Victorian Regional Transit Towns

Just seeking an opinion on Ballarat for investment. Good rail link to Melb. Agents are clearly targeting the city folk to relocate and commute. New station opened in July to cope with the volume of people commuting to Melb. mixed shopping precinct, and apparently low rental vacancy rates. 11 million being spent on the Eureka Ctre upgrade-obviously to target tourist market. Mentioned by Terry Ryder as a transit town worthy of investment. Property prices however dont seem to have moved much in the past 12 months. Just wondering if anyone has invested there, and whether or not the opinion is that there will be steady capital growth say over a 10 yr period.
 
The main issue with investing in Ballarat (unlike a coastal or capital) is that there is an abundance of vacant land on basically every side.

Since about 5-7 years ago Ballarat has had a really surge. Population growth, new housing, some new industry, plus lots of people moving from Melbourne to commute (due to house prices being $3-400K less).

In the last 5 years maybe longer there's been a significant boom in new housing construction. Invermay Park, Miner's Rest, Lake Gardens, stuff in Alfreton and Delacombe. This is after a period of 10-20 years with relatively little new construction anywhere.

Long story made short. There was good capital growth previously just before all the new construction occurred. The right central location might get decent growth. But there is a massively flood of new construction and the land scarcity value exists only in a few very well located pockets. Due to all the new houses (some people getting $34K FHB inc state grants) there may well be a glut of rental properties, with plenty of brand new 3 bdrs available.
 
Just seeking an opinion on Ballarat for investment. Good rail link to Melb. Agents are clearly targeting the city folk to relocate and commute. New station opened in July to cope with the volume of people commuting to Melb. mixed shopping precinct, and apparently low rental vacancy rates. 11 million being spent on the Eureka Ctre upgrade-obviously to target tourist market. Mentioned by Terry Ryder as a transit town worthy of investment. Property prices however dont seem to have moved much in the past 12 months. Just wondering if anyone has invested there, and whether or not the opinion is that there will be steady capital growth say over a 10 yr period.

I have two residential IP's in Ballarat, along with some land and have lived in Ballarat for 37 years. From calculations I can make on both my own properties along with those of many other people I know, I would say you should expect a doubling in property values within 10 years (probably more around the 8 mark historically speaking). This is in keeping with the general 7-10 year expectations across the board.

They did build a new station, but I understand the trains are still badly crowded, so I'm not sure how much extra capacity they actually added. The vacancy rates are still low and I have never had trouble getting tenants. The Eureka Centre's extra funding & expansion is widely seen as a waste of money locally, as it has been a failure thus far and it is not clear how 'stage 2' is going to improve things that much.

Other positives include 2 unis, which provide a large pool of students looking for rentals every February, if you're happy to rent to students. I had been saying no to my PM as to having students, but it has only just occurred to me that a huge percentage of the students here now are overseas students who seem very industrious & serious about both study & work & thus not likely to have massive parties where they SMS everyone within 100km to come along.

As Neophyte says, there has been a recent surge in building, but I wouldn't say it was stagnant leading up to that. It has had pretty consistent expansion during my lifetime. People used to think we lived 'out of town' where I grew up (4 min drive into CBD, 30 min walk), wheras now that would be considered handy to town.

If you bought within easy access to uni campusses, the CBD or the hospital/lake areas, you would have no issues attracting tenants & would be assured of decent capital growth.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for that. I am currently looking at a group of 3 units at Mt Helen returning $420pw/price $350k neg. which would appeal to uni students as well. With a cosmetic makeover, and starta/community titling I think they would provide a good long term investment. They are extremely spacious, and set on a lovely block. Have also contracted to buy a house in Errard Street (easy walk to Sturt Street) which has a long term tenant. I have always loved Ballarat when I stayed there but of course that's different to living there.
 
I think there's definitely some good investing possibilities there. My only concern would be the amount of new building and land released on the western side of town.

The central location of some of the Uni is a big plus. Although I imagine you'd do fine renting to students out Mt Helen way. Or even just that side of the centre of town.
 
Thanks for that. I am currently looking at a group of 3 units at Mt Helen returning $420pw/price $350k neg. which would appeal to uni students as well. With a cosmetic makeover, and starta/community titling I think they would provide a good long term investment. They are extremely spacious, and set on a lovely block. Have also contracted to buy a house in Errard Street (easy walk to Sturt Street) which has a long term tenant. I have always loved Ballarat when I stayed there but of course that's different to living there.

Both your choices sound good. You will have no trouble getting tenants for units in Mt Helen & Errard St is so close to the CBD & the train station that it should also be easy to keep tenanted.
 
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