Investors weighing up their opportunities would do well to look at this region, according to a prominent market commentator. But they need to act fast – with advice from a real-life investor indicating that the market is on the move already.
Sydney and Melbourne investors looking to expand their portfolio or redirect funds from a recent property sale should look north of the border, according to Right Property Group director Victor Kumar.
Mr Kumar made the comments in light of recent predictions that real estate prices in Sydney’s outer-west are due for a decline – speculating on where investors looking to capitalise on the peak of the market could redirect their funds.
“If you were to sell, I would sell and then replace the asset. So say my exposure was $300,000 in that area [western Sydney] which is the one property. If I sold that I would want to replace that with the same exposure in a different market which is still going through its upswing,” Mr Kumar said.
As the low-entry point opportunities disappear from the Sydney and Melbourne markets, investors should look to markets in proximity to Australia’s third largest city, Brisbane.
“So a good example would be taking that money to the Brisbane market, in pockets such as Logan, where the market still has got a lot of steam to go upwards and I would be able then, for the very same exposure, to have two properties there which would then go through its growth phase again, so you’ve got a bit of your profit back and you’ve still got your eggs in the basket,” Mr Kumar said.
Avid property investor Heroly Chour has five properties in the Logan area, with two purchased in the last 12 months.
He set his sights on the area in search of low entry point properties with value-adding opportunities and decent rental yields, and said that so far he’s been impressed by the extent of future development plans.
“The area is really, really good at the moment. The councils have developments happening, around Woodridge there’s lots of development going on and Logan itself has stuff happening too,” he explained.
But the market’s moving fast, according to Mr Chour.
“You can get low entry if you’re lucky, but it is going up. It’s hovering around the $300,000 to $330,000 mark. I’m struggling to persuade vendors to sell at lower prices unless it’s a distressed sale,” he explained.
The market’s good fortune hasn’t been lost on local owner-occupiers either, if his experience is anything to go by.
“There’s also scenarios where you’ve got four homeowners getting together and saying ‘We’re going to sell our property in one hit to a developer’. I’m seeing that starting to creep up. I think it must have been from all the hype in the news, people now have it in their heads that if they get together as one and sell together, then they’ll get a higher price,” he said.
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