What do you look for in a PPOR?

Hi PropertyChat members,

My partner and I are considering to buy our first home but we are kind of lost in terms of what to look for.

Our goal is to live in a suburb where the valuation of the property will increase.

Besides the choice of suburbs, no.of bedrooms, bathrooms, garage, land size, what do you generally look for when buying your first home? e.g: close to freeways, close to good schools, household income, etc

What I'm doing is now is gathering suburb profiles from realestate.com.au and realestateview.com.au on data such as median property price, weekly household income, median age, etc.

Any advice is appreciated.

Stan

 

First off I look for the front door, then the door handle.

 

Northern light to the living areas.

Eastern light to the master bedroom and/or breakfast area.

A great (or potential) garden.

 

Privacy

 

Close to beach! Unique character. Close to public transport. Scope to renovate and / or extend. Higher owner occupier : renter ratio in the area.

Our has all of the above. These all add up to tax free capital growth.

 

How's that New Years resolution going for you?

 

Low(ish) maintence, at least for the first one....you're not going to get far if your PPOR chews up all your cashflow.

Also buy less house than you can afford. It's way easier to pay off money that you didn't borrow in the first place.

 

Thanks for the replies! Does the schools around the property play a huge part in terms of the valuation? How about shopping centers such as Westfield, etc?

 

Yeah it certainly can. Ours is in a good school zone, and Adelaide's biggest shopping centre is 6 mins drive away. Each area will be different though - different areas / demographics demand different things.

 

I'll only buy a PPOR when it offers everything I look for in an IP, unless I have 'made it' and buying my dream home.

If it doesn't stack up as an IP, just continue renting.

I think it's important not to get your home and investment confused. Pick which one it is you want, because if you get it wrong, it's not worth the entry/exit/re-entry costs or your stuck with a PPR that's not right or an investment that could be performing better.

 

Something that is not so small that you put in the key to the front door and break the back window.

Which apparently in Sydney is anything under $3 million...

 

Lucky we're in Melbourne so we're not at that stage yet

 

Stan, are you saying that buying a medium sized cardboard box in the middle of the Burnley Tunnel is still within the budget of a Sydney property investor?

 

For me, my requirements for PPOR changes at different stages of my life. First PPOR, me and gf then (wife now) have no kids, so school wasn't that important. Bought very near to shops (gym, restaurants, etc).
Current PPOR was to have some land for kid to run around and near good schools.
I guess no one size fits all.

 

I have been doing it wrong, price has always been the main factor, then front door and handle etc....

 

OP, buying a home, well for many, will be many trade offs.

The only perfect home would come from experience and knowing what you want and like, which probably means building once you have the location secured.

My priorities will be different to yours, but I always have in my mind, selling or use of the place if we move on, so will always be a compromise for us, even between partners means a lot of compromising often.