The Wakelin Blog

2013 is shaping up to be a year of modest but sustainable recovery, according to Richard Wakelin, director of Wakelin Property Advisory. “2012 was the year when the residential property market oil tanker executed a slow motion change of course. Losses decelerated in the early months of the year, we drifted sideways in the middle months, and we’re now seeing prices creeping forward...

See Monique's column in The Australian. No doubt there will be some push back from the promotors and they'll emphasise how good Defence Housing and the National Affordability Rental Scheme are. But despite their protestations, do these type of properties pass the smell test which is, can you expect strong, consistent capital growth? The answer of course is no.

Where would you prefer to invest? Where incomes are high or where incomes are low? Clearly the former is usally preferable as those with high incomes tend to be found where land values are high and they have the capacity to bid up prices further. As this map -  built with Census 2011 median incomes data - illustrates, incomes tend to fall with distance from the inner suburbs...

Paul Nugent discusses the dangers of investing in Defence Housing with ABCs The Business Show

In the current market, a budget of around $350,000 will buy you an entry level investment grade one bedroom apartment in an inner suburb of most of our capital cities, with a little more required in Melbourne and a fair amount more in Sydney. For those whose budgets don’t reach this threshold, an investment in a larger regional city is an option...