Jacque is right, best time to buy was 12 - 18 months ago when it was all doom and gloom for Syd housing. Some areas in LNS, NS, beaches have put on about 20% in last 12 months. Theres just no decent stock on the market at all. The middle to top end have just kept going up and up. People are flush with truckloads of cash. I recall attending an open house in Willoughby a few weeks ago when I overheard a gentleman (with 2 small kids in tow looking for a family home) saying to the RE agent after missing out on an earlier auction that he wasn't going to pay the ridiculous $1.35M hammer price for an old home that had a reserve of around $1.05M. When asked how much he was willing to spend, the guy replied "I could've bought that property but I didn't want to borrow that much, not more than $200k or $300k anyway." I was saying to myself, what kind of people have $1M cash sitting around??
Then again my mates out of Asia are pulling in USD$1M a year without even raising a sweat and we know how hot it is over there!
The old supply and demand forces at work again. These are great properties to make money in as these are all blue chip locations, good transport, exclusive schools and if you hang on for 10 years, you will make money. I would rather trade all my fringe IPs in the other states for just a few good quality ones in these areas where renters only account for <5% of total occupiers. But in reality how many of these IPs can you hold? By the time you pay away all your property expenses and dreaded land taxes, you're left with no more than 3% net rental yields. And with interest rates hitting the high 7%s at the moment, I will continue to live the dream...