What's wrong with Logan
 

Hello
Have read a few posts lately about the Logan area of Brisbane, most of them are not very complimentary.
Can someone tell me what is wrong with this area and why to avoid settling there.

Thanks

Dave

Re: What's wrong with Logan
 

Low income area with lots of housing commission houses, high crime and lots of bored teen types hooning around. Not nice.

I will agree totally with what Mrs Dagboy keeps saying, if its cheap it will have a reason.
Having said that tho, some of these cheap areas are going to get bought into because that is the limit some people can pay. First step on the ladder has to be somewhere.

Hmmmm where to start ......

OK, to be fair, there are a couple of very nice areas in Logan City & the prices reflect that. Up the back of Springwood on the ridge are million $ homes & there are a few other areas (one of them in Loganlea of all places) that are upmarket ie 1+ acre blocks with nice houses. But as I mentioned, the prices reflect that - you wont get a house in one of those areas in the cheaper price range.

And now for the rest of it. Not sure wheher to try to dissect it suburb by suburb or just in general areas. I think I will do areas.

The first thing to realise is that the Pacific Highway divides Logan City into 2 parts. Generally east of the Pacific Highway is better than west. These suburbs include Springwood, Daisy Hill & Loganholme. The land slopes up away from the freeway to a ridge that runs north/south. As I said there is some very expensive real estate areas on the eastern side of the freeway, generally the higher the block of land, the more expensive it is. The stuff at the top of the ridge has views all the way to the Gold Coast hinterland & out towards Toowoomba. Coming down into the rest of the eastern corridor houses are more likely to be brick & tile rather than chamferboard & are generally not all the same cheapo build up & down the street. In general, the demographics on that side of the freeway are a mix of blue collar & some white collar workers, mostly 30-45 years old with young to teenage kids. There is a very large shopping mall at Loganholme & you only have to go there on a weekend to realise how many teenagers there are in the area as they all congregate there! Theres nothing much else to do & you get the associated car thefts & bullying that is common when alot of teenagers tend to congregate together. The area really developed in the late 80s & was an affordable area for younger families who have stayed there & whos kids have now reached the teen years.

The other side of the freeway (west) is dominated by suburbs like Slack Creek, Loganlea & Woodridge/Logan Central. Large numbers of single income blue collar workers, single parent families (mainly single mothers on pensions) & families drawing welfare benefits. Housing is mainly cheap butterbox type housing & lots of council housing & units. In the older established areas such as Woodridge & Slacks Creek these are second generation ie parents lived in Woodridge, kids have grown up there & now live there on benefits with their kids as well. Huge cross section of races & cultures - in itself not necessarily a bad thing, but in this instance there is quite often alot of racial tension both between races & within their own small communities. Gang violence is fairly common. Drugs are rife, needle stick injuries in parks are common, beatings & murders happen much more frequently than say in the rest of Brisbane. You tend to get areas where the teenagers get out of control & terrorise the neighbourhood. Break & enters are common (not to say they dont happen in Brisbane, they do!) & cars get broken into on a regular basis. The police are extremely over worked & very understaffed making things even more difficult. Need I continue? ;)

Browns Plains, Marsden & Hillcrest are sort of in the middle socio-economically between Woodridge & Loganholme.

Having said all that there are plenty of people who live in Logan City who dont fit the stereotype. I used to live there in one of the better areas. My cousin also lives there, her personal wealth is in the millions LOL. The problem is, for someone coming from half way around the world, you will have no idea what are the better areas & which arent. Better to avoid the area in general than to make an expensive mistake. Problem is that I see alot of the new estates in & around Brisbane (northern suburbs & places like Calamvale in the south) which in my opinion will end up very similar to Loganholme in 10-15 years time. Its a progressive cycle with new estates & young families that are struggling.

All the above is my opinion, others may have different ones. No offense to anyone that lives there, but to be honest, anyone that does or has lived there will probably realise that my comments are pretty fair :). And thats not to say if you dont live there you will never get broken into or that nothing bad ever happens. It happens everywhere, its just the severity & frequency that makes the difference. I have been trying to think of somewhere in the UK to compare it to, its very hard, probably Brixton is what springs to mind, but that may not be fair, either to Woodridge or to Brixton! Difficult for me as I dont know many areas in the UK (well not bad ones anyway :)). Someone else might be able to suggest something closer to it.

Oh & BTW, also on the same topic, other areas to avoid are Eagleby, Inala, Darra & some parts of Ipswich. But I dont have a huge amount of knowledge of Ipswich, so someone else can tackle that one ;) :).

Re: What's wrong with Logan
 

Yeah, what she said!

How come it took me half a novel to basically say the same thing? LOL

Re: What's wrong with Logan
 

Hi Mrs DagBoy

Not too much going for it then !!!!!


Dave

Re: What's wrong with Logan
 

Nope, not alot, you can see why I tactfully try to steer people away from the place ;).

Re: What's wrong with Logan
 

want to say a big thankyou for the info on this area. we have driven up past ormeau getting off the highway at different spots to look at odd properties but like you say if you don't know anything about the area you could be in trouble. the reason they are cheap is as you say.
alan and i will probably stay in the tweed area afer all and maybe not buy for a few months after all. the bank won't lend until we have an income anyway.
have you heard of the franchise "hire a hubby" by the way?
thanks again
karen

Re: What's wrong with Logan
 

Franchises, very popular with immigrants, they can be quite cheap compared to buying a business with premisis. Lots of trailer ones here, doggy wash trailer, cleaning trailer, mowing trailer, build a cat run trailer umm. What you have to weigh up is is the franchise fee going to reap you back in advertised work what you could get by setting up yourself? EG, is so and so's mowing going to get you more work than just sticking your own ads in. My kids managed to make a packet out of mowing without anybodies franchise fee.

We ourselves often call 'smoochy pooch" dog washing when the dog has rolled in something indescribable. $16.00 for the strawberry scented bubble bath, if that does not teach him not to do it again I dont know what will. :D

Re: What's wrong with Logan
 

Karen, yep, if I remember correctly they are like a *handyman* service where a guy will come in & do just about anything that the *man about the house* would normally do. Well except for the obvious with the wife LOL.

That the one you mean?

Re: What's wrong with Logan
 

thats the one! thanks for comments.
dotty, i see what you mean about the shopping centres, never seen so many ......... people! (make of that what you will!)
well, they never replied to our email anyway.
last night we met a bloke who is desperate for good builder / roofer and has many contacts so probably follow that up for al.
WE BOUGHT A HOUSE TODAY!!!
in murwillumbah, its an old pole house on flat ground, needs renovating but on 1000 sq m block, its massive and that is a lovely old town to live in. start a six month rent in tweed on saturday, its just 20 mins away so can work on it easily.
very exciting, and a good price too - $245k. (needs alot of work as i said.........!)
karen

Re: What's wrong with Logan
 

Congrats on the house, murwillumbah is a beautiful looking place, years ago the hippies took it over, bet its more property developers now tho. Good luck with the work side. Let us know how you get on.