What about Harbour One Melbourne?

Recently being approached by a sales agent for Harbour one apartment in Melbourne, anybody got any opinions on the area? As I am not familiar with Melbourne, never been there before, but that does sound kinda a cool spot.

But asked my cousin who lives in Melb, he said it's a bit dead and quiet there, not worth it. Anybody got any views?
 
If you do a search on Docklands you will get all sorts of information and opinions. :eek:

Personally I don't think Harbour One is going to be the best of Docklands IMHO. It's actually set a little back from the water unlike some of the older buildings. And yes, it is a bit quiet that side of Docklands, but getting busier and more of a 'vibe' slowly.

Look the short story is that a lot of ppl lost money with off-the-plan Docklands apartments. They just built so many all in the space of 10 years(or so). The body corps are pretty high so the rental yeild is not the greatest. The banks don't really like the Docklands postcode (even though they've got swanky new offices in Docklands :rolleyes:) so getting the loan you want might be tricky too.

Having said all that, we decided the area has great potential and could see ourselves wanting to live there if the choice was ours. Soooo we bought an IP in Yarra's Edge (other side of Docklands) in Lorimer Street. Ours is furnished which helps the rent.

Without knowing your budget and other details, not sure what else to tell you.

Hope this helps a bit. :)
 
If you do a search on Docklands you will get all sorts of information and opinions. :eek:

Personally I don't think Harbour One is going to be the best of Docklands IMHO. It's actually set a little back from the water unlike some of the older buildings. And yes, it is a bit quiet that side of Docklands, but getting busier and more of a 'vibe' slowly.

Look the short story is that a lot of ppl lost money with off-the-plan Docklands apartments. They just built so many all in the space of 10 years(or so). The body corps are pretty high so the rental yeild is not the greatest. The banks don't really like the Docklands postcode (even though they've got swanky new offices in Docklands :rolleyes:) so getting the loan you want might be tricky too.

Having said all that, we decided the area has great potential and could see ourselves wanting to live there if the choice was ours. Soooo we bought an IP in Yarra's Edge (other side of Docklands) in Lorimer Street. Ours is furnished which helps the rent.

Without knowing your budget and other details, not sure what else to tell you.

Hope this helps a bit. :)


Thanks! That's very informative. Um, well... my budget is probably below $500 or $400, looking to invest in an apartment, but there are many choices here, so I am a bit unsure.

I am living in Adelaide, so I pretty much know the apartment cost here, generally cbd apartments are mostly $400-$500 for two bedroom. And that's one bedroom price in melbourne.
 
Listen to the first reply and don't buy in docklands! Unless of course you like to see your investment never go up in value...

In fact, don't even consider it. For $400-500k you're even better off buying in a Western suburb (god forbid) with a piece of land than an apartment in Docklands
 
Harbour One is a 3 minutes walk from where I work. The area as already mentioned is back from the water and is positioned around, the corporate offices of the NAB, ANZ and soon to be commissioned Myer. Its a nice area, if you like inner city living. There is open and green space around, easy walking and cycling paths.

The evenings are quiet as there is no real street life or activity, except for when there are sporting events at Etihad Stadium, but even then its not too bad. Some people may like that as a start contrast to the proximity to the city. I believe, like Southbank (Mel), it will take some time to develop its own vibe, however new businesses, cafe's, restaurants etc will need to move there before this will occur.

You could be very confident of having a very well tenanted property though given the proximity of businesses literally on your doorstep but you are also 5-10 minutes by tram to the Finance & legal precincts.

I have seen the offices of Harbour One from the street (never gone inside) and they are typical of any recent OTP quality fit-out for the price you are paying. There are many threads talking about OTP purchases, Docklands and alternative options.

I wouldn't be as bearish as some are on capital growth for Docklands, but I would agree at a high level, an older flat in inner suburbs will give you better returns. Of course if you are interstate, I can appreciate an OTP purchase is a better set and forget investment.

Out of interest, does your cousin invest in property?
 
Meh docklands was built and designed by developers. Notice the lack of parks, gardens and how they've tried to squeeze in shops, apartment buildings etc on every piece of sqm that they can find? Not to mention that there isn't even ample parking if you wanted to go near the water. It's the biggest property investor failure in Melbourne's recent history.

And regarding what buzzlightyear said, the shops/restaurants at docklands are struggling big time - there simply is no foot traffic and the commerical rents aren't super-cheap either. So stay well clear of that place
 
Harbour One is a 3 minutes walk from where I work. The area as already mentioned is back from the water and is positioned around, the corporate offices of the NAB, ANZ and soon to be commissioned Myer. Its a nice area, if you like inner city living. There is open and green space around, easy walking and cycling paths.

The evenings are quiet as there is no real street life or activity, except for when there are sporting events at Etihad Stadium, but even then its not too bad. Some people may like that as a start contrast to the proximity to the city. I believe, like Southbank (Mel), it will take some time to develop its own vibe, however new businesses, cafe's, restaurants etc will need to move there before this will occur.

You could be very confident of having a very well tenanted property though given the proximity of businesses literally on your doorstep but you are also 5-10 minutes by tram to the Finance & legal precincts.

I have seen the offices of Harbour One from the street (never gone inside) and they are typical of any recent OTP quality fit-out for the price you are paying. There are many threads talking about OTP purchases, Docklands and alternative options.

I wouldn't be as bearish as some are on capital growth for Docklands, but I would agree at a high level, an older flat in inner suburbs will give you better returns. Of course if you are interstate, I can appreciate an OTP purchase is a better set and forget investment.

Out of interest, does your cousin invest in property?

Ic... Well, he did, and he suggested inner suburbs more than paying for a tiny apartment in cbd. He said you would be paying for the view. He said the setup there is just weird. Don't know how to explain it he said.

But... I donno, does anyone think Adelaide apartment still has room to grow? It hurts when you pay half a million for a little living area in a high rise apartment where you don't even get a land. But they have been growing massively over the past few years. Still remember when I first saw them, they were like 200k-300k and now they are all above 400k.
 
I see Aazar has been banned!

Still, I wanted to reply quickly to his view that Docklands has no parks or car parking: I've got to say that over the Lorimer Street side there is a large park and I've NEVER had a problem getting a parking spot. Also I have parked in the $5 a day carpark (Harbour Town) and just walked around and they have a tram stop 2 mins from the carpark.

Obviously he(?) is a trouble poster and I found it hard to know whether he was being serious or sarcastic? :confused:

Southbank might be cheaper but there are lots of areas there I would avoid. Especially near the nightclubs. South Melbourne, yes I agree is a good choice but again it's going to take a fair bit of time and research to get the right one.

People seem really divided on Docklands. A lot of people say it's great to live there but not invest. I'm going against the tide and investing there, but no I wouldn't recommend Harbour One.
 
ok, ill add an opinion, im not banned.....yet

if you are renting there, i think its quite good,

considering how close it is to the city, its quite inconvient to get in and out public transport wise,

I don't mind the restaurants at docklands but the parking is a MAJOR turn off, I go in the evenings so am used to street parking, but there is very little there.

as for the lorimer st side, I know nothing about,

that harbour one, is postioned badly, it looks like an add on, and you can really see/feel the tryhardness of the complex, apparently the commercial rents and the prices of everything are high end (ie market level rent and product prices)

its also at the end of the busy strip, maybe things will change, I don't know

as an investor, they did go through a stage of heaps of apartments, so if you bought at this time, you might have got slightly burnt,

if you bought now, the returns would probably be better then what they got back then, but probably not near the market growth

it happens a lot, and to me, that people want to buy IPs in areas that they might want to live in, in the case that they can't find a tenant or one day, they might want to move into it themselves, I wanted to live in south yarra so I was looking at an IP there, now I look at areas where I would probably never live.

so my opinion, for a renter, docklands is not bad, as a business owner of a retaurant and shop, the risks are much higher, as an investment property you won't bomb out, but there is probably much better value else where!

does anybody know, are there heaps and heaps more apartments still to be built in docklands, or has the pace stopped or slowed down??
 
I see Aazar has been banned!

Still, I wanted to reply quickly to his view that Docklands has no parks or car parking: I've got to say that over the Lorimer Street side there is a large park and I've NEVER had a problem getting a parking spot. Also I have parked in the $5 a day carpark (Harbour Town) and just walked around and they have a tram stop 2 mins from the carpark.

Obviously he(?) is a trouble poster and I found it hard to know whether he was being serious or sarcastic? :confused:

Both Aazar and Deltaberry joined the forum on 25-Sep-09 and DeeHwa joined on 24-Sep-09. The 2 must be sad to see their comrade go :p
 
Harbour One is a 3 minutes walk from where I work. The area as already mentioned is back from the water and is positioned around, the corporate offices of the NAB, ANZ and soon to be commissioned Myer. Its a nice area, if you like inner city living. There is open and green space around, easy walking and cycling paths.

Harbour One is the infill tower on the northern side of the dock in Newquay. The area you're talking about - where I live - is Victoria Harbour, where we have got a park, shops, supermarket, easy access to rail and Skybus and a lot else. H1 to Safeway Docklands or Coles Spencer would be a good ten minute walk: in the immediate vicinity there is limited non-tourist shopping.

If you are thinking of buying an IP in Docklands you need to be brave (or foolish) - knock off the BC and other expenses and you're probably not getting much more than 3% net with limited CG

Meh docklands was built and designed by developers. Notice the lack of parks, gardens and how they've tried to squeeze in shops, apartment buildings etc on every piece of sqm that they can find? Not to mention that there isn't even ample parking if you wanted to go near the water.

Down in the VH precinct there's Docklands Park and Victoria Green and there will be a new linear park between Harbour Esplanade and the ends of the dock basins and another park where new townhouses are now being built in Waterfront City. And then you've got the quaysides. Lots of parking too. But this makes it a great place to live, not to invest.
 
There seems to be a fair few owner occupiers in our building and that's another reason why we could see future potential. Quite a few retirees (older folks) walking their dogs when I"ve been in the area.

Also because ppl want to live there that means a good supply of tenants and since our IP is furnished we are doing ok.

Look it's not for everyone, but it's for us. We like Docklands.
 
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jcwc -- so what's the price per sqm roughly in southbank, cbd or south melbourne? Thinking of buying in these area....

what i meant in sqm was that you could get a 80+sqm place for around 500K or slightly less high 400s. That;s far cheaper than ones in docklands. 74-85sqm ard the 560K mark.

THis one is 90sqm internal - however the number 4 puts me off. and it;s a walkup. apartment.

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...cc=&u=SOUTHBANK&c=6479852&s=vic&tm=1265835162

Other than that, no really good buys atm. i would wait for an interest rate rise to soften the market a bit.
 
Went out to Docklands for dinner again last time, 3 rd time in 3 weeeks,

must admit, the more I go there, the more I dislike the entire area,

people walking down by the water, about 3 people sunbaking on that little patch of grass under the big screen,

things don't seem right for me,

yes, its having an identity crisis, doesn't know whether to be a beachside suburub or a southbank,
also it doesn't know whether to be seen as family friendly or just a trendy spot, with the shopping complex.......

and it was dead, some of those restuarants have no people in it,

is it the same on weekends?

what i meant in sqm was that you could get a 80+sqm place for around 500K or slightly less high 400s. That;s far cheaper than ones in docklands. 74-85sqm ard the 560K mark.

THis one is 90sqm internal - however the number 4 puts me off. and it;s a walkup. apartment.

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...cc=&u=SOUTHBANK&c=6479852&s=vic&tm=1265835162

Other than that, no really good buys atm. i would wait for an interest rate rise to soften the market a bit.

jcwc888, in your experience, what would this rent out for?
 
inspecting this sat - would say around 475-500 per week .. depending on the condition of the place.

But there're a super lot of places for rent in southbank so not sure... if it is possible to rent it out for that price.
 
Yes, the Docklands can get busier at times....

I know it, (Docklands), isn't for everyone, but I love those quieter times, I loved the boardwalk to myself, the quieter restaurants, but most of all I love the views of the city.

If I want more "buzz" I can just catch the tram over to Southbank/casino area. I guess it's what you prefer.

I think that is part of what I enjoy about Melbourne, the different vibes within the city, the differing atmosphere of the precincts. Something for everyone.
 
ive recently signed up on those property alerts on domain, and now im flooded with apartments from docklands. plus ive been to a few right on the water

putting capital gains/investment aspects aside.

Im just curious...

how is docklands from a living perspective... especially without kids.

seems you can get an good view 2 bdr for about $575k

i must admit, ive eaten there a few times, not recently and the food is ok, (im in the restaurant business)

I dont go there because the parking aspect for me sux.

if I lived there I would only eat out about once per week , because thats my preference, I like to keep the eating out aspect as a treat for me, and don't want to be treated every day or the novelty will wear off.

would i have to lug all my groceries in hand since im not going to drive 500 m from my apartment to the local coles/woolworths?
 
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