Melbourne…? still ok

Facing a move from Sydney to Melbourne because of her husband’s job, Wendy Lacy imagined flats costs would be much cheaper. Instead, she was surprised to discover there wasn’t much difference.

Wendy and Paul Lacy found the only option that was going to provide them with real savings was if they built their own house on a block of land.

“That was cheaper for us,” says Wendy, 35, who moved with Paul, 39, and their three children, aged 10, seven and four, from Sydney’s Castle Hill to Cranbourne South in Melbourne’s east just after Christmas.

In the process they swapped an area with a median house price of $649,000 for one with a median price of $789,950, according to RP Data. “The advantage is that you end up with a house that suits you and that you like,” she says.

The disadvantage was that the couple, both missionaries, began their new life in Melbourne living in a caravan for three weeks to wait for the house to be finished until they could finally move in at the beginning of February.

When asked how Melbourne compares with life in Sydney, Wendy doesn’t like to commit. “We haven’t been in Melbourne long enough yet to know what it’s really like,” she says.

“But we’ve been told Melbourne is a good place to live. We miss our friends in Sydney but Melbourne feels a little more relaxed.”

Cheers mates

Banned from buying houses, foreigners opt for long lease

With the state government ‘banning foreigners from buying properties in the state’, local builders have fine tuned their strategies and are promoting five-year leases among tourists.

There are no official figures to prove the trend, but lawyers and builders agree that this is definitely increasing, with several builders from the state organizing road shows and exhibitions in UK to attract customers to the flats.

“A large number of builders are leasing houses to foreigners and it is within the law. But something needs to be done as houses are being leased to foreigners at a huge price, making it difficult for Goans to invest in homes” said builder Rajendra Talak of Talak constructions, Margao.

Despite India’s stringent property laws, the affordability of real estate draws foreigners — British, Russians and Israelis — to Goa. “While a two-bedroom villa would cost about Rs five crore or more in Europe, in Goa the flats come at much cheaper rates. Europeans prefer Goa and find investing in homes in the state a cheaper option,” said a builder, who leases out homes to Europeans.

Cheers my friends

Amdavad Realtors go for Chicago

After cementing plans to pitch Amdavad realty to US-based non-resident Gujaratis right at their doorstep with a property show in New Jersey, Amdavadi realtors are now going to Chicago to hard sell Amdavad.

After joining hands with the Association of Indian Americans in North America (AIANA) for their first international property show at the second ‘Chaalo Gujarat: World Gujarati Conference’ in New Jersey from August 29 to 31, the Gujarat Institute of Housing and Estate Developers (GIHED) is set to pitch Aapnu Amdavad at a two-day property roadshow in Chicago beginning September 6.

They know what they´re talking about… yeah mates, relax… cheers!

Your flats advisor Flatiron

Mortgage Stress

The stockmarket collapse and the margin calls that are part and parcel of it will cause the top end to tank – possibly more severely than the battler end. This market decline still has legs, and it will take the upper flats market with it.

Im getting afraid aaaaahhhhhh

Cheerio mates!

Properties rules change…

In the space of six months, just about everything anyone thought they knew about the Australian home loan market has changed. Mortgage rates no longer track the official rate set by the central bank; borrowers must jump through hoops rather than fend off overzealous lenders; instead of racing to beat rising flats prices, prudent buyers must factor in the possibility of stagnant or even falling values.

Previous assumptions about where the best home loan deals lie need to be examined, then re-examined. Many borrowers spurned non-bank lenders last year, for instance, only to be socked by higher rates from the big banks this year.

Resi Mortgage Corporation’s head of consumer advocacy, Lisa Montgomery, says the result is that people are confused and suffering from inertia when it comes to their home loans.

“A lot of people have lost confidence in all lenders. They’re not sure what they should do,” Montgomery says.

An advice… Buy if you have any cash

Take care my friends

`We´ll see how we go´

When Tony Taylor and his wife, Penny, decided on a complete tree change, they saw their perfect home in Leura in the Blue Mountains. They’d been looking around for a while, so agreed to snap it up while it was available.

They’re faced with selling their home in North Sydney in a distinctly sluggish market. “But it’s a pretty saleable house in a pretty popular area, so we didn’t attach any problem to selling it,” says Tony, a semi-retired IT professional.

“And if we’d been selling even two to three months ago, we would have been all right. But we’re not despondent. We’d prefer to sell but if we don’t get what we regard as a fair price, we’ll rent it out for 18 months and see what the market does.”

The couple has lived in the 1880s Victorian house, at the end of a cul-de-sac on Oak Street, for the past 14 years and it has been completely renovated and refurbished.

With four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a courtyard including convict-laid pavers and a pergola, it goes up for auction today by McGrath Estate Agents (0420 989 179), with the hope that it’ll sell for more than $1.3 million.

“A place near us sold for 70 per cent over its original expectation a few months ago,” Tony says. “But the market isn’t that hot any more. We bought before we sold because the Leura house will be ideal for us.

“We’ll see how we go.”

Your flats advisor

The prickly art of price predictions

The Office of Fair Trading action has cast a shadow over the work of real estate agents.

Agent Pam Collins (above) had been looking forward to the auction of one home she’s selling – a renovated three-bedroom, two-bathroom penthouse on the beachfront – but now her heart is filled with dread.

“It can be so hard to estimate what certain properties will sell for,” she says.

“This is the perfect example. There aren’t any comparable properties around, it’s a complete one-off. As a result, how can you hope to accurately predict the price?

“There’s nothing like it in Freshwater and similar places in Manly have roads in front of them, between them and the beach.”

The property, for auction on June 14 through Richardson & Wrench Freshwater-Manly, and with a price guide of $1.9 million-plus, was built 37 years ago but, in all that time, has changed hands only twice, so has little sales history to fall back upon.

“It can be very hard for agents in this kind of situation,” says Collins, who’s been an agent for 20 years. “There could be a huge difference in the market at any time.”

A piece of advice…

What should I say about the environment? My environment? My own place, the crap is over me, the crap is over us, We´re living a tremendous lie, Governors are lying us about anything, specially about the properties and flats they are speculating and allied with the builders, the situation in Europe is especially untenable, people in countries like Spain are selling their houses in raffles…

Cheerio guys and think a bit the words I´ve said.

Flatiron