Purchase Recommendation · Shortlist candidate

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CRAIGIEBURN VIC 3064 · 655m² COURT BLOCK · 4 BED · 2 BATH · 2 CAR

A 655m² court block in a quiet, family friendly pocket of Craigieburn with a well maintained four bed two bath home, 6.5kW solar, 7kW split system, and a large undercover pergola. Auction 8 August, range $620 to $680k against a ~$700k estimate, with a rental estimate of ~$611 a week. This is the cheapest entry on the shortlist and the strongest yield.

$620 to $680k

Auction range

~$700k

Estimate

4 bed · 2 bath · 2 car

Config

655m²

Court block

$611/wk

Rental estimate

Auction Sat 8 August, 11:00am Inspection Wed 22 July, 5:00pm Agent Eview Group · Michael Abbas

The call

Cheapest entry, strongest yield, walk to everything Craigieburn

Dent is a yield and cashflow play. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, double garage on a 655m² court block, walking distance to Craigieburn Central, Craigieburn Station, schools and medical. The home is well presented, owner occupied for five plus years, and on the information available it needs the least work of anything on the shortlist, solid condition and lettable as is.

The auction range at $620 to $680k sits $20 to $80k under the ~$700k estimate. At $611 a week the indicative gross yield is ~4.7 to 5.1%, the strongest on the shortlist. The trade off is location: Craigieburn is a long way north of the west corridor we've been running, with a different growth profile and buyer pool.

Our position: a shortlist candidate for yield and entry price. Sits behind the west corridor picks on long term capital growth, but ahead of them on day one cashflow. Only worth chasing if the buy holds under $680k.

The property

Well kept family home on a court block

At a glance

Configuration4 bed · 2 bath · 2 car

MasterEnsuite, robe

LivingFormal lounge + open plan living / meals

KitchenRefreshed, stone tops, stainless appliances

Heating / cooling7kW split system + ducted heater

Solar6.5kW system

OutdoorLarge undercover pergola, two sheds

Land655m², court block

Auction range$620,000 to $680,000

Estimate~$700,000

Rental estimate~$611/wk

Initial observations (pre-inspection)

Least work on the shortlist. Refreshed kitchen, updated flooring in living areas, tidy bathrooms. Solid condition throughout, nothing beyond a clean and minor making good before leasing.
Court block, quiet street. Genuinely family friendly. Low through traffic, big appeal for long term family tenants.
Solar and split system. 6.5kW solar and 7kW split system reduce tenant running costs and lift the property against the local rental set.
Big undercover pergola. Rare for the price point. Adds usable outdoor living most Craigieburn stock doesn't have.
655m² with backyard depth. Room for kids, pets, or future extension / dwelling STCA. Not the primary case, but real optionality.
Walk to Craigieburn Central and station. Shopping, transport, schools and medical all inside a short walk. Strong long term tenant demand.

Tap to expand

Why it's on the shortlist

Yield, entry price, court location

Under $700k buy in. Cheapest entry on the shortlist by a clear margin. Preserves borrowing capacity for the rest of the portfolio.
~5% gross yield at the top of the range. Strongest cashflow on the shortlist. Comfortably covers most of the interest bill at 6.2%.
Move in and lease. The least work of the four active properties. No renovation program, no compliance build, no dual dwelling puzzle. Tenanted inside weeks.
Court block in a family pocket. The kind of stock that holds a tenant for years, not months.
Solar plus split system. Running costs favour the tenant, which supports rent and reduces vacancy.
Walk to station and shops. Not a car dependent Craigieburn buy. Rare for the price.

The trade-offs

What you're not getting

Craigieburn, not the west corridor. Different growth profile, different buyer pool, sits outside the Sunshine North / St Albans thesis we've been running.
Growth signals are moderate. Craigieburn median $758k with 4% growth over 12 months and 20.7% over 5 years. Solid, not the same trajectory as inner west.
Auction, not private treaty. Under the hammer at $620 to $680k, but a strong crowd can push it toward the $700k estimate and thin the margin.
No manufactured equity. Nothing to add through reno. The return has to come from yield and time.
Little dual income optionality. Not a granny flat block. Yield is the yield.

The numbers

Income and yield, standard lease vs rooming house

Modelled on a $650k mid range buy with stamp duty around $34,000 and interest at 6.2% interest only. As a standard lease Dent runs at roughly $611/wk. It also has the footprint to run as a six or seven room rooming house on the same standardised framework used for Walsh. Six rooms is the base case. The seventh only comes if the large living area splits into two rooms rather than one, which is a layout call to make on inspection. To meet amenity standards a third bathroom is likely needed, most cost effectively by converting the laundry into a shower, toilet and vanity with a euro laundry nook.

Room layout, 6 or 7 rooms

Room	From	Notes
Rooms 1 to 4	Existing four bedrooms	Master keeps ensuite, retains lockable robes and window
Room 5	Formal lounge	Add door, glazed window meets natural light minimum
Room 6	Large living area, first room	Framed and lined for privacy, split system added
Room 7, optional	Large living area, second room	Only if the living area takes two rooms while still meeting minimum room size, light and egress. Confirm on inspection

Bathroom gap. Two bathrooms across six or seven residents is under gunned. Converting the laundry into a third wet zone (shower, toilet, vanity, with a euro laundry stacked in a nook) lifts the ratio to roughly one toilet per two to three residents and is the cheapest path given the plumbing wall is already there.

Setup cost, one off

Line	Amount	Notes
our builder, plans, permits, compliance and reports	$22,000	End to end Class 1A to 1B conversion, same package as Walsh
Laundry to third bathroom, euro laundry	$12,000 to $18,000	Shower, toilet, vanity in the existing laundry footprint, laundry stacked into a euro nook. Plumbing wall nearby
Furnishing and fit out, 6 to 7 rooms	$9,000 to $14,000	Bed, desk, robe, lockable door, per room
Additional split systems, 4 to 5 rooms	$4,800 to $7,500	7kW split already in the main living. Bedrooms 2 to 4 plus the new rooms fitted
Contingency 10%	$4,800 to $6,150	Structural checks, electrical upgrades to switchboard
Total setup	~$52,600 to $67,650

Income and yield

	A · Standard lease	B · Six to seven room rooming house
Weekly rent, gross	$611/wk	6 to 7 × ~$245/wk = $1,470 to $1,715/wk
Occupancy assumption	Standard vacancy factor	95%
Effective weekly, net of vacancy	~$599/wk	~$1,397 to $1,629/wk
Annual gross	~$31,150	~$72,600 to $84,720
Gross yield on $650k buy	~4.9%	~11.2 to 13.0%
PM, utilities, insurance, council, maintenance	~$5,500/yr	~$20,000 to $22,000/yr
Net operating income	~$25,650/yr	~$52,600 to $62,720/yr
Loan interest @ 6.2%, capitalised setup	~$40,300/yr	~$43,500 to $44,000/yr
Net after interest	~$14,650 short	~$8,600 to $18,720 surplus
Setup, one off (excluded from annual)	Near nil	~$52,600 to $67,650

Rate of $245 per room per week sits at the low end of the $240 to $300 vicinity for outer north rooming stock and is conservative for Craigieburn given the corridor is thinner than Sunshine North or St Albans. Occupancy at 95% mirrors the builder's operating assumption. Setup capitalised into the loan for interest calc, not deducted from annual net.

Read: the rooming path takes Dent from a ~$150/wk shortfall to a weekly surplus at the mid range buy, even at six rooms. The trade off is the ~$53k to $68k setup, the laundry to bathroom conversion, and rooming house management for the life of the hold.

Suburb and location

What supports the rent and the hold in Craigieburn 3064

Measure	Figure	Why it matters
Nearest train station	Craigieburn Station, ~1.1 km	Craigieburn line terminus services, plus bus feeders
Distance to Melbourne CBD	~23 km	Outer north, longer commute than the western picks
LGA population, 2025	278,885 (Hume)	One of the larger and faster growing council areas in Victoria
Renter households	~25% of dwellings (ABS 2021 Census, via aggregator)	Tenant pool is real but the pocket is owner occupier weighted
Demand drivers	Craigieburn Central, Craigieburn station on the Craigieburn line, Hume employment and logistics precincts, and a large government school and medical catchment	Retail, transport and jobs infrastructure already delivered rather than promised
Land supply	Active greenfield land release across the Hume corridor	New supply is the main risk to both rent growth and capital growth here

Supply and fundamentals, Craigieburn

Measure	Craigieburn	Why it matters
Stock on market	0.24%	Share of dwellings listed for sale, lower means tighter supply
Inventory	0.59 mo	Months of stock at the current sale rate, under 3 months is a sellers market
Buyer to advertiser ratio	0.11%	Demand pressure against advertised stock
Average hold period	8.23 yrs	How long owners hold, longer means less stock turns over
Renters as share of households	28%	Depth of the local tenant pool
Units as share of dwellings	5%	Lower unit share means more houses and land content
Distance to Melbourne CBD	25 km	Commute and middle versus outer ring positioning
Population	65,178	Size of the local market
Dwellings	24,712	Total dwelling stock in the suburb
Infrastructure spend per resident	$4,638	Committed public investment flowing into the area

Sources: distances measured straight line from the property to the station and to the Melbourne CBD. Local government area population is ABS Estimated Resident Population 2025 (via economy.id). Suburb level rental vacancy is not published by SQM Research, which reports vacancy by region rather than by postcode, so no suburb vacancy figure is quoted here.

Next steps

How we play it

Inspect Wednesday 22 July. Walk the block, confirm pergola condition, check ducted heater age, review shed access. Read the section 32.

Written rental appraisal. Independent PM in writing at $611 and at a stretch figure. Confirm days on market and comparable Craigieburn lets.

Rooming feasibility, if in play. our builder to size the laundry to bathroom conversion and confirm whether the layout runs at six or seven rooms against fire, egress and amenity standards.

Building and pest, plus comps. Standard due diligence. Pull recent sales of 600 to 700m² Craigieburn court blocks with solar in the last six months.

Auction strategy. Too early to set a price limit before inspection and due diligence. Revisit after the walk through, written rental appraisal and building and pest.