Please help - Apartments in Melbourne

[Cazza]

Hello everyone, I was wondering if you could please help me. As a yound married couple we are looking to enter the Melbourne market by purchasing an apartment up to about $275 - if we MUST we may be able to got to $300K but I think this is just crazy considering we want a one bedroom apartment. We have been looking in the inner city, city fringe area - preferred suburbs are: Kensington, North Melbourne, Preston, St Kilda, Elwood, Brunswick. I'm becoming disheartened though as apartments are advertised at a certain price and are going for so much more.
We like the above areas as we are a young couple and want to be near transport, bars etc..
Does anyone have any advice, recommendations as this will be our first ever purchase and I'm finding it all very daunting.

 

[Dis]

A friend of my wife lives in a 1 bedroom apartment in Thornbury. An apartment in the same block recently sold for $260k. I believe it was 1brm also. Its a 10- 15 min walk to the station.

You can also buy 2 brm apartments for that range in Heidelberg. Its zone 1 and similar to Preston re: distance to the city.

Example 1
(50m from shopping strip, 500m to station and Hospital, not "on the [railway] tracks")
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...=&fmt=&header=&c=54384042&s=vic&tm=1188531517

Example 2
Similar size dwelling but terrace unit (much more land content). About 10-15 min walk to station - some wound prefer this as it is a quieter street. Interior is much better. A superior buy (IMHO) and sold for the same price as example 1 only a few months earlier. Prices are moving very quickly
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...=&fmt=&header=&c=54384042&s=vic&tm=1188531517

 

[TheCamel]

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...=&fmt=&header=&c=37029220&s=vic&tm=1188531621

 

[Dis]

Yeah Camel, but how much will it sell for?

I'm in the middle of settlement for a property in Heidelberg West right now. I can really sympathise with Cazza - the list prices were rediculous for the most part. So was using the "historical" prices from even a few months ago. Basically to have an idea what the market will pay, you need to be working on sale prices from 1-2 weeks ago. Even then you face stiff competition from 2 or 3 other people who are doing the same. So the chances of getting the property at "market price" was about 25% on most properties I made offers on / bids on. To be in with a good chance of buying I found I had to bid about 5% above what I though it was worth based on current (not past) prices. Not something I liked to do, but had I made that decision 3 months ago I would have secured a better property for less money. Basically I had to think whether paying 15k more now to secure a good property (tick all the boxes for good growth and attraction of tenants) was worth it. Weighing this up against the short term momentum and the long term likelyhood of good growth, it was an easy decision to make the higher offer.

 

[hotproperty]

Hi

l totally understand were you are coming from.....my husband and l looked around the same areas as you with the same budget for about 1 year before finding a great property in South Yarra, its a big 1 bedroom, 1 of only 4 with an old edwardian facard, two open fire places and a car park with views over the Yarra River and a court yard it was around $300k, but l think was great value as that area is only going to go up in value right!!!!
l believe South Yarra is a great area to buy, my view is buy in the most expensive area you can as people will always want to live there.

 

[Cazza]

Thanks

Thanks for your responses...I'm still really troubled at the prices these apartments are going for... Asking price $240, selling at $310...It's amazing.

Does anyone else have any advice?

 

[The Y-man]

Hello everyone, I was wondering if you could please help me. As a yound married couple we are looking to enter the Melbourne market by purchasing an apartment up to about $275 - if we MUST we may be able to got to $300K but I think this is just crazy considering we want a one bedroom apartment. We have been looking in the inner city, city fringe area - preferred suburbs are: Kensington, North Melbourne, Preston, St Kilda, Elwood, Brunswick. I'm becoming disheartened though as apartments are advertised at a certain price and are going for so much more.
We like the above areas as we are a young couple and want to be near transport, bars etc..
Does anyone have any advice, recommendations as this will be our first ever purchase and I'm finding it all very daunting.

Might pay to have a look at:
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...=&fmt=&header=&c=28150878&s=vic&tm=1189494821

I would be interested to see if this goes significantly higher than the estimated price

Cheers,

The Y-man