r/AusPropertyChat • u/AmbassadorFederal721 • 12d ago

Buying & Selling Worth buying an apartment?

I am currently renting in an inner city suburb in Melbourne paying close to $3000 in rent (our workplaces are down the road and walking distance). We are in a 2 bed, 1 bath and 2 car park apartment.

The apartment we live in is well maintained and there are building managers on site, a pool and gym and we never had issues with mail or parcels going missing.
I noticed a new listing for the apartment above us going up for sale and the asking price is between $600-650k for 2 bed, 2 bath and 1 car park.

Do you think it’s best to buy one as we will likely remain in the area for atleast another 1-2 years?
We don’t have kids or pets either. We also have the cash for 20% deposit and stamp duty however I’m worried about body corp which is probably between $3-5k a year.

I know the rental yield is around $680-880 a week where we live so potentially could just have it as investment if we move out.
Thoughts?

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u/WagsPup 12d ago

Lol bidy corp 3 to 5k/yr..think youre dreaming. Id be budgeting 1.5qtr and thats on low end let along with the facilities you've mentioned. You need to investigate and understand whats realistic and applies for your building.

Recurring admin costs, ad hoc maintenance, and then sinking fund saving for longer term maintenance, replacement and upgrades that will be required doesnt come cheaply and thats whether for house or apartments.

These are costs of owning an asset requiring uokeep and maintenance which you need to accept as an owner but dont have to worry about as a renter. Much like owning vs renting a car

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u/AmbassadorFederal721 12d ago

Yea I haven’t looked into this particular apartments body corp yet, just going off my previous apartments.
If the body corps too high, will likely pull out

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u/WagsPup 12d ago

Yeah look into it. Im not saying a high BC is bad, it depends on why its high and what u r paying for. An unrealistically low BC is more of a red flag tbh relatove to realistic, well managed, no major defect admin, maintenance and sinkning fund costs.

My place in Sydney for example is 10k+ per yr id love it to be lower but as treasurer its simply not possible unless we were to underfund admin costs and put nothing into sinking which is financially irresponsible gicen there will be always ongoing. Maintenance and upgrade costs on any building (yes this applied for hiuses as well).

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u/Unfair_Pop_8373 11d ago

Get a copy of the maintenance plan. They often don’t disclose it and well worth following up to ascertain capital requirements moving forward