Recommendation NSW under 400k

[MDW]

Port Macquarie is a great place to invest at the moment.

I'd have to agree. We purchased a 3 bedroom house in December and rented it out within a couple of weeks with a 5.3% rental yield (expected under 5%).
There is also a campaign by council to encourage people to build Granny flats at the moment.
http://housingpromotion.com.au/secondary-housing-reports/port-macquarie-hastings/

 

[Mooze]

Port Macquarie is a great place to invest at the moment. I own nine properties in the town and I can't believe the demand for rentals at the moment.

To give you an example; I recently listed a 3 bedroom unit for $320 and I had 40 people call up within three days. Crazy!!!

This demand is due to the highway work contracts, numerous health care projects and a large university development. The Uni development will see an extra 3,500 students (plus staff) live in this town.

The other major growth driver is the baby boomer retirement shift from Sydney to Port Macquarie. I believe this town is due for some strong growth over the next decade as the population expands.

Living in Port at the moment, we're about to move due to inept council, rates going through the roof, and the Essential energy issue (main employer about to put off a huge number of jobs in town). The growth drivers in town are either temporary(pac highway) or external (people pushed out of Newcastle) - there's no internal growth (job attractors) outside of aged care - many business are for sale or simply closing. It will also be interesting to see what happens with the council mergers. Will also add the low dollar will help the tourism industry.
It's easy to rent out a place if you're happy with centrelink tenants - this means there's also a cap on how much you can increase rent/what prices people will rent at. (We rent at $400 per week less than 200m from beach house worth probably 800k with rates in excess of 2600 per year). There's also no decent internet in town and Port will be around last on list for NBN.

There's also new estates approved for 10,000 houses between current edge of town and the pacific highway. The pac highway upgrade is the current driver for growth in town - the uni is still several years away, and while spruiked to attract 3500 students many will be either from existing campus in town or local area not going to Newcastle so they can still live at home.

As always do your own due diligence the above is opinion only.