blog.buysellrealestate.com.au

Construction won’t be completed until late 2009, but Stockland’s “Village” apartment complex at Balgowlah in Sydney is proving to be popular with buyers.

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Get in touch with the developers and you’ll receive a showbag full of goodies, including a disk with the contract on it and detailed information on the 77-apartment Brimbecomb block. The catch - it’ll cost you $10,000.

That’s right, you’ve got to hand over some big dollars just to show you are seriously interested. Apparently Stockland has their reasons for the fee:

“That’s to verify a committment, if you go ahead that’s the money you exchange on and within fifteen days of exchange they top up to ten per cent of the price.”
- Stockland’s national apartment sales manager Peter Chittenden

You can pull out later and get your money back, so you won’t lose your cash, but it does seem a bit extreme to be asking for $10,000 just to be one of the first to find out more about “The Village”. But what would I know - they had 54 groups do just that on the first day. Prices for the off-the-plan apartments range from $395,000 for a one-bedroom apartment through to upwards of $985,000 for a three-bedroom home.

The sale of a strata titled office floor in Melbourne’s CBD has
illustrated the value of such properties to both owner-occupiers and
investors alert to the tightening office space equation.

A piece of vacant land suitable for both owner occupiers and developers
in Bassendean, Western Australia, has sold at an auction conducted by Realmark.

A $60 million semi-rural community dubbed Stone Creek on the northern
Gold Coast, in Queensland, is set to be launched in June, thereby
providing 208 homesites in Australia’s fastest growing residential
region.

Devine
Communities’ Alberi Park Estate at Holmview in Queensland has recently
surpassed $15 million in sales since its acquisition last year.

Award-winning architect and principal of Cox Rayner Architects, Michael
Rayner, is to act as chief designer for the proposed new waterfront
development at the old Townsville QR site, with planning now set to
begin.

When it comes to mortgages, home loans least affordable - Brisbane Times” href=”http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/qld-home-loans-least-affordable/2008/05/29/1211654180000.html” target=”_self”>Queensland is the most unaffordable state in Australia. Forget Sydney and Perth, if you buy a home in Queensland this week, we’ll throw in absolutely free extreme mortgage stress with over 40% of your household income going into the mortgage! Throw in rising petrol costs and grocery bills, and you’ve got yourself a deal breaker!!

“Leigh Warner of Jones Lang LaSalle, speaking at a property research forum at the Brisbane Club this morning, said their research in April this year showed market sentiment was at the lowest since June 1993.”
- home loans least affordable - Brisbane Times” href=”http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/qld-home-loans-least-affordable/2008/05/29/1211654180000.html” target=”_self”>“QLD home loans least affordable”: Brisbane Times

I know some people are saying that Queensland property prices will continue to rise, but it looks like they’ll need to remain steady for a while just to allow everything else to catch up. Yes, demand is high, and they can’t build new homes fast enough, but if increasing numbers of people can’t actually afford to buy a home then demand will drop. And if people aren’t feeling positive about the property market, then they won’t be throwing around excessively high offers on new real estate purchases either. All of this means that we’re seeing a very different situation to what we’ve been seeing for the past few years.

For further information, take a look at the Real Estate Institute of Australia’s “Housing Affordability Report: March 2008″.

Two high profile bulky goods centres in Macgregor, Queensland,
are for sale via an expression of interest campaign being carried out
by Jones Lang LaSalle and Savills.

An investment property currently tenanted by the Kingston Veterinary
Hospital in Mentone, Victoria, will be offered via auction by Malcolms.

According to a survey here in Australia, vendors are still reluctant to lower their selling price, even though the real estate market has radically changed. Prices are dropping or staying steady, yet vendors continue to hold out for top dollar.

Perhaps their actions are justified. The same survey also found that 33 per cent of prospective buyers who had made an offer on a property had offered more than the asking price. Either these buyers still think they’re living in 2007, or else things aren’t all that different now.

To find out more, check out this article from the Herald Sun: “If the price is right, the area is wrong”.