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Well, yesterday I posted about the exciting prospect of receiving our first offer and what a let down!

Nearly 20% below the asking price. I wouldn’t mind but the house has only been on the market for four weeks.

Some folks are just to cheeky. It won’t surprise anyone when I say we turned the offer down straight away.

Halifax (god bless em) have taken the opportunity to offer to view his house to see if they could offer him a mortgage to make up some of the short fall but a shortfall of 20% will take a lot of filling. I think they’ll need to start doing some more serious vetting of potential candidates if the property is well below their price range.

Had another viewing last night (went ok) but no vibes from the viewers. The missus is doing a viewing this afternoon.

The fact that that house is getting interest is keeping our spirits up and at least the sun is shining (its a balmy 73 degree’s as I type this).

We’ll see how the next few weeks pan out.

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Australia has led the worldwide real estate boom and enjoyed record price increases over the past three years, but as 2006 gets underway many fear that the recent success of the Australian real estate market is not sustainable.

While the Australian housing market may well face a short period of economic adjustment, there are still ways to profit from the real estate sector in Australia. Real estate investors examining the market just need to look a little further afield than Sydney!

Perth in Western Australia is one city where real estate prices remain affordable and where demand for quality accommodation to buy and rent is increasing which is creating an exciting micro property investment market opportunity ripe for exploration in 2006.

The reason for Perth’s sudden popularity from a real estate perspective springs from the fact that the city is enjoying a period of economic advancement led by a vast improvement in employment prospects. Local residents in Perth are benefiting from better paying employment and an abundance of opportunity, and the city is attracting a steady flow of inward migration as job seekers move to the city to take up offers of employment.

Historically Perth’s real estate prices have lagged well behind those of Sydney and Melbourne for example, and the average home finance sought to purchase in Perth is around 30,000 Australian dollars less than the average mortgage taken out elsewhere in Australia. The lower priced accommodation is attracting more interest from investors from across Australia as well who are all seeking a housing market with legs left to run. Furthermore the real estate sector in and around Perth is enjoying interest from international real estate investors who can see the long term prospects available.

As demand for accommodation in Perth increases as the city welcomes new residents, so the prices being charged for rental housing are on the up as well. Anyone who purchases real estate to let out in Perth right now can cash in on this boom in rental rate rises and retain their property while the predicted period of property price growth develops.

Across the rest of Australia many first time home buyers have been temporarily priced out of the housing market as property prices have exceeded affordable levels. While the market readjusts over the short term there are fears that a rental accommodation crisis is looming in some of Australia’s most popular cities such as Brisbane and Sydney. This concern is of course leading to sharp increases in rental rates being charged by landlords who are well aware of how valuable a commodity they own.

While this is an unfortunate situation for those caught in the rental trap it is a perfect situation for an investor seeking immediate returns on real estate investments in Australia. Anyone who makes a real estate investment purchase in Australia with the intention to let out that property will not only make a strong income currently but they will continue to enjoy property price growth over the longer term as the market readjusts and begins to grow again in Australia in the medium term.

And finally, if you’re interested in the real estate market down under and are not an Australian citizen, overseas buyers are free to own real estate in Australia that has been granted permission for sale to foreign purchasers; and you can rest assured that the purchase process will be straightforward because it is so well regulated in Australia.

About the Author

Rhiannon Williamson writes about overseas real estate investment and specialises in the analysis of property market trends and opportunities. To read more information about real estate investment in Australia click here.

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Oh well, here we are. Almost three weeks on and we’ll be leaving the beutiful country of Australia to travel back to the UK tomorrow afternoon at 4pm Aussie time.

Well probably spend our last day at Kings Park before heading back home to watch the sunset at about 7pm. Then it’ll be time to eat whats left of the food in the fridge.

We had the brother-in-law, his missus and their son over to stay from Sydney in the past week. They really enjoyed the laid back lifestyle of Western Australia although they were surprised how expensive property had become.

The view from the ‘East side’ seems to be that you can still pick up properties for £50,000.

Now although you may be able to do this in the outback the number of Immigrants moving to the west coast is slowly starting to push prices upwards.

Take Sorrento and Hillarys for example. The number of $1 Million + houses being build and sold is staggering although even for these properties, similar properties in Sydney would cost you 4 to 5 times this amount.

Having said all this, compared to the UK, what you get for your hard earned money over here is significantly better. A house of ‘mansion’ proportions could still be yours for under £200,000 if you had this sort of cash to hand.

I think we’ve made the best of our time here in WA. We’ve got a really good feel for the different suburbs, we’ve identified a school for our son. We’ve got a good feel for house prices and what we’ll get for our cash. From a work perspective I’ve also met with a number of recruiters who’ll I’ll continue to keep contact with when I get back to the UK.

I’ve also taken hundreds of picks which I’ll upload to the site when we get back later in the week.

For now, more updates when we get back to the UK. Just a short 20 hour flight and we’ll be back in Blighty. Oh joy!

I’ve added some pictures of some of the houses we visited so check out this post titled – What will you get for £150k in Australia for more info.

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