Buying in North/West Melbourne

T

tone1

Looking to buy my first IP, I have about 400-450K to spend on townhouse/house, not interested in an apartment. 2+ bedrooms with as much land as I can get in that price range.

After months of searching I think that I have narrowed it down to the following suburbs: Sunshine, Albion, Caroline Springs, Hadfield or Reservoir. These all seem to have small houses or townhouses in my price range and are close to train stations or freeways to CBD.

Any suggestions on what area to go for? To me the Sunshine/Albion area seems like the best for upcoming growth, but Hadfield/Reservoir will probably benefit from those priced out of closer neighbouring suburbs and doesn't have the seediness factor currently attached to them. Caroline Springs is close to where I live and quite a nice suburb, but not well connected to the city other than by car. The layout of the roads is pretty shocking as well. Will the upcoming VLine station have much of an impact?

Thanks for any help. Any other suburbs I should consider?
 
tone1 said:
Looking to buy my first IP, I have about 400-450K to spend on townhouse/house, not interested in an apartment. 2+ bedrooms with as much land as I can get in that price range.

After months of searching I think that I have narrowed it down to the following suburbs: Sunshine, Albion, Caroline Springs, Hadfield or Reservoir. These all seem to have small houses or townhouses in my price range and are close to train stations or freeways to CBD.

Any suggestions on what area to go for? To me the Sunshine/Albion area seems like the best for upcoming growth, but Hadfield/Reservoir will probably benefit from those priced out of closer neighbouring suburbs and doesn't have the seediness factor currently attached to them. Caroline Springs is close to where I live and quite a nice suburb, but not well connected to the city other than by car. The layout of the roads is pretty shocking as well. Will the upcoming VLine station have much of an impact?

Thanks for any help. Any other suburbs I should consider?
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personally i think Reservoir is about to go BOOM,...if it hasn't already. Anything west of High street is very very expensive.

Sunshine went boom and flattened out ever since around 2011, i think it ain't too bad and its definitely developing. With your budget you may get something semi run down - but not with a big backyard.. The houses with the bigger backyards are going for 500K + (even a dump).

I don't know too much about the other two suburbs...I think you have to decide if your aim is to develop on the block or try and maintain the existing house.

If you keep on the look out you may be lucky enough to get something in Sunshine for around 450k, I know of a couple that passed in at auction that were around the 470k mark.....keep looking, something may pop up...there was also a big block with a very run down house that was on the market for 399K and the vendor said he would only accept unconditional offers - not sure if it sold for just that or not, perhaps a bit more.


Reservoir - anything with more than 450m2 on the west side of High street - good luck...if you do find something, let me know as I'm dying to get into that area to actually live. A very average 2 bedder with a good sized yard recently sold for 635k at auction - i think the rental return on that place was only around 280 or so. So imagine the holding costs on that.


Then there is the east side of high street, the further east the cheaper - you probably could just get something in the range - I've seen a few but they are apparently the no-go areas of REservoir.

Best of luck. Let us know how you go!
 
Thanks for your input!

Based off what you said, it seems like a property I'm looking at in Sunshine is a good deal. Small house on a big block, potential to build a townhouse at the rear. One negative to Sunshine is rent is dirt cheap compared my other areas of interest, not a high yield for the price paid.

I know the section of Reservoir you are talking about - in fact, it is the only part of the suburb I am familiar with, and I've noticed the $$ is definitely higher in that pocket. I think it's the Gilbert Road/Regent Street intersection that is particularly popular to live next to. Any other nice pockets in the suburb I'm likely to find something in my price range? I'm guessing the closer to Preston, the better? The suburb is huge.

I visited Hadfield for the first time this weekend. It's nice, but it had that "just another suburb feeling". Bordering popular suburbs feels like all that's going for it.
 
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East side of reservoir is not bad as long as you are close to plenty rd bundoora area. But drive around and get a feel because like people said reservoir is huge. For the cost vs yield ratio probably better to look at Preston. Better yield for 3br townhouses but will be in the $550k+ range for new ones. Older ones I have seen as low as $480k but that was 12 months ago now.

For your price range if you want ok yield 5-6% gross and good land for $450k you may have to look at new houses out in Epping. I personally believe that Epping has good fundamentals for growth. It has the infrastructure, employment and population drivers.

Other alternative is buy old and reno to increase yield.
 
What are peoples thoughts about Glenroy/Oak Park area? Seem to be able to get a 3-4 bedroom older place on >600m2 for <500k with lots of possibilities.
 
tone1 said:
Thanks for your input!

Based off what you said, it seems like a property I'm looking at in Sunshine is a good deal. Small house on a big block, potential to build a townhouse at the rear. One negative to Sunshine is rent is dirt cheap compared my other areas of interest, not a high yield for the price paid.
Click to expand...

i'm not sure which one you are looking at in sunshine - i pretty much know all of them for sale, but basically, the current rule is this:

- if you can buy a rentable house with a big enough block for development at back under 450K, then you are getting a very good deal (for the current market).

PS - make sure you are looking at Sunshine is Sunshine is Sunshine (and not getting fooled by the sunshine west and or albion properties).
 
Both Epping and sunshine have good fundamentals
Sunshine anything with a decent block is flying out the door and Epping is just growing at a rapid rate.

Good work on good choices :)
 
Thanks for the tips all.

After a weekend of inspections in Sunshine, it seems that, realistically, it might be out of my price range for something that isn't a dump. The 2 bedder with potential for a rear-unit has some very annoying easements in the middle of the block (is this common for the area? I find it very strange for a large block to be impeded in such a way). Anything 3 bedrooms or more is going for over 500K, and I saw an auction on Benjamin Street that went over 600K. It's disappointing because the area had really grown on me.

It would be ideal to land one of the smaller houses on a smaller block (400-500sqm) which perhaps could be sub-500K, but that doesn't seem to exist in Sunshine.
 
Sunshine market is going nuts of late... the thing is when you are looking at buying a home in sunshine, if the land is a good size it will fly out the window.

We are settling on our development site in Keilor east on the 10th of October... we picked it up for 510K...

Very lucky...
 
tone1 said:
Thanks for the tips all.

After a weekend of inspections in Sunshine, it seems that, realistically, it might be out of my price range for something that isn't a dump. The 2 bedder with potential for a rear-unit has some very annoying easements in the middle of the block (is this common for the area? I find it very strange for a large block to be impeded in such a way). Anything 3 bedrooms or more is going for over 500K, and I saw an auction on Benjamin Street that went over 600K. It's disappointing because the area had really grown on me.

It would be ideal to land one of the smaller houses on a smaller block (400-500sqm) which perhaps could be sub-500K, but that doesn't seem to exist in Sunshine.
Click to expand...

What are your plans for your investment? Are you going to renovate? Do you plan to sub-divide (or is the land just a nice to have for future cg?) You said that you're not looking at apartments but are you considering townhouses/units?

If you want a house with potential to add value within your budget, there are some options in Fawkner but you will need to have the money required on top of the purchase price.

e.g. http://www.lewisrealty.com.au/index...ropertyID=2632569&realestate=FAWKNER_VIC_3060
 
Chris B said:
What are your plans for your investment? Are you going to renovate? Do you plan to sub-divide (or is the land just a nice to have for future cg?) You said that you're not looking at apartments but are you considering townhouses/units?

If you want a house with potential to add value within your budget, there are some options in Fawkner but you will need to have the money required on top of the purchase price.

e.g. http://www.lewisrealty.com.au/index...ropertyID=2632569&realestate=FAWKNER_VIC_3060
Click to expand...

Plans - rent out for an indefinite period of time, maybe live in it myself in the future. I can't renovate myself beyond making "cosmetic" changes, so I figure that I'm not going to save much money between buying something that needs dramatic renovation (and paying trades to do it) and something which is already renovated. Is that misguided?

I'm trying to find something that is at the halfway point - not a bombsite, but needs some renovation and those "cosmetic" changes that I can make on a budget, and save some money on an overall basis. Here's an example of what I am talking about - http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-sunshine-117371575
 
tone1 said:
Plans - rent out for an indefinite period of time, maybe live in it myself in the future. I can't renovate myself beyond making "cosmetic" changes, so I figure that I'm not going to save much money between buying something that needs dramatic renovation (and paying trades to do it) and something which is already renovated. Is that misguided?

I'm trying to find something that is at the halfway point - not a bombsite, but needs some renovation and those "cosmetic" changes that I can make on a budget, and save some money on an overall basis. Here's an example of what I am talking about - http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-sunshine-117371575
Click to expand...

You can still add value, even if you're paying a tradie to do the work. Buyers will pay a premium for something that is ready to live in to avoid the hassle of doing it themselves. It needs to meet the requirements/expectations for the area, so make sure the work you're doing will mean you can rent it out (or sell) for significantly more money.

While the Newman St property looks ok at first glance, I think it needs a serious renovation as the floor plan is terrible. Currently it is really only a 2 bed, 1 bath but I would expect a decent builder would be able to convert it into a 3 (or 4) bed, 2 bath and you might get an extra $100-$150/wk in rent.
 
Thanks Chris - I need to pay more attention to floor plans.

I'm thinking of shifting my focus to Albion where I can get something fairly good in my price range, while hoping that Sunshine might have something for me as well, albeit in need of renovations.

Do you have an opinion on Hadfield/Fawkner/Reservoir? This line of suburbs also seems to have options under 500K without the stigma of the Sunshine/Albion area.
 
tone1 said:
Thanks Chris - I need to pay more attention to floor plans.

I'm thinking of shifting my focus to Albion where I can get something fairly good in my price range, while hoping that Sunshine might have something for me as well, albeit in need of renovations.

Do you have an opinion on Hadfield/Fawkner/Reservoir? This line of suburbs also seems to have options under 500K without the stigma of the Sunshine/Albion area.
Click to expand...

Different floor plans suit different people but if it can be a constant headache if it doesn't make practical sense.

I am surprised agents advertise a floor plan for properties like this one, when it is likely to put buyers off. There are lots of things people will notice in a floor plan they might not pick up/remember from inspecting.

The list of suburbs where sub $500k homes still exist is getting smaller and further from the CBD.
I quite like parts of Reservoir & Fawkner, provided you can get something walkable to a train station.
 
tone1 said:
Thanks for the tips all.

After a weekend of inspections in Sunshine, it seems that, realistically, it might be out of my price range for something that isn't a dump. The 2 bedder with potential for a rear-unit has some very annoying easements in the middle of the block (is this common for the area? I find it very strange for a large block to be impeded in such a way). Anything 3 bedrooms or more is going for over 500K, and I saw an auction on Benjamin Street that went over 600K. It's disappointing because the area had really grown on me.

It would be ideal to land one of the smaller houses on a smaller block (400-500sqm) which perhaps could be sub-500K, but that doesn't seem to exist in Sunshine.
Click to expand...

I came across a property on Duke St Sunshine a while back. It had an easement in the middle. Didnt sell for a while and then the vendor got it removed. The selling agent was Mario from Douglas Kay RE.
 
 
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