Toowoomba QLD

[Shelly]

Does anyone have knowledge of real estate in Toowoomba?
I have never been there.All I know is that it is a uni town,not too far from Brisbane.
I recall a few years ago it was voted the most desirable all round
town in Australia.Considering climate,low crime,employment,
affordable housing,safety,clean, etc.

Is there any industry there?

Oh and for some reason people have told me it's where you can pick up a cheap car because it's where a lot of the Brisbane dealers buy them?

Seems to have a lot of cute queenslanders.
I don't imagine capital gain has been too brilliant.Would it be
akin to the rural small city of Lismore?
Cheers Shelly

 

[pjb89]

Hiya Shelley,

I actually live in Toowoomba (well did until being assigned overseas in January) and would suggest that the cap growth is not what you would call great, however, reasonable (7-8%) returns are quite readily available - you will have to look for them of course. I do not know what the Lismore market is like, but I have travelled through there on numerous occasions and would tend to agree that at first pass it seems to be a similar regional type town.

Yes there are a lot of 'quaint' queenslanders, however, be prepared to bring your cheque book with you as everyone else in town is on the 'quick cash by doing the reno' thingy also.

With regards to the University in town, I investigated this some time ago and decided that student type digs was not for me as the inherent vacancies at the end of the student year tends to hurt the cashflow situation. If I recall, when I was discussing this with a RE agent friend of mine who actually specialises in the student rental market, she suggested adopting a 40 week income stream as being realistic. The rents average about $75-80/room, however, when you factor in the end of year vacancies and the ability to rent all of your rooms out etc, the feasibility takes a bit of a battering. Anyway that's my opinion.....

Whilst the statistics suggest a vacancy rate in the order of 4%, different RE agents tend to have differing views due to the location and property type on their own rent roll.

As is always the case, depending on your preference (+ve/-ve geared etc), you can always find what you are looking for.....you have just got to do your due diligence and look, look, look until you find the 'one'.

Hope this helps

Pedro

 

[Rolf Latham]

Hiya

From a finance point of view I like it.

95 % 10 Year I/O ip loans are possible there, that combined with the lowish entry level cost and good rental rtn has pushed prices up quite nicely recently.

Lots of Sydney money going there.

Ta

rolf

 

[geoffw]

Originally posted by Rolf Latham
Lots of Sydney money going there.

I think there's a lot of Sydney money going to a lot of places.

That's really helped to boost the valuations of the places I own- but unfortunately it's also boosted the prices of properties I want to buy

 

[Tim]

Lismore Purchases

Shelly,

what do you think of Lismore and surrounds for capital growth?

Tim

 

[Shelly]

Tim,i wrote a detailed response to your question.I was previewing
it,pressed the back botton to change a word and lost the lot.
God,i hate that!

Anway,Lismore has had a history of very poor growth.it had a
short spurt recently with the boom.this might be it for another eight to ten years.

cheers Shelly