Oh I’ve been there, in fact I was there again yesterday.How silly of me, I had forgotten the dirty big powerline towers that dot the area too! Never mind, at least you’ve got an Aldi.

There is no refinery in Williamstown, it’s in Altona. And funny you should mention comminssion houses because all of the area surrounding edgewater reminds of the housing commission areas of west heidelberg.

For the record, Williamstowns has city views, parks and running/walking tracks too, all with ocean views! Much better on the eye? Well… I guess if you don’t like beautiful victorian era architecture and the like then you won’t be pleased with what you find. Geez, I haven’t even had time to mention the many fantastic resaurants, cafes and watering holes….don’t worry, I think there’s a pokies place with a lovely ambience just up from edgewater that does a counter meal. Enjoy living on your old ammunitions dump. Kapow!

Anyway, if you’ve got 700k to spend I’d be heading to Williamstown or even some parts of Newport to have a look at what you can get. Much nicer than Marybrnong.

Nigel,
The reason equity will be eaten away is because there is a price slump….so you seem to be contradicting yourself a bit here. People will find it harder to access their equity as banks tighten their credit policiies.

The rise in interest rates will lead to difficulty in serviceability which will lead to people selling which will lead to an over supply which in turn drives prices DOWN.

Since Terry W has spent so much time answering questions already allow me Cross Collateralisation is when you use one property as security to purchase another. ie. You may have 50k equity in your principal place of residence (PPOR) and want to use this equity to purchase an investment property, so the bank will suggest you use the 50k equity in your pricipal residence to secure a loan for the investment one. This is a bad idea because obviously if things go ARSE UP as they say, you risk losing not only your investment property but also your principal place of residence as the bank sells things up to recover their money! Banks of course love to do things this way because it gives THEM more security. A more desirable way to do things would be to simply draw down against the equity you already have in your PPOR via a line of credit loan and then using that money as deposit for the purchase of the investment property.

Murray, speaking to some people who currently work in the mines I have been told it is much easier to get work once you are actually over there. For example one person I spoke to said basically interviews were held every Wednesday at that particular mine, all you had to do was show up.

Nina I don’t have any invesment properties as yet so take my advice as you will. In my opinion after reading your situation I would be focussing on purchasing a PPOR. The reason being is that given your stated level of income I doubt you would qualify (nor would it be a good idea) to take out a loan for an investment property at this stage. Any period of vacancy would tip you over edge financially. What you have said though is that you are earning enough money to pay the rent. I would be focussing on finding an area where you could purchase a home for a similar figure to the amount of rent you are currently paying. This of course could mean moving to an area a bit further out. The benefits of this in my opinion include 1)Locking in a property at todays prices. 2) By taking the step of purchasing a property you can begin accumulating that magic thing that appears out of thin air- EQUITY (the difference between what you owe on your mortgage and the value of the property). It may take 5 or 10 years, but as house prices increase and your equity does, you could find yourself with $50,000 or $100,000 worth of equity at some time in the future. Nina by this stage your husbands income may have increased and you can then use this equity to obtain loans to fund further purchases of property or shares.

Nina two years ago I was in a similar position to you. I decided to bite the bullet and purchase a place just to get out of the rat race of renting. I had minimal deposit and even took out a small personal loan to increase the amount of initial deposit I had (generally the higher deposit you have initially the lower the interest rate will be) so that over the life of the loan I am paying a lessor interest rate than those no money down loans (you then pay down the smaller personal loan ASAP as it will have the highest rate of interest). The result? Two years on prices have increased and I now have around $50-60k “equity” which has appeared out of thin air. I would never have been able to save this amount of money over a two year period.

It may take 10 years or so nina for this kind of equity to appear but would you rather be sitting back in 10 years with 100k of equity or nothing?

Given your stated financial position though nina it’s very important you don’t over extend yourself in the current climate of rising interest rates. Be realistic and give yourself a buffer for interest rate rises.

Just my schmuck opinion. If anyone can pick it to pieces then fell free to do so.
Good Luck

So I should expand. Obviously I wasn’t bagging the west. I was merely pointing out some facts, the most crucial of which is that you can get to the city in 15-20 mins. Living in Williamstown and travelling over the West Gate daily I know this is about how long it takes me to get to the CBD so there is no way in hell you are going to get there in 15-20 from truganina.

Ocean? City in view? hahaa. Yeah ok, so there’s “werribee beach” lol and the city can be seen from afar because there is nothing out there to spoil your view! But I’m just being a bitch, the real clanger in here is that you said it’s only 15.20 mins uninterrupted on the on the highway-true may it be, how long do you think it will take you during peak hour when people are trying to get to work?? The traffic banks back and you’re looking at a 45 minute trip in most cases.