Clichéd though it sounds, I can hardly believe the Christmas Season is upon us, this year has flown past!
The year has been one of change for many of us - the economy has changed dramatically since the beginning of the year, affecting consumer confidence and all types of business and industry. The latest RBA cut to interest rates will significantly reduce the outlays required to own an investment property. Therefore, from an investment point of view, this is a time of opportunity to visit the Gold Coast & view our range of fixed price Turn-Key House & Land Packages currently on offer.
On another note, I am please to announce that our Property Management Division has continued to grow & flourish over the past 12 months.
We are looking forward to working hard throughout 2009 & continuing to build wealth for our clients.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Buyers' Paradise
Gold Coast house prices have dipped to a more affordable level, according to the latest Real Estate Institute of Queensland sales data.
REIQ figures show the median house price on the Gold Coast fell 4.8 per cent to $466,500 over the September quarter.
Despite the recent fall in median house prices, over the year to the end of September, the Gold Coast recorded healthy median house price growth of 9.8 per cent.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Landlords Save but Renters Squeezed
Once again, the media has recognised the ideal economic environment that investors are currently enjoying.
The severe undersupply of investment properties has resulted in median prices per week rising, whilst interest rates (& therefore outlays) have been slashed.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland chairman Peter McGrath agreed the interest cuts were unlikely to lower rents. “There is still high demand & short supply & in the foreseeable future I can’t see that equation changing,” he said. But he warned Landlords not to make housing completely unaffordable.
Landlords save but renters squeezed
By Kathleen Donaghey
Gold Coast rents are expected to continue rising despite four successive interest rate cuts which have saved landlords an average $525 a month.
Real estate agents and tenant advocates have warned that demand for housing continues to outstrip supply while investors, spooked by the financial crisis, are holding on to their money or selling up.
Meanwhile, the local Tenant Advice and Advocacy Service has been flooded by 1000 people unable to keep up with high rents and other problems.
Advocacy co-ordinator Julie Bray said some investors had been selling their rental homes, further depleting supply, while tenants were losing jobs or working hours.
Ms Bray said despite the rate cuts, some rents had been pushed up significantly and she feared prices were going to continue rising because of demand.
“In Queensland, the cost of rentals is dictated by demand and that’s going to worsen with the financial crisis because people are putting their properties on the market to recover income lost from super,” said Ms Bray. “There’s definitely a lot of financial stress. People are falling into arrears and we’re trying to maintain tenancies.”
The latest September quarter figures show the median weekly rent for a three-bedroom unit on the Coast is $360, which increased from $330 last year and $300 from 2006.
The median rent on a three-bedroom house is now $390 a week, up from $360 last year and $335 in 2006.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland chairman Peter McGrath agreed the interest rates cuts were unlikely to lower rents.
“There is still high demand and short supply and in the foreseeable future I can’t see that equation changing much,” he said.
But he warned landlords not to make housing completely unaffordable.
“Rent increases are no necessarily good for the investor because if you push rents over the realms of affordability then the tenant will move out,” he said.
“The biggest issue with landlords on the Gold Coast is unemployment.
“My members have to be conscious when giving advice to landlords to balance the economic circumstances on the Gold Coast.”
The severe undersupply of investment properties has resulted in median prices per week rising, whilst interest rates (& therefore outlays) have been slashed.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland chairman Peter McGrath agreed the interest cuts were unlikely to lower rents. “There is still high demand & short supply & in the foreseeable future I can’t see that equation changing,” he said. But he warned Landlords not to make housing completely unaffordable.
By Kathleen Donaghey
Gold Coast rents are expected to continue rising despite four successive interest rate cuts which have saved landlords an average $525 a month.
Real estate agents and tenant advocates have warned that demand for housing continues to outstrip supply while investors, spooked by the financial crisis, are holding on to their money or selling up.
Meanwhile, the local Tenant Advice and Advocacy Service has been flooded by 1000 people unable to keep up with high rents and other problems.
Advocacy co-ordinator Julie Bray said some investors had been selling their rental homes, further depleting supply, while tenants were losing jobs or working hours.
Ms Bray said despite the rate cuts, some rents had been pushed up significantly and she feared prices were going to continue rising because of demand.
“In Queensland, the cost of rentals is dictated by demand and that’s going to worsen with the financial crisis because people are putting their properties on the market to recover income lost from super,” said Ms Bray. “There’s definitely a lot of financial stress. People are falling into arrears and we’re trying to maintain tenancies.”
The latest September quarter figures show the median weekly rent for a three-bedroom unit on the Coast is $360, which increased from $330 last year and $300 from 2006.
The median rent on a three-bedroom house is now $390 a week, up from $360 last year and $335 in 2006.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland chairman Peter McGrath agreed the interest rates cuts were unlikely to lower rents.
“There is still high demand and short supply and in the foreseeable future I can’t see that equation changing much,” he said.
But he warned landlords not to make housing completely unaffordable.
“Rent increases are no necessarily good for the investor because if you push rents over the realms of affordability then the tenant will move out,” he said.
“The biggest issue with landlords on the Gold Coast is unemployment.
“My members have to be conscious when giving advice to landlords to balance the economic circumstances on the Gold Coast.”
Saturday, December 6, 2008
News: Apartments Feel Crunch
Apartments feel crunch
By Mike Bruce chief reporter
High-rise apartment sales on the Gold Coast have plunged to their lowest level in more than nine years, according to a recent property report.
Just 37 Gold Coast high-rise apartments were sold in the three months to November, compared to 215 in the same period last year, making it the quietest three months since September 1999, according to Bill Morris, author of the November quarter Midwood Queensland Investment Report.
The November quarter was equally dire when compared with the three previous quarters in 2008 – in August 142 units were sold, in May. 268, and in February, 345.
“The market is abysmal because people can just see prices falling and in that declining market people won’t buy – they will only buy in a rising market,” said Mr. Morris.
His research showed that there were 1383 high-rise apartments for sale on the Gold Coast, which at the November quarter sales levels would take almost nine years to clear.
The grim news came in a week when Mr. Morris predicted the Gold Coast property market would fall a further 20 percent on top of the 3.7 percent drop in the median house price in the three months to November.
Mr. Morris said while the November period for high-rise apartment sales had been heavily battered by the collapse of Surfers Paradise’s Pacific Resort project in October which saw the cancellation of 199 contracts, the paltry November result was an accurate reflection of the property market in general.
But unlike property busts of the past, the market was not falling due to rising unemployment or falling wages but rather the global liquidity crisis.
“People just can’t borrow money, that’s the biggest influence on prices at the moment,” said Mr. Morris.
“It’s not as if demand has fallen by the wayside either . . . it’s a classic credit squeeze which we haven’t seen the likes of in Australia since 1961.”
In the 16 ‘low-rise’ developments across the Coast, project marketers sold only 29 units.
And medium-rise apartment sales fared little better with only 40 unconditional sales across 26 projects the three months to November.
Mr. Morris said the high-rise market had been particularly affected by the downturn because it was a market with a greater degree of discretionary spending and apartments and holiday units were often the first assets to suffer in tough times.
“High rises are generally seen as discretionary assets,” he said.
“It’s the same as the prestige boat market or the luxury car market.”
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
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