Hi All,
I’m hoping to hear from some guru’s who have had more to do with Armidale in the past few years. Not much has been said in this forum.
I am looking at an off the plan option which is +cf or closer to neutral after tax and depreciation.
The area has apparantly an excellent low rental vacancy because of the uni.
My concerns however are on the capital growth of the area being a rural area. Not much happens there. The local Dumaresq council doesn’t seem too vibrant for future growth or development.
Does anyone care to tell me otherwise?
I’m wondering if I go ahead, I could have a very slow investment.
Thanks,
Lee.Others can probably help you more specifically, but as someone who has had some involvement with Armidale over many years mainly distance ed residential schools, it seems to me Armidale’s major asset is its educational and cultural activities. When I was doing some looking in Armidale a couple of years ago, the agent told me most leases were 12 months. If students went away over Christmas they usually kept their house/flat on as they needed somewhere to keep their gear. A friend who was a student at UNE confirmed this to me.
There seem to be some good and some bad areas in the town.
I don’t know if the uni is increasing in staff, student nos – that might be relevant. Armidale seemed to be fairly static in price for a lot of the 80s and 90s. Tamworth overshadows it and is a faster growing area.
I’m not a guru, but I know the town. Armidale would have the experienced the same price growth as most towns over the last couple of years. Not sure whether the prices will be sustained – I’d say they would have come off this year.
According to a local I know, some years ago Armidale decided that it didn’t really want to encourage industry. It sees itself as a little ‘high brow’. So industry headed to Tamworth instead.
The Uni is critical to Armidale investors. Every now and then is talk about how it’s heading more toward correspondence i.e. fewer students. Not sure what the word is these days. Of course, if you’re buying something brand new, I’m not sure you’ll want students in it anyway. (And they may not be able to afford it, either.)
One fortunate thing about Armidale is that is has plenty of water. I heard the dam is large enough for a town of 50,000 people but population stalled in the mid 30s.
If you’re in Sydney, I’d be going there for a few days for a visit before investing – take the Gloucester route, it’s a great drive.
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http://www.depreciator.com.auI went to uni in Armidale and still have friends I visit there. It’s a great place to live (because it isn’t industrial), but I’d wait a few years for it to be a great place to invest. My opinion is that you have missed the boat on this one. I was up there a couple of weeks ago visiting friends and looked at property, but the returns are pretty low now, and I think the growth is over for quite some time to come. While you might find an OK deal, there may be better ones elsewhere.
Cheers,
scotty3
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