First house in Sydney to live in

[Weird]

Reading Jan's book has me finally interested in property - and starting to consider buying a first home in Sydney to live in, in the next 2 years - particularly now where we are in our life, of a stable married couple, hoping to expand our little nest soon.

We only moved to Sydney 10 years ago, so only have limited ideas of other suburbs, simply based on friends and suburbs we have rented in.

Anyhow enough ranting, I know little about property, or what resources are good either for finding this type of information, except for this website which I heard mentioned by a mate, and also reading the book.

I am hoping to hear suggestions of suburbs for the following, and will be much appreciative, looking at -

3 bedroom, free standing house, with good public transport to the center of Sydney, in a low crime area (relative safety for wife and kids), around the 600K mark or less

My work is in IT, so good access to the northern parts of Sydney would be ideal, even if I have to drive. However the better half would most likely always work in the city, so good transport is important.

Sorry for the war n peace, interested in ideas of suburbs, or perhaps some good resources to further research suburbs.

Thanks.

 

[jimmyjim]

Have a look at Inner West Sydney. If you buy well you can get a 3 bedroom freestanding house with a yard for around the $600,000. Id look at 'family' suburbs like - Annandale, Lillyfield, Leichhardt. There are plenty of very nice areas in these suburbs with access to the city, schools and northern sydney.

Good Luck

 

[BV]

weird

How about something around North Ryde?

For my first home, I'd buy a unit or townhouse/villa
or if I wanted to spend more I'd go for a fixer upper but I don't know how handy you are with tools and if you want to do this.

Looking at prices it's hard to imagine that they'll climb any higher so don't overspend.

Considering the economic times we live in and the fact that your other half could stop working when you have kids I'd go for a smaller mortgage.
Having a smaller mortgage allows you to pay it down quicker and you shouldn't have a problem managing on 1 wage.

http://www.domain.com.au/Public/Sea...400000&to=600000&searchterm=north Ryde&page=2

cheers

 

[klublok]

Baulkham Hills, Winston Hills and the older parts of Castle Hill?

 

[stumunro]

Something around West Ryde / Denistone / Eastwood / Denistone East
is around the right price for the northern districts.

Otherwise you could afford a fibro fix upper in North Ryde,
or nice townhouse in Macquarie Park / Marsfield.

Around Hornsby you can get a dated house, in Wahroonga a fix upper on the West Side of Pennant Hills Rd / Pacific Hwy intersection.
Townhouses in some parts of Pennant Hills W/Pennant Hills, Cherrybrook, and so forth throughout the Hills district.

You could go with a unit on the Northern Beaches, and Artarmon areas.

A fair few options, but the hard thing about your price range is that you can afford fixer upper stuff in ok areas, but you can also feel tempted to keep stretching the budget to get the better stuff.

 

[Weird]

Thank you for all the suggestions. Quite a few suburbs to look at

 

[Learnings]

Cant offer any suggestions unfortunetly but what I do down here in Melb is simply open up google maps and start finding suburbs in 'good' areas. Eg follow the trainlines, look at surrounding suburbs.

Google maps has all the answers, then you can pump suburbs into RE websites to get median prices to give an idea of whats worth what in that area.

Good luck

 

[Jacque]

Sub $600K price brackets are currently moving upwards, due to FHB activity so you might want to consider moving a little quicker at the moment.

Agree with others- all depends on how fussy you are and how much work you're prepared to put in to improve when it comes to freestanding houses.

Public transport is the hitch but if you're happy to use buses in some suburbs rather than trains then consider the Hills and Hornsby LGA's. Loads of stock but you do need to conduct research and find out what area suits you best.

My picks- Ryde (older, likely to be on busier rds, needing reno etc) Hornsby (check out Hornsby, Westleigh, Asquith, Thornleigh) Hills (Baulkham Hills, Castle Hill, Cherrybrook, Winston Hills, Northmead, North Rocks) on the North and Northwest side. Can't comment on south and inner west.
Good luck.

 

[Dimmy]

I would agree that North Ryde would be a great suburb to look in, transport is great with plenty of buses in the area and the new rail link to Chatswood. Other than that, I would imagine most inner west suburbs up to around Strathfield would be pretty good within that price range and you would still have the front/back yard as well.

 

[pommie]

Hi Dimmy,

Have you considered a suburb in Sutherlandshire?

I'm in an identical situation as you (i posted a similar question not so long back).

Same budget, requirements etc

I did a fair amount of research into a few suburbs and shortlisted Cherrybrook and Oyster Bay.

I'm now just waiting for the right one.

I compiled some info on the two mentioned suburbs, if you want a copy just PM me.