Geelong

generally grovedale is a good place to buy/live, good areas are grovedale, belmont, hamlyn heights, highton- bad areas are, corio, norlane, and north shore, i would suggest not going into those ones

generally for lifestyle purposes you would avoid Corio, Norlane and Whittington as suggested by llauren, although they may prove to be a good longer term investment.

New development in Armstrong Creek will be close to grovedale. Not sure what $ range though.

Apartments/units near Geelong West (Pakington Street) can still be found at a reasonable price.

Hamlyn Heights / Herne Hill / Manifold Heights – all very reasonable areas with good rental returns and demand.

That is very helpful JacM.
Everyone keeps mentioning 'make sure the numbers work'. But I'm a little confused as to how to calculate my numbers.
Is anyone able to shed any light on this formula?

Hi Just begging

I have not started in invest yet myself so please only take my advice lightly and just has a rough guide but I have lived in Geelong my whole life, so i will suggest the areas that are considered "lower end" and some areas that seem to have high demand and are commonly have middle – upper class family's living in these areas.

Corio: By far is lowest social economic area in geelong and just about every house here is a government commission home and are about 40 to 50 years old. It is not unusual to see houses that have been burnt down by people deliberately and the area is clearly has some very shady people living there. Saying that there are many people living in corio who i personally know who are good people and pay there rent on time and keep the property well looked after and respect it. The area is close to shops/plaza  and is about a 10 minute drive into the CBD.

Whittington:  Whittington is like corio but not as bad. I grew up in whittington but on the better side. There are 2 sides in this area the commisson home side and the other side that has normal houses and this area seems to be growing because of the high demand for infrastructure (this area has everything – schools, shops, buses, library, medical etc) My mum brought our house 7 years ago for 230,000 and has recently been revalued at 287,000. This area like already stated is a mix or lower and middle class families.

Leopold, Newtown, waurn ponds, east geelong: Are great areas with high demand for rental from my research especialy for new families and professional couples. Newtown is quite trendy and most likely out of your budget. I am personally planning on investing in east geelong as it falls into my mum and myself budget (joint venture). Waurn ponds and leopold are very popular suburbs in the geelong area.

highton: is expensive and has manly established families and older people living in these areas. Therefore not a lot of demand for  tenants. Still worth a look at though.

Bell post hill, Hamlyn heights: Are areas with a diverse range of people from different cultures. This area only has the basics such as a small supermakret, primary school and few little shops as well.

Hope this gives you a rough idea about the area. Feel free to PM me if need be.

Cheers

Scotty

there are dodgy people in every suburb including the so called elite suburbs, not just corio and norlane…….Eventually these comission homes will be redeveloped, and this suburb will prosper.

by the way i obviously intended to say; if the council rates are $900 a year, then per week, it's $900/ 52. 

I started a thread about investing in dodgy suburbs a little while back.  People referred to valid cases such as Richmond VIC.  Once upon a time, you would not get of the train in Richmond.  No way.  Now, it's a lifestyle suburb and super expensive.   Footscray is following suit.  Even Frankston has gone up in value despite is dodgy profile.  Why?  It's commutable to the cbd for people that work in the cbd each day, and it's near the water, and has all the stuff people need – freeways, trains, shopping centres and all the rest of it.  Corio is not at all far from Geelong CBD.  The geography of that will not change.  It's not like in the future God will say "oh hang on, we're actually going to shift Corio into the desert just to upset the apple cart with investors".  Corio will always be positioned where it is, relative to the established cities of Geelong and Melbourne, and a train line which is unlikely to be torn down.  When the near suburbs fill up, the cheaper suburbs will fill the blank space currently on the map and Corio will, by sheer proximity to Geelong, polish up.  It's a given, in my opinion.

Hi guys

I live near Geelong and have been looking around corio/norlane area and there has been a lot of re development going on in these suburbs