When you’re choosing to invest in property, there are so many factors to take into account.
Is it a long-term home, an investment, or a temporary home designed to help you achieve capital growth fast? Will you be a long-term owner-occupier or renting your property out?
The resident – whether that’s you or a tenant – is a key consideration. You need to think about the needs of the person living in that property, both now and in the future. That includes factoring in car parking, public transport, schools and cafes.
Choosing the right suburb
According to buyers’ agent Matt Skehan it’s a good idea to cast your net wide when you’re looking for the right suburb. What you need to look for is a suburb with ‘lifestyle drivers’, he says.
You personally may not want to live there, but it should be desirable to prospective tenants. Many experts will tell you that being close to transport is essential, but Matt says this depends on where you buy. In Melbourne, for example, traffic is thick and public transport is essential, while in Adelaide, it’s not absolutely necessary, because with a population of 1.3 million it’s a ‘25-minute city’, and you can easily get anywhere in the car within half an hour.
Every city has different lifestyle drivers. In Brisbane, he highlights ‘river suburbs’ such as New Farm, which will continue to retain desirability as the city grows. Brissie residents are reliant on buses, but being two kilometres from the city, New Farm will remain an attractive prospect regardless of the infrastructure that develops in Brisbane’s suburbs over time.
