MOOGTHEFOOD

Been looking at sippy downs on the sunshine coast, can anyone shed any light as to what it is like. E.g schools, houses, shops and the overall neighbourhood.
It seems to be a nice place but you never know.

jad n rich

Its gone ahead because there will be more shops there, called a town centre, bascially its a suburb a bit out the way, on the side of the highway but theres a mass of land there to be developed, thousands and thousands of plots. Its started out as really cheap, think its now nearly as expensive as areas further into the coast. The schools are fairly new, the high school looks quite impressive, we considered it, but a lot of aussies have told us there are some real behaviour problems there, and a lot of kids with nothing to do at night crawling around the estate wrecking stuff etc, but you get some degree of that in most of the big estates, so check that out further. The area has so many rental properties it would be really easy to rent there and try it out for a while. Its mainly flat your project home type development, newish with more and more sections being opened up.

jce

its a newish development - first phase was about 12 years ago and the last phase will start developmet about Aug this year. There are a few more adjacent fields that will also see development - but thats the case with every area around here at the moment

The new University of the Sunshine Coast is located there and is scheduled for some major expansion in the next few years and will be a centre of excellance for medical training - the equipment they have there now is the most advanced in the world - some of it isnt even in UK hospitals yet.

There is a planned new "town centre" which will appear in about 18 months but wont be the typical mall type development but will be similar to a UK town centre - thats the plan anyway although Woolworths just want a huge supermarket there. The area of the town centre is huge! Bigger than most UK towns

It is a very well laid out area with loads of public parks and walk ways around the lakes that have been developed in the centre of the estate. Everyone i've met that lives there loves it whereas those that live around it seem to have some odd snobbish attitude to it? I'd liken it to Mountain Creek - when that was developed those in Buderim looked down on it as cheap and "lower" and now those in Mountain Creek look down on Sippy Downs. I get the feeling here that living in more established areas is considered more higher socially than living on these new areas. There are plenty fo rentals there cause with new estates most people buy a block, build a house then immediately sell it - all about making some money - and if they dont sell then they rent. All new housing areas are a bit transient for the first few years before they settle down

Bottom line is that IMHO Sippy Downs is nicer than most areas around here, is about 25% cheaper to buy in - what you get for $450,000 there costs $550,000 in nearby areas that arent as well served with shops, public amenities, public transport and road connections - the new link to the Sunshione Motorway will solve the problem of the whole estate having to exit onto one small roundabout.

To me its the most accesible area around here by far - you are 2 kms off the Bruce Highway. The Sunshine Motorway takes you almost straight to the beach (takes about 5 mins). There is already a large shopping area (Woolworths, chemists, doctors, travel agents, Warehouse, gym, Toyota service centre, 1st Choice alcohol, tavern, Joyce Mayne) with another one arriving soon - and access to a huge new homemaker centre on Kawana Island which takes about 5 mins as well.

But everyone has there own views and these are just mine - and i also think its the best area to invest in as there is lots of capital growth there.

But i'm only a strategic planner and economic development professional of 20 years experience!

MOOGTHEFOOD

Thanks for the info, very much appreciated. You have basically confirmed what i was thinking in that it looks very similar to mountain creek but quite a bit cheaper on the house front.
Should be out there july/august time all going well and is definately where we are going to look at first. Nice to here that there is plenty more houses going to be built as i am a bricklayer.

Many thanks
Moggy

jce

The next phase at Sippy Downs will get Council approval soon with the estate infrastructure completed in about Aug and the houses available by Dec - so should be plenty of work but the new houses might not be available for you to buy but as most Queenslanders seem to move every 2 years then there is a huge amount of property always available.

Not sure what site you are checking but www.realestate.com.au seems to be the best and the one that all estate agents around here use

Any other info then let me know as we've just been through the whole looking for a house farce Saw about 60 properties before deciding on one. Its far harder than the UK cause there is SOOO much choice and very single house is so different from the last. In the price range we were looking at you could get a 3 bed house or even a slightly older 6 bed with pool or a brand new 6 bed with no pool. Price is based not just on beds and location but block size. There are new 4 beds going up on 400m2 blocks but there are also 4 beds going up on 700m2 blocks - which is about the largest block size at Sippy Downs. As the house size is about the same its all about garden and proximity to your neighbours - remembering that construction and materials here arent anywhere as near the same standard as the UK

My advice is get here, get a rental for at least 6 months then go looking for something to buy and based on your timetable that should be when the whole new batch of houses at Sippy Downs hit the market. You'll also have a better feel for areas and what suits you best.

When we moved here we rented (cause we needed somewhere to live within the week and that rental was all the was available in our timeframe) on the Rainforest Sanctary estate in Buderim which is touted as a high class estate and "very desireable" but to be honest its an estate, has no public parks or amenities and is so overpriced that its laughable. So many people bought land there and put far too expensive houses on them - the same house in Sippy Downs will be $450,000 and in the Rainforest Sanctuary it will be over $550,000 - closer to $600,00. Its all about marketing and appealing to the base instinct of being better than your old neighbour - but latest sales of desperate sellers are coming more into realistic figures. Lots of people stretched themselves a bit too far i think.