Moorooka/ Salisbury QLD

[enomis]

Just thought I'd quickly introduce myself to start off:
My husband and me are first home buyers, planning on buying a PPOR and living in it to pay a good deal of it off and getting the first home owners grant then turning it into an IP. At the moment we're looking to spend about 400k (hopefully a bit less) we've got about 72k saved as a deposit and have been pre approved for $550 k Certainly not planning on spending all that!

Unfortunately we've got some personal criteria we need to take into account when looking- want to be within about 10km or so of Herston where I work- nurse, crazy hours, couldn't handle travelling much more than that but don't want to leave that job as I love it!

We've been looking mainly around the south side of Brisbane and have sort of narrowed in on Moorooka:

Positives:
-train line
-good bus services
-supermarket and shopping strip in suburb
-close to Ipswich motorway - about 10min drive to Pacific motorway
-less than 10kms to CBD
-lots of parks, schools in suburb
-close proximity to PA hospital (pity I don't work there but they don't do my speciality)
-surrounded by Annerley/ Tarragindi both suburbs which have higher house prices than Moorooka so that might mean Moorooka could be on the way up too?
-close proximity to Green Bridge (about 3km- good for Uni of Qld students)

Negatives
-Ipswich Rd can be a nightmare at the moment because of all that construction- hopefully that's temporary though
-Area around train station dodgy- adult shop, still some car yards left on Ipswich Rd

The other problem with Moorooka is that most places are just out of what we'd like to spend. We were also looking at Salisbury the next suburb out which seems to be ok but a bit isolated- it's sort of hard to get into by car for a start (if you miss the one little road leading into it you're not going to be able to get into it!) and there are no supermarkets or anything there, the little 'shopping centre' they have is just a couple of small shops. It is however close to Griffith Uni and Garden City mall is a few km's away. Prices are much cheaper there but I'm not sure about the growth potential of the suburb.

Any comments about any of these would be much appreciated. Also, if I've missed something glaringly obvious that would be great if you could point it out. If you can think of any other suburbs about 10km from Herston that would be great too, we're not that keen on going too far out on the north side though.

Thanks and sorry for the long post!

 

[sue78]

It's ok but I wouldn't buy there for ppor when there are much nicer surrounding suburbs, nice and leafy and quite
and nicer houses.

Runcorn, Kuraby, 8 mile plains, sunnybank hills, springwood, rochedale, springwood are all just the next exit away on the pacific highway...lots of shops, convenience to bus and train. Much nicer neighbourhood for famillies with kids and better schools.

 

[wylie]

I have sent a PM.

 

[kaf]

Enomis - sorry this might be a silly question but why are you not looking into Northside if you need to get to Herston? You go nuts if you ever have to drive to work... I do like Moorooka but more as an IP place rather than living there, especially if you need to get the train at odd hours.

kaf

 

[khangu]

Moorooka seemed to have developed a bad rep lately. It was in the papers as a suburb with high crime and high graffiti.

I drive through there sometimes and didn't think it was that bad.

Personally, I'd go Salisbury, and try to go as far East as I can towards QEII. It's easier to hop onto Kessells and then the SE freeway than fight through Ipswich Rd.

But I do agree with Kaf. Look for a place on the Northside. Fighting through city traffic to/from work everyday will get silly after a while. Living on the Northside, you will avoid all this.

 

[willair]

We've been looking mainly around the south side of Brisbane and have sort of narrowed in on Moorooka:

Positives:
-train line
-good bus services
-supermarket and shopping strip in suburb
-close to Ipswich motorway - about 10min drive to Pacific motorway
-less than 10kms to CBD
-lots of parks, schools in suburb
-close proximity to PA hospital (pity I don't work there but they don't do my speciality)
-surrounded by Annerley/ Tarragindi both suburbs which have higher house prices than Moorooka so that might mean Moorooka could be on the way up too?
-close proximity to Green Bridge (about 3km- good for Uni of Qld students)

Negatives
-Ipswich Rd can be a nightmare at the moment because of all that construction- hopefully that's temporary though
-Area around train station dodgy- adult shop, still some car yards left on Ipswich Rd


Thanks and sorry for the long post!

Enomis,with 550k then why not target Tarragindi,there is still several older style post war splitters in that area,Moorooka has changed over the years and with all the development on the Railway -Ipswich Rd and like you say around the railway station is is a bit wild,with the adult shop car yards,out law MC headquarters,massage shop-hydro shops but that only one part,the Tarragindi side which we have a ip in has been going up
13% from 1989 ,also have a couple in Rocklea that have done very well
from 1998 onwards that small inner area have done very well over the years..imho..willair..

 

[enomis]

Thanks for the replies. We have been mainly looking at the south side as we know it well and everything not work related ie. friends, social events that we have is on the south side. We did look a little bit around Stafford area on the north side (we didn't want to go too much further out then there) and there were some houses that looked okay, but neither of us really knew the area well enough to really get into looking on the north side. Probably not the greatest reasons for choosing an area for a PPOR I know!

We did have a look around Sunnybank and a friend of ours recently bought in Runcorn so we did consider those areas but they are just too far from work for me (should mention I ride a 50cc scooter to work so can't take the motorway!)

willair- We got approved for $550k but I doubt we could keep up the repayments if we were to actually borrow that amount. Looking at around the $400k mark and borrowing about $310-320 of that is a lot more realistic for what we can afford. I agree with you about the Tarragindi side of Moorooka (the area close to Beaudesert Rd) it's much nicer than the area closer to the train station along Ipswich Rd.

Thanks, any more comments welcomed

 

[khangu]

Sudanese in Moorooka.

That seems to be a recent phenomena. The growth of Sudanese migrants have seemed to have really taken off in the past 2-3 years. I think they have all moved on from Annerley.

Personally, with that budget, I would aim for Holland Park/West, or Tarragindi.

There are budget places around if you don't mind getting your hands dirty and do some light renovating work.

 

[grubar30]

Moorooka seemed to have developed a bad rep lately. It was in the papers as a suburb with high crime and high graffiti.

That's what happens when you open the immigration floodgates and let anyone in.

I use to live and work there.

The suburb had potential when it came under the Brisbane City Council 'City-Plan' radar some 3-4 years ago...you know, that whole concept of lets re-vitalise, re-zone and re-beautify this old, crappy, tired Brissy suburb into something nice, fresh and wanky and crappy

Didn’t happen that way they wanted it though…..

Old, asbestos 809m2 blocks turned into LMR (good)

Dumping droves of job-less immigrants (bad)


To be honest, the whole re-vitalisation thing hasn’t gone anywhere.....sure, they re-zoned and let the developers do their thing, but they can only take it so far....look at the High Street (i.e. Beaudesert Road) - it looks bloody aweful.....tired, old and still stuck in the 1970s....they need to call in the Dean brothers and demolish everything and start over....the only sign of progress was the old ANZ bank turned Moorooka pub – but that’s 5 years gone now….and what’s happened since?

Oh sorry, that’s right -> Captain Bligh and time-to-step-up Newman are too busy getting us into debt with “high-profile” bridges and tunnels to worry about that whole Local Plan thing....pump, dump and run…..that’s all it was

 

[khangu]

The suburb had potential when it came under the Brisbane City Council 'City-Plan' radar some 3-4 years ago...you know, that whole concept of lets re-vitalise, re-zone and re-beautify this old, crappy, tired Brissy suburb into something nice, fresh and wanky and crappy

I thought the opening of The Willow (local 'upmarket' bar/restaurant) was the start of something good in that area. We used to drop by for lunch and a beer, but it seemed that the revitalization started with the Urban Renewal of the streetscape there and ended with The Willow development.

My suggestion is that the Woolies with the flooded carpark need to be demolished and rebuilt. It's a dodgy area at the moment with the entry/access being what they are. I'm always looking over my shoulders when walking to the 'front' door.

Things have gone a bit backwards now.

It's a bit of a shame, because it could be a great local hub for the community.

Brisbane's Urban Renewal programs don't have much of a track record though. Admittedly, the areas do improve initially, but the business and community aspects of these areas don't improve in the long run and do eventually go back to what they were before all the money was spent in improving them.

Can anyone name one Urban Renewal area that survived and thrive 3-4-5 years later? I can't. Having said that, I commend the Brisbane City Council for trying. It's money that's better spent than many other projects of theirs.

 

[kaf]

Brisbane's Urban Renewal programs don't have much of a track record though. Admittedly, the areas do improve initially, but the business and community aspects of these areas don't improve in the long run and do eventually go back to what they were before all the money was spent in improving them.

Can anyone name one Urban Renewal area that survived and thrive 3-4-5 years later? I can't. Having said that, I commend the Brisbane City Council for trying. It's money that's better spent than many other projects of theirs.

Really?? Didn't Newfarm, Newstead, the Valley, Westend, Bulimba & South Brisbane have Urban Renewal projects at some of their core? Those areas have improved hugely in the last 5-10 years.

kaf

 

[khangu]

Really?? Didn't Newfarm, Newstead, the Valley, Westend, Bulimba & South Brisbane have Urban Renewal projects at some of their core? Those areas have improved hugely in the last 5-10 years.
kaf

Let me be more specific.

The Urban Renewal projects I'm talking about are the SCIPs projects, where older existing urban commercial centres/streets that have become run-down and delipidated are 'renovated' with new pavements, plantings, street furniture etc to make them look better and are more pedestrian friendly. This is to attract both businesses and customers back into areas that have been neglected.

Most of these projects are concentrated on those roadside shopping strips that run alongside busy roads. If you live in a suburb with one of these streets, you can nominate them to BCC and they'll look at working it into their SCIPs program.

New Farm and West End are not really SCIPS projects. They were neglected, but they were always busy and there was constant private investments in those areas that they pretty much look after themselves, helped by the process of gentrification.

Newstead and the Valley also came up through gentrification. Vast areas of industrial lands were re-zoned to allow for mix-used developments with higher residential density.

I agree that Oxford St in Bulimba works well. It's probably due to the cinema and the cafe culture of the middle class there.

But other areas where the SCIPs has been tried have not really succeeded as much. Off the top of my head, there's one on Old Cleveland Road at Carina, Logan Rd at Mt Gravatt, Sandgate Rd at Nundah, Moggill Rd Taringa, LaTrobe Tce at Paddington, and of course Beaudesert Rd at Moorooka, etc.

There are heaps of other locations where it's been done, and the successful ones tends to be in richer suburbs with a cafe culture, coupled with a new shopping centre to help them along.

Simply renewing the streets alone won't improve an area.

 

[kaf]

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I think Taringa (I live nearby) will work once they've built the little shopping centre. At the moment there isn't enough of a critical mass / shops I need for me to want to stop and find a park. Plus Moggill Rd is a bit of a raceway so stopping can be quite difficult. It does look nice up there though and not a lot of commercial vacancies so business must be ok.

Cheers

kaf

 

[grubar30]

Nice post Khangu.

A shining example of when it works right is definately Oxford St, Bulimba.....

...then again, if people only knew that running parrallel to their beloved Oxford St is cancer-causing Brisbane St, then they might think differently (Google Street View it)....out of sight out of mind I guess.


Add Stones Corner to your seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time list.


As for Nundah ---> it'll never be what they want it to be.....a CES office next to a train station has to be the most scariest combo since Liza Minelli married David Guest.

 

[wylie]

Interestingly, Stones Corner used to be a busy place and then it slowly died with the advent of shopping centres. Ten or so (?) years ago the outlets all set up there and it was again a fantastic place to get a bargain, and was quite a thriving strip.

According to the retailers, many of which have now closed again, the opening of the DFO was the deathnell. Pity for all those retailers, but shows you that just because a precinct is thriving one day, it may lose favour the next.

And regarding Oxford Street.... we lived up the hill from there when it was still just a little shopping strip. I know the couple who bought the fish and chip shop on the corner near the pub and who opened the Cinema Cafe and then slowly but surely it became what it is now.

To be honest, I think it has lost the "village" feel and there are way too many yuppies there for my liking. When we lived there we could park right outside the hot bread shop and buy our afternoon tea on the way home from school. Now you have to park a long way away. So with the gentrification comes a big dose of "wish it had stayed the same".

You have to dress up now to get your bread and milk .

 

[grubar30]

Hi Wylie,

Funny enough, the best bits about Oxford St are the places that were there from the very start ---> Pizza joint (across from the park), cinemas, cafe here and there and the Pub.....all the rest is very over-priced finger food.....and how busy does it get sat arvos and sundays?....you wouldn't go there actually - too busy it ruins the experience.

I grew up at Woolloongabba and what you say about Stones Corner brings back memories....in 80s and esp. 90's it was really thriving....

Interesting about DFO.....then again, DFO is the shopping centre killer - Toombul anyone?....that place is a shadow of its former self....

 

[willair]

Things have gone a bit backwards now.

It's a bit of a shame, because it could be a great local hub for the community.


Can anyone name one Urban Renewal area that survived and thrive 3-4-5 years later? I can't. Having said that, I commend the Brisbane City Council for trying. It's money that's better spent than many other projects of theirs.

I would say Moorooka, most of the shops have tenants it has worked out well for all the new O-S people they have their own businesses,and you still have a mix of Australian shops,just depends which way you look at things,the bottom line is over time anyone who has held comm property in Moorooka would have done very well,the person i know who has a small comm 2 floor walk-up for over 15 years and never once had any of the offices vacant,as for stones corner it comes back stronger each time,when the high rise starts just up the road all those people have to shop somewhere..imho..willair..

 

[khangu]

cancer-causing Brisbane St

Due to the major powerlines I assume?

As for Nundah ---> it'll never be what they want it to be.....a CES office next to a train station has to be the most scariest combo since Liza Minelli married David Guest.

Heh, I used to go to Nundah a lot in the late 80s/early 90s. There was a great second hand bookshop there that I hung out in my school days.

I'm surprised that the CES office is still there. It was a dodgy area back then, I assumed it has improved by now?

Interestingly, Stones Corner used to be a busy place and then it slowly died with the advent of shopping centres.

According to the retailers, many of which have now closed again, the opening of the DFO was the deathnell.

The DFOs are definitely the cause. It's unfortunate though. I did shop there quite often when the outlets were there.

Stones Corner is still doing OK now though, but it's best days have certainly passed by.

Interesting about DFO.....then again, DFO is the shopping centre killer - Toombul anyone?....that place is a shadow of its former self....

Toombul died a long time before DFO.

Their problem was that the owners just didn't maintain the place or invest in it.

All the major shopping centres such as Indooroopilly, and the Westfields centres such as Carindale, Garden City, Chermside etc spent millions upgrading and renovation & expanding to attract customers, and they succeeded.

That's what Centro need to do to Toombul. Toombul has a great location, on a major road, next to a train station. There is no reason why they can't as big and as busy as the other major centres.

I would say Moorooka, most of the shops have tenants it has worked out well for all the new O-S people they have their own businesses.

The problem is that there are people just loitering around the area all day. It just seem ghetto because of this. It's not crowded because of business activity.