Marrickville - Opinions please

Hi all,

I'm just looking for some opinions and outlooks for Marrickville in Sydney. My dad has a little unrenovated terrace there which he bought for $450,000 around March 07, and as I'm the primary RE enthusiast in my family, he looks to me somewhat for guidance and advice, so I like to keep an eye on his IPs as well as my own.

More specifically, the place is two-storey, two-bedroom, on around 200sqm on Victoria (a main road).

As just mentioned in the 'rents in Sydney' thread, he has just scored a new tenant, taking the rent from $350 to $400.

From what I can gather through my own research he's had little if perhaps no capital growth since he bought it as these places still seem to be priced around this mark. Still, as I said to him once, it's better to buy a bit too early than buy a bit too late.

Also, I keep hearing about how the western suburbs of Sydney are doing so poorly and wonder does this include Marrickville, or is that considered inner city?

Thanks for any and every bit of info (opinion or fact) you have about this suburb.

-Ian
 
I'd say the property would have gained in price since it was purchased in March 07. By maybe 10%.

Doing very well to find a house there these days for $450k.

Marrickville is not western suburbs but inner west. It is not affected by the mortgage stress that is associated with the outer western suburbs of Sydney.
 
Marrickville is still holding up from what I can tell. As Evand said, it's classed as Inner West. It is a suburb that has gone through heaps of changes in the last 5 years - lots of younger people with money moving in (adjacent suburbs Newtown/Enmore are getting pricey and people are heading for Marrickville. There are 4 good cafes that have opened in the last 4 years on the Marrickville Road strip. And Gloria Jeans cafe came and went - they rarely thrive in places where people like good coffee. I reckon the demise of the Gloria Jeans place is a mark of how sophisticated marrickville is getting.
Victoria Road is a pretty lousy street, though. Especially in peak hour. Three good apartment developments on the Victoria/Marrickville Road corner, which help. And a good kebab shop - apparently people travel miles to go there. What number Victoria Road is it?
Scott
 
Agree....Marrickville is going from strength to strength. Even the dodgy units at Hill, Glen, and Illawarra (near Hill) streets are going well. The police have moved the thugs out....still some left but alot safer now.

Alot of trendy couples are moving in. The units are particularly good value as you can still buy 2 bedders for 260-300k. A quick reno and you could get 350pw rent.
:D

Marrickville is still holding up from what I can tell. As Evand said, it's classed as Inner West. It is a suburb that has gone through heaps of changes in the last 5 years - lots of younger people with money moving in (adjacent suburbs Newtown/Enmore are getting pricey and people are heading for Marrickville. There are 4 good cafes that have opened in the last 4 years on the Marrickville Road strip. And Gloria Jeans cafe came and went - they rarely thrive in places where people like good coffee. I reckon the demise of the Gloria Jeans place is a mark of how sophisticated marrickville is getting.
Victoria Road is a pretty lousy street, though. Especially in peak hour. Three good apartment developments on the Victoria/Marrickville Road corner, which help. And a good kebab shop - apparently people travel miles to go there. What number Victoria Road is it?
Scott
 
Gays have also moved into Marrickville - it gets the Newtown gay overflow. It's always good for a suburb when the gay population discover it.
 
So all I need to do to get property prices to rise is get a few gay blokes to come and live there....Too Easy! Now where did I put that gaydar?

As a matter of interest, what are the 'better' areas of Marickville to buy in?
I assume the closer you get to Enmore the better but I dare say the closer to Enmore the more aircraft noise as it seem it get closer to the flight path.

Better in Marrickville South? or closer to Dulwich Hill?

Cheers
 
I think part of the attaction for Marrickville is the block size. That's certainly what is attracting families. Toward Enmore, though, blocks gets smaller. And yes, there tends to be more plane noise over that way.
The most sought after part of Marrickville is 'The Warren'. It's part of south Marrickville and it's up on a hill (or a bit of a rise, at least). We get pretty good views up here, and we don't have to mix too much with the riff-raff down on the flats. There are some other great pockets. Near the golf course, there are some great streets. David Street off Marrickville Road has lots of federation homes - they sell for $1m+. Marrickville is a huge suburb and there is big variation in the block sizes, housing stock and immediate amenities. I think it's one of those suburbs where people really have to drive around to get a handle on it.
And we haven't had a shooting in ages!
 
Thanks for all the replies, I'll pass them on to my dad. Not sure what street number his place is, but he doesn't know I've asked about it online yet anyway so I'll ask him first.

Noone has mentioned Lakemba yet either, apparently a pretty crap nearby suburb? Okay maybe the less said about that suburb the better.
 
Thanks for all the replies, I'll pass them on to my dad. Not sure what street number his place is, but he doesn't know I've asked about it online yet anyway so I'll ask him first.

Noone has mentioned Lakemba yet either, apparently a pretty crap nearby suburb? Okay maybe the less said about that suburb the better.

Lakemba is not exactly nearby
20 minutes drive perhaps?
 
Yeah, Lakemba is a fair way away - twenty minute drive on a good day. It would be called 'southwest' and I suspect prices would have been hit there. It's completely different in every way. Marrickville got the Greeks in the 50s and the Vietnamese in the 70s. Lakemba got more troublesome later migrants. But the big mosque there is an amazing building, and there is some great food in the area.
Scott
 
Generally speaking Victoria Rd can be a bit iffy to property prices, i've seen suburbs move significantly while properties on the main road dont get any demand.
 
Kris,

If you were looking at living in Randwick and Drummoyne and like the feel of those areas I think you would be disappointed with Marrickville. I think it has great potential but my partner feels very unsafe walking through certain parts. May change in the near future. For investment purposes fantastic.
 
Kris,

If you were looking at living in Randwick and Drummoyne and like the feel of those areas I think you would be disappointed with Marrickville. I think it has great potential but my partner feels very unsafe walking through certain parts. May change in the near future. For investment purposes fantastic.

Thanks mike, the reality is we cannot afford Randwick or Drummoyne for what we want. We dont want a little piddly apartment, we want land and a free standing house , but would settle for a semi.

Drummoyne and Randwick are simply far far too expensive for what we want. We are looking a large place with good land, 2 car spaces, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and great potential.

PPOR this would be, not investment...
 
Have you considered Leichhardt ? 2 bedrooms, 1 car space (well via rear lane access) restored are going anywhere between $600K - $650K depending on how desperate the vendor is. Nice area as well and very family friendly.

I think if you want what you are discussing then you are going to have to move further out. There is no way you will get anything decent in Sydney with 3 bedrooms and 2 car spaces in inner Sydney for under $700K. I know you couldn't afford $650K for the Randwick apartment so 3 bedrooms in inner sydney would be a rare rare find. Maybe in Mascot under the flight path or Eveleigh Street next to the heroin distribution centre but nowhere else.

What about the suburbs ? You don't like living there ?
 
No, the example we are looking at HAS that space, thats not what we are looking for.

Our budget is revised to 650 having just been preapproved for that..

Marrickville will allow us to get something decent for that money. We dont want to go further west then marrickville...
 
I'll have a go.

A friend of mine recently bought a great 3br house at Hurlstone Park having been priced out of Marrickville/Duwlich Hill.

Hurlstone Park is now at the beginning stages of gentrification with Marrickville well underway and Lewisham/Duwlich Hill/Summer Hill/Petersham/Stanmore/Leichhardt etc already reasonablyquite trendy and priced above Marrickville.

You can tell whats happening to a suburb by the moving out of the original ethnics. Lebanese, Greek, Vietnamese etc. With Marrickville its a slow process probably because its such a huge suburb.

Beside Hurlstone Paerk you could also look at Ashfield or Tempe. The latter being very low priced considering its proximity to the city. It has problems with the flight path as well which i think is keeping its price down.

Ashfield is not bad and similar to Hurlstone Park demographically. You'll find a few bargains there i'd say in the current market.

But you just might be able to grab a nice free standing house bargain in Lewisham/Duwlich Hill/Summer Hill. Not likely but you never know. These 3 are great suburbs in my opinion.

btw: Had lunch in a restaurant in Haberfield on Saturday. Man, that place has gone ballistic price wise. Around $1 million for a nice 3 br federation house on a 350 - 400 m sq block with off street parking. Insane.

10-15 years ago, it was the daggiest place around and quite run down. These days you cant move with BMW 4wd's etc either living there or coming to experience the very Italian scene there.

Leichhardt is a bit over the top these days, more like an italian theme park suburb and Norton St has become a car park. I'd pass on Leichhardt. Also the flight path there is a pain. I used to tell people on the phone to hang on sec while the plane went over my house as i just couldn't hear them. lol

As you have probably noticed i love the inner West of Sydney. I don't live there (used to) and will again in the not too distant future.

Best place to live in Sydney i reckon.






No one else?
 
you might be lucky enough to get a small 2 bed semi won 200-300 sqm in Maroubra or Kingsford. Rare, but they come up. What about Zetland, Beaconsfield or even the northern parts of Rosebery? I'm an Eastern suubrbs nut. I know every nook and cranny in the East, sometimes down to the street number. $650K is not much but believe me, if you look diligently and act very quickly, you'll get something.

PM me if you like any of these and want to know the streets to look out for.
 
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