New Apartments in Brisbane Growth Location

We have just launched  a brand new Brisbane Investment Property .  It’s the latest stage of a project in Northshore.  Located within Hamilton, Northshore is Brisbane’s largest urban renewal precinct and it’s located right on the river and just 6kms from the CBD.

We have secured a range of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom off plan apartments within this developing precinct.

Here’s a little about the precinct, direct from the Northshore website:
“Northshore is Brisbane’s largest urban renewal precinct. Much of the 304 hectare site will be transformed to deliver a vibrant, mixed-use community that pays homage to the site’s historic past as Brisbane working wharves. Click Here To Read More

Home Loan Approvals support Property Growth

According to the latest figures, the number of home loans rose by 0.7 per cent to 51,981 in October.  This was up on what economists had predicted, they had been expecting similar figures to the previous month.

It’s the seventh straight monthly increase in home loan lending.

As the latest figures are for the month of October, these figures do not take in to account the positive effect of the last two interest rate drops that we have now seen in November & December.

These latest figures are yet another indication as to the strength of our property market.

Now is an ideal time to secure an off plan investment property in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.  What we are seeing now is the same predictable cycle that we have seen in the past.  We are seeing rents increasing, this means that for many it is more economically viable to buy a home than rent a home.  With the latest interest rate decreases this trend will be accelerated.  As more first home buyers enter the market this then allows those who are looking to upgrade to sell their first homes and move up. Click Here To Read More

Interest Rates Fall, Property Prices Rise!

Yesterday the Reserve Bank of Australia cut the official cash rate by 0.25% bringing it down from 4.75% to 4.5%.  Two of the 4 major banks Westpac and CBA have already passed on the rate cut in full and it is expected the other two majors NAB & ANZ will follow suit.
It was unclear from the RBA’s statement yesterday whether they expect to make further rate cuts but the futures market is pricing in an 80% probability of a further rate cut next month.  Whether it comes next month or not, the market has factored in further rate cuts next year.

We are in the process of preparing a full market update which will be out soon.  But in a nutshell, if we look at the history of the last 20 years,

every time we have had a rate cut the property market goes up, so now is a great time to consider an investment property

Our other factors are all fairly positive, a relatively healthy economy, relatively low unemployment, relatively low vacancy rates, an overall housing shortage relative to our population growth, housing affordability back to where it was in 2003 (and that was before the current drop in rates) but the most important factor to look at as a property investor in the current market Click Here To Read More

Now Is The Time To Invest In Brisbane

As you may be aware we have been recommending Investment property in Brisbane as a strong buy for the last few months and have featured Brisbane strongly in many of our previous market updates.

I was recently asked by one of our clients why we were recommending Brisbane over other cities, particularly Perth. The main reason is clear to see:

It’s the 3rd largest city in Australia as regards population:

But as regards medium price levels, it’s down in 6^th place. Click Here To Read More

Queensland tipped to boom and unit sales already increasing

As we have discussed throughout the year we will be continuing to target Brisbane investment property as we believe that the Brisbane market is currently at the bottom of the cycle, prices have bottomed out, vacancy rates are low and there are some great rental yields on offer.

As per our recent News article unit sales in Brisbane are on the rise and in some areas, such as South Brisbane, where we currently have a project available, median unit prices increased by 10.3 percent over the last quarter.

Our South Brisbane Project

I have just read an interesting article in today’s Courier Mail citing a recent report by economic forecaster BIS Shrapnel who are suggesting that Queensland can look forward to booming growth in the next 4 to 5 years.

“Mr Hart (of BIS Shrapnel) said Queensland was “in for one almighty (positive growth) shock over the next five years – like what Western Australia went through five years ago”.

Click Here To Read More

Housing demand to skyrocket – 3 million news homes needed in the next 15 years.

Investment Property is usually seen as a long term investment, so it makes great sense to take in to account the long term population increases that we expect in Australia.

I have just read an excellent article on this subject and suggest that you read the article in it’s entirety, but here are some snippets:

“Based on this analysis, BIS concludes that Australia’s population will likely increase by 25% to around 28.3 million people by 2026. That means there will be 5.7 million new Australians within 15 years. About 45% of these folks arrive organically via (net) births, while 55% will be immigrants.
BIS projects that this translates to about 2.3 million new “households”, with, on average, 2.5 people per household, by 2026.”
And
“key take-away from this analysis is that the overall, 2.3 million increase in the number of Australian households has to be accommodated. Click Here To Read More

The Property Market in August 2011

We thought that a market update may be timely.  Given the fluctuations of the global share markets of late, we have had many investors asking us about the investment property market, it’s stability and its future.

We have produced an update based on the views of various economic forecasters and our own experience of the market when it has been in similar positions previously.

We look at the relationship between the Australian Stock Market and the residential property market.  You may be surprised to see that in the past when the stock market has suffered the property market has performed very well.

We also look at Australia’s government debt situation and see that compared to many other countries our debt is very small.
Plus we look at interest rates, they may well come down and thankfully (unlike many other countries) our Reserve Bank has plenty of ammunition should they need to intervene.

We’ll also take a look at the vacancy factors, our economy, the supply and demand situation and also where we are currently sitting within the property cycle.

Please click through to our Property Market section to view the full Property Market August 2011 Update.

Why Australia’s in Good Shape

I have had a few emails over the last week from our off shore investors who were concerned about our market and whether investing in property was a good idea at this time, I just wanted to assure all of our investors that our market has strong fundamentals and as such, despite the ups and mainly downs of the stock market of late, our property market does not share this volatility and interest in our projects remains strong.

As I had breakfast this morning I was watching the local morning news show and Graig James, Commsec’s Chief Economist had been asked to state

5 reasons why he believed that Australia was in such good shape.

He stated:
1. Our unemployment rate: At 5.1% it’s one of the lowest of all of the developed countries. Whilst short term it may well move up slightly, it’s starting on a very low base. This compares to Britains 7.7% and the U.S’s 9.1%.
2. Our economy: Whilst our growth has slowed, we have been recession free for the past 20 years.
3. Our low debt: Whilst our national debt is expected to rise slightly over the short term, again it is coming off an incredibly low Click Here To Read More

South Yarra and South Brisbane off plan apartments

South Yarra off plan apartments:

We have just launched a new boutique off plan apartment project in South Yarra.  Just 5kms from the CBD this location has historically out performed the Melbourne average and is one of Melbourne’s most affluent and most livable suburbs.  With easy access to the CBD and a miriad of trendy boutiques and some of Melbourne’s most famous restaurants and cafes on your door step.

Our latest project is a boutique block of just 25 high quality one and two bedroom apartments.  Here’s a link if you would like some further information on this quality investment opportunity: South Yarra off plan investment property

South Brisbane off plan apartments:

We know have full details available for our latest off plan apartments in South Brisbane.  This is a superb location, literally just across the river from the city and also a short walk to the many restaurants and ammenities of Southbank.  This suburb is undergoing a significant infrastructure spend.  There are over 26,000 office workers and over 200,000 students in the immediate vicinity.  South Brisbane has the second highest rents in all of Queensland and with the continued growth that is expected plus the beautification of the area, this trend is expected to continue.

We have available a boutique project with an excellent mix of large one and two bedroom apartments.  The quality and attention to detail on this project is extremely high.  It certainly has all of the boxes ticked and is an excellent investment opportunity.  Here’s a link to further details: South Brisbane off plan Investment property

Inner City Rents Continue To Rise

We have been suggesting all year that rents have continued to rise and have had plenty of anecdotal evidence to back it up.  RUN Property are probably Australia’s largest metropolitan property managers on the Eastcoast, managing over 18,000 properties throughout Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane.

RUN Property CEO Rob Farmer was recently quoted, discussing the rental growth particularly relating to the inner city suburbs.

“Rental growth has been strong and consistent over the past 18 months, so it surprises me that more investors are not taking advantage of the dip in sales activity to secure their next bargain investment,”

The data from RUN relates to the rental increases that are taking place when the existing tenants move out and new tenants move in Click Here To Read More