Hi all,
Thanks for the answers/feedback.

The block is about 500m2, I’m not sure exactly. Two of my friends are building a 4×2 in the area and they’are costing them about $310, but because this particular property that I’m interested in is sold by private owner-builder, I’d imagine the costs to be much less than what people pay through home building companies.

I’ll have a look at some sales figures for the area and start from there. I might start with something like $270-280 to try my luck

Thanx everyone!

As I was reading some of the comments, I thought “Yep, I agree”. I still cant get over the ‘rent = dead money’ concept in my head. Just like what ‘bmcgregor’ said.

I guess my main concern is the convenience of living in your own property as compared to renting. It gives you the freedom to renovate and do whatever you want to do with your home, especially with the little bub. I love living in Southbank for convenient reason, but I just cant imagine renting for another 2-3 years.

I also agree with ‘blogs’ about why pay 500k+ just to live in the small property in the ‘Eastern suburbs’ when you can get just as nice property in the North/Western suburbs. That’s the only reason why I havent really looked into the Eastern suburbs. For $300k, we’ll have to sacrifice both the distance AND space, AND living in an older home (that’s becoz I prefer townhouse/villa as to units/apartments). BUT, having said all that I do understand that the Eastern suburbs are generally better investment.

I don’t generally favour buying anything without land (ie. units/apartments vs townhouses/villa) but I guess I’m open to it. What do you all think about buying ‘units’ or ‘apartments’ in the inner Eastern suburbs like Prahran, South Melbourne, etc?

Would it be a good idea to buy a unit, live & renovate, try to pay it off as quick, then rent it out and use the equity for mortgaging the next bigger home?

Irene.