Buying in Brisbane for lifestyle

[luckyone]

Well, DH and I are thinking of moving to Brisbane sometime hopefully in the not-too-distant future. We've decided we want a 3 bedroom apartment or townhouse with water views up to about the $650,000 mark. I've just started looking and quite like the look of New Farm. It looks quite accessible to the city and like we could get a very nice apartment for that sort of price range.

What is everyone's view on this? Is it a nice are? What are the good and bad parts around there? Are there any streets we should avoid?

Thanks for your help!!!

 

[Roachy]

New farm does have a good connection to the city. It is the trendy suburb and thus you will have to deal with people like Evand. That's probably the one downfall you have in New Farm; hippies.

You could try the eastern side of the river, does have trouble linking to the city, as there is only one major road, but it is drastically cheaper than New Farm.

 

[vbplease]

At first I was thinking there was no way you could find a 3bed apartment in New Farm with river views for under $650k.. but a quick search on re.com brings up this one. I imagine the body corp fees would be ok there too.

New Farm is huge.. quite hilly and with bad parking, so you may want to consider how close the apartment is to a bus stop or the city cat stop, unless you don't mind walking. On the weekends New Farm park gets so busy with "trendy" people, going there may not be a pleasant experience for some?

Some other options you may want to consider Kangaroo Point, I think is better value. It's a lot more built up with apartments, so more to choose from.

I'd also suggest West End and Bulimba, but river views are really at a premium there.

 

[wanelad]

I would also consider Bulimba, Balmoral, Norman Park, Teneriffe

They are all near the river and not too far from the city

 

[austini]

We have been living in New Farm for a few years now. I think it will be extremely difficult to find a 3 bedroom apartment with river views in New Farm for under $650K. In fact even trying to find a 2 bedroom unit with river views at that price would be difficult. As per the link above posted by VBplease you may find something in one of the older unit blocks in the old area of New Farm but unfortunately anything in the nicer and more modern apartment complexes is likely to be well over $1Mil for a 3 bedroom apartment with water views.

Bear in mind that the river although nice to look at can be quite busy and noisy at times (eg jet ski's, party boats with live bands and disco's and lots of foottraffic on the boardwalk etc).

Perhaps Kangaroo Point as mentioned previously might be worth a look as there is a lot of apartments there. However I haven't really looked there for a long time.

If you can find a reasonably nice place in New Farm I think you would enjoy it. It is an excellent location in that it is very close to the city but not in the city. It also has an excellent shopping village there, fantastic transport options but thankfully there are no nightclubs in the area (they're in the Valley). However like a lot of suburbs some areas are a lot nicer than others.

Cheers - Gordon

 

[austini]

I would also consider Bulimba, Balmoral, Norman Park, Teneriffe

They are all near the river and not too far from the city

Agree with the suggestion of Teneriffe which is right next to New Farm and offers much the same thing. Again it would be difficult to find anything with a River view in the price range mentioned. A lot of the apartments there are located in the hertiage listed converted Woolstore buildings although there are a few more afforable apartment blocks on the riverfront.

As much as I like Bulimba unless you are coming to the city via the City Cat commuting is no where near as convenient as the likes of New Farm. Mind you most people I know there do generally come into the city for work via the City Cat.

Come to think of it another area worth looking at would be Hamilton Harbour / Portside (search Hamilton). Bit further from the city than New Farm of course but still a fairly easy commute to the city via the City Cat. It is also well serviced with shops, resturants etc. Again you might struggle to find something suitable in your price range but I haven't looked for a long time.

Cheers - Gordon

 

[WinstonWolfe]

I lived at 238 Bowen Tce in the late 90s, directly across from Wilsons Lookout.

Back then, the lookout was a popular place for drug deals. The police used to raid it at least every month.

I interrupted thieves who had climbed up 2 levels to break into apartments in our complex on 2 occasions. I saw cars being broken into in Bowen Street and Tce on at least a dozen occasions. My car was broken into 3 times when left parked in these streets. Hookers used to hang out on the corner of Brunswick St, and Kent and Harcourt Sts.

For decades gays used to use New Farm park toilets as a meet and greet, but they don't seem as conspicuous now, generally loitering around the rose gardens.

I think over the last 10 years New Farm may have cleaned up a bit. Hard to live there without having a reasonable full time job.



OTOH,

- A bloke I know bought an apartment at 81 Moray Street for 4.8M last year.

- The Powerhouse Markets are arguably the best in Bris for fresh produce and interesting eats.

- New Farm has its fair share of good restaurants...try James St.

- It is very convenient to the cbd via bike, foot, or taxi.


If you want to get a bit cheaper, try further downstream at Teneriffe or Newstead. Mirvac are currently doing a big dev't called Waterfront, Newstead. It should be good quality. I've never seen Mirvac under capitalize a site. whoops, just checked their 3s which start at 975k.

I'd agree with Austini anyway. The river can be noisy.

 

[INVSTOR]

I agree with the other posts but would add kangaroo Point if it's price range - no idea of current prices.

My granny lived on Sydney Street. It's nice but I wouldn't want to live there. More suitable for single people IMO.