Apartment market sunshine/albion area

[pickle pickle]

If anyone is interested in the Sunshine/Albion apartment market please private message me to exchange thoughts on this (on an ongoing basis) or give me your thoughts on it.

My girlfriend has just bought an aprtment in the area as a PPOR, so now that means I'm very interested in the market (I spend a lot of time researching when I'm interested in something, it drives my g/f crazy) and will be for years to come. I am interested in sharing knowledge in this market and what people's thoughts are.

My thoughts are as follows

1) It is cheap.
2) From a capital growth point of view there will be none to little due to so much stock.
3) It is hard to sell an apartment in this area (they are on the market for ages).
4) As a PPOR (if you can manage to live in an apartment) it is a great area as it is cheap, plenty of infrustructure, and reasonbly close to the city.

 

[Teshy]

Hi pickle,

I've got properties in Albion and looking atm to add another one in 3020 postcode.

I live locally and always open to catching up with local investor.

 

[Peter Parker]

If anyone is interested in the Sunshine/Albion apartment market please private message me to exchange thoughts on this (on an ongoing basis) or give me your thoughts on it.

This is a forum whose purpose is to share information.

So better to share info here rather than private message.

Use the search function for numerous other threads on Sunshine/Albion.

 

[pickle pickle]

Was told today this apartment sold for around $240k today. Considering the open for inspection was cancelled today and it has only been on the market for a couple of weeks I believe that it was sold at just under $240k but I can't believe it. It is next door to a petrol station.

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-vic-sunshine-119475231

 

[pickle pickle]

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.

 

[Peter Parker]

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.

As you say, an interesting floorplan. It has a lot of corridors that if removed (if possible) might make it seem even bigger inside.

Eg suppose Bed 2 was made smaller with the rightmost wall moved about 1.5m to the left (and the BIR removed). It would be too small for a bedroom but could be a study.

The useless corridor behind the front door could then become a living area (admittedly windowless). Potentially also opened up to the kitchen.

The former living area could become a spare bedroom, library or hobbies room with a private balcony. It would then be an excellent place for an active couple with lots of interests (or even with one working from home), though not so good for parties etc unless the existing living/meals area could be opened up to the kitchen etc.

So at the cost of accepting a smaller living area without a balcony one could get an extra room if the above changes were feasible.

 

[cimbom]

I don't think Sunshine is an apartment suburb. In Australia, apartments only really make sense if the suburb is in such high demand and houses are that expensive that people are desperate enough to live in an apartment to live in the particular area. I'm thinking inner suburbs etc. Not Sunshine where you can buy a house for ~450k.

 

[pickle pickle]

The Sunshine Albion area has its fair share of apartments. There's plenty of them.

For capital growth I don't think they will go up much because of the points you make, however if you buy at the right price you shouldn't loose your money and they do offer good yields. Just don't buy new for investment purposes in Sunshine. Anyway I'll be following the apartment market in Sunshine/Albion very closely even if it is a dog.

On the budget my friend was on she did well getting an apartment so close to ammenties for the price she paid.

 

[cimbom]

Even if the value doesn't go down, the opportunity cost is not worth it IMO. There needs to be a much bigger price multiplier between a house and an apartment for an apartment purchase to make sense - i.e three times higher at a bare minimum to account for the lack of land and the fact the building is only going to depreciate.

The median house price in Sunshine is 470k. So unless the best apartments are selling for 150k, I'd say they're very overpriced. To take South Yarra as an extreme example, a house is 1.5 million compared to 530k for a median two bedroom apartment. That price difference actually makes sense.

 

[Teshy]

Even if the value doesn't go down, the opportunity cost is not worth it IMO. There needs to be a much bigger price multiplier between a house and an apartment for an apartment purchase to make sense - i.e three times higher at a bare minimum to account for the lack of land and the fact the building is only going to depreciate.

The median house price in Sunshine is 470k. So unless the best apartments are selling for 150k, I'd say they're very overpriced. To take South Yarra as an extreme example, a house is 1.5 million compared to 530k for a median two bedroom apartment. That price difference actually makes sense.

I couldn't agree more with you Cimbom. Sunshine will take sometime for attractive apartment investment.

 

[8Faye]

Only buy landed in Sunshine/Albion

Most of the apartments are in the Ridley St precinct and along Ballarat Rd.
Not much value there concentrate on landed units better value or landed old houses even on Wright st.!!! Lots of potential there as there is a big residential development there.

 

[littletee]

Very fast growing area and still very undervalued in my opinion.

I live in Ardeer and love the location! I'll be selling my ripper little near
new townhouse soon, will be sad to leave.

 

[pickle pickle]

I am surprised by the sale price of this apartment because of location and other apartments are getting much lower prices than this. How much would it cost to get a decent apartment looking like this on the inside?

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-vic-sunshine-119475231

 

[Peter Parker]

I am surprised by the sale price of this apartment because of location and other apartments are getting much lower prices than this. How much would it cost to get a decent apartment looking like this on the inside?

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-vic-sunshine-119475231

Not sure.

But a streetview of the above https://www.google.com.au/maps/plac...5e306d691919:0xb0efe522d985642f!6m1!1e1?hl=en

indicates exceptionally bad street appeal, at least when Google drove by. My experience is that what Google saw is not atypical for the area, especially units. Eg the bins, rubbish, for sale signs, graffiti etc. And if you think the front is bad, check out around the corner!

I would guess that when you're starting from such a low standard, spending $1k on the street appeal and $5k on the inside would improve saleability/rentability better than doing nothing about the street appeal but spending $20k on the inside.