How much would Bluey’s “quintessential Queenslander” house sell for?
Australia's favourite animated canine family has put their house up for sale. Could you afford their home?
If you're a parent - or honestly, even if you're not - you probably know a new season of Bluey is airing.
Almost every email in my inbox over the last week has mentioned it (yes, even the big boring finance emails). So when the first episode came out over the weekend, you bet I heard about it.
In particular, the uproar over this animated family deciding to sell their home. Real estate site Domain even posted a listing of the Bluey house.
Now, as someone who has never watched an episode, I was surprised at how much this news blew up. But apparently, the house is somewhat iconic.
What do we know about the house?
The listing describes the house as "a quaint, animated family home nestled in an undisclosed Brisbane location, that could be in Red Hill or The Gap (we'll never tell)".
Now first of all, that would never fly in a real property listing. Imagine wanting to buy a home and not being told where the house is.
The property is described as a 3-bedroom, 4(ish)-bathroom "quintessential Queenslander" home with work from home space, period floorboards and bi-fold doors opening onto a large back deck.
Sounds great.
The "mysterious hallways that don't logically seem to join spaces together" might bring the property price down a bit, but for the most part the house sounds ideal.
How much can The Heeler family expect to sell for?
According to data from CoreLogic, the median value for a Brisbane house is around $817,564.
Looking at houses recently sold in the Red Hill area, somewhere in the $800,000s is probably at the lower end of how much this house could sell for. 3 bedroom homes with back decks and beautiful furnishings have sold closer to $1.2million, according to Domain.
Here's where I think far more about Bluey than I ever thought I would. Bluey was 6 years old when the show first aired in 2018. I think officially she has only celebrated 1 birthday in that time, but let's say they've lived in that house since Bluey was born in 2012 and not think too much more about it.
The median house price in Brisbane in 2012 was $510,000. At the very least they're looking at earning $300,000 above what they bought the property for.
Property prices have continued to rise over the years and in fact, property prices have risen month-on-month for the last 14 months straight. This makes it a pretty good time to sell, but they will need to think about the higher property prices when they're looking for their next home.
How much would a mortgage cost on the Bluey house?
Let's say Bluey's family bought the house for that $510,000 average and they had a 20% deposit. The average interest rate being paid in mid-2012 was about 6.13%. On a $408,000 loan over 30 years that would have seen monthly repayments of $2,481.
We're not too far off those same interest rates again at the moment, but a few years ago when rates were at record lows they could have been paying as little as $1,821.
With today's higher property price and average new rate of 6.03%, the new owner of the Bluey home could be paying more like $3,932 a month - and that's if the property sells around the average Brisbane price.
But we all know that with Bluey's fame, that house is selling for much more.
5 things to think about if you want to sell your home
- Why are you selling? Whether you want a new location or you need to upsize/downsize, knowing why you're selling helps you prepare for the next property: how much you're willing to buy for, whether you need to make a profit and what features you need.
- Your home loan value. With Bluey's family, they've built up about 14 years of equity (I think. Again, let's not think about it too much). Consider how much equity you've built up and whether you want to borrow more or less with your next loan.
- Your home loan term. You could take out another 30 year loan term, but this will seriously lengthen the amount of time you're paying off a loan. Going back to The Heelers' hypothetical 14 years of paying a mortgage, taking out another 30 year loan term would mean almost 45 years of paying a mortgage. This would mean thousands of dollars in extra interest, compared to if they'd taken out a shorter loan term. Use our mortgage repayment calculator to fully understand how much you'd be paying.
- Property prices. You might expect a good return on your property with how much property prices have risen, but remember that the property you end up buying next will also be more expensive.
- How long you've owned your home. If you've only been in your home a couple of years and you're already thinking of selling, it might not be worth it. For starters, you might not have paid enough of the home loan to build good enough equity to buy elsewhere. Also, the property prices may not have changed materially enough for you to make money, and there are other costs for you to think about which could mean you're out of pocket.
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