suzimc

Eek, haven't checked for a few months, been a bit busy with getting married and moving to the US , but last night we took asnother look at the house prices in Sydney and they seem to have gone up massively again in the last 3 months or so. I know it's an age old story but just had to share my shock! Brissie is looking more atractive by the minute

Wendy

I'm going to Adelaide, house prices are a lot nicer there

Sandra

Saw you started in Reading...was that Berkshire or the Us?

Sydney prices are serious. Wherever one lived in the UK unless it is London to Sydney then it costs!

Too many people for my liking equate moving to Aus with selling up UK and buying bigger and better (areas - both size and location) those days are dead and gone...along with the ideal that they need skills here...price wise the paid for skills are coming in from Asia.

Personal opinion only of course

ginaf

I think Sydney is already heading for a major thump

"THE Federal Government would be happy to never see another housing boom, Treasurer Peter Costello said.
Apart from WA and the Northern Territory, housing prices have flattened in recent times, after they boomed through the early part of this decade.

Mr Costello said it was a welcome thing that housing had been slowing for some time.

"I think house prices got too high and as a consequence of that, you would expect a correction and we're getting a correction," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"I want a see a correction, once you have had that correction, what you would like to see is stable prices, maybe small increments, but I don't want to go back to the situation where house prices were booming in the way they were a couple of years ago.

"That's not good for an economy. Remember this point, the bigger the boom, the bigger the bust.

"The reason we're against booms, is we're against busts," he said."

Quokka

Sydneys on the way down fast

http://finance.news.com.au/story/0,1...24-462,00.html

ABCDiamond

Some Median House price history for one of the Western Suburbs of Sydney:

Jun-02 $251,694.92
Jan-03 $282,608.70
Jun-03 $297,000.00
Jan-04 $325,000.00
Jun-04 $345,000.00
Jan-05 ??
Jun-05 $340,000.00
Jan-06 $335,000.00


Don't go by the agents asking prices, many are overstated.

spottydog

I think it depends on where you look. We were thinking of buying in the Balmain area. Balmain East (our preference) will cost in the region of $1.5M for a 3 bed terrace, Balmain (less than a mile up the road) around the $800k to $1M for a 3 bed house and Rozelle is a bit less still. But after a lot of thinking we have decided to instead go down to the Shire so we'll have a half hour train ride to the CBD as its 20km out but we'll be able to buy a 3/4 bed detached house with a reasonable garden for $500k to $650k.

For us this means we will have the same lowish mortgage as the UK, be travelling the same time into work (with later running trains for nights out in town plus travel expenses will be less in $ than they were in £ in the UK) but have a property 5 times the size of our UK one where we can entertain friends and enjoy great views living a wonderfully relaxed lifestyle.

From what I've seen the Sydney market is very jittery, overpriced prperties aren't selling but those that offer good value or correctly priced are selling rapidly. Auction clearance rates are also much better than they have been recently and estate agents windows are always full of lookers. As to what the markets going to do I think its difficult to say and there is no consistency in press reports. I don't think anyone will say its going to rise massively but speaking to people (not just those in the housing market trade) it seems most people think stabilisation is most likely with maybe small falls.

Amazulu

Why do you want to go to Sydney anyway? It's a craphole. Big city prices with big city attitudes. It's like London with a harbour.

Amazulu

Maybe in IT but not in engineering where most of the skills are coming from UK, Europe, US & Australia. A lot of companies are wary of Asian skills, they have got their fingers burnt badly in the past.

suzimc

That'll be good old Reading Berkshire! Are you from around there?

I am sure that we could get more for our money in Reading than in Sydney right now (and a LOT more for our money in Alexandria)

NickyC

Certainly does. There's been no neglible difference in sales figures around here (Eastern suburbs) over the last couple of years. Sure, prices have stopped rising, but they haven't fallen by any amount that you'd notice. When average house prices are $1.2m, even a 5% fall in value only brings it down to $1.14m. Still an absolute fortune..

Location is still everything. If the property is in a desirable location (be that near the beach, city, harbour view etc.) there will be people wanting it and happy to pay for it. Balmain East prices actually ROSE by 16.3% last year (as you might have noticed!) .

spottydog

I think that is due to the small amount of properties sold as much as anything else since the last one I saw on the market sold in about October last year for $1.3M. One on the main road (mid-terrace billed as 3 beds but one was only a single size and the only window was onto the bathroom) was passed in at auction at $1.75M last week and they are now advertising it at $1.9M even though one exactly the same but end of terrace sold 6 months ago for $1.8M so $1.75M sounds right to me. Unfortunately houses in Balmain East only seem to come up for sale at a rate of one every few months which I think helps to keep them overpriced and also distorts the figures massively.

Anastasia Beaverhausen

Tell me about it, we have decided to head a bit further south towards Wollongong. A bit more affordable and still comutable to Sydney.

Reading is picking up at bit at the mo, we have had so many viewers since christmas and the houses similar to ours that are going on the market now are higher than our original price. Just pick the right agent, send me a PM if you want to know who to avoid.

touchingcloth

Are you sure about that...if so you're welcome to my house ($580KAUD approx):

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetai...a_n=2&tr_t=buy



TC

ABCDiamond

!! I've got a 5 bed place in Sydney for about $420k, and it's closer to the CBD than Reading is to London CBD. And NO, I won't swap it for yours