Looking to buy a place in Melbourne. Preferably somewhere in the East or South East.
Hoping to gain some insight into the current market and what to look for when buying a home.
Many thanks in advance!
Buying First Home (Melbourne)
wesleysniper on 02/08/2014 - 22:00
Comments
I would advise against buying in the aforementioned areas, they have gone nuts in the last two years. Had you bought in 2012 you would have paid 20% less. And they only seem to be going up. The theory is that house prices work in 5-7 year cycles, so one would expect them to cool in melbourne is 2015-16. You will get better value in north east suburbs. Also check out somersoft forums
Should also mention that east and south east have a huge Asian demand, they seem to have very deep pockets..Any back up on the statement about north east suburbs?
Some valuable information there.
I'm mainly looking for an investment home than anything else.
Maybe roughly around the $500,000 mark. It's not much but it's the only thing I can afford at the moment.
Should I wait to save up more?
You have zero chance of buying an actual house in the inner south east of Melbourne with that budget. I'm looking for a first home at the moment, my budget is up to 900k, and I am having great difficultly finding a house for sale in my price range (well there are plenty for sale at that price, but most go way over at auctions). I am looking at tiny two bedroom Victorians, and in most there is not even enough room for my TV or my couch. As an example of inflated prices, I looked at a 2 bedroom run down place in Hawthorn, it was first listed at 750k, which was revised to 800k. This house had mould and needed a new kitchen, bathroom, asbestos removal and a complete makeover throughout, including fixing large cracks in the wall. The house sold at auction for $1.22million. I looked at a house in Prahan, which was listed at 800k ish, but was expected to sell for a little over a million. It went for $1.455. It was nice, but it was a 2 bedroom victorian, with no backyard. I went to an auction of a townhouse in Richmond, it was run down, at the end of a crappy street, and was not of high quality. It had a car park in the front, and a small courtyard in the back. The courtyard was only accessible through the bedroom! The place was listed at 700k, it went for $910k. It was an awful property, with not much scope for improvement, as realistically, it was a glorified apartment. I looked at a run down house in Abbotsford, it was missing plastering on almost all the walls, was clearly lived in by a hoarder, it has broken asbestos in the bathroom, it was falling apart, the entire place had a strong smell of animal urine, to the point where people who were looking at it where gagging. It was completely unliveable, and needed significant money put into it to get it up to any standard. It had an old studio out the back, which was made of asbestos and had an unstable staircase. The place as listed at $650k-700k. It sold for $969k in very very bad condition. Your budget it completely unrealistic for a house in any shape. I feel that my $900k is unrealistic, and I might go back to the drawing board, the only thing that stops me doing so is the fact that house prices are going up and up with every auction I go to. Im going to try and get in as soon as I can.
Thanks for the insight thorton82, wasn't particularly looking at the inner eastern suburbs (i'll probably never be able to afford them on my current salary), I was actually looking more towards the Burwood area (heard that it is a pretty nice area that is safe, has schools around and relatively easy public transport).
I also probably wrote the term 'home' too loosely cause I'm looking more for a townhouse/unit than a house (can't afford that atm but maybe I will one day).
The areas you mentioned are definitely really nice areas and I hope you get a house there one day.
@zachmtran:
U can't even get a unit for 500 in burwood. You would need to look from ringwood out or from clayton onwards
North east has good schools, low crime rate, train line and can get equivalent property for 20% or more lower than east. But obviously they are not as desirable as thee suburbs you are after
I think it's going to cool down, when the RBA start increasing the interest rate (IR).
Most analysts comment that IR will start to rise next year (mid-2015).If you expect capital gains, just stick with south-east & east.
When it cools down, what would happen?
Sorry, I'm an absolute noob
http://www.onthehouse.com.au/ is a great place to start.