Forum Replies Created
- JustAllan wrote:The area south of Charlestown (Windale) has a large proportion of government housing tenants. The NSW Gov. has been selling them off for several years, but the area will take decades (if ever) to improve. i.e. If your neighbour is a drug-using, wife-slugging, foul mouth with a dog that never shuts up, children that always have swinging full nappies, that never wash their car, themselves, or mow their lawn… then even private owners/renters begin to to think, “What’s the point in taking care of the property I own/rent!?”
I read an article online a few years ago, that said something like Windale was the highest crime/drug/low income area – or a combination of all three… I forget exactly now. But just stand outside Windale shops any day of the week and note the number of druggies, no-hopers and people with mental problems that pass by.
The main difficulty I see in buying there is, you’d mainly get tenants who have been ousted out of their NSW Housing property. They can’t afford higher rent, and most of their “friends” live in that area. Most other folks avoid living there if they can. So it kind of perpetuates the quality of renter, and of course that stagnates rents, capital gain, etc. I certainly wouldn’t be counting on land banking in that area… but someone has to raise the bar some day I guess. May as well be you?
Gateshead is better. Probably a little more so too, since they split the two suburbs with the bypass. Keep in mind though, it’s just up the road from Windale, and many homes are built in the same 50s/60s style. (Although more do have weatherboards, rather than the typical government slum two-sheet asbestos cladding.) I’d be concerned that most Windale addicts know the people in their own suburb are home 24/7 on welfare – so they’ll go “shopping” to support their habit just outside of their own suburb. I do know a guy that lives in Gateshead though, and he reckons neighbours watch out for each other and everyone knows everyone.
When I was in school in the 80s, Gateshead High had one of the worst reputations of any school in Newcastle. (Yes, I’m biased. I’ve lived in the area forever.)
Adamstown/Charlestown… Property older stock again like Gateshead/Windale. (No new land that can be released, unlike Rutherford.) High (ridiculous in MHO) prices, but mostly employed city workers looking to live there.
Rutherford… Not impressed with how they’re destroyin… er… developing – farming land in the area. But there’s no comparison with Windale/Gateshead. Mostly new homes on the eastern side of the highway. So yes, plenty of opportunity for depreciation. No, not near the beach, but lots of industrial and residential development in the area. Just be sure not to buy at the lowest point. i.e. Take a drive past Maitland hospital (so it’s on your left) and bear left over the old bridge. That huge valley beneath the bridge was flooded nearly to the top a couple of years ago, and wasn’t all that far from reaching the bridge. It subsides quickly once the rain ceases though.
Thanks JustAllan for the local knowledge. I drove up to Newcastle/Maitland on Monday and checked it out. I looked at Aberglassyn area, Maitland, then went to Newcastle and checked out Merewether, Adamstown, Charlestown, Gateshead and Redhead just for fun for the surf. As I drove up the hill at Gateshead and over the bypass I immediately noticed the difference and knew it was commission housing. Gateshead itself does look very neat an tidy despite being fibro and I’m surprised there have been no knock-downs yet.
At this moment I’m leaning towards McKeachies Run. I don’t like that carving up of farmland but its inevitable. I’m originally from the Illawarra and it is exactly the same there if not more. I know a bloke who sold 100 acres of farmland at the foot of the Macquarie Pass to a development company for 20M. That parcel of land will probably join up all the other developments in about 10-20 years.
