Redcliffe/Scarborough or North Lakes?

H

HillsGirl

Hello everyone,

I am an extremely nervous first time investor from Sydney.

I feel like I have over analysed for 18 months or more, to the point where I am very confused and do nothing.

So I have my finance Pre-Approved and I am ready to take the plunge.

If you had $450,000k to spend, would you spend it in Redcliffe or in North Lakes, or are neither of these good choices?

My strategy is to buy and hold for a very long time.

I was thinking for my 1st property, it might be safer to get a newer house in North Lakes area, good depreciation etc.

Or do I take a risk on an older house in Redcliffe, which might have maintenance issues?

I know both will be negatively geared, and I have reconciled this in my head.

I like that Redcliffe has larger blocks of land - closer to the new rail line and of course close to the water.

Oh, I don't know, I get myself all in knots LOL:confused:
 
Hi Coota,

Initially I wanted to invest in my own area (Hills area Sydney), but it is just way out of my league price wise.

My thought process has been..

1. Sydney probably already bolted
2. Hoping Brisbane will follow
3. New infrastructure up there, such as KippaRing train line, Costco, Masters and IKEA in the area - I think they would only go into areas they see a future in.
4. Redcliffe - larger land and close to water and soon the train line.

5. My worries with North Lakes, is the vacancy rate and new estates opening up all the time.

I seem to change my mind daily, and its just doing my head in. I really don't know what to do. I am flying up there tomorrow actually, thought it was the most proactive thing to do at this point.
 
HillsGirl said:
Hello everyone,

I am an extremely nervous first time investor from Sydney.

I feel like I have over analysed for 18 months or more, to the point where I am very confused and do nothing.

So I have my finance Pre-Approved and I am ready to take the plunge.

If you had $450,000k to spend, would you spend it in Redcliffe or in North Lakes, or are neither of these good choices?

My strategy is to buy and hold for a very long time.

I was thinking for my 1st property, it might be safer to get a newer house in North Lakes area, good depreciation etc.

Or do I take a risk on an older house in Redcliffe, which might have maintenance issues?

I know both will be negatively geared, and I have reconciled this in my head.

I like that Redcliffe has larger blocks of land - closer to the new rail line and of course close to the water.

Oh, I don't know, I get myself all in knots LOL:confused:
Click to expand...

I'm in the process of buying a unit in Redcliffe. Long time Brisbane resident. I think that Redcliffe is well undervalued given the newish bridges across Hays Inlet and the new Rail line being installed.

North Lakes looks like any new suburb to me, but for my money Redcliffe has more to offer. Have you been there on a Sunday? The markets are well attended, beach facilities very attractive for children under 15 or so. Great family area.
 
hello
We own property in both locations. Our house in North Lakes is about 12 years old in one of the first releases, walking distance to the colleges, employment area and closest houses to the train station. It is on a large block of land. If you choose NL, I would suggest as close to the town centre as possible, rather than out in the new area where it is both a dustbowl and the majority of houses are on tiny blocks. Maybe look at Mango Hill, the train side of Anzac Avenue.

The train is not going all the way to the coast, it terminates at Kippa Ring. On the other hand, the desirable location to live is as close to the water as possible. There is previous debate on this forum about train vs water. To me, Kippa Ring is as bogan as Deception Bay, so depends on your target demographic.

The suburb Redcliffe has the hospital and continual gentrification, so too Scarborough for gentrification. Clontarf is closest to Brisbane and the airport so can also be more popular for that reason.
 
Thankyou all so much for your replies. I really do appreciate it, and it confirms my gut feel about North Lakes.

I think I was more confident to buy there because it is newer, but newer does not always equate to better.

I agree about the land shortage in Redcliffe area - has to be a good thing - yes?

Angel, I appreciate you replying, as I knew you owned in both areas, so I was really interested in your current opinion. Its funny you mention Clontarf, as I found some interesting ones online last night and I might try and look at them tomorrow.

In relation to the Peninsula area....do you all worry about the houses being so old in some cases, and well, a bit dingy? I am struggling to reconcile buying a house I really wouldn't like to live in myself. But I think that I need to get over it.

I think I then think, well I wouldn't live there, so I am going to have trouble getting tenants.

Wouldn't it be great if someone could just say "buy here and you will be fine" :D
 
Yes, typing my response this morning just convinced me to buy a house in Redcliffe or Scarborough!

Remember what Sea Change did. It doesn't matter how daggy the house is, you will get awesome Capital Gains on the land in the future. Then you can knock down the house and build a new one and either live in it yourself or sell for a profit.

Ask yourself how much a daggy house in Sydney costs, and whether they still rent easily. That will confirm that an old house doesn't matter. You can always get it tidied up, repainted, new kitchen etc too.

When we had the post-flood downturn, I had tenants leave my gorgeous townhouse so they could rent a horrible house around the corner for the same price and have more "space" than the townhouse offered. Go figure?
 
HillsGirl said:
Thankyou all so much for your replies. I really do appreciate it, and it confirms my gut feel about North Lakes.

I think I was more confident to buy there because it is newer, but newer does not always equate to better.

I agree about the land shortage in Redcliffe area - has to be a good thing - yes?

Angel, I appreciate you replying, as I knew you owned in both areas, so I was really interested in your current opinion. Its funny you mention Clontarf, as I found some interesting ones online last night and I might try and look at them tomorrow.

In relation to the Peninsula area....do you all worry about the houses being so old in some cases, and well, a bit dingy? I am struggling to reconcile buying a house I really wouldn't like to live in myself. But I think that I need to get over it.

I think I then think, well I wouldn't live there, so I am going to have trouble getting tenants.

Wouldn't it be great if someone could just say "buy here and you will be fine" :D
Click to expand...

YOu do realise that property investing is?

It's investing in land - not buildings

The cheap houses in redcliffe areas may have a land value of 250k and house might be worth 50k - theoretically

North lakes 300k - it might be a 150 split each way

In 30 years a north lakes home will be old too - theoretically your investment will loose a bit of its value each year as the house deteriorates (depeeciation)

In redcliffe areas your house is probably almost fully deteriorated!

In north lakes your counting on the land value increases outstripping the depreciation loss on your house - in market value terms

In redcliffe you will see most of the land gain in market value increases because the house is worth stuff all

Only trick is that you have to be able to produce the required rental yield out of an old house
 
Yep, I understand the land appreciating and building depreciating, Accounting is my job :)

But I am just so scared I am going to buy and its older and not "pretty" and its going to sit empty for weeks on end.

I think, if it is empty, then you just drop the rent..yes?

I love the idea of tidying it up, and adding value, but unless its here in Sydney that might be logistically hard to do.

Angel, what about Margate? there is one there that I like the look of, is it similar sort of scenario to the other suburbs we have mentioned?

I keep being told the first IP is the hardest - I really hope so :confused:
 
Hills Girl,

I have owned properties in both redcliffe and scraborough now for 14 years. They are both older homes and I have never had trouble renting them. I do not think you will have trouble locating a tenant in either suburb as long as you maintain the home to a reasonable standard.

I do believe we are at the beginning of price increases in redcliffe/ scarborough. Prices have not moved for many years (probably the same price as 2007). There had been huge price increases between 2000 - 2006. I think the timing is right to enter the market in QLD.
 
HillsGirl said:
Yep, I understand the land appreciating and building depreciating, Accounting is my job :)

But I am just so scared I am going to buy and its older and not "pretty" and its going to sit empty for weeks on end.

I think, if it is empty, then you just drop the rent..yes?

I love the idea of tidying it up, and adding value, but unless its here in Sydney that might be logistically hard to do.

Angel, what about Margate? there is one there that I like the look of, is it similar sort of scenario to the other suburbs we have mentioned?

I keep being told the first IP is the hardest - I really hope so :confused:
Click to expand...

Well you might have to spend some money to fix it up a bit - paint , polish boards(sometimes tennants wreck them though), nice ceiling fans (makes a big difference, maybe a kitchen if it's real crappy (can achieve this for 5k or less though)


We did a renno in Brisbane this year, gutted the whole house.... (we live in melbourne)
We probably flew up 10 times - not ideal obviously but it's all we could do
We had a carpenter working on it too

You just have to factor it all in to your purchase price - we did and I'm pretty happy with the result - better than we could of done in a property obsessed melbourne market

You can always refinance and pull out 80 - 90% of the equity you have gained - and there's your next deposit...

Depends how well paying your job is I guess - my partner and I are not on big income so it's well worth it to renno as it would take a couple of years for us to save a deposit again
If you were able to save the next deposit in under a year then it might not be worth the stress
 
Strongy, we are not high income earners, which is probably why I am concerned about vacancies so much.

I am fortunate that I do have family in QLD, so I could have cheap accommodation whilst renovating if need be.

We would love to buy another IP after the first, but I need to sort out the first one first and see how I handle it.

We will still have some equity in our PPOR to buy a second one, so I am not too concerned about getting quick gains in Recliffe.
 
Margate is fine too, just not as much happening there as in Scarb and Redcliffe. If you would like to send us the link we can offer feedback.

(I'm going out soon so wont comment until evening)
 
Good luck with the shopping.

My Mum lived in Margate for 17 years before she passed on and was very happy there. Her house just settled for $25k more than would have accepted and there were multiple offers.

Agree with the scarcity of land argument vs the abundance in North Lakes or Mango Hill
 
I was up there a couple of weeks ago looking mainly at Scarbourough properties. I found it very appealing due to the lack of new land developments nearby and will purchase there shortly.
 
Can I ask a question...if I want to make an offer on a property, what actually happens?

I was just speaking to an Agent up there and he said you need to complete a Contract to make an offer?

Does this sound right?

When I bought here in Sydney (admittedly a LONG time ago) we just negotiated on the phone till a price was agreed on.
 
HillsGirl said:
Can I ask a question...if I want to make an offer on a property, what actually happens?

I was just speaking to an Agent up there and he said you need to complete a Contract to make an offer?

Does this sound right?

When I bought here in Sydney (admittedly a LONG time ago) we just negotiated on the phone till a price was agreed on.
Click to expand...


Maybe they are getting several offers these days? I have only ever made verbal or email negotiations until a price was agreed then filled out the contract and transferred the cash deposit to the agent's trust account via online banking.
 
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