North Sydney Walks. Highlights of Newcastle, Hunter Valley & central coast
Went for an early morning drive to areas Newcastle/hunter valley/central coast.
Let us put all the major areas into a picture, as a picture is worth a thousand words.
Some of the practical takeaways are the following (again personal opinion only, one has to do their own due diligence): –
- There are a lot of old houses in the region which I explored while in north Sydney walks.
- There are a few new estates.
- Imagine a tenant, would they like to live in a new house or an old 100-year-old house?
- New houses are in the range of 500 to 600K (maybe more depending upon the suburb) an estimate based on communications with people during my north Sydney walks.
- There are a few dual-key homes as well, which have two tenancies in them. Only a few are allowed in an estate. They are roughly 600 to 800K (depending upon the suburb) and the rentals start from 750 per week (375*2).
- One may pick up a small development site also in the area, for example, DA approved building 3 to 4 townhouses. Again, it depends on the experience of the person doing it and the complexity of the site.
- As Sydney is becoming unaffordable, the trend may start for these regions. And even during my north Sydney walks, I felt that there are great opportunities for new residents and young couples.
- As COVID-19 has changed a few equations due to working from home and few of us, particularly in IT, may ever go to the office to work and may permanently work from home. This may increase demand for such areas.
- People who prefer a lifestyle, closer to the beach, may prefer to live in these areas, rather than the western part of Sydney (read Schofields).
- As the highways, and roads upgrade more in near future, it may make sense to commute from these areas to Sydney CBD. I have a few colleagues who already do it actually.
- Visiting any of the above areas during my north Sydney walks, it didn’t look like they are waiting for any buyers. Everywhere construction was in full swing for new houses. I was almost bitten by a guard dog on an ‘under-construction property. I was told by the tradie, that if the dog is running towards you and starts to wag the tail, that means they are friendly and won’t bite, and I don’t need to run at 100 km/hr. There is no way you can outrun a dog. It was a lesson learned. I don’t know how many such scary lessons are still left to be learned from god.
- Everywhere there was hustle and bustle observed throughout my north Sydney walks.
- If you ever go to this route, pls try the healthy lunch options at Oliver’s. It is midway on the highway, where McDonald’s is, you cannot miss it.
One point to notice was that the M1 highway was very comfortable.
A lot of information about the govt upgrades on the M1 route is on the NSW transport website
https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/m1-pacific-motorway/index.html
Even Newcastle airport went through an upgrade and has many upgrades planned as well……
All the major suburbs/hubs have been marked on the map above.
Being a technical person in IT, I always want to deep dive and do a thorough analysis of the area during north Sydney Walks. Some of the starting points are….
http://newmaitlandhospital.health.nsw.gov.au/
https://www.tafensw.edu.au/locations/hunter-central-coast/newcastle
https://huntervalleyprivatehospital.com.au/
https://www.investregional.nsw.gov.au/regions/hunter/
https://www.dpn.com.au/invest/newcastle
Disclaimer: Articles in this blog are just the author’s or authors’ personal opinions. The author or authors cannot be held responsible/liable for any content in this blog. It may or may not be correct. Please do your due diligence and seek professional advice according to your circumstances. How to Interview on Zoom Call. Tips and tricks for interviewing on zoom
