.

 

The same DD needs to be done, all places have their pros and cons, as long they have a diverse economy, and you buy in the better areas, you should be OK. Don't look at these places isolation, compare with similar cities in the state and see which one is lagging behind the others of similar size and economic strength. Sometimes these town can be hundreds of Kilometers apart but are still considered competing options for investment. They will all be in a different part of the property cycle, but still comparative. In NSW for instance, Orange had a boom a few years ago and lead the pack for regional cities. Now its been quiet for a few years, over those years surrounding towns have caught up and are all now on similar medium values. If you follow this process in victoria you may see similar trends. Just make sure you understand the markets you are dealing with.

 

No doubt they have been, and will be again.
As above, it's about doing your research for any location.

 

And don't be afraid about not following where the herd is going. Research your own locations and if they have the right fundamentals and you are buying well then you should be ok.

 

As others have said, there are a few basic rules that I follow when considering regional property investing. Most are common sense but important to mention:

1) Focus on multi-diverse economies
2) Personally I don't buy in regionals under 40,000 population. My sweet spot is really the 100,000 - 200,000 population size. More sustainable and economically diverse
3) Buy in the better/more upmarket areas
4) tandem with point #3; look for suburbs of regionals that are already in-filled and don't have lots of developable open space nearby, remembering that such suburbs in regionals may NOT always be the central/CBD ones
5) A curveball fifth one for me personally; not only look at multi-diverse economies but look for one's with either existing or planned infrastructure into future-growth-industries (you know, for Australia's "life after mining" and all...)

 

This is good to keep in mind for medium-long term, some people try to cheat with holiday type places in the short term. Gets a bit speculator-ish and risky though. Especially if they have a short memory and get greedy.

 

Hi C Mac

What about the saying of not to buy too far from the capital cities? Using Victoria as a case, the three largest country towns of Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat are all within a 2 hour drive from Melbourne. What about towns that are far away e.g. Albury or Mildura? Barring other factors, will distance restrict the growth of such towns?

 

What is Regional Australia? - Regional Australia Institute



Not sure what this group does... Apart from employ some work for the dole staff in Canberra

The map is handy though

 

Some NSW Regional areas I did take a look at were

Wellington , they have a massive 'ice' problem., but i see they are expanding the local prison.
Houses seem to be a tad overpriced .But some day it has future potential because close to Dubbo.

Moree... Another Ice problem town , also has problems with flooding .
Comparing house prices last year and now they seemed to have gone right down.

Wagga Wagga , I looked at Ashmont, Tolland , Kooringal .

Broken Hill,Population seems to be dwindling and houses overpriced.
This City even though its in NSW seems to do more business with Adelaide than Sydney, eg.. Hospital flies patients to Adelaide rather than Sydney .
Really it should be part of South Australia but thats another story.

Scone, More of the house and land packages being built , many mines have also closed.
Heard there is a oversupply of rental properties.

Maitland, Cessnock.. I like these areas .

None really had appeal at this stage and prices were falling in most cases except in Maitland where they seemed to be going up.

 

Darwin and Hobart both regional.
Hmf.

 

Townsville, Cairns, Ballarat, Bendigo ?

Darwin is much smaller