Hi Frank
Below is a spiel i wrote as a reply to recent topic named ‘Realistic.’ It shows +ve geared houses are diminishing but some remain with good growth prospects. ie. are situated in areas of strong employment.
Realistic?
Have you heard of Oakey? Its a small town of 4000 only 25 kms west of Toowoomba. The Defence force (we have a large helicopter base) placed 138 houses on the market about 6 years ago. Prior to seling every house was fully fenced(wooden pickets) re-painted and re-carpeted. The majority were hardiplank or camphorboard homes. The senior officers lived in brick homes.
The result was it collapsed the housing market in Oakey. The houses were withdrawn and then re-released in batches of about 8. The result was the same. They sold slowly and all the non-brick houses at about the same price ie. $68,500. All are 3 bedroom with blocks between 700-850 sq. metres.
Despite rapid price rises in toowoomba, Oakey was ignored. I found them in November 2002.I immediately bought 2 and then another 2. Word got around and the market started to pick up. the last 16 were released in february and i was lucky to get 1 more.
The best part is they are all positively geared despite only a 10% deposit. Repayments are about $100 per week (20 year morgage)and rent is $140/week. Rates average about $27 perweek.
Even better is the severe shortage of rental prperties. i checked yesterday and between the 2 real estae agents there were 3 houses for rent in Oakey.
Other good news is that we also have 2 large abbotoirs nearby which employ huge numbers of people. Recently the Oakey abbatoir announced palns to increase facilities and employ an additional 700 full time workers!!
Expansion has yet to begin but a new IGA supermarket is about to be built.
I which i had found these bargains earlier and bought 20. The bank manager was shocked that the amount i could borrow would hardly decrease which each new house as they were positively geared.
Anyway you can still consider oakey. current prices are now about $78,000 but at $145 per week are still positively geared with 25 year mortgage at 6.3%
Stamp duty is low in Qld at these prices..about $1800 per house. the soldiers were very lazy and rang the housing authority for even the slightest mishap. hence houses are in very good nick.
hope this helps
PS Toowoomba and surrounds support population of 110,000.

My bank manager asked to see my most recent payslip. He immediately spotted the HECS deduction printed on it as ‘extra tax.’ He wanted to know how much it was and i said (honestly i thought) ‘about $10,000. He asked to see my last tax return as this lists the amount of HECS owing.
When I saw the true amount was $14,000 I told him i couldn’t find it so he accepted the figure of $10,000. This debt was definetly part of the banks calculations.
Of course if you work overseas, HECS will not appear on your payslip.
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