Hi all,
I’m looking at buying a house as a rental property, however, the dwelling sits on a block which has been subdivided.
The house I wish to purchase is the front street-facing property and the rear property is a new double storey townhouse. Both residences have a shared driveway and each has their own double garage.
The house has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and has undergone recent renovations and has a fairly large front yard. The house is walking distance to the local shops, doctor’s surgery, Primary School, Parks, Beach, Train Station, take-away shops, freeways and the bus stop is literally out the front of the property. The property is in the South Eastern suburbs in Melbourne.
We intend to rent out this property as it’s an investment which we plan to hold onto long term. There’s absolutely nothing left to do for this property as it can be rented out as is.
Apart from the obvious issue of having a small backyard, are there any other cons to purchasing a house on a subdivided block?
Advice greatly appreciated :)
Thanks,
youngm
There would be an insurance policy for the shared driveway, so at some point the owners of the front and rear dwellings need to agree on the policy and pitch in their respective share of the policy price. This would be quite problematic if one owner would not agree. You’d then have a public liability risk on the common parts. If a visitor trips on the driveway and wants to sue someone, you’re exposed without some sort of insurance.
A large house with a smaller backyard might be less desirable for a family with young children, but no problem as the children get a bit older. If the area has a suitable outdoor entertaining area there should be no issue.
If the rear dwelling had been a one-bedroom flat and a single male lived in it, a family with young children might be reluctant to reside in the front dwelling (a relatively-resolvable issue by increasing fence heights), but given that the rear dwelling does not fall into that category, no problem.
Jacqui Middleton | Middleton Buyers Advocates
http://www.middletonbuyersadvocates.com.au
Email Me | Phone MeVIC Buyers' Agents for investors, home buyers & SMSFs.
As you mentioned yourself but a 4 bedroom home is for a fairly large family (usually 3-4 kids) and having a small backyard does not give them much to play with. Me personally from the areas i look around do not see many sub-divided blocks with 4 bedrooms so that is quite interesting.
All that being said the days of big back yards are starting to be irrelevant as kids have pretty much replaced digging holes and looking for worms, with playing xbox and on the ipad.
Thanks for tuning in JacM & Ben.
I guess it’s a 3 BR plus a Study since one of the rooms doesn’t have a BIR, however, it can be used as a BR if one was so inclined.
The property is very close to beautiful, large park-lands, so if a family had younger kids who like playgrounds, it’s only a 200-300m walk to these parklands. In the other direction approx 200m is a row of shops and an IGA Grocery Store, take away food shops, DVD store and a new 7-day/week GP surgery. Then 200m further down from this string of shops is the local Primary School.
In terms of proximity to all amenities, it ticks all the boxes. Yes, its probably a 30-40 year old house, however, it’s been very well renovated and the brickword has been rendered to give it a more modern/contemporary look. The new townhouse at the rear is rendered the same color to give it a consistent look. The vendors have adult children who are now at Uni, so it seems as if the vendor will move into the new rear Townhouse and the kids will probably move out on their own.
I guess my only reluctance is the fact that it’s a subdivided property. Although the front dwelling occupies approx 500sqm of the block (2/3rds of the 754sqm block). Being a subdivided block, I’m guessing the capital growth of the property will be less than that of a similar sized house on a block of land all by itself?
Of course, it will be less desire. But for the same reason, you can buy it cheaper than full size block. Personally, I don’t mind.
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