[help needed] 1st home in Sydney for under 330k.

[skater]

Hi

If you lived in Sydney you would realise why the Bradbury house is so cheap. If you remember the trouble in McQuarie Fields, its only a stones throw away.

Not the most desirable part of Sydney and long way from the CBD. Commuting by car to CBD/ North Sydney minimum of 90 minutes each way.

I think Jacques picks for the money are very good. Guildford/Merrylands/Granville etc are in your price range but a last resort.

Bradbury is quite a way from Macquarie Fields. Bradbury is an older, very nice suburb of Campbelltown with mainly 3/4 bedroom homes on the Southern side, whereas Macquarie Fields is to the North & has a lot of Housing Commission townhouses. By car, they would be about 10 minutes apart.

If travelling by train, then it would take around an hour to get to the CBD from Campbelltown.

 

[skater]

Having a quick scan of REA.com (without knowledge of Sydney), it looks as though that place may rent for $300-320pw? 7%+ yield, nice!

Where's Skater when you need her!?

LOL! I'm here! Bradbury isn't really Western Sydney, it's a suburb of Campbelltown. An older nice one. We have a couple in one of the next suburbs & have always had lovely tenants. The rents have been quite good too. I seem to always be putting mine up.

Without looking at it, it could be a bit ambitious for $300-320. My best one in the area is about the same age as that one & gets $300, but it has more features.

 

[evand]

10 minutes by car between suburbs is a stones throw imo. When i had my business I worked for years around the Campbelltown suburbs installing networking into the schools. (you can tell a lot about a suburbs' demographics by looking at the school kids and the parents picking them up) and Bradbury was little different to other low income, high welfare Campbelltown suburbs.

I stated 90 minutes by car as Jacques post before mine referred to travelling to the city by car.

Bradbury is quite a way from Macquarie Fields. Bradbury is an older, very nice suburb of Campbelltown with mainly 3/4 bedroom homes on the Southern side, whereas Macquarie Fields is to the North & has a lot of Housing Commission townhouses. By car, they would be about 10 minutes apart.

If travelling by train, then it would take around an hour to get to the CBD from Campbelltown.

 

[Rizwan]

I reckon you should have a look at ingleburn somewhere close to the station . It is considered the second CBD after campeltown and has all the major shops, banks etc. Would be a good IP in the future as well with a huge industrial centre on the other side of the station. Also there is hardly any housing commission in Ingleburn.

The train service to the city is pretty good during peak times you can get to the city in 45 minutes by train using the east hills line, and you will find that it takes the same time travelling from merrylands or guildford or doonside. I woulnt consider driving to the city during peak however off-peak you can still get to the city in 45-50 minutes by M5.

 

[skater]

10 minutes by car between suburbs is a stones throw imo. When i had my business I worked for years around the Campbelltown suburbs installing networking into the schools. (you can tell a lot about a suburbs' demographics by looking at the school kids and the parents picking them up) and Bradbury was little different to other low income, high welfare Campbelltown suburbs.

I stated 90 minutes by car as Jacques post before mine referred to travelling to the city by car.

I lived in Campbelltown for 5 years. Bradbury IS nice. Minto, Macquarie Fields, Airds & Claymore, however are not. Maybe you got a suburb mixed up or maybe the parents picking up their kids from school were parents from Airds that had enrolled their kids at a different school.

Bradbury has quite a nice leafy feel to it.

 

[Jacque]

I'd suggest the QH listing that's been on for a while has more to do with the fact that it's in a larger complex (12) and backs onto open reserve, which not everybody likes, due to concerns with security.
However, given that no 1 sold for $260K last year I would at least consider it. It's well priced for this "better" side of QH and is a far nicer area than around the station. There's a plethora of cheap stock near QH station and you'll see why if you go for a reccie drive yourself- also more HC stock that side of town. I'd stick to the north side of Quakers Hill Parkway, though you will have further to walk to the station, if this is important to you.

 

[Highlygeared]

$340K gives you a few options - I'd look at a townhouse rather than house/land in the best suburb I can afford. Mind you this is keeping the issue of PPOR vs IP separate ie I may prefer to buy a fibro house on land in say, Seven Hills, as an IP but I might not want to raise my family there.

There are a number of suburbs like Baulkham Hills, Cherrybrook, Stanhope Gardens where you might be able to snare a 3 bed duplex/townhome asking under $400K. In this market, try bargaining down to early-mid $300s, you might just get lucky.

I'd forget the dodgier suburbs eg Guildford etc. I wouldnt invest there let alone live there. They may come good but life's too short. If it were me with $340K, I'd buy an IP and rent (lock in as long as possible) in a better suburb.