Hi all,
I have been trying to find some positive geared property investment around the Sydney CBD area – as you may be aware, these are very difficult to find. I am thinking that given Rents are generally quite high in Sydney, a positive-geared or almost-breakeven investment might be possible.
The closest one I could find were investment properties in Unilodge near Sydney CBD. Properties are roughly at the $160k mark, and rents are generally good, and close-to-guaranteed.
What are your thoughts of investing in Unilodge? I am looking for long-term capital appreciation, and enough rent so I can break-even in terms of cashflow.
Pros/Cons on Unilodge would be most helpful.
Best regards,
Ajaylong-term CG in unilodge-type accommodation is not great. Have you checked out the price history?
Also, another point to consider, the studios are tiny (< 50 sqm), some lenders may not lend to you due to their small size?
Now I remember why this topic was so familiar to me (read about it recently on another property forum)
Thanks – where can you get price history? I have heard of this in the past but I have never been able to find it via internet search.
Any suggestions?
For Free data: I go to the domain website every week to download or peruse the latest auction results.
http://www.domain.com.au/Public/weekinreview.aspx?cid=AuctionResultsI look up specific postcodes here: (recent sales over the past week)
http://www.homepriceguide.com.au/auction_results/index.cfm?source=apmIf you don't want to have to check the sales every week, you can use the resources on http://www.onthehouse.com.au – although data is not guaranteed to be complete.
Otherwise you have to pay for the data from Home Price Guide or something similar.
Hi,
I have been that close to buy in Unilodge. However, I found out that there is a law, now reinforced, to keep the rooms for students, ie you cannot rent it out yourself. As the rent is very high, it is mostly rented to overseas students (Australian know the prices and would not touch it), which means that when the room is not rented in the beginning of uni session, there is very little chance it would be rented later on.
You are told there is just a 6% management fee, however it is 6.6% including GST, and you need to add a let fee (one week rent + GST), an admin fee and an advertising fee! The room I was looking at was rented at $495 pw, so there was $443 fees to add to the initial calculation (for one lease in the year), ie the return was 6.88% and not 7.06% as announced, BUT only if the flat is rented out 52/52. Before putting the deposit, I asked a copy of the current lease, it was a 3 weeks one!!! Meaning that I would have had a good chance to wait near 5 months for a student, unless I would halve the rent.
Do ask a copy of the current lease and the "non-pool deed agreement" before signing anything or you are in for a surprise.
Cheers
PerceneijWhat about finance. THese units are very small so you will probably need a large deposit of maybe 30 to 40%.
Low capital growth too. one of my friends had one there and was trying to sell about 10 years ago for $130,000.
Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
back when i was a student, i stayed at unilodge brisbane for 1 semester.
the biggest hurdle is that as mentioned you can only rent out to students and not privately. you must have a student visa to apply to stay there.
the apts are very small, the smallest studio is only 18 sqm i believe. as mentioned getting finance can be hard.
low capital growth as student apartments are a dime a dozen and there's nothing special about these.
i don't know about sydney but the brisbane manager was crap. the only thing unilodge really care about is milking students for their $$$.
the walls are very thin.
students might not stay for the entire year, especially over summer.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
