NEWS last week about escalating energy prices is sure to boost the values of existing green homes and commercial premises. According to building advisory service Archicentre, this will lead to a new wave of environmental design, housing products and marketing approaches by the real estate industry. “Home owners with well-designed and insulated homes, including solar panels and rainwater tanks, stand to see hundreds of dollars a year cut from their energy and water bills as prices escalate dramatically,” Archicentre’s David Hallett said. He said the pressure of housing affordability today was not just in initial building costs because housing affordability had spread into the services such as power, water and gas to run a home. “The property market will become increasingly driven by running costs that will be automatically factored in by buyers who are looking at balancing their mortgages and other costs,” he said. He predicted the trend in new homes and renovations was likely to be around the introduction of “quality based building inspections” aimed at ensuring homes with a six or more green star design were actually built to the standard. Mr Hallett said that at present no one checked the quality of the construction or insulation, with the six-star performances quickly evaporating if there were gaps in the door or window seals or poor-quality insulation or the roof was faulty. CLEARING AIR ON STAMP DUTY Reductions to stamp duty for first-home buyers don’t come into effect in Victoria until July 1, but it seems it may already be causing some confusion. Our piece a couple of weeks ago about Goodman Group Conveyancing warning about changing contracts until after July 1 drew some comment from several readers, as well as agents. The agents quite rightly pointed out that stamp duty is assessed at the date of settlement, not the date the sale contract is signed – a fact confirmed to Home Truths by the State Revenue Office. The confusion may have come from the fact that eligibility for the $7000 First Home Owners Grant is assessed at the time the contract is signed. So that’s good news for agents, who would be worried the market may be further impacted if first-home buyers stayed away until July. Still, with a stamp duty saving of about $4000 for first-home buyers who settle after July 1, it will not come as any surprise if people who have already bought and settled before July 1 try to stall. VALUE FOR MONEY As Melbourne’s housing market starts to tighten, valuation company Opteon is urging potential buyers or sellers to have an independent valuation before dipping a toe in the water. Opteon residential operations manager Chris Knight said [...]
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Painting is certainly something we can all have a crack at and the results are instant. In fact, a fresh coat of paint really will breathe some extra life to your place if you’re considering selling. My advice is to do it well before inspections as the smell of drying paint may put people off and it also says you’re trying a bit hard. There are many savings to be made when it comes to painting and obviously the biggest is the labour cost if you do it yourself. Paint is relatively inexpensive compared with timber or bricks, and equipment can be bought so easily from hardware and retail stores. Preparation, however, is the key. Walls should be scrubbed clean beforehand, cobwebs removed, furniture moved around or stacked, drop sheets put down, holes and gaps filled. There are also decisions to be made on the colour scheme, and quality rollers and brushes are a good investment. There is a lot of cheap painting gear out there, especially at the front of house in hardware stores, but it will make the job look cheap, so quality brushes and rollers will make a world of difference. If it is a touch-up job, don’t change the colour scheme as you’ll have to do extra coats, requiring more drying and more of your time. If time is not on your side, just do the walls and skirting boards rather than the ceiling. Ceilings require more skill and, nine times out of 10, are messier! You can contain the paint splatter more easily on the walls. Play it safe and make sure you have a good ladder to work off. Start out in a room that is not so noticeable – in other words, practise your painting technique and skills in the kids’ bedroom. That way, once you get around to the living room, you’ll be in tip-top form. When it comes to picking the paints there is a lot to consider. The best advice would have to come from the paint shop assistant, so go to a proper store to get the right advice. For the preparation, use No More Gaps for all interior gap work and a strong polyurethane sealant for outside. New work inside will need a sealer then two coats of a finish paint. Go with water-based enamels for all the skirting boards, architraves, doors and windows. Exterior painting is a whole other world. Weathershield and Solar Guard are the big names and you’re going to need a big brand to withstand the harsh Aussie sun and conditions. Weigh up the savings when it comes to the outside of your house. The exterior painting of a house is the most difficult because of those hard-to-reach areas and height issues. So get some quotes as a professional job will ensure your house is set apart. Save inside for the DIY. Always wash out brushes and rollers into the garden and not into the drain. Leave the lid off empty paint tins to dry out and harden before disposing of properly. Look after the brushes and rollers and remove any dried paint with a steel brush. Most of all, enjoy the serenity of painting – it’s a quiet time and requires a steady hand and mind. Don’t rush it and, most of all, step back and admire the fact that you can do it yourself. Tom Williams is a licensed carpenter, qualified residential builder and a presenter with Channel 7. [...] A DONCASTER development site has been put up for sale only weeks after the owner secured a permit to build a seven-storey building with 28 apartments and two levels of carparking. The 1465 sq m site at 86-88 Tram Rd is being sold through an expressions-of-interest process closing on June 16. [...] SKYROCKETING cost-of-living expenses are taking a heavy toll on Casey-Cardinia residents trying to buy their first home, findings in a national study suggests. The study, by home finance broker Loan Market, found nationally these costs were a greater deterrent than the fear of future interest rate rises. Narre Warren couple Elizabeth Elliott and Clint Bailey bought their first home this year, after two years of searching. Ms Elliott blamed everyday living costs. “We’ve got three boys. I am studying, so I only work casually and my partner is a tradie,” she said. “Buying a house looked further and further away because we have so many bills to pay – even grocery shopping is expensive.” The 23-year-old said she and her partner developed saving strategies to help them get their home. Loan Market mortgage broker Doug Owen said he had seen many others in the same situation. “Many people can not take on home loan credit because they are paying increased petrol and food costs as well as higher charges for electricity,” he said. [...]  EVEN non-believers visiting the new Bible College of Victoria headquarters in Wantirna, may find themselves praying Melbourne drivers don’t veer off the highway, and into the building. The Melbourne School of Theology, which is the new name for the Bible College, has paid a speculated $8 million to owner-occupy the prominent 1.94 hectare suburban office which was for a long-time pink, and the headquarters of cosmetic company Nutrimetics, which was acquired by Tupperware in 2006, then relocated to Ferntree Gully. [...] CARDINIA is the most affordable growth area for house-and-land packages in Melbourne, a city-wide study by the Oliver Hume property group has found. The study shows a median package price of $384,000 in a market that appears to be easing slightly in the latest quarter. But for anybody who bought land a year ago, things still look quite comforting. From a median price of $166,400 for a block in March last year, the figure has moved to $185,000 – an increase of 11 per cent. And the odds are last year’s block would have been larger – 672sq m against today’s median of 448sq m. The only slightly unsettling thing is that the present median for land is after a $6000 fall in the latest quarter. But Hume’s national research manager Andrew Perkins said there was little to worry about. “The market has finally taken a breather after two years of higher than average price growth,” he said. “The stabilisation of prices has been accompanied by an increase in retail land supply. “While prices have stabilised, land supply has continued to increase since June last year. “There were about 1500 lots on sale at the end of March, equating to 250 lots for each council area and 18 lots for each project. This is more than double the number in June last year. Casey property values made gains during the year. The median land price rose 13 per cent from $204,000 to $231,000 in the 12 months to March this year. Like Cardinia, median land sizes shrunk from 586sq m to 448sq m. The fall in land prices in the March quarter was a more conservative $1225. “The gap between demand and supply has continued to decrease in both areas and buyers are being offered a much better range of lots than they were a year ago and that has impacted on the latest quarter’s results,” Mr Perkins said. [...]  THE new owners of a small office building at 315-321 La Trobe Street – near the popular Celtic Club at the top of town – have wasted no time seeking a redevelopment application. The building was for 25 years the headquarters of law firm Tisher Liner & Co, which relocated to Queen Street after selling its La Trobe Street offices to the developers for a speculated $4 million last September. Having lobbied immediately (and unsuccessfully) to build a 33-level tower on the small 300 square metre block, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has instead granted the new owners approval for a 22-level building rising 65 metres. [...]  THE developer that has kept Melbourne’s heritage enthusiasts on edge for a year has quietly listed its Brighton headquarters for sale. Ettamogah Entertainment, which went into voluntary administration last November, is directed by Leigh O’Brien, whose development company, L&D O’Brien Holdings, paid $12 million in 2009 for the prominent 1 Bay Street Brighton mansion once owned by Olympian turned Gold Coast Mayor Ron Clarke. L&D planned to replace the 1933 square metre site with a high-end apartment complex, after the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal approved the historic six-bedroom home on the site (pictured) be demolished. [...]  WEATHERGIRL and television show co-host Livinia Nixon (pictured), with husband Alistair Jack, a builder, have offloaded their renovated Middle Park home. The double storey, four-bedroom red brick home is understood to have sold for about $3.5 million, sources speculate, after passing in at auction earlier this month for $3.42 million. Jack, and Nixon, who married in 2009 and welcomed new son Henry in January, are now reportedly looking for another “renovation rescue” project. [...]  UNHAPPY with a permit for a landmark 26-storey tower – handed out in 2002 by then-planning minister Mary Delahunty – the new owners of a historic 1930s theatre near the Queen Victoria Market have applied with the new planning minister, Matthew Guy, to build something taller and denser. Delahunty, whose recent autobiography confirmed developers wield influence over the ALP government in covert ways, controversially approved a plan nine years ago which would have seen the art-deco building at 420 Spencer Street, at the south-east corner of Dudley Street, in West Melbourne, demolished and replaced with an 83-metre Fender Katsalidis skyscraper. [...] |
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