Is Bendigo still promising?

[AHwee]

I remember 2 to 3 years ago, Bendigo was highly regarded as a good place to invest in properties, not just in Victoria, but on national scale.

Fast forward now, prices of properties here have continued to increase but it seems that investors are less optimistic about this city. It takes longer to sell a house now. Vacancy rate of houses has increased till 3.5% Or more?? I have a house there and after 2 rounds of rent reduction and two months of marketing, it is still empty. I talked to a builder friend recently and he mentioned that he stopped building new houses because "it can't sell". He has become a renovator since. Indeed, looking at the huge supply (thousands) of new houses in eaglehawk, Epsom and maiden gully, one can't help but feel it will take a long time for this city to absorb all these new supply of houses.

People have been raving about the impact of the new hospital. But will it really make Bendigo "boom"?

I am a bit skeptical, yet I like this little city. I have several properties here and I hope to still buy a few more properties here down the road. But it does saddens me that this city is losing its shine...

 

[brisbane 04]

Hi, I would like to think its still promising as I've got all my properties here. You're right about the vacancy rate though it did take a little while for a few rental properties to let out. If I can help out at all please let me know.
Cheers Martin

 

[AHwee]

Dear Brisbane

Thanks for your offer.

The agents I use are pretty good. I do not want to fault them. I think it is more of market conditions, which at present favor renters than landlord. Gone are the less than 1% vacancy rate days.

I do think positive of Bendigo. I am trying to buy subdivable land near the hospital and hopefully, sell them for a profit in 3 to 5 years time. Alternatively, I am also aiming to buy lousy houses on smaller areas but near to CBD, renovate them then sell away.

I hope this is the right strategy.

 

[brisbane 04]

Hi,
Couldn't agree more with what you're doing for this is what I'm doing. I have renovated 3 properties near the hospital and have 2 rented out and I sold the other one. One of them I hope to subdivide in the future. Is it the right strategy who knows only time will tell.

 

[AHwee]

Yeh, logically speaking, to dump in $660 million into a regional city like Bendigo is huge money. If this does not stimulate the local housing market, then something is seriously wrong. Either the hospital cannot attract patients or can't get nurses or doctors to treat the patients such that no one wants to come here? I think that's going to be highly unlikely. The government, more than anyone else would not want this to happen. So Mr Brisbane, greater likelihood is that 3 to 5 years from now, we would rave about how we could have bought more properties in Bendigo then, haha!

But of course, anything can happen along the road - more of a national or international level that resulted in depressed property prices in Bendigo . No one knows.

But if everything remain constant, Bendigo should do well in my opinion.