Moe, Morwell & Traralgon

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone had any recent thoughts, opinions or stories on the above areas. I'm not sure if it's been covered recently, forgive me if it has, but I'm looking to start a bit of an investing oddyssey down that way and would greatly appreciate any input.

Cheers...R

Renovationator said:

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone had any recent thoughts, opinions or stories on the above areas. I'm not sure if it's been covered recently, forgive me if it has, but I'm looking to start a bit of an investing oddyssey down that way and would greatly appreciate any input.

Cheers...R

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Moe.. I have no idea where it is.. but its where Jaidyn Leskie was murdered.. isnt it interesting how certain places become associated with some gruesome crime that was committed in the area..

Moe, Belangalo State Forest, Port Arthur, Snowtown..

(sorry for the thread hijack)

I was there (Moe) for a day over 40yrs ago so my thoughts are not worthy of consideration, but it was a picturesque vally. Like Tassie, I could possibly retire there. (The cold is OK if you you can sleep in and not have to go to work)

Aren't the locals the butt of Kiwi/Irish/blonde type jokes?

House prices are amongst the lowest in the state, but so are rents. Unfortunately holding costs aren't neccessarily commensurately cheaper. Going from ads, yields don't seem to be much more than around 6%.

The demographics and socio-economic profile have shown a long-term decline with a dominance of lower income earners and those on social security. But I haven't seem recent stats, so I don't know if these trends have continued in the last year or two.

Other parts of the Valley might have better prospects, eg Traralgon. There are parts of Melbourne that also low-socio-economic areas but offer better growth prospects at only slightly lower yields (5%) IMHO.

Nevertheless it's always worth a visit to talk to the agents, pick up the local RE guide, check for broken bottles, sniff the sweet air, suss out the 'hoods and see how long the queues are at the Tatts counter are etc.

Peter

I have 1 IP in Traralgon. We bought it about 4 years ago. Rents have not increased at all in that time, however the house doubled in value (due of course to the boom). I am quite happy with the IP as it doesn't cost us anything to hold as it was cashflow positive at the time of purchase. Not looking to buy anymore in the area though as I am sure it will be some time before there is anymore growth.

Hi Renovationator. Your name suggests that you are into renovating, so from that angle you can do OK. I've a small 10-11 sq WB house in Traralgon West which rented for 145/wk as it was. I did a half decent reno on it and it rented instantly for 190/wk with great tennants.

Thanks for the replies so far guys.

Units 4 Me, if you dont mind me asking how much did it cost for the renovation that you did to that property?

About 25-30K plus my time, so maybe 50K all up.

Hi Reno,

I live out this way and often pass through these towns. People can and do travel to Traralgon, Warragul, Drouin, even Pakenham for work. Has good rail and highway links.
These areas are fairly low entry-price areas. If you do buy, perhaps look long and hard for something that has a unique aspect - park views, golf-course location etc.

Moe...agree with Duncan. Commish housing, low rents, poor mean incomes. If I were going to invest there, I'd look for units very, very close to the cbd / town centre, perhaps looking for elderly tenants.

Morwell has changed quite a bit. You'll probably want to look north of the railway track at the main shopping strip which now houses new local council offices, law courts, strip shopping. Looks very snazzy for Morwell. From memory, there was quite a bit of retirement activity in this area - small 2 br units / townhouses etc.
For a house rather than a unit, I'd look further East of the Morwell CBD, just out of town towards the Midvalley shopping centre. The area is far nicer and is closer to the bulk of the area's work-force ( I'm guessing ). Houses and streets also look very suburbanish.

Traralgon...was a great buy before the boom. I'm guessing it's a fair bit dearer now. It's an attractive town in my mind and houses ASIC and council offices from memory. Also closer to large town like Sale.
Sale has the air-force as a primary employer, and is quite a nice and large town. May be worth checking to see what other industries they have...and how long the air-force lease runs for.

Hope this helps.
Cheers
Fish.

Latrobe valley property

The Bass Strait oil fields are close to Sale and Esso has a gas plant there, the pay is quite high in oil industry jobs. Morwell has a pulp and paper mill, again high wages also a few coal fired power stations in the area so there is a fair amount of industry there.

I certainly have nothing against the Latrobe Valley at all. But it’s always worth remembering that the cancer rate there is 7 times the national average.

Plus they win the award for the dirtiest power station in the world…….hmmm, not sure that’s something to celebrate.

http://www.climatechange.com.au/200...for-one-of-the-world’s-dirtiest-power-plants/

Ruby

Some of those towns have had a downward growth trend in the past. I don't know about now- it's worth investigating.

Ruby, you certainly don't sound as though you have nothing against the Latrobe Valley. Can you show how it is fact what you claim about cancer rates?

units4me said:

Ruby, you certainly don't sound as though you have nothing against the Latrobe Valley. Can you show how it is fact what you claim about cancer rates?

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Sorry if it appeared I have something against the Latrobe Valley, I can assure you that is not the case. Renovationator asked for input on the area, and it is worth taking into consideration the problems that can be associated with the Valley. When doing due diligence it pays to look at all the issues……..no use only having one sided advice. I’m sure you would agree?

You can find fairly detailed information on the asbestos related cancer issues in this document. http://www.ohsrep.org.au/storage//documents/asbestosrep_sept2004.pdf

Although I suppose one bonus from the problem is the new 21 million dollar cancer centre in Traralgon. There is always a positive spin in any issue I suppose.
http://www.dpc.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/newmedia.nsf/bc348d5912436a9cca256cfc0082d800/839aae4bb4611fa6ca256db6007cb50c!OpenDocument

Personally I like Gippsland and have done a lot of research in the area, I was actually there last week. I wouldn’t live there myself, but I do have a son with asthma and couldn’t risk the pollution levels. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/02/13/1108229853716.html

Would never say it was a bad investment though. But like everywhere…….do thorough due diligence and look at both the good and bad of any area you are researching.

Ruby

Hi Ruby. You mentioned a high cancer rate. Maybe you should have mentioned that the high cancer rate is directly related to those thousands unfortunate enough to have contracted mesolthelioma (spelling?) who worked in the power stations between the 1940s and the late 1970s. The disease they have is asbestos related and has a very long delay of sometimes 20-30 years. We are now unfortunately seeing the devastating results of those horrendous work practises back in that era.

These days, while yes there is a lot of industry down there, the air quality is quite good, better than Melbourne and some other parts of the state, see www.epa.vic.gov.au/Air/Bulletins/.

A new cancer centre is being built at Traralgon, but this just brings the LV into line with other regional areas which already have this facility.
Your post gives the impression that anyone who now lives there will be at very high risk of cancer which I disagree with.

the reason the prices in morwell dropped in the past is because of the power industry shutdown. But that was many years ago. morwell has now built itself up, and not just depending on a single industry. The new Latrobe Valley council office is in the morwell town centre, really nice building.

traralgon is a bigger town just a few minutes drive away.
Churchill is famous for student accommodation for monash uni gippsland campus.

Great to have some varying views on the Moe, Morwell and Traralgon areas, hopefully it will give people a more detailed insight into the area.

units4me, my views come from personal experience, which I wont go into. So we might agree to disagree on some issues

When it comes down to it………would I buy in the Valley?

Hell yeah!! Just probably not in Moe or Morwell. Traralgon has so much more going for it and if the numbers stacked up.

Would I live there?
Probably not……..but many do and love it.

Favourite thing to do?
http://www.railtrails.org.au/states/trails.php3?action=trail&trail=18 With a picnic at the Yallourn Power Station……just don’t breath in. (only joking)

You will always find conflicting views on any area, which is a good thing. You’d hate everyone wanting to buy in the same place. Due diligence is always important though, just be aware that data and statistics can be interpreted in different ways. An interesting example of this here: http://nceph.anu.edu.au/Envir_Collab/Melb_short_course_presentations/Day1_arvo/Geoff_Latimer.ppt
You do have to click through the pages and some of the lines though.


Ruby

Hi ruby. I'd agree with everything you just said. Well posted!

I just found this old thread as Morwell/Moe/Sale are some of the areas Im looking at as a first home and later IP.
The power plant thing is the only thing stopping me from buying here. I agree with Ruby that it does seem risky to live here, its well known that living in close proximity to coal power plants is a major health hazard, just look what they do to the environment, let alone the human body.

Its a real shame as the landscape is beautiful, wish they had placed their power plants elsewhere.

Unfortunately its looking like I'll have to cross Gippsland off my list for a first home, wont rule it out for IP's but from what I've read, I also dont think I could risk living there

I'd actually look at West Gippsland as an even better choice. Warragul and Drouin are only an hour and a bit from Melbourne, the new Pakenham bypass is nearly finished and it has the right infrastructure eg schools, shopping, trains, road etc. It has a good history of capital growth and still retains a country feel. A lot of people who work in the valley live in Warragul. In my opinion a better choice than Moe