Inner City Apartments: Buy Buy Buy

With houses prices reaching $1 million dollars for anywhere within 10km of the CBD, my tip is that more and more people are choosing to live in apartments closer to the city rather than buying a similar priced house in whoop whoop and travel 2 hours to work.

The inner city apartment market used to be dominated by international investors, or cashed up folks whose kids were studying in Melbourne. A couple of years ago, the gross return on an apartment used to be 7%+. Nowadays, you’d be lucky to get 6%. Take Freshwater Place for example. A one bedder sells at $500,000 min but it only rents out at $450 a week. Without even taking body corporate and rates, that’s a return of way less than 5% annually! The story is only slightly better for other new apartments in the city.

My tip for inner city apartments is to buy, buy, buy..! Personally, I’ve managed to snap up a bargain at Verve501.

The benefits of living in the city are huge.

1. Save travel time to and from work. For most people, that’s 2 hours+ door-to-door time that you would otherwise never get back
2. Close access to everything - cafes, libraries, schools, transport, parks - the city has it all
3. Security - most apartments come with a security guard, swipe access, and video surveyance, so you don’t have to worry when you go on holiday for two months in the south of france - That’s probably why Grant Hackett lives in Freshwater Place
4. Cheap - well relatively cheap for the same living space
5. Facilities - most new apartments come with Tennis Courts, BBQ Area, Theatre Room, Gym, Swimming Pool.. all in your own building!
6. Views - If you get one high up enough you can get amazing views of the docklands, the bay area, the dandenongs, or straight back into the city lights
7. Low Maintenance - there’s no gardening or lawn mowing required - yay!

Don’t just take my word for it…

• Seizing a real estate chance
• Squeeze hits as house rents go through roof
• Owner-occupiers driving up rents
• Gen Y city tastes push up rents

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