Buying in Yarraville, Victoria

Most of it happened about 15-20 years ago. There was also the great ‘push’ towards Newport as a possible new close to city hub, but there still remains the two defeating factors for the area.

Firstly, the attraction of the area is really Williamstown more than either Yarraville or Newport. Both Newport and Yarraville are banked up with heavy transit roads and have large pieces of highway running through them. This is not an issue on non-work days but you get to 4pm on a normal work day .. you can still spend anything up to an hour in traffic just crossing over from the city.

However I will say there has been a lot of revamping of the industrial zones .. a lot have been compiled into ‘estates’ however the placement of these estates is usually below par. Yes .. I’m thinking of the area near McIvor reserve .. which literally banks out onto the freeway .. but there are others.

Yarraville is a changing suburb and the ‘good’ places with maybe a little backyard have largely been worked up to modern standards by renovators who have been doing things in the last ten years. That of course doesnt mean that there arent still good deals out there to be had, they are just scarcer on the ground.

It remains attractive for ‘early workers’ who dont need normal hours to be caught in traffic and people who need to be close to the city for various reasons. Its not the best of a renting area from my overall perspective having bought into it twice. One of the few areas I had extended ‘gaps’ in my rental period. Please note this was 2004 and things may have changed.

The value for buying and renovating lies in being able to make a reasonably valid improvement on existing capital for the project you take on. If you think you can find such a project in Yarraville and the figures stack up, like any project .. do your due dilligence on the overall area and what you should expect. That remains your key to getting this area right. And this remains one of the areas where the due dilligence is incredibly important to accurrate accrual.