My son -where to buy for his uni

[virgo]

Hiya

My son has just received an offer to do his Medicine degree at Uni of Queensland (St Lucia) campus.

His degree will take him 7 years (poor thing)

I am thinking of buying a little house for him instead of paying rent...he can then sublet and learn a lot of things hopefully ....

Where would you suggest? Train line proximity, safe neighbourhood, budget 350-450K ...good prospects...

Thanks so much !

 

[Xenia IM]

no idea about QLD suburbs but congrats on the acceptance to medical school.
wonderful news

 

[thatbum]

I am thinking of buying a little house for him instead of paying rent...he can then sublet and learn a lot of things hopefully ....

Are you sure that's what he wants to do/best for him?

I have to say, I learnt a lot more when I was a uni student by 'drifting' around a bit between various types of share accommodation as a renter. Including some stints in on-campus accommodation.

A lot cheaper too.

 

[Joostoz]

My parents did the same for me when I was at uni. It was a hard learning experience and I lost one of my best friends due to being his landlord...

Having said that, they still own the apartment 17 years later and are happy they kept it.

More to the point, have a look at the Central Park development in Indooroopilly, if you want to buy off the plan. It's very conveniently located next to the train station, and bike riding distance to UQ.

There's some other units around Lambert road for sale at the moment as well which may be worth looking into.

Good luck!

 

[MsAli]

Hiya

My son has just received an offer to do his Medicine degree at Uni of Queensland (St Lucia) campus.

!

Oh Cool. Congratulations!

I have a 2nd cousin from US moving for the same this semester!

 

[Nattl3s]

Ah UQ .. my Alma Mater... congrats to your son.
The med school is in Herston - though he may have classes at the St Lucia campus initially. Kelvin Grove has a nice inner city,uni student, trendy young professional vibe, herston is a pricy suburb with mostly houses, New Farm Newstead and the Valley are options for apartments .. Depends on your budget.

 

[Jamie M]

Hiya

I am thinking of buying a little house for him instead of paying rent...he can then sublet and learn a lot of things hopefully ....

Hiya

If it were me - I wouldn't buy him anything. He'd probably learn a lot more going out on his own and sourcing his own place.

Finding your first rental and dealing with housemates is character building

Cheers

Jamie

 

[kathryn d]

Hiya

My son has just received an offer to do his Medicine degree at Uni of Queensland (St Lucia) campus.

His degree will take him 7 years (poor thing)

I am thinking of buying a little house for him instead of paying rent...he can then sublet and learn a lot of things hopefully ....

Where would you suggest? Train line proximity, safe neighbourhood, budget 350-450K ...good prospects...

Thanks so much !

That's a great idea.

 

[neK]

Hiya

If it were me - I wouldn't buy him anything. He'd probably learn a lot more going out on his own and sourcing his own place.

Finding your first rental and dealing with housemates is character building

Cheers

Jamie

I'm with Jamie here.

You don't learn anything by getting spoon fed.

Your intentions are good, but what will happen to your son in the long term?

 

[vbplease]

I think in the long term he'll be earning an attractive salary and most likely instilled a hard work ethic knowing sacrifice from completing a 7year medicine degree.. No point in compromising his studies by working a part time job so he can experience paying rent and eating 2min noodles..

More on topic, I'd vote unit over house in this case. A house would require maintenance which he doesn't have time for.. And in that price bracket would be a long way from UQ... Which isn't on the train line anyway. I'd be looking at a 60's unit in taringa/indro or over the river at dutton park/stones corner. 10min bike ride

 

[Angel]

My boys go to uni, Ryan just said bus no 66 goes directly through a bus tunnel (some of the way) from St Lucia to the RBWH hospital, stopping at Toowong Station. It is fast and every 15 minutes. The best help a parent can give their kids in Brisbane is accommodation on a transport route as there are no train lines anywhere close to any of the campuses except Toowong Station.

I agree with VB, if you can get a unit near either campus it will be a little gold mine for you and make life better for your son. The medical students have to work a million hours a week at the hospital so I don't know how they can possibly hold any paying job.

I have looked into buying a unit at Kelvin Grove urban village but the BC prices were off-putting. I don't know anything about any real estate near a campus these days.

 

[hugh72]

Agree with vbplease 7years hard study ahead and worrying about share house renting and a part time job are just distractions and might get in the way. I remember first year at uni had quite a high drop out rate for one reason or another

 

[thatbum]

Hiya

If it were me - I wouldn't buy him anything. He'd probably learn a lot more going out on his own and sourcing his own place.

Finding your first rental and dealing with housemates is character building

Cheers

Jamie

I completely agree with this, as someone who mostly fended for myself during my uni years.

Ha I might be a slightly bad example because I ended up taking a bit longer to finish my degrees, but I actually regret nothing because I learned so many other real world skills along the way.

 

[wylie]

Ah UQ .. my Alma Mater... congrats to your son.
The med school is in Herston - though he may have classes at the St Lucia campus initially. Kelvin Grove has a nice inner city,uni student, trendy young professional vibe, herston is a pricy suburb with mostly houses, New Farm Newstead and the Valley are options for apartments .. Depends on your budget.

Well done to your son. We have a friend whose son is three years into a medical degree (straight into medicine - no other degree first). I learned only recently that most of his time was spent at RBH Herston, so buying near UQ probably is not the best idea. Certainly check this carefully before choosing where you buy.

He is heading out of Brisbane this week to a regional hospital, so it is entirely possible your son may only need accommodation help for a couple of years in Brisbane.

Agree with vbplease 7years hard study ahead and worrying about share house renting and a part time job are just distractions and might get in the way. I remember first year at uni had quite a high drop out rate for one reason or another

I know the young man we know doesn't have time for a job and studies so hard and puts such long hours in that he is lucky his parents support him. I've never thought it a great idea to hand kids things on a platter, but I've seen how this chap has to study to get through this course, and if you can buy a house or unit and have him sublet it to help pay it off (I'm guessing it will not be in his name, but in yours), then I think that is a great help for him.

 

[perthguy]

When I was at uni I shared a house with 2 kids whose parents bought a house for them to live in while they were at uni. They certainly didn't take it for granted and really looked after the place. I think they paid a nominal rent too. The parents certainly did well out of it. They rented the place out after the kids finished uni and sold it for a nice profit a few years after that. Worked out well for the parents and the kids had somewhere to live without wasting too much on rent. It meant they spent more time studying instead of having to try to work and study. I know their marks were a lot better than mine but YMMV.

 

[Mooze]

I worked my way through uni on a heavy study load - no centrelink and family all overseas.

Having said that I did commerce - watching my sister do Med school I'd be giving your son every bit of help possible. Commerce or just about anything else, not so much, but the work load with Med makes it very very difficult to pass and hold down a part time job.

 

[Scott No Mates]

A mate did the same for their daughter - bought in Melb CBD. Kid lasted less than a year as the uni wasn't living up to her expectations.

Good little renter - so don't buy in the kid's name, keep it yourself and use him as the live-in manager.

 

[MRO]

Anyone who can stick out a 7 year degree and do well at it has certainly learnt a lesson in working hard to get what you want.

 

[Bran]

Sorry to the OP, I've been unable to post my reply due to a somersoft tech bug.

Congratulations to your son, but he doesn't know what he is in for and I can briefly convey my experience.

By all means help, but I would suggest he not be tied down with commitments. Furthermore, with the upfront payment of university fees attracting a significant discount (25% from memory when I went through), is this perhaps more helpful?

With regards to your sons placements, he has little power and no capacity to predict where he will go. I was also at UQ, where the first couple of years lectures were based. In my first year however, i was also sent to Bundaberg and Goondoowindi. After that, I went to Toowoomba, Logan, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Quilpie and Amsterdam!

Furthermore, after medical school the travel really begins - I've lived/worked in Cairns, Ipswich, Logan, Gold Coast, Southside Brisbane, Melbourne and England.

As a student, I always worked a job, but had little capacity to increase earnings, moved out and back in to home multiple times, and could not service a $19000 loan without undue stress.

The other consideration is the opportunity cost of him having a fixed abode - the placements outside of Brisbane were amongst the most rewarding and served me on a rapid path to training, specialisation and subspecialisation. i would not have chosen any of these peripheral posts, but was grateful in retrospect - had I good reason to stay (like my own house), I would have fought to stay in central Brisbane, and this would have been a mistake.

By all means buy the house, and let him pay rent to you. But in my opinion, allow him to be competely mobile and discourage him from borrowing of any form.

His investment from here on in needs to be in his career - what is he going to specialise in, he needs to think about it. He needs to start research in that field, submitting abstracts, writing papers, studying. THe process is only getting more and more competitive. Surgical training for example, is hardly accessible without multiple publications, and subspecialty training hardly accessible without a phD.

Good luck to you both. Hope that provides some help with the big picture.

(PS Medical school was the greatest time of my life, let him enjoy it).


B.

 

[superAndrew]

Where would you suggest? Train line proximity, safe neighbourhood, budget 350-450K ...good prospects...

It's nearly impossible to get a house in St Lucia and surrounding suburbs for that price.

If you want to buy a house for that budget you will probably need to go towards Kenmore.

If you do end up buying him a property, I would recommend a 2 bedroom unit in St Lucia. He can use one room for himself and the other he can rent out. There is always demand from students in St Lucia.

Other suburbs that are good are Toowong, Taringa (which is right next to St Lucia and has lower prices) and Indooroopilly.

Cheer
Andrew