Investing in Yarrabilba or Craigieburn

Hi Peyton,
Any reason you are going for a new place? Everything at Yarrabilba is likely to be new (maybe even OTP?? eekk!!) but, unless you are building a place yourself, buying new is unlikely to give a new investor a fair shake at making any money for quite some years.

Yarrabilba is smack in the middle of thousands of acres of greenfield land. This means land scarcity won’t be driving up prices any time soon. And, if you take a look at an earlier question re Yarrabilba, you will see how tightly packed these new places are :-
https://www.propertyinvesting.com/topic/5016399-emerging-communities/#post-5016400

Again, land is what appreciates – and if you have little of it, then any gains will likewise be little.

Re Infrastructure upgrades in Logan, we have just had a new Council elected. Hopefully that will lead to a fresh look at what is needed. Buses in Logan have been dreadful for years – hopefully a new set of eyes will see the problem and do something about it.

I don’t know Craigieburn, so no thoughts from me re that area.

Benny

Hi Peyton,
That depends on a heap of things that are for you to tell me. Are you looking for old or new, house or unit, price range, land size. Are you into renos or subdivision? City or regional? What return do you want/need? Is positive cashflow mandatory? Have you had a discussion re finance with anyone re what you can afford?

Without those (at a minimum) it becomes a bit like asking me “When I get to the end of this road, do I turn left or right or go straight?” The answer is “It depends on where you want to go” – tell me that, and I may be able to provide some better direction…. ;)

Benny

Hi Peyton,
Sorry, I must have missed this reply from you back in March. Your current post about Craigieburn tweaked my memory and had me look for this one…..

OK, with $500k possible, that is a good start. Logan is OK for $350k or so, but I am not sure you would get “newish” for that price. And if you did find something new around those numbers, it would likely be on a pocket handkerchief sized block – thus little Capital Growth.

Personally, I found that “older” worked better for me. You can still buy “old and good” as opposed to “old and wrecked”. These would be on worthwhile blocks of land (around 800m2) that give you development options further down the track. But anything new is likely to be on 300m2 or so.

Keep in mind that house prices in outer areas grow too – even if older. It works something like this :-
1. Properties in a capital city rise as circumstances permit.
2. As Inner-city properties grow, buyers start looking at “next suburb out” and start to lift its prices, and push out those already buying in “next suburb out”.
3. Meanwhile, those that were buying in NSO (next suburb out) are likewise pushed further out.
4. Each NSO pushes on the next NSO, lifting prices in all suburbs over time.
5. It is the land content that grows in value while the building depreciates !!

Even though outer may not grow as much, the cost of “outer properties” mean that it is possible to own more of them – this reduces risk, makes “cashing in” easier (selling one $300k property instead of one $1.5m property). The land sizes are typically bigger out further as the land values are less – again making development a reasonable option.

Being able to afford what you buy is a must – so I like the idea that you will look for $350k or around that mark as a first buy. I am sure there will be some good options at those numbers even today – but not new.

Benny