paulf

Well prices have stopped jumping crazy in herts, i live there too Buy the Welwyn Hatfield times there are loads of properties that are not moving, better still browse this forum LOADS of people here can't get buyers.

dotty

I must do some work now, but do people realise that they would have a choice of hundreds of thousands of houses for well under $200,000 if they were prepared to move to the more rural parts of OZ. That applies in every state, just come off the coastline. People talk about all of OZ's space! but nobody seems to be going there. Anyway it might suit some.

dazuk

But prices have to drop substancially not just freeze if us first time buyers on average wages are to enter the market?

ABCDiamond

House prices in OZ have also stopped going crazy. Most areas will have levelled out now, and it will only be the areas that were previously undervalued, that will increase for a while. I totally agree with Dotty's earlier post on that point (and everything else she said )

We have just decided to sell our house in Sydney West, and re-invest up here in QLD, on the assumption that no material price movement will occur in Sydney for a while.

New home buyers will have to move out further from Capital cities to get cheaper housing, in the same way that it has happened in the UK, over the last few centuries How long ago did Brisbane use to be classed as a backwater ? Few people wanted to live here, but look at it now.
Where will be the next CHEAP area to take off?

I want out

To give a rough guideline, say I came to OZ with $180,000 and fancied living morgage free and prepared to start small, what would you get for your money in various different regions??

owieb

For that kind of money you could build something quite stunning! Obviously it really depends on where your block is, but say if you got a block in Iluka which is in the northern suburbs,about 25mins from the CBD, close to the coast you'd be looking at around $300K for a 730sqm block. That still leaves you $350K to build with. That would get you an absolutely stunning single storey property. If you wanted to go for two storeys you could easily spend $350K. But the thing with building is you can choose the quality of the fixtures and fittings and that is where you money will go.

As you have been looking at loads of show houses you will know how much the quality varies. You get what you pay for.

Move a bit further out north, say to Brighton, again by the coast, but 30-35 mins to the CBD, no train station yet, so you'll have a 10 min drive to one, and you'd pay $170K for the same size block.

Go down South and you'll pay around $150K for the same size block. Checkout www.landstore.com.au for blocks.

Or you buy an existing property. $650K would get you something really good in a nice suburb, infact you'll probably have enough change for a boat and car!

But saying that, don't forget the stamp duty, around the $33K for that kind of property.

One thing I would add, and obviously I don't know your financial situation, but it may be useful for others is that you will be looking at having to put down a 20% deposit, which could leave you with a mortgage of $520K. That is a big mortgage, you would have repayments of about $3,500 a month, which on Perth salaries is a huge outlay!

ABCDiamond

Look at this link here for some recent examples of prices less than $160,000. Look at the adverts that have NEW marked against them. Then you need to find out where the towns are. They are all in QLD.

The best I can find in my area is this one for about $179k, 2 bed townhouse.

NickyC

Well I can categorically say that won't buy you any kind of house in Sydney. Not even the smallest, grottiest house in the furthest out suburb, you might find an apartment bit it would be a long way out.

Whereas in a country town you could get a house on a reasonable block of land for that money. But not on the coast and particularly not within weekender distance from Sydney. You'd need to go west, past the Blue Mountains for anything reasonable.

Florida_03

Maybe not...

ABCDiamond

Bathurst-Orange area is a little bit too far west for many people.

NickyC

I remember seeing that article. Maybe you won't find much in Bathurst, after all!

I did see that realestate.com.au only displays houses in Parkes, Dubbo, Coonabarabran, Grafton and the like within that price range.

The cheapest house in NSW that they have is a 4-bed vinyl-clad place on a quarter of an acre in Baradine (near Coonabarabran) for $45,000. Though I think I read somewhere recently that you can buy houses in Silverton (near Broken Hill) for about $20,000.

paulf

Seems some areas are still affordable, and in a funny way it will make people think twice about moving to OZ which I think is good simply because of how many people are coming unstuck thinking changing countries will make everything else in their lives better
IE: the folk on new life downunder who seem to be using emigration as a last chance for thir relationships, BIG BIG Mistake.

Go Banana's !!

Thanks for the great information, but we will not be requiring a morgage - which is the big incentive for us to live there, been very, very lucky with properties, not judgement just sheer luck.

Cheers Jill

thfc

I live in Old Welwyn, just dropped my house price by 12 grand,problem is,we still havent got our Visas through and lots of intrest in the house now,only a month till Meds run out.Hoping to sell house and get Visas in a month,pushing it a bit me thinks.Still if you dont go for it and take a chance in life, you will never know.PS.If you see 4 homeless people sleeping under blankets ,outside the Howard Centre ,in about a month .Please give them a warm cup of tea it will be appreciated.Cheers

paulf

Hello yiddo!!, lol

where abouts are you heading to in OZ?
And Old Welwyn you posh sod! I live in Panshangar just down the road from you.