Hey guys, thanks for all the replies so far. Theres some great information up there. I would agree with Nth Brisbanite - I also think Zillmere has better long term growth potential for the same reasons listed. However it does have it's social issues which Andrew A has mentioned. I think that block of units JoB is talking about stretches from Zillmere road right through to Seeney st! Andrew I am only interested in houses at the moment, units and townhouses are not my thing. Zillmere's highish vacancy rate (currently 2.4%) is my main concern about investing there. I guess there could be alot of empty units/townhouses which may be influencing the figures? Is there somewhere you can find vacancy rates by the suburb but with houses and units/townhouses seperate?
Is 2.4% vacancy considered high!?
I'm sure there is a genuine vacancy factor with residential but if your property has two things 1) reasonable or better condition and 2) a location somebody would want to live in then the vacancy rate in greater Brisbane in my opinion should be approaching 0%, even at 2.4% that would equate to approx 1 week vacant per year (hardly disaster planning scenarios) you can get a grip on the supply demand balance with some basic due diligence into rents, see what similar property is renting for, talk to a few different managers.
For your basic solid investment property that is in maintained in good condition (a place you wouldn't mind living in yourself) you shouldn't have any issues with vacancy, I never have.
I don't mean to be dismissive but three published figures I don't pay attention to, yet are often mentioned to me include.
1) vacancy rates percentages: obviously an important consideration but you are monitoring what your investment is going to yield carefully anyhow, which means being tapped into the reality of how it will rent out.
2) historic median price growth: You need to know better than this, why it's still published widely I'm not sure. The problem being medians and not growth history which can be important.
3) discount to list prices: Lagging and at best useless indicators of what the market has done, by the time you read them the sales agents who want to eat have already adjusted their market strategies and each deal is an individual purchase measured by it's objective value, not city wide averages.