Total Newbie- Advice sought to buy in Melbourne.

[StephM]

Hello all!
i have been silently reading and lurking for a while and had a few questions to pose for our own maiden voyage. Haha.


My partner and I are looking to get serious about buying a house in Melbourne later this year/early next.
We currently rent in Laverton and both work in the CBD but travel isn't too much of a big deal for us.
Primarily we want somewhere to make home, we would like a decent sized block, not miles from transport and with half decent broadband access as OH works from home as a software developer. We don't mind doing a bit of work on a place but cant make a full time job of it as we already have one of those each, haha.

What's throwing me is where to look to get a bit of value for money. We would like to pay about 400k tops and would love if we could add some value as we go and make a bit back at the end.
We could make ourselves happy most anywhere, and as thus have considered a few places so far, Footscray being one, for proximity to the city, Bacchus Marsh as we've always had a thing for the town (and OH is mad for the NBN connectivity) and Laverton/Hoppers Xing even as far as Malmsbury and Warrandyte, so we really are totally open and not sure where to start. Seems the more you read the harder it gets to know your butt from elbow, so the saying goes.

Also as neither of us have owned anything before we would be eligible for first home buyers, which I believe is only on new homes.
is there any value in those estates you see popping up everywhere for incredibly cheap pre-fab style, cookie cutter-esque homes or are you pretty much piddling money away getting into one of those?
We had considered building but at this point we aren't sure how to go about it, nor the first step so while its not off the table, its just hanging out with the rest of the rabble in our collective heads. haha.

Any and all suggestions would be lovely!
Thanks!
Steph.

 

[Beanie Girl]

Steph, the first thing that jumps out at me is that you need somewhere where there is EXCELLENT broadband connectivity as your husband works from home as a software developer.

Jason Clare, Labour shadow minister for communications, recently declared the NBN is dead.

"Asked about the future of the project yesterday on Sky News by host and senior Labor figure Graham Richardson, Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare said: "I think the NBN is dead. We don't really have a National Broadband Network anymore. An IT journalist wrote today that all we've really got is a bunch of different technologies rolling out in different parts of the country.... It's not even an NBN anymore Graham, it's a whole bunch of different broadband networks and it's pot luck, depending on where you live, you'll either get the first rate system, the second rate system or the third rate system".

Clare pointed out that the Coalition's vision relied on the technically inferior FTTN model for a large proportion of Australia. (Note: FTTN is Fibre to the Node-based structure, where fibre would be rolled out to neighbourhood nodes, with Telstra's copper network to be reused for the remainder of the distance to premises).

He added: "That's a lot slower than the fibre that we were going to deliver. Then for some people they won't even get that. They will get broadband through the COAX cable that runs down the street, that runs the Pay TV system, Foxtel. Then other people will get satellite. Other people will get fixed wireless. So it's really a hotchpotch of different technologies".

Now I'm not even sure how far NBN Co is in providing FTTN. How much coverage is done or will be done in the suburbs.

Steph, maybe the first priority for you and your husband is to get into a suburb or development which has the 'first rate system' (Fibre to the Home: FTTH) with regards to 'Broadband' connectivity. Or second choice - ADSL2 and closer to the Exchange? (Besides proximity to Exchange, copper cable length is important). But you have to watch out how degraded the copper lines are in any particular suburbs you are looking at.

Or maybe hubby will just disdainfully ignore all the inferior technologies and will be living off satellite?

http://delimiter.com.au/2014/02/06/nbn-dead-says-jason-clare/

 

[Nigel Kibel]

Dont buy to live invest

If I was starting again I would never buy a house to live in. What you are doing in buying in areas with limited growth infact they could even go backwards.

What I would do is continue to rent and consider investing in a city like Brisbane which is maybe 10% under market value. If around $400,000 you can buy an apartment or an older style town house with 10km of the city and get a lot more property than you will get in Melbourne or Sydney.

 

[StephM]

If I was starting again I would never buy a house to live in. What you are doing in buying in areas with limited growth infact they could even go backwards.

What I would do is continue to rent and consider investing in a city like Brisbane which is maybe 10% under market value. If around $400,000 you can buy an apartment or an older style town house with 10km of the city and get a lot more property than you will get in Melbourne or Sydney.

While that's all well and good, we are looking predominantly to make a home.
We have both had enough throwing money into someone elses mortgage and not even being allowed to hang pictures or paint a wall.
The investment side of it, while important, comes after getting ourselves set up and comfortable in our own home.
We aren't looking to be millionaires, we would just like to come out on top if we can.

 

[StephM]

Steph, maybe the first priority for you and your husband is to get into a suburb or development which has the 'first rate system' (Fibre to the Home: FTTH) with regards to 'Broadband' connectivity. Or second choice - ADSL2 and closer to the Exchange? (Besides proximity to Exchange, copper cable length is important). But you have to watch out how degraded the copper lines are in any particular suburbs you are looking at.

That's a very good point. There are a few new developments that say they have NBN connectivity at that address on the Telstra site, might be a good place to statt.

Thank you for your help, Beanie Girl!

 

[Dbz_Vic]

Hi StephM, if internet speeds and connectivity is important and you want a house and land in the $400k bracket may I suggest the northern suburbs like Epping if travelling to the CBD for work is not too much for you. Houses in the Aurora Estate has FTTH (up to 100mbps speeds) and you can definitely buy a decent newish 3,2,2 house for around $400k. I believe Aurora is the only estate with FTTH up north, many others just have broadband/ADSL. Point Cook out west I think also has FTTH? Otherwise some apartment developments I heard also supply FTTH infrastructure.

 

[Aaron_C]

I don't get why you'll spend money on a house in the sticks just to get some faster broadband? Why not get cable instead?

 

[Beanie Girl]

I don't get why you'll spend money on a house in the sticks just to get some faster broadband? Why not get cable instead?

Hi Aaron_C,

When you say cable, do you mean, like Optus cable?
From my limited knowledge, the speeds are as follows

Cable - the speed decreases as the number of users on it increase
ADSL - the speed decreases the further you are away from the exchange
FTTH - Speed is constant and fast

But happy to be corrected.
cheers,
B-Girl

 

[bumskins]

Existing broadband can offer ok download speeds depending on distance and quality. However Upload speeds are poor.
Telstra Cable (Foxtel Cable) can do 100Mbit download.

 

[Aaron_C]

Well the NBN is very expensive. $100 gets you 50GB a month. I use Telstra cable and I can get speeds of up to 10MB/s depending on the server which is a lot of data and more than I really need for the tasks I do. I pay $100 a month as well but I get a lot more data.

 

[Kinnon Bell]

I lived in Bacchus Marsh for a while (and Brookfield) so may be able to help with any questions on the area. I loved the country feel but still having that convenience to melb cbd. Plus you get v/line as opposed to metro trains though the services aren't as often as they should be they're currently upgrading/adding another track so should help.

A lot of new builds in Darley and Maddingly with the cookie cutter houses but still some decent pockets available closer to 'town' and some lovely existing houses with lots of character and some that need TLC. I think the marsh is growing too big for the existing infrastructure though. To get from the train station to the Darley side during peak hour is a nightmare. One lane of traffic the whole way through a couple of school areas where what should be a 5 Min drive is about 20. Though it clears pretty quick. I just made sure I caught a train that was before all the congestion which also helped with getting a park at the station...

Only Coles, aldi and a food works as the major supermarkets with the main shopping centre being really, really small. Has the necessities though. The extension of woodgrove opened up last year and that has a lot more variety. Taylors lakes is not far away either and that has even more.

My mum has nbn and it's crap compared to my old adsl2+ with both upload and download. Not sure why.

 

[StephM]

Aaron, Internet speeds aren't the only reason for looking where we are, but they're a consideration.
There are pros and cons to everywhere and good internet and connectivity is certainly a pro.
Some areas we were considering have no ports available and have people waiting months to get ADSL, so there's the other end of the spectrum all together.

Thanks for your imput, Kesse.
The feel of it is what drew us in too. Nice to have some first hand experience.

DBZ we actually hadn't really touched on the other side of town, we have a lot of family here so it just seemed natural to hang around over this side, but you make a good point, I really hadn't thought of it. Will take that in, thanks!

 

[KoopaTroopa]

Point Cook FTTH is very fast, I've seen it in action myself.

However, it's pretty expensive.

I pay $70/mth for ADSL2+ including Phone Line (Caroline Springs) which is plenty fast for me. I would personally put NBN and anything Fibre on a pretty low priority for a PPOR.

Since you're already in Laverton, then you should already know the areas of Williams Landing, Point Cook, Tarneit, Truganina. 400k will buy plenty of 3-bed and even 4-bed houses in those areas.

Also new Werribee East suburb, Werribee itself, and Hoppers.

None of them will show up on a "most desirable" wishlist (except maybe Point Cook which is the best of those in my opinion).

--

You seem to want to stick to the West since you're obviously comfortable with it.

You can get Optus and Telstra cable in parts of St. Albans and Kealba if you want to look in those areas, they are in the $400k bracket too. (Kealba definitely leagues ahead of St. Albans just in terms of looks, feel, safety, etc) - can get you to Laverton in less than 15 mins if you need it.

There's also Sunshine West/North, Albion, Sunshine areas for you to investigate as well.

There's easily 20-30 suburbs in the west that will fit your $400k-with-good-internet criteria.

I would look at all of them before considering Northern suburbs like Epping, that's pretty far from Laverton (in driving minutes) if you have a lot of family already nearby...

 

[ZachAnSel]

Hi Stephm,
Just want to add you can grow your wealth while renting. Rent usually cheaper than buy, but lets the number do the talk.

Rent also allow you to closer to good infrastructure.
You can invest in positive cashflow IP to offset the rent payment

Just giving the idea that rent is also possible solutions. The surplus amount will allow you to keep saving level grow. This will help you to purchase higher range ppor

 

[jingo]

What a curious thread! I've never seen internet speeds down as part of a selection criteria for choosing suburbs to live or invest in! Sign of the times!!! I'm with Aaron - I'd be looking at total amenity of the area as a priority. Think transport, access to health care, quality education facilities, universities, etc.

 

[Ski-bum]

What a curious thread! I've never seen internet speeds down as part of a selection criteria for choosing suburbs to live or invest in! Sign of the times!!! I'm with Aaron - I'd be looking at total amenity of the area as a priority. Think transport, access to health care, quality education facilities, universities, etc.

+1

Internet speeds and infrastructure can and will change dramatically in years to come. Location and amenities as mentioned above won't, which is what will drive capital growth.

 

[Beanie Girl]

Fast broadband more important to house buyers than parking and local amenities

What a curious thread! I've never seen internet speeds down as part of a selection criteria for choosing suburbs to live or invest in! Sign of the times!!! I'm with Aaron - I'd be looking at total amenity of the area as a priority. Think transport, access to health care, quality education facilities, universities, etc.

Jingo, are you clairvoyant or what?

Article from the Telegraph, UK states

"Rob Delaney, from Delaney's, said: "As with good schools and south-facing gardens, people are now on the hunt for homes with fast broadband.

"It is a sign of the times".

Miles Shipside, from Rightmove, said: "In this digital age, a fast broadband connection is becoming much more important for home-hunters.

"People don't just rely on a good internet connection for web browsing, but also streaming television and working from home.

Homebuyers now rank a fast broadband connection above off-street parking and local amenities when considering a new property, a poll reveals.

Modern movers rely on the internet so much for work and leisure that a good connection speed can even add 5 per cent to a property's value.

That adds a staggering 15,000 pounds to the value of a typical 300,000 pounds house.

Knowing a property has good broadband speeds is routinely ranked as more important than off-street parking, access to shops and a nearby pub.

The local road network, public transport and mobile phone signal strength also ranked lower.

Dominic Baliszewski, from broadbandchoices.co.uk, said: "When it comes to buying a home it seems it's more a case of broadband, broadband, broadband than location, location, location.

First-time buyers Charlotte Frost, 24, and Matthew Anderson, 26, dismissed one of their favourite shortlisted properties due to its slow connection.

Charlotte, from West Byfleet, Surrey, said: "We had looked at numerous houses within Surrey and had fallen in love with a small cottage in Cobham.

"We thought it was 'the one' and were about to sign on the dotted line when my boyfriend asked about the internet connection at the house.

"The estate agent admitted he didn't know, so we spoke to both the seller and did independent speed tests online for the postcode and found it was very poor.

"It was a real shame because it was otherwise perfect.

"But it was a massive factor for us given that Matthew often works from home."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property...e-important-to-house-buyers-than-parking.html

The government recently announced a 114 million pounds investment in key cities to ensure Britain has the fastest broadband in Europe by 2015.

But speeds currently vary hugely across the country, with the difference having an impact on the property market.

 

[Dbz_Vic]

Good internet is absolutely crucial

+1

Internet speeds and infrastructure can and will change dramatically in years to come.

With our dismal government policies (there is an article recently about how the introduction of the NBN is now dead) Australians will probably still be paying stupid prices for 3rd world internet in the future. Its a joke. I would almost rank internet as no. 1 priority to any household these days, just look at the amount of time people are spending on the internet each day (Facebook, emails, internet banking, Skype, movies/music etc etc..) and its pretty obvious. Not forgetting the Gen XYZs are and will be the biggest internet consumers now and into the future. Bills, documents etc are sent via emails these days and people are backing up their data on dropbox, clouds etc so without good reliable internet its not going to work.

 

[SamL]

I don't want this thread to go political so won't go to that side of things, though I do believe we should be completing the construction of the NBN, per head it is cheaper than the roll out of the original copper network, people would have said that was a ridiculous expense back then, we need some long term foresight. Our governments are going to have no assets to sell in 20 years time!

I have the NBN (FTTH, none of this crappy FTTN stuff) on at home (in Brunswick) and we were in the situation where there were no ports available for ADSL2+ as the exchange was full (from development) and they weren't going to put any new ones in. Thus we had to go with the NBN, and am I glad that happened! $75 a month for 300Gb, only on the silver plan but soooooo much more reliable speed wise and connectivety wise than any ADSL I have ever had. As more business is done online and more people run offices from home it can only make places that have it seem more attractive.

My 2 cents.