Considering buying a place in Wollongong / Shellharbour LGA.
Choices: For approx 240k:
a- buy a 2br unit in a 'continuous high demand' suburb ; or
b- buy a house with land (650m2) in a suburb which could be a sleeper - or just a lemon
.
We of course want to do DD and have read about picking a good rental IP. Now we are searching how to get information about suburbs to buy: trends, population growth in suburbs, employment and income, likely infrastructure. Council I guess? Town planners? Any ideas / books welcome. Have read free suburb reports on RP Data and several others. How can we find out with more certainty what the cheaper suburbs are like, if they are 'going ahead' or going nowhere???
The suburbs are:
a. high demand (or so we think just judging by days on market for both sale, and rental): note, these are not by any means the top end of suburbs, they are firmly middle range price point and 230-40k would only buy a very ordinary 1 br in central W'gong, and a lower end of mid-range 2br unit in Woonona, Figtree, Gwynnveille, Keiraville, possibly East Corrimal (??? Don't know much about it.)
b. Sleepers or lemons where a house is cheaper: Koonawarra, Kanahooka, Warilla, Berkeley. A guy got shot in the leg last Sunday afternoon in Bezerkely....lovely. We need to discover CG, GRY, demand etc....
Sleeper or lemon for a unit: Lake Illawarra on the beach side of the main road (Shellharbour Rd). Units are still cheapish. Historically and still, housing commission and lower rougher socio-economic, but anything near a beach will eventually increase.
Why Wollongong, you ask? Possibly Nowra but no idea about it except a mention in YIP mag by margaret lomas and forumites here.
1. We are risk averse - daunted by anything we can't be there in an hour. L plates on for us. how to find out about other places? we know a little about the local market just through observation and osmosis. how to do further afield? would love to buy in gladstone from the research we've done, but don't know where or how to begin.
Choices: For approx 240k:
a- buy a 2br unit in a 'continuous high demand' suburb ; or
b- buy a house with land (650m2) in a suburb which could be a sleeper - or just a lemon
. We of course want to do DD and have read about picking a good rental IP. Now we are searching how to get information about suburbs to buy: trends, population growth in suburbs, employment and income, likely infrastructure. Council I guess? Town planners? Any ideas / books welcome. Have read free suburb reports on RP Data and several others. How can we find out with more certainty what the cheaper suburbs are like, if they are 'going ahead' or going nowhere???
The suburbs are:
a. high demand (or so we think just judging by days on market for both sale, and rental): note, these are not by any means the top end of suburbs, they are firmly middle range price point and 230-40k would only buy a very ordinary 1 br in central W'gong, and a lower end of mid-range 2br unit in Woonona, Figtree, Gwynnveille, Keiraville, possibly East Corrimal (??? Don't know much about it.)
b. Sleepers or lemons where a house is cheaper: Koonawarra, Kanahooka, Warilla, Berkeley. A guy got shot in the leg last Sunday afternoon in Bezerkely....lovely. We need to discover CG, GRY, demand etc....
Sleeper or lemon for a unit: Lake Illawarra on the beach side of the main road (Shellharbour Rd). Units are still cheapish. Historically and still, housing commission and lower rougher socio-economic, but anything near a beach will eventually increase.
Why Wollongong, you ask? Possibly Nowra but no idea about it except a mention in YIP mag by margaret lomas and forumites here.
1. We are risk averse - daunted by anything we can't be there in an hour. L plates on for us. how to find out about other places? we know a little about the local market just through observation and osmosis. how to do further afield? would love to buy in gladstone from the research we've done, but don't know where or how to begin.
