Classic Double Fronted Slate Roofed Hawthorn Brick Victorian Residence …6 Main Rooms, 3 Bedrooms + Study

551 Punt Road SOUTH YARRA

Renovated from the ground up with an open mind and an open chequebook, this stunning home has been re-stumped and rewired with new double glazing.  It features a stunning gourmet kitchen opening on to a large family room at the rear overlooking a picturesque back garden and entertaining area, accommodation includes three huge double bedrooms plus study (master with ensuite) formal sitting room, all with 12 ft plus ornate Victorian ceilings!

There’s 4 open fire places perfect to fall asleep in front of with the impending winter, stunning new timber floors with brass inlay and ducted heating! 

There’s off street parking for  a number of cars including a car port, as well as a double storey

cottage / studio. 

This beautiful home is an exquisite example of a timeless triple brick “Victorian” superbly decorated with feature gold leaf!  

Investors …waiting and watching!

It’d seem the stars are aligned: low rates, population growth, low vacancy rates, strong rental market and a shortage of housing in the majority of capital cities.

Since the latter 2008, the number of loans to first home buyers has outweighed substantially those to existing owner-occupiers and investors as first-time buyers rush to take advantage of the increased government grant. These numbers are set to surge in the next two months after the Prime Minister indicated that the increased grant will end June 30. In previous interest-rate cycles, lending to investors and existing home buyers increased alongside that to first-home buyers.

Partly,  the reason is that investors aren’t getting the first-home-owner grant, and when you’re laying your own money down instead of the government’s, you tend to think more carefully before deciding to take the plunge. Unemployment concerns and fears about how the economy will evolve this year are also key reasons why investors are not yet entering the market.

Consumer sentiment figures released earlier this month by the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Survey found pessimists still outnumbered optimists and, with the prospect of more unemployment, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

Interest rates are one of the crucial aspects investors consider. During the past month or so, several of the big banks have increased their fixed mortgage rates, even though variable rates are expected to go even lower.

Banks say it’s because of an increase in the rates in the wholesale market where they access funds. Not everyone accepts that that is the reason, but most acknowledge it’s a signal borrowing costs are near their lowest levels!!

Some economists believe fixed rates will continue to rise as banks manage their risk, and it’s just a matter of the speed at which it happens. Of course, fixed rates are not popular at the moment even with investors who traditionally use this option.

That’s not a surprise, given the cash rate is expected to fall to 2 per cent by the end of the year.

But fixed rates are a bit of a barometer of the longer term trend in interest rates, so they’re worth watching. It also pays to remember that just because the Reserve Bank of Australia cuts rates’, that doesn’t mean banks have to follow suit.

Only time can tell, whether or not property buying will be better next year!

Perhaps investors are waiting for a sign that unemployment will stop rising, or for first-home buyer activity to dry up!

House price rise bucks a global trend

The value of Aussie homes increased in the first quarter, bucking a global trend downwards!

House and flat prices in Australia increased in value by 1.6% in the first three months of the year, helped by a scarcity of supply, lower interest rates and incentives to first-home buyers.

The slight recovery in Australia “has been driven by the 40% fall in home loan rates down to 5.7%, which are now at their lowest levels since July 1968!”

March’s three-month gain follows a 0.1% rise in the three months to February in the RP Data-Rismark’s national dwelling value index, and a 3% fall in the value of capital city homes in 2008.

The strength of Australian housing prices is a world away - so far - from the 2.7% drop in British home prices over the first quarter, capping a year to March 17.5% plunge.

US housing didn’t fare too much better either, with prices in the top 20 cities sinking 1.9% in February, which brought the 12-month fall to 18.6%, according to the most recent S&P/Case-Shiller index, a widely followed measure.

RP Data-Rismark said the first-home buyer’s grant, ending June 30th, has acted like a catalyst for new home buying in Australia, but lower interest rates are sustaining the market’s growth.

The Top growth performing suburbs …and YOU can get in on the action!!

The rich list has been announced and the top performers for both houses and units were areas of NSW.

RP Data released its top price growth suburbs, recording the greatest increase in median house and unit prices during the 12 months to December 2008.

North Sydney suburbs were the standout performers for both houses and units with median house prices appreciating 47.4 per cent in McMahons Point and unit prices growing 49.8 per cent in Greenwich.

The NSW list comprised mainly areas outside of Sydney including Dubbo, Jindabyne, Queanbeyan East and Brunswick Heads.

Victoria was a different story with just one area outside of the metro area making the list. Irymple in Mildura was the regional victor experiencing a median unit price increase of 35.3 per cent.

The Victorian results mainly comprise of areas in the Melbourne Statistical Division with both the top performers – Portsea’s median house price increase was 38.6 per cent to $1,455,000 and Dallas’ median unit priced leaped to $222,500, that’s an increase of 48.3 per cent!!

The QLD market showed many areas outside of the Brisbane area as strong performers in capital growth.

Their state’s top performers are houses in River Heads at Hervey Bay with prices increasing 43.1 per cent and units in North Lakes increasing by 47.3 per cent.

South Australia’s winners are dominated by areas of Adelaide with only Port Hughes, Roseworthy and Owen outside of the capital city location.

The standout performers for houses is Teringie (49.5 per cent) and for units Underdale (47.8 per cent).

The strong growth results centred around Adelaide aren’t a surprise given that it remains mainland Australia’s most affordable capital city market and has been an excellent performer throughout 2008.

Perth dominated the WA list. Which is surprising given the poor performance overall of the Perth market during the last 12 to 18 months.

Homes in Coolbinia stood out, with a median price increase of 43.1 per cent. Units, the port side suburb of South Hedland saw the greatest increase jumping 44.4 per cent to $455,000.

Outside Perth, the list is exclusively populated by areas linked to the mining and resources sector.

For Tasmania, the top performer for houses is Campania, recording a 46.3 per cent, and units saw Hobart taking top spot with 35.7 per cent!

Northern Territory winners are almost entirely located within Darwin, with Virginia recording the strongest growth in houses (30.9 per cent) and The Gardens topping the list in units (39.0 per cent).

Throughout ACT, the strongest performing suburbs were within close proximity to the city centre – Franklin’s houses recorded a 25.6 per cent increase and Campbell’s units 49.7 per cent!

Victoria

Houses

Units

Cheap inner-city living …where can YOU find it??

You may already know it, buying properties within 10km of capital cities is generally a good investment, but where ARE the most affordable areas?

There’s some suburbs within 5km of capital city centres where the median unit price is $200,000 and the gross rental yield 5.33%?

You really don’t have to buy far from the city centre to pick up a bargain!

And it’s not a bad strategy for identifying best value properties to find ones located in affordable suburbs within a 10 kilometre radius of the city!

For some cities, the inner circle can be more or less, depending on the size of the city, however, generally it’s a good rule of thumb because it’s these areas that are more likely well serviced by transport, have social and retail amenities close by AND benefit from strong rental demand!

Identified below are the five most affordable suburbs for houses and units within a 5km radius of Melbourne City.

Melbourne - houses

Melbourne - units

RBA slashes interest rates

Your own slice of heaven

Stephen Nicholls from the Sydney Morning Herald discusses buying property in Bali, read about it here: http://www.domain.com.au/Public/Article.aspx?id=1232818695940&index=NationalIndex&headline=Your%20own%20slice%20of%20paradise

Paul Castran has also discussed it here: http://www.paulcastran.com.au/2009/02/03/buying-your-ow…ce-of-paradisebuying-your-own-slice-of-paradise/

WHAT a difference a year makes in real estate.

Interesting article in the Herald Sun stating the difference in clearence rates between now and last year, heres an extract:

On the last Saturday of major sales activity in 2007, 1132 properties went to auction, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (SHS, December 15).

Last month, as the industry filed its final big weekend of sales results for 2008, 609 auctions were staged, more than 500 fewer.

Almost one in two properties taken to auction failed to sell under the hammer between last October 18 and December 13, excluding Melbourne Cup weekend when the clearance rate returned to 66 per cent.

Yet private sale numbers have barely shifted.

There were 639 private sales reported to the REIV in the week before Christmas 2008 — 683 private sales were reported in the same week in 2007.

Private sales represented about 52 per cent of all sales reported to the REIV between December 7 and December 13, 2008. A year earlier, private sales made up about 37 per cent of all property sales between December 9 and December 15.

Read the full article here:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24924678-5013926,00.html

Renters feeling the pain early in 09

HUNDREDS, if not thousands, of people at risk of homelessness will gather outside strangers’ front doors across Melbourne this month.

More people search for a rental property in January than in any other month, according to rental trends data to be released today by realestate.com.au.

Melbourne’s average rental rate has risen in recent years.

In October 2005, tenants paid $277 on average to rent a house and $258 for a unit, based on RP Data statistics.

By October last year, average rental rates had jumped to $361 for a house in Melbourne and $326 for a unit. That’s an increase of about 33 per cent in three years.

Caroline James from the Herald Sun has written an interesting article which can be viewed here: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24868648-5013926,00.html

Mark

Bull or bear: what’s hot and what’s not in 2009

As prices in Sydney’s prestige suburbs spiral down, a question prevails: will 2009 be a bear year or have the prices dropped enough to prompt a bull run?

Australian Property Monitors economist Liam O’Hara is a "bear for the short-term", predicting further falls of up to 14 per cent in areas such as Bondi, Mosman and Palm Beach, which come on top of steep declines last year.

Preliminary figures from APM confirm the median house price in Palm Beach fell from $2,512,500 in the year to December 2007, to $2 million in December 2008 - a 20.4 per cent drop. Mosman dropped from a median of $1.2 million to $865,000 - a fall of 27.9 per cent.

The optimists and pessimists are locking horns over the Sydney housing market’s future, with bears forecasting more price falls and bulls arguing such doom and gloom will only depress the market further.

Even real-estate agents admit prices have declined steeply in premium suburbs.

Barrenjoey Properties principal Richard McDonagh says prices in wealth belt suburbs such as Palm Beach were off by 35 per cent in December as players in the financial markets were hit by the credit crunch, forcing them to sell holiday homes.

[W] estate agents principal Susan Lee says Mosman’s best homes had already fallen in price "at least 20 per cent" through last year. She says there will be more price slides for the top-end suburbs that rose strongly during the past four years.

"Sydney will have nominal price falls of 10 per cent but it will depend on where you live because some suburbs will have price increases - mostly those that are the cheapest relative to other stock."

Mr O’Hara says outer suburbs in the west and south-west - where prices are less than $360,000 - are poised for strong growth, especially property close to trains, schools and shops.

Rismark International head of research Matthew Hardman agrees, saying prices will rise and fall in different Sydney suburbs.

He says property in the city’s west and south-west is 25 per cent cheaper than it was four years ago.

"Those areas are now as affordable as they were back in 1998," he says.

Macquarie Group’s head of property research, Rod Cornish, forecasts "moderate price falls" across Sydney. He says the suburbs that will fare best through a tumultuous 2009 will be in the cheaper, city fringe areas.

One optimistic bull is CommSec chief economist Craig James, who says conditions are ripe for great home-buying opportunities in the year ahead. Lower house prices than in previous years, falling interest rates and lower petrol prices will boost home affordability, he says.

"We need people with confidence to act so we can get more momentum in the economy and I think this will happen soon," he says.

McGrath Real Estate chief executive John McGrath is confident about the health of the market, predicting bargains aplenty in suburbs such as Vaucluse, Hunters Hill, Longueville, Northwood, Northbridge, Cremorne, Mosman, Avalon, Whale Beach and Palm Beach.

"These areas count among the best in the country, so now is the time to buy in before the market surges back, which I suspect it will in these areas by 2010," Mr McGrath says.

Dr Hardman says now is the perfect time for cashed-up home owners with secure jobs to upgrade to a bigger, more expensive home because the discount is proportionately better in a falling market.

WHAT THE BULLS SAY

Real-Estate agents such as John McGrath, apartment developers Meriton and the head of NSW’s Real Estate Institute, Steve Martin, are happy to talk about their confidence in the market.

"In all my time in real estate, this is the perfect buying platform," Mr Martin says. "Interest rates are attractive, first home buyer grants are attractive and there is a stagnant market."

Mr McGrath admits that asking a real-estate agent whether it’s a good time to buy is "akin to asking your barber whether you need a haircut", but he says falling prices have made the market ripe for buying.

"With prices down by 10 to 20 per cent, interest rates falling by 2.5 to 3 per cent and rents up 10 to 15 per cent, an investment in residential property now makes so much better financial sense than it did a year ago when people were lining up at auctions each week."

Meriton sales director James Sialepis says the stockmarket turmoil and lower interest rates mean property investors will return.

"Astute investors are also aware that falling interest rates are having a negative effect on their bank term deposits and, with the sharemarket volatile, we expect investors to return to the property market and take advantage of the higher yields on offer."

What the bears say

University of Western Sydney Associate Professor Steve Keens caused a storm last year when he predicted house prices would fall by 40 per cent.

"Those sorts of predictions are just ludicrous because the Australian property market has floors under it and the drops won’t be that drastic," argues Rismark International head of research Matthew Hardman, who says there will definitely be price falls in some Sydney suburbs this year.

AMP Capital Investors chief economist Dr Shane Oliver says 40 per cent falls are unlikely, unless the economy hits a very deep recession or depression.

"But with the economy on track for a mild recession and, if not, then a very serious slowdown, house prices are likely to fall 10 to 15 per cent over the next year or so."

Australian Property Monitors Liam O’Hara forecasts house prices to fall by about 10 per cent.

SQM Research analyst Louis Christopher says people are not as keen to take on large mortgages - and the banks aren’t keen to give them out - which will wind back prices.

Macquarie Group’s head of property research, Rod Cornish, predicts moderate price falls throughout NSW.

Read the full article here:

http://www.domain.com.au/Public/Article.aspx?id=1231003892714&index=NationalIndex&headline=Bull%20or%20bear:%20what++39;s%20hot%20and%20what++39;s%20not%20in%202009

Mark