Who would you be getting a loan through to buy the house? We have just bought our house only 8kms from Brisbance CBD for a more than what you are going to pay and we only pay $1200 a fortnight.

Anyway if you were looking at any old house there would be many good and bad reasons for either side buy or rent. But being offered a house in paddington for that amount I would try and find a way to buy it. Sounds like a great opp. If it's worth more than that and if you can add value to it then it could be a good way to go. That's if you can afford the extra's that go with it. Also I believe that the money you can make on selling a house is going to be far more than you can save when renting...but that's me as if the money is there it just goes, but when paying the house off that money is taken out first so we don't over spend (it is our savings in a way). Also if you are settled there and had planned to be there for a bit then if you can make it work I would buy it......you may pay some money off and then find you can rent it and use the house to get another loan to buy your bigger house once you are more established. Again not possible if you just rent.

I'm not sure about the buy and rent option, you still have to cover things such as rates and there are also the repayments so depending on how much rent you can get, plus what rent you are paying you may not be any better off than if you buy it. Either way I wouldn't let the opportunity go, sounds like a great one. Unless the property is falling down and going to cost you $$$$$ all the time.