Brisbane - cheap house within 5-10km CBD? Suburbs?

[dammit]

I am searching for a cheap house within 5-10km of Brisbane CBD.

By cheap I mean under 400,000. For a PPOR.

Can anyone help direct me on what particular suburbs to focus on? Indooroopilly seems good affordability, also some not too dear ones at Grange and Ashgrove way, although quite old houses needing a fair bit of work.

It seems to be really hard if not impossible to find a free-standing house or duplex (cannot be a unit, and preferably something with no body corporate), within this distance of the CBD and under the price range, there must be something out there or some particular suburbs to focus on.

I viewed a property which was 6km from the CBD, it was $365,000, 3 bedrooms freestanding house but had 1 negative, which was right over the back fence was the train line. Yes it only got electric trains but there were approx 100 a day, when I inspected it immediately striked it off the list because of the train line but I cant help think about it when the median price in the suburb is $550,000, yes it's on a train line, yes it'd be annoying, have they discounted the property because of the rail? have they discounted enough? I know it would be a bad decision hard to sell or rent out later. But where else will I find a freestanding house within 6 km of the city at a price like that? This one was only 10 yrs old.

 

[wylie]

I just did a re.com search on Holland Park, Mt Gravatt East, Mansfield and placed them in order of price, low to high. There are a few under $400K or just over which could be possibly bought for around that price.

Perhaps you should do what I did when looking for a unit for my son, and that is place searches on all suburbs I could think of within a certain radius of the city, tick the "surrounding suburb" box and every morning any listings arrived in my inbox.

 

[Spectre]

I'm confused
One bit you're looking at $400k houses but knowing the house you really want costs $550k.

Not trying to be smart-**** but seems you're looking for something cheap in areas which you just wont find it or if you do it'll probably have a few deficiencies?

 

[dammit]

Spectre, no I am looking for a 400k house, and just want the best value house I can buy, eg if I can get a 10 year old house for 360k that backs on to a rail, is that going to be better than a 360k house that's 40 years old which needs a new bathroom and kitchen, all things to think about.

I'm looking for something cheap regardless of which area, they dont have to have a high median price or richy-ditch but even if people know of some known cheap suburbs I am also wanting to look at everything like that.

Eg just been searching Carina which there is a couple around the 400k mark, this sort of stuff what I'm trying to find

Wylie: Thanks

 

[Spectre]

ok cool just wasnt sure / agree.

 

[Perp]

I quite like Annerley/Fairfield unrenovated properties, preferably near the train stations and above the flood levels.

If you're willing to stretch to 12km, I still think Darra represents great value. Whilst traditionally a "less than grand" suburb, with a heavy Vietnamese influence, I think it's going to undergo some gentrification over coming years. They have a new train station and it's near the corner of the Centenary and Ipswich Motorways, with easy access to the Logan Motorway.

I think it has a lot going for it. Last year I saw a house on land able to subdivided (without DA, code assessable) for $400K, but alas, wasn't in a position to take advantage of the opportunity. If you could find something similar and hold for up to 10 years, I think it'd be hard to go wrong.

 

[jclegg]

Hi, I have some history in the Carina area, you'd be lucky to find a house in that price unless it was in an estate where you'll have high body corp fees. E.g. I know of a small 3BR house (joined by garage only) in an estate in Carina - asking $380K, the body corp is approx $700 per qtr. You may get one for your price but if you go out a bit further and stay near a freeway you're still only 10 mins from the city but you get a large block and house for the same value. Good luck.

 

[wylie]

I just remembered that when I was looking for something for our son (he ended up buying a two bed unit at Greenslopes) one of the places he could have found a nice three or four bedroom house was Slacks Creek, around Ikea.

Travel was the thing that stopped that exercise, and the fact that none of his friends wanted to live with him that far out. But you do get a lot of house and if you don't have to travel to the city every day, that would be more attractive.

 

[Andrew_A]

There are plenty of options if you are prepared to do some work on the property to bring it up to condition, also buying <400k, <10k is possible with a house in good condition and not on an arterial road or backing onto a train line.

Since this is to be a PPOR It's likely a top down approach to analysis would be a method to try (start with location and budget first of all and make other criteria fit this), if it's all about the numbers and no other consideration then a flexible search area would make more sense.

 

[scottandjoy]

This house in Gordon Park, which is a really nice suburb 5-6km from the city, sold at Auction for 380K on the weekend.

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-gordon+park-107109975

I know this doesn't specifically help you but does show that there are some cheaper homes out there if you're in the right place at the right time and ready to buy.

 

[Mooze]

Holy Carp! Can't believe that one went for so cheap. Having said that not sure if it's above official flood line but I know (asked workmate who lived near there since forever) that it flooded in 74.

You need to clarify whether you want to be 5 or 10km out. There are lots of buying opportunities at the moment out there (the Brisbane market has fallen off a cliff in terms of new loans etc) and you can really haggle on price.

5km out vs 10km out are very different travel time wise etc. Also if it's PPOR are you looking for something where schools etc are going to be important? PPOR is very different from IP in terms of what you're looking for ie public transport may not be as important but creche may be more important etc.

Kedron area it's possible to get something low 400's listed bargain down to below 400k.

 

[jokerjoe]

Have a look at Keperra. 10km out. An up and coming suburb that has two train stations and is at a significant discount to it's neighbour (Mitchelton). You should be able to get something around that price.

Joe