There now seems to be a few apartments in the sunshine/albion area that have been sold, which is making me a bit more confident about the market then i was a couple of weeks ago.
Anyway the following have been sold recently and my comments
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-vic-albion-118992555
Didn't view it, follow it and have not too much of an idea on the above one.
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-vic-sunshine-119475231
I have commented on this before. I did not see the apartment inside as when I went to the open inspection, it was cancelled. Apparently it sold in the 240k mark. From the photos the inside looks nice however I will make the following comments on it.
1) It is on Ballarat Road, which is an extremly noisy road.
2) It is next door to a petrol station
3) The block of flats from the outside do not look like anything special.
I think a 240k result is a great result for this apartment based on the three points above.
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-vic-sunshine-119359243
I didn't view this property but have been following it closely. My guess on it's sale price based on how long it was on the market is $235k. I'm not that impressed with the photos (might look better than what the photos say) and it is on Forrest Road next door to the rail line. If it sold for around $235k a good result in my opinion.
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-unit-vic-albion-118623403
I didn't really follow this property but from the photos (it has a garage) and it's location I think 290K is a fair result. Seems a bit old but a cheap reno could easily get the value up. Looks like a good buy to me, though my knowledge on it is a bit limited.
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-vic-sunshine-119049183
When looking at 2 bedroom apartments in the Albion Sunshine area you will notice that most 2 bedders are asking for much more than $200k and you'll find some in Forrest Street sell for under $200k. If the apartment is on a quiet road, do not use these Forest street apartments as a price guide.
I viewed this apartment and here are my comments
1) It is livable but not very nice to live in.
2) Trying to drive into the driveway to this apartment is a pain in the backside. Further vistors cannot park on Forrest Street. I ended up parking on Ridley Street and walking to see this apartment.
Based on location and the condition of this apartment this is a basement price for the apartment. Rental yield should be good. A refurb of the apartment could increase the value of the apartment. Not a fan of Forrest Street. Agent did OK to get $191k for this apartment. It is not the baragin as it seems at first sight.
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-vic-albion-116998367
I followed this apartment closely and went to view it. $215k for this apartment is a good buy for the purchaser in my opinion, but either the vendor or agent completly stuffed the sale of this up.
Firstly this property was sold for $253,610 in March 2010 according to onthehouse.
Went to auction on June 2014 and got passed in on a vendors bid of $230,000 (why it went to auction I have no idea). Apparently at this stage they wanted $269,000
http://theauctionbidder.com.au/properties/836-adelaide-st-albion-vic-3020/
I remember looking at this property in March 2015 on realestate.com.au and it was advertised at around $235k. It said this was a reduced price for a quick sale.
The property is in a quiet street. It does have a strange layout and it is quite old (though old is not bad at the right price). However bedrroms seem quite large and it has a balacony.
Lesson here is the following. 1) Try not to over pay for a property. 2) If you do over pay and want to sell don't try and recoup all your money if the market won't let you (let's face it $250K for this was not going to happen, $250k are for apartments that don't need a reno). 3) Do not set such an unrealistic price when selling if you want to sell the property.
$215k for this property is a great buy. It was probably bought for such a low price because of the factors listed above.
There are more recent sales of apartments in the Sunshine/Albion area, but either my girlfriend bought one so I'm biased about it or I have nothing to add about the apartment as I did not really review the apartment.