Apartments in South Brisbane

[asim1701]

Hi guys,

First time poster. I've started looking around to buy a place, and am very new to this so don't have much experience. I spent a few hours just reading around the forums here as I was interested in the Soda Apartments that will be popping up in 2015 in South Brisbane. My plan was to get either a 1 bed/1bath or 2bed/2bath unit in the apartment, live there for ~1year and get the FHB benefit, and then renting it out for a few years, potentially selling it after another few years to buy a bigger place in the suburbs once I start a family. I was looking at Soda because it was in South Brisbane, and:

1. It's a trendy place so wouldn't mind living there for a year or so.
2. I thought that in the next coming years the property value would increase due to it being in South Brisbane, so I could rent it out / sell it in the future for a profit once I start a family and need to move to a bigger place (especially if I end up getting the 1 bedroom apt).

The reason I am not looking at getting a family house in the suburbs at the moment is that I'm not sure if I'll be in Brisbane for a long time (in case moving for a new job etc) so don't want to commit to that.

After reading some threads on this forum it seems that this apartment won't be recommended due to high strata costs, location on Cordelia St, and potential oversupply of apartments in S.Brisbane. Is this correct? Is South Brisbane a good place to buy, or should I only look at renting a place here instead if I want to enjoy the lifestyle for a year or two? I do enjoy the apartment lifestyle also and think that being unmarried atm I am able to do this now rather than in the future, so am willing to cough up a little extra for the strata.

The 1 bedder would face the city on the 16th floor, while the 2 bedder will be on the 17th floor but face towards indooroopilly. The 1 bedder is going for 430k and the 2bedder for 560k. I'd be paying ~90k deposit.

Is this another one of those OTP properties targeted at the overseas investors??

I'd appreciate any advice you can give me. Let me know if you need any more info from me.

Thanks for your help!

 

[D_One]

It looks like you answered your own question. I will look to rent where I want to live for the lifestyle and purchase in an area where you feel there are more potential for capital gain.

 

[vbplease]

^^ I agree, it looks like you've answered your own q's there. I wouldn't mix "trendy place where I'd like to live for a bit" with investing.. been there done that with my first property. The only way I got it to work was renting it out fully furnished once I moved out.

I'm now sticking with the mantra "rent where you want to live and buy where you think will be a good investment".

For me that's paying $200/wk to live on the river with mates (large house, swimming pool, pontoon for the boat), where the rental return is 2%. Then investing in 1960's brick apartments in the suburbs with a 6.5%+ return.

 

[Benvolio]

What distance to the bris cbd would u consider suburbs?

 

[eeew]

[10QUOTE=Benvolio;1100379]What distance to the bris cbd would u consider suburbs?[/QUOTE]

Just my opinion:

0-2=city

2-6= inner suburbs

6-10=middle suburbs

10+=outer suburbs

 

[asim1701]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yes I would agree with the proximity to city table above for what I would consider a suburb.

So I understand now that buying a property elsewhere can yield better profits. Two questions:

1. Why are people grabbing these city apartments like crazy? They all seem to be sold out pretty quickly.
2. You guys don't believe that buying a property very close to the city can get you huge capital gains in the future? Just looking at bigger cities in Australia and around the world I always thought that buying a city property would be a very good investment as prices skyrocket when the city eventually becomes bigger.

 

[Angel]

Hello Asim1701

Basically Brisbane has a far lower population than Sydney, Melbourne and the big cities around the world. Are these building projects really selling out or is that the marketing hype to make you think that you have a sense of urgency to purchase them?

I recall reading Michael Matuzic sometime like five to eight years ago proposing that Brisbane was undersupplied with apartments. Next thing businesses were starting to apply for permission to build trendy high rises, and they started, the floods hit, and Brisbane became a ghost town. The price of ALL real estate dropped about 20%, and more than that for higher end properties. The place has been economically dead for three years, but the approvals for high rises keep going. To me it seems to be way more than demand. I read somewhere earlier this year that many of the projects are on hold due to lack of demand.

PLUS I personally know of a family who bought into a multi-tower complex near the Mater Hospital. The building work is very poor and the BC is in dire financial trouble due to not being able to repair the engineering disaster.

There are valid reasons to buy in South Brisbane, Dutton Park or West End, but I would consider an established medium density property that I can walk past and see with my own eyes. It would be walking distance to the cafes, Southbank Tafe, QUT or UQ walking bridges, ferry, train station and city, without any of the building dramas.

best wishes

 

[asim1701]

Thanks for that explanation Angel. I will keep looking for some better places then. Appreciate everyone's help and will keep you guys updated with how I go!

 

[TigerBNE]

It is nice to hear some advices

 

[Gargamel]

For me that's paying $200/wk to live on the river with mates (large house, swimming pool, pontoon for the boat), where the rental return is 2%. Then investing in 1960's brick apartments in the suburbs with a 6.5%+ return.

Any suggestions on locations for these 1960's era apartments to obtain that yield?