This week: Phillip, ACT
This one came back a STOP — my scorecard's hardest verdict, meaning at least one critical metric failed outright, regardless of how everything else scored. In this case, two failed.
What's working: vacancy is sitting around 1.06%, well under my 2% line. Gross yield reads 4.5–5.9% depending on the unit, which is genuinely strong for a capital city. The building is complete — no settlement risk, no off-plan pricing uncertainty. Walking distance to a Westfield and the ACT's largest hospital.
What I'm flagging: Phillip sits inside Canberra's Woden Valley, where approvals are already in for close to 300 new apartments on one site alone, with the developer's stated intent to build nearly 700 there over time — plus a separate 326-unit build-to-rent proposal nearby. That's against a suburb of just over 3,000 existing dwellings in total. Multiple independent sources specifically call out an oversupply of one-bedroom apartments in this precinct — which is exactly the unit type this week's listing is built around. Vacancy and building approvals are the two checks in my framework that override everything else when they fail. This week, approvals did.
A yield that good, on a building that's already finished, is designed to feel like a "why wait" decision. The supply pipeline sitting behind it is the part that doesn't show up in a brochure — and it's exactly the kind of thing that can turn a strong yield today into a soft one in two years, once several hundred more units are competing for the same tenants.
What was on the table
A complete, ready-to-settle complex offering 1-bedroom apartments from $580,000 and 2-bedroom from $725,000, with some furnished units showing appraised returns of 5.6–5.9%.
If you want to see what has cleared my scorecard recently, reply to this email and I'll send you a rundown. Or if you'd rather talk through where you're at against what's currently on my list, book a call below.
Perryn
Portfolio by Design
portfoliobydesign.com.au
