Quick Sale

Ray White Beecroft was recently asked to help someone out by very quickly selling his property. As soon as the contract was provided to us, we emailed all on our vast database, and had a response next morning. Contracts were signed less than 24 hours after the email was sent out!

Strategy on Display in Commonwealth Bank

I am delighted to see that the Civic Trust has the "Beecroft bit" of the Shire's Roselea presentation on display in the Commonwealth bank.

Civic Trust Meeting on Housing Strategy

The Beecroft - Cheltenham Civic Trust is hosting a meeting on the Housing Strategy 7.30pm - 9.30pm, on THURSDAY, 15 APRIL, at the Cheltenham Recreation Club (60 The Crescent).

Insurance Liability with Trees

Continuing our experience with insurance claims, are you aware that a tree falling on your car is not the responsibility of the owner of the tree? Lydia Merrill, proprietor of Ray White Beecroft, remembers this well from when a huge tree mashed her car parked in the street in Lane Cove one afternoon some years ago. Fortunately her car was insured and she was able to claim. One of our tenants had his car, parked in the drive of his rental property, damaged by a tree branch falling, and the owner's insurance has denied a claim.
Just one of the hazards of living in a beautiful tree-lined suburb like Beecroft. Make sure your car is insured, and if you intend to park it off the public road, make sure the insurance cover includes that.

House Prices Latest

An article in the SMH today discussed how house prices are moving, but the author, Jonathan Chancellor, believes "headlines announcing the bubble's arrival are premature". "Certainly prices are rising, but many do not yet exceed price peaks achieved between 2003 and 2007". In other words the talk of two-figure price rises recently is still just returning us to pre-GFC times.
The article quotes a property in North Curl Curl that sold for $1.43M, claiming this as an 11% growth. However that claim is simply based on the property's last sale for $103,000 in 1985, and gives no information at all about recent rates of house price increase.
Similarly the All Ords stock market passed 5000, which sounds great, but the announcement then said this was the highest since September 2008, so all the gains are just recovering from the GFC.

Housing Strategy Protest Meeting

There was a very large turnout in Kilpark Park for a meeting discussing the planned 5-story residential zoning recently included in the Hornsby Shire Housing Strategy (2010). Greg Smith gave his views, with frequent loud applause. A petition was circulated and seemed to be collecting lots of signatures.

Kilpark Park was an excellent setting for the meeting, a delightful tranquil setting surrounded by trees so houses can hardly be seen, but which will, if the Darling Street rezoning is approved, have five storey blocks on its western boundary.

Regarding Darling Street, the housing stategy states "Traffic signals at intersection of Carlingford Road with Rembrandt Street are at capacity", and "Future traffic conditions in Rembrandt Street can be improved by road widening to enable provision of an additional right turn lane". I think most people who use the present shopping centre would agree with that, butwill one more right hand lane compensate

How to Handle Insurance Claims

Since the February floods, Ray White Beecroft has been dealing with lots of very busy insurance companies. All too often I have phoned the claims number and waited for ages listening to endlessly repeated and hence increasingly infuriating marketing messages about how you really have to insure with them, they are so efficient and attentive to your needs.
In the end I got fed up, logged onto their internet site, found the complaints department page, and submitted an online complaint, asking them to replace those messages with soothing music. Next morning a charming young lady phoned to apologise, took the details of my claim, and promised to hand them on to the relevant claims department and ensure they get back to me within 48 hours!

Interest Rates Up Again

The president of the Real Estate Institute of NSW, Wayne Stewart, said in response to yesterday's interest rate rise "The market is not driven by interest rates The greatest problem we are facing is the shortage of property".
"We will see a rise in mortgage stress sales but we urge people to think about the rate rises that have been promised for the last few months. When you are planning for the future you need to look at affordability."

NSW Houses Bigger than Ever

According to the Bureau of Statistics, new houses in NSW are 100 sqm larger than 25 years ago, and may be the largest anywhere in the world! US figures show average size of homes is actually shrinking, down to 202 sqm, whereas NSW houses are now averaging 270 sqm.
The Reserve Bank comments that one in every seven new houses is simply replacing an existing house that has been demolished.
Glenn Stevens, the governor, stressed the importance of increasing the stock of housing, not just the size of houses.
One must reflect on how this increasing size, and hence purchase price, is distorting the statistics of house prices. Just because your neighbour has demolished a cottage and built a mansion does not make your house more valuable, despite the average price of houses in your street going up.