Seabrook VIC - negative growth??

[suffragette]

hi guys
after researching a few areas to buy our ppor, we 'found' seabrook. seems like a good area, not too far from the city , surrounded by growing suburbs, and still has a pretty reasonable price for a 3 bedroom property. Heard good things about this area as well from fellow investors.

we found a place that we really like, and was researching more about it, and decided to purchase a property report from the Australian Property Monitors.
the current market price estimate is not too far off from the advertised price, but what worried me is the future price growth. it said that that suburb has a -.9% growth i cant find this suburb listed in the 'market watch' part of the API mag.

should we be worried?
where can i find more info about it?

 

[toony]

Seabrook or Seaford. I have never heard of Seabrook. Where is it near?

 

[jingo]

Seabrook or Seaford. I have never heard of Seabrook. Where is it near?

Seabrook is near Point Cook, Altona Meadows and Sanctuary Lakes. It is in the Western part of Melbourne.

Prices have been stagnant in Seabrook for some time. There are some nice houses available there. Mainly 80's and 90's stock.

Regards Jason.

 

[ILoveProperty]

To see the last few years median trend you can go to:
http://data1.reiv.com.au/trendchart/
look up Seabrook.

 

[suffragette]

hmmm, yea i saw that graph before. it does look pretty flat.it's very close to point cook, and point cook's median price is already 380K (seabrook is 275K).
i wonder if the price will catch up?

 

[tobe]

point cooks median price is based on new housing rather than re-sales I would think. I dont know seabrook specifically. What is the rental yield?

 

[suffragette]

i think rental yield is about 5.1 % based on a conversation i had with the real estate agent. it's quite good for melbourne.

 

[Justkate]

Not sure if this helps or not...

I have two sisters who live in Seabrook, one is selling her house at the moment -10 Andrew Chirnside Drive. Its listed on realestate.com for 310k she bought the house a year ago for 270k, she got an offer for 290k but wants a minimum 300k I guess 30k isn't a bad return for a year!

I like the area personally, its very family friendly with park lands and schools the only thing I don't like is that there seems to be one road in and out of there - Point Cook Road which can become congested at 8am and 5-6pm hopefully the new overpass they are building near Laverton will ease some of that.

Kate

 

[suffragette]

hi justkate

i agree, i like the area too. 30K is good for 1 year imho...

i will have to check out the traffic during workdays.
i hope there's sufficient public transport around, so i wont have to drive in and out to the city.

am curious about you sister's place now.... will go check out re.com..

 

[jingo]

hi justkate

i agree, i like the area too. 30K is good for 1 year imho...

i will have to check out the traffic during workdays.
i hope there's sufficient public transport around, so i wont have to drive in and out to the city.

am curious about you sister's place now.... will go check out re.com..

The traffic is shocking!! I would not consider buying there if I were you. There is only one road out - Pt Cook Road. It is very congested during the morning and evening peak periods. I'm sure a tenant would soon grow tired of being trapped in this location.

As for public transport, only buses service Point Cook and Seabrook. The nearest railway station is at Laverton - and I would say that the drive would be about half an hour from Seabrook in the morning peak!

Have you considered buying/investing into Altona Meadows? The access to the freeway is much better from this suburb. This suburb also has a number of ways out besides the freeway. It is possible to travel through Altona, or to go onto the freeway. The station is also more accessible from Altona Meadows. We have an IP in Altona Meadows and the tenant has been in the property for ages. She loves the convenience!

Regards Jason.

 

[suffragette]

hey everyone
we went to several house inspection today. saw about 8 houses. we narrowed it down to 2 that we liked. one is in seabrook, great house, but the asking price is too high and vendor wont take anything alot less (from chatting with the rea). the other one is in altona meadows, not too bad, will need painting, asking price is reasonable. from our due diligence, we know that the one in altona meadows is a better option, but my heart still wants the one in seabrook.

arrghhhhhhh!! i'm torn between following my heart or my brain!

 

[investwest]

hey everyone
we went to several house inspection today. saw about 8 houses. we narrowed it down to 2 that we liked. one is in seabrook, great house, but the asking price is too high and vendor wont take anything alot less (from chatting with the rea). the other one is in altona meadows, not too bad, will need painting, asking price is reasonable. from our due diligence, we know that the one in altona meadows is a better option, but my heart still wants the one in seabrook.

arrghhhhhhh!! i'm torn between following my heart or my brain!

I think when they finish the Palmers road exit it should make a difference to traffic congestion. We also have an IP in Altona Meadows and we live there too, across the creek from Seabrook, and I agree with Jingo, I would buy the property in Altona Meadows, you're right in the middle then, with Altona Beach and Pier street just down the road.

 

[suffragette]

hi innerwest

yea we ended up purchasing a property in altona meadows.
seems like a better option than seabrook.

 

[josko]

hi innerwest

yea we ended up purchasing a property in altona meadows.
seems like a better option than seabrook.

From someone who has not heard of either suburb, but has read the advice of those that have on this thread, - I think you made the right decision.

Unreal, Congratulations!

 

[hb2]

Hi Kate

I'm not surprised your sister wants a minimum of $300k for her property at Seabrook

You see, shes paid $270k for the property and assuming she put down 10% deposit, her purchase costs (stamp duty, stamp duty on mortgage, registration of transfer of land,registration of mortgage,title search,loan application fee,mortgage insurance,house insurance,conveyancing fees) add up to about $18k
Now of course when she sells don't forget (estate agent commision,adverting costs,discharge of mortgage ,preparation of discharge of mortgage,bank attending discharge settlement,solicitors fee) add up to about $12k

Oh and 12 months of interest at 8% $21k

And finally Council rates & Water rates $1350

Now lets see.............

$300k minus all costs gives me a LOSS of $22k

even at 310K its still a LOSS of $12k


No quick gain here...sadly

 

[Tony13]

I used to live in seabrook in the early 2000's. House prices pretty much doubled, as it did in most of melb i suppose, but looking at the area over the last couple of years, it seems its flattened out.
The pt cook road issue was shocking during peak hours, with all the pt cook development going on adding to the problems. An added freeway on-ramp/overpass was talked about several years ago and is long overdue! Dont know if this will alleviate the problems though.
The advertised "20 mins to city" is far from the truth. You'd be lucky to get on the freeway within 20mins. Even driving to the laverton or aircraft train stations will be a pain.
But apart from that its a pleasant area to live in, but if you work in the city, traveling is a pain! Altona meadows just might prove to be a better IP locale.

 

[suffragette]

thanks josko!

it's funny to see that people are still reading this thread.. it's been awhile...

after reading all your comments, i'm so glad that we chose altona meadow. well, we were sure that we chose wisely, but always good to hear other people confirming that we made the right choice.

we're now considering purchasing an ip around this area.