Kianga complex in Harrison?

I just bought a two bedroom townhouse in KIANGA and have been living there. The main reason I bought the property was, I was impressed by the architectural design and the location.

By Architectural design, what I mean is, the townhouse is cleverly designed. Every nook and corner has been utilised providing utmost storage and living area.

By location, the place is close to the Parkes Way, Northbourne Ave, Gunghalin, not far from Belconnen. As I travel frequently to Sydney, its easy to reach the highway.

And by the price, I beleive I paid a fair price to the asking price of the similar units in other areas and also this is a newly built and I can make it how I want, not living with my previous owners had done with the house.

Anyways my 2c worth..Thanks for listening. Cheers.
All this

Depending on the election result you may end up with light rail right out the front.

shinkei said :

I was looking at some of the 3br townhouses (3 stories) in Kianga. As you mentioned, location wise, its well serviced by buses and close to facilities.

My main concern is that the exterior walls might be rendered blue board which apparently lack insulation and durability (may form cracks?). I haven’t noticed any major problems internally but then again I don’t really know what I’m meant to be looking out for.

Ah, I can’t speak for the durability of blueboard. I’d be less worried about its insulation properties, most building claddings are pretty crappy insulators, brick in particular. That’s why houses are usually built with a layer of insulation in between the brick and internal wall materials. You’ll find that all of the units at Kianga get reasonably high energy star ratings, which means they’d be pretty well insulated. I’d still try and avoid the ones on the west side of the complex.

arescarti42 said :

I’m not sure why anyone would want to buy a place in Canberra at the moment.

Could you explain that?

Yes.

Take for example a 3 story townhouse at Kianga. You could buy one for $435k, or rent one for $475 a week. If you rent it, it’s going to cost you $24.7k a year. If you buy it for $435,000 (supposing a 10% deposit) you’re going to be paying ~$26k in interest alone on to which you can add probably another 3k+ in strata fees and insurance. So it is costing you close to $30k a year to own a property you could rent for ~$25k, and that’s before you even start paying back the loan principle. Add on to that the fact that in buying it, you’ve just blown about $17k on stamp duty and legal fees, and by not having that $60k deposit you needed to buy it earning interest in the bank, you’ve done yourself out of about $3k a year in interest.

Now, I can imagine people going through all that expense if capital gains were likely, but Canberra has a growing glut of apartments, and even the notoriously overoptimistic BIS Shrapnel are only predicting price growth of 0.8% in Canberra up to 2015 (the lowest of all capital cities).

I appreciate people have their own reasons for buying their houses, but from a purely financial perspective you’d be nuts to do it.

arescarti42 said :

What sort of unit were you looking at?

I was looking at some of the 3br townhouses (3 stories) in Kianga. As you mentioned, location wise, its well serviced by buses and close to facilities.

My main concern is that the exterior walls might be rendered blue board which apparently lack insulation and durability (may form cracks?). I haven’t noticed any major problems internally but then again I don’t really know what I’m meant to be looking out for.

arescarti42 said :

I’m not sure why anyone would want to buy a place in Canberra at the moment.

Could you explain that?

I’m very familiar with the neighbouring Ascot complex, which is an extremely similar design and I suspect was probably built by the same builders. The build and design quality of Ascot is pretty crap to be honest. You’ll probably find rooms with weird nooks, wasted space, peeling paint, unfinished surfaces etc, but I suspect that’s fairly typical of apartments in Canberra. For what it’s worth the sound proofing between the townhouse things is pretty excellent, I’m not sure about the apartments though. What sort of unit were you looking at?

If you buy one on the Flemington Road side expect some road noise and to melt in the westerly sun during summer. The location is good though in my opinion, 20 minutes to the city by bus, less than a 5 minute drive to the Gungahlin town centre. The intersection of Flemington Road and Nullabor Avenue is destined to be a pretty big shopping/commercial area as well.

I sure as hell wouldn’t pay the sort of money I expect they’re asking for them, but then again, I’m not sure why anyone would want to buy a place in Canberra at the moment.