The estate you are refering to in Dubbo is the Gordon estate. They sold some homes to owner occupiers, bull dozed some, and rejuvenated some areas.
The houses were selling for 55k-60k.....they are now worth about 130-140k. This has happened over a 5-6 year period.
I have bought a Dept of Housing (DOH) properties...but I like to buy only in areas without these silly caveats as they keep values and the area down as FHB are too afraid to buy in.
The DOH people should let the private investors sort things out. I know a couple towns with populations of 50k-70k people and the DOH is selling about 70-100 properties in these town without affecting the property prices in these towns.
What I see with these towns is that DOH is replacing these homes with units and townhouses instead of houses. And in some cases just giving a subsidy for for people to rent.
Personally, the DOH noddys would be better off giving private landlords and incentive to sub let to the DOH. This way they don't need to maintain things and the private landlords will not put up with any crap. Me thinks this is the solution to the housing crisis.
The incentives could be things like reduced stamp duty, land tax, water rates, etc. ...much more cost effective than building and mismanaging Housing like they are today and the cost of paying ridiculous rates for emergency housing in motels and hotels.
I remember when Dubbo brought this rule in I think it was somewhere between 3 and 5 years you had to live there for. Not sure how you could get around it. I guess people do it for the FHOG so there is bound to be a way. Those houses are so cheap without competition from the investors. This is the first time I've noticed owner occupier only auctions out there. Looks like they are trying to clean up the outskirts of Glenroi.