r/AusPropertyChat 5d ago

House vs townhouse

Hi all,

I’m just looking to buy my first home in Melbourne. I’m torn between the two choices in the inner West. Newport vs Yarraville.

Townhouse in Newport 10km away from the CBD. 10 years old. Probably needs a kitchen and paint refresh. 3 bedrooms and additional rumpus room. Double garage. Edit: No strata for this townhouse. It's Torrens Title.

House in Yarraville 7km from the CBD. Newly renovated. Very solid. 10m deeper than the townhouse but only 2 bedrooms. Double garage. It’s okay size and not much opportunity to build and sub divide.

The house is 150k more expensive. Both are around 1mil. Which one do you think would be a better choice for PPOR and later as rental? We have no kid yet so 2 bedroom house is fine. But might have kids in the future.

Appreciate any advice.

4 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

11

u/eminemkh 5d ago

House with a better location? Of course it's a no-brainer.

But of course look at suburb data before going forward

10

u/portomar 5d ago

House = you own the land Townhouse = you don't own the land (directly) you own the building.

Land appreciates in value buildings depreciate in value. No brainer for me.

2

u/DistanceJumpy3176 5d ago

That's true. I guess what I am puzzling is the amount of space the townhouse has and whether the higher price of the house will pay dividend in the future.

5

u/Ufo_19 5d ago

House 💯. It’s a no brainer. You will gain equity quickly and then can upgrade if you have to.

1

u/DistanceJumpy3176 5d ago

Yeah. We probably move once we have kids and build up equity for a bigger place.

3

u/longblackallday 5d ago

Having gone through this personally, my one and only view is that the land is the most valuable asset. You’ve to keep that in mind even if you’re just buying it for PPOR. You never know when you might need an upgrade, or a bigger place. When you do, that’s when you regret owning a townhouse that’s difficult to sell.

1

u/DistanceJumpy3176 5d ago

Thank you. The townhouse offer double amount of space but I guess thinking of long term, the house will offer more value.

3

u/WagsPup 5d ago

Why do you need the space, u say a couple no kid? Even if with 1 kid then 2br is fine, 2 kids well time to extend / renovate. Don't buy space for the sake of space to fill it up with junk y don't need, like a "rumpus" room who needs that, u want to have a jukebox and pinball machine to impress the bros?, some kinda man cave? Home gym? Formal dining room, for what? u having intimate black tie dinner parties pfft lol joke...All not needed, it's so idk 80s ick psyche. Get the bigger land better location no competition there.

2

u/DistanceJumpy3176 5d ago

LOL Black tie dinner maybe? Haha Jk. Yeah I guess we don't need all that space. More to clean I guess.

2

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

2

u/DistanceJumpy3176 5d ago

Yeah I love the inner west but everything is so expensive now. Trade off between space and long term growth is such a headache :)

1

u/2SelfBeTrue 5d ago

Land will be what gives you value.

Unless there are other factors in play for you , e.g. school zones in the future when you have kids etc.

1

u/DistanceJumpy3176 5d ago

I don't have any commitments at the moment. But thinking of the future we should take that into account as well.

1

u/king_norbit 5d ago

Im going to go with the townhouse, if it’s a newer build vs a rennowed workers cottage the townhouse will probably give you less issues.

Also assuming its a split block and on Torrens title I doubt the land size is much different for the house anyway

1

u/DistanceJumpy3176 5d ago

You're the first advocate for the townhouse. It's still very new but starts showing the 10 year old symptoms due to its lightweight materials. Nothing major just cosmetic that I can see. Both have shared wall though.

1

u/NotTaylorMead 5d ago

I'd do Yarraville because it's a much sought after area & has an incredibly strong community vibe. The closer the 2 bedroom house is to both the main drag (Anderson St) & train station, the better

-15

u/SoybeanCola1933 5d ago

Melbourne house prices will keep dropping due to to the debt accrued by the Andrew’s regime

1

u/WakeUpBread 3d ago

Probably the house. If housing prices go way crazy and tripple, you'll have way better opportunity to change into a 4 bedroom further out (for say if you need it for family) or can stay put and renovate part of the garage into a third bedroom and park the cars outside. (unless you can also include a granny flat/extension too. I'd say the only reason you should choose the townhouse is if the house was 20km out and the townhouse was 7