Hi Everyone!
I've been looking at Loch Sport and wondered if anyone knows anything about this area in terms of investing? The area is very pretty with the Ninety Mile beach just a few minutes away and on the other side of the town is a huge lake, great for fishing and even swimming.
It's in Gipsland – Victoria
Rose
Hi rose, I just sold a block which I purchased 4 years ago for $ 8000 and sold it for $48000. If you buy this months Australian Property Investor magazine it has a special on that area and Loch Sport. They are always talking about extending the marina and building a resort called Wellington waters. It is going to have man made canals,golf course,hotel,etc.They are trying to create another Paynesville. (www.wellingtonwaters.com.au) The town is going to get town water and sewage and most of the people that visit the area are from Melbourne and are into watersports. It is about 30 minutes from Sale which is major town and not far from Golden Beach. The place has alot of potential there are blocks for $200 000 and houses over $500 000 but the thing I don't like about it is the mosquitos. If these developments go through the place will go through the roof. The reason I sold was so I could buy a block in the town I live and build a spec home as I am a builder. Hope I could help, Jason. P.S. ( Where are you from and how did you find out about Loch Sport).The local real estate agent told me people from Mackay Queensland were buying up blocks and investors from Sydney were buying blocks at Golden Beach. Another beach town which has potential is Seaspray and Glomar beach which is near Seasray which are closer to Sale.
Hi megsaletta !
Thanks for your comments on Loch Sport. We are from Melbourne and visited Loch Sport recently with a view to purchasing property as it is currently affordable in this area. I found out about the place through realestate.com
We stayed the weekend at a caravan park and we all enjoyed the serene beautiful area and people very friendly BUT hated the mozies – I mean they were soooo very annoying – even with fly spray etc it was useless, these mozies were huge compared to ones you see in Melbourne. I was told that the council will be spraying the place – lets hope so – I don't know how the people there cope with it. Apparently the flooding has made it worse with more mozies.
I do believe the prices of properties will hike when the proposed developments start – it really is a lovely area and only just over 3 hours away from Melbourne – you have both the Lake and 90 mile beach just minutes from Loch Sport.
Where abouts in Loch Sport was your land?
Rose
We had a block of land in Wilhelm Street, they suggest to buy on the north side of national park rd closer to the lake Victoria rather than the beach side near lake reeve because of the 100 year floods, they have risen the flood zone levels. The council always sprays in summer for mozies, the mozies breed when it rains in the fresh water, they are worse near lake reeve and where there are alot of tea tree, near the lake there not as bad. Sorry last months Australian Property Magazine (OCT) has spread on Loch Sport and surrounding areas. THanks Jason.
Hi,
I bought a block of land at Paradise Beach (next to Golden Beach) in 2002 for 10k, recently valued at 50k by the bank so I am happy with that. I really like the area too, my block is only a few minutes walk from the beach. I hope to build a holiday house there one day, great place to relax and go fishing. I haven't heard anything about the wellington waters development though, and the link to the website just says 'wellington waters marina development web space' on it. Do you know where I could get anymore information on this? I tried googling it but no luck..
Dan.
Dan, Wellington waters got knocked on the head from the Government, but in Octobers Australian Property Magazine it said it is on the go again? The best bet is to ring the Wellington Shire or Gary Powers Real Estate he knows everything down that way. The website is always on and off on the web, the developer is from Melbourne.I have spoken to the developer when his website was up and running, he said the blocks were starting at $250 000 on the man made canals. Thanks Jason.
We missed out when the properties were really cheap up there and I bought an original beach house there about 4 years ago for $85k. It is now only worth about 140k, but the area has massive possibilities. This block is dead flat, one street back from the water, one block back from the water and between the hotel and local shop. We will go double story which will mean views of the lake. My wife also bought a vacant block at the same time for $25k and realised 100% return when she sold it 2 years later.
Gippsland water recently submitted the plans for sewage to the ESC, to be completed by 2011. At the moment it is a quiet little town, but it is closer to Melbourne than Paynesville, has the Ocean Beach, reasonable boating facilities etc. Anywhere else in Vic, and the values would be in the $100's of thousands.
Where else could you buy a place overlooking a marina for less than $300k!
For capital gain, pick your area carefully though. Don't go anywhere Lake Reeve (wallaby st etc) Get as close to the main
Lake as possible and a view if you can. And don't rely on holiday rentals being consistent.
I have also heard wellington waters is a no go…knocked back on an enviromental impact assessment? Some of the holiday house owners are putting pressure on the council to improve the area but I only pay $650 for weekly rubbish collections, good roads and lots of parks and beach access.
You get used to the mossies, but I don't like the march flies….aeroguard is known as the Loch Sport aftershave.
Biggest thing going against the place is 50km of the most boring road in the world on the way in, and a bunch of retired permanent population who "like things the way they are". Coffee is getting better there though!!! (they need to drop the price of a breakfast).
Log onto the lochsport forum (lochsport.com), link on the right hand side to community chat forum. That will give you a good idea of what people up there seem to have concerns with.
Good luck.
Oh, and property prices have flattened over the last 2 years. There are heaps of blocks that have been sitting there for 1-2 years with no offers, so go in VERY low….
Found a good forum for those looking at property investment in loch sport at http://www.lochsport.org. Good way to connect to the locals who seem to know property in loch sport pretty well and where not to buy.
I used to live in a town near there…. It's a popular destination for holiday makers as well as people who live there. So you could use it personally for a holiday home, or use it as a furnished rental for holiday makers. I could see potential for growth down there. They have been trying to build that place up for quite a few years now, i'm not sure what their progress is like but I'd be keen to find out. I might go have a look see shortly now that i have some downtime coming up.
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