REAL estate investors could be beating a path to Tamworth’s door after the city was named as an investment hotspot by one of the nation’s top real estate experts.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Director of hotspotting.com.au Terry Ryder has Tamworth on his 2014 list of Top 10 Sydney and NSW “Hotspots”, identifying it as a location showing above-average growth in the medium to long-term property market.
Its education and medical facilities, agriculture and mining sectors, and “aesthetic appeal” were listed among its attributes.
It’s music to the ears of local real estate agents, including Burke and Smyth’s Jacqui Powell, who’s already seen just how keen people from outside the region are to invest in the area.
“This is brilliant news for Tamworth,” she said.
“We work so hard promoting it – the country music festival, education and lifestyle – so for (this website) to have (Tamworth) as a focus is a real bonus.”
Ms Powell said she’d recently sold a property to a 20-year-old man from Wollongong, who drove up to Tamworth to view some homes and ended up spending $220,000 on one that he’s now renting out.
The appeal for him, and other metropolitan investors, is their money buys so much more and the local rental market is very strong.
“He couldn’t have even bought a unit in Wollongong for the price he paid for a house here,” said.
Investors today, Ms Powell said, were very well educated in real estate markets, the internet proving a valuable tool when it came to research.
The fact Tamworth had appeared on a well-respected real estate website would be seen by a lot of people.
Technology means some investors don’t even visit the places they’re considering spending money – getting much of their information off the internet, or even taking a virtual tour with an agent.
“I sold a property after showing (the investor) around the house using
(the videocall service) Facetime,” Ms Powell said.
"Top 10 hotspots Albury-Wodonga, Blacktown, Canterbury, Dubbo, Goulburn, Hurstville, Newcastle, Ryde, Tamworth and Westmead"
Education and job opportunities were among the things would-be investors asked about the most, she said, alongside the capital growth potential.
For Terry Ryder, “old buildings, wide footpaths, grand homes and elevated views” all contributed to the “aesthetic appeal”, with major investments such as the recently-approved Eastpoint shopping development also attractive.