Warrnambool Info - anyone with an IP or done a development there???

Hi, I've just come back from a wonderful car trip through south west Victoria so I did a search on SS to see if anyone here had enquired about buying an IP or a development site in Warrnambool.

Surprisingly There seem to be no posts about it and I have loved Warrnambool ever since I lived there for a short time as a teenager in 1974 and would now like to do some DD on a site I found there which might be good for units.

Has anyone here had any experience with Warrnambool or, indeed, south west Vic in general.????

Thanks in anticipation

PS: Does anyone here from Geelong know what happened to the Tien Wah restaurant in the main street. It was there on my last visit in 2004 buts seems to have disappeared. It made amazing spring rolls....what a loss to the world
 
Check with your broker on it's Category for lending. Brokers here will know what I mean. It could be a regional town and therefore lending is limited. Not much use buying in a place that you can't get finance for these days.
 
Thanks, I'll check but its Victoria's 5th biggest city, population 32,000 and a fair bit of development happening. I thought anything over 10,000 was ok but I am open to be corrected. Thanks again for your input.
 
one question - why buy there for an investment? I can't imagine that town outperforming the rest of Melbourne, and clearly Melbourne suburban houses would be more desirable than a country town that is closer to Adelaide than Melbourne. Unless you want to buy it as a holiday home, in which case it's a different ball game altogether
 
Wow didn't realize Warrnambool was that big. I thought it was only 15-20K.

I know a few people who live in and around there and think its a decent location. Its also big enough to have most of the health infrastructure and does have train to Melbourne (3 or 3.5 hours I think).

My main question would be "What drives the local economy?". It doesn't have any Aluminum smelter and major port like Portland. It's not beachside scenic like the smaller places along the coast.

My memory from driving through a few times is that like most country towns there are some very different parts of town (socio-economically speaking). Anything with water views looks to be pricey.
 
To answer your questions, it appears to be booming. I have friends there doing fine (own business)

I'm looking at Warrnambool because there is a site which will allow about 8 units for a reasonable price and I want to build units and I'm happy to sell to seachangers over the next few years when the baby boom demographic is at its peak.

I already have a house that has doubled in value in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne since 2003. I'm also looking in the eastern suburbs for a development site too but I would hold at least one Warrnambool unit for future use if I could.

Sure, Melbourne is performing but I'm looking for development site at a bargain price to build and sell and move on...... the prices in Warrnambool are pretty good, I'd make a good return.
 
BTW, Warrnambool is 162 miles (sorry, I dont know the km) from Melbourne...I think Adelaide is a bit further than that. A reasonable 3.5 hours by car.
 
well the whole deal-breaker for development is the value of the land. If you assume your development costs are the same here as they are in Warrnambool, then you really need the land to be worth something good in order to make any money from it. Otherwise you're just charging people a margin over your development costs (which I assume you won't get at builder's cost anyway). That's not a good way to make money
 
The land is cheap, less than half a mill for a massive 2 and a half thousand sqm,(It already has a 40 sq house on it too) The building will be done via a friends licence, project-managed by me, all planning and design cost will be low as I am both an architect and planner and can design the development, have it drafted in India for cheap (yes, I have had work done in India before), In addition, I have assessed over 2000 developments in the past 15 years, most of them similar to what I am proposing and can probably anticipate any issues that will arise...in all, I'm pretty experienced at this sort of thing so if I cant do it right, I only have myself to blame.

I currently live on an 8 unit site in Canberra but our rules up here dont allow multi unit more than 200m from the central shops in each suburb......if I could put 8 townhouses on this site, they would probably sell for $500k each but I just have to wait for the rules to change.....in the meantime, Melbourne and /or Warrnambool it is.......
 
well if you get it at builder's costs then that's not too bad. But having said that, couldn't you just use that advantage that you have, buy a block of land in Melbourne itself (for a bigger outlay) and make even more money through that? The potential profit is much greater in the suburbs than in regional towns cause of more buyers
 
I suppose you are right but I dont want to do anything bigger cos then I'd need to JV it just to get in.

I would pay the half mill in the eastern suburbs and just get a dual occ...trust me, I have run the numbers. My IP in Nunawading is worth around $480 and I will just get a small (112 sqm) attached townhouse on it. THis new unit's selling price would be more than I'd get in Warrnambool for a similar unit but I have to be able to get into the game..... maybe next time Nunawading or Box Hill will be the go.
 
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