Trends Showing Improved Buyer Interest

I have posted before about the fall in buyer interest following the bad publicity about interest rates after the RBA's November 2010 rate rise. Over the Christmas period, the total number of property sales in our area crashed to the lowest since we started operating in Beecroft. Attendances at house opens were low, and market sentiment was decidedly suppressed.

But things seem to have changed dramatically in the last few weeks. Ray White Beecroft sold two houses over last weekend, and had near record attendances at some of our opens. The web site, raywhitebeecroft.com.au, had the most total visits since September last year, and the number of Unique New Visitors was the highest since we started the web site back in 2009.

Of the visitors, there were the usual "flybyes" who left within 10 seconds, but of the rest more than half stayed for between one and ten minutes, indicating more than cursory interest.

So let's look forward to a thriving property market in 2011.

Knowing your Market

Ray White Beecroft has by far the largest rent roll in the Beecroft and Cheltenham areas. As such we know fairly accurately what rent a property can fetch. Our responsibility is to the owner, and we work hard to find good tenants willing to pay the market rent.

We were surprised when another (out of area) agency listed a very expensive property in a prime location in our patch, at a rent 20% below what we believe the property should rent for. Our opinion was confirmed by the agency sending us tenant application forms, asking us for rental references, from three of our tenants!

Yes, we admit, this rental listing is a bargain, and can't blame our people for trying to grab it.

I just feel sorry for the owners who are missing out on such a large slice of the income they are entitled to!

M2 Kirkham Bridge Project Intentions

All sorts of people are asking for information about the M2 Project's intentions for the road bridge over the M2 between Murray Farm Road and Kirkham St. I have today had a reply from the project, presumably giving the latest known intentions, and it states "The traffic management arrangements for the bridge works are still being finalised. These arrangements will (be) approved by the Roads and Traffic Authority in consultation with Hornsby Shire Council".

One hopes that the RTA is examining in detail why it will take 22 months to alter the spans of the bridge, exactly as long as it will take to widen the whole 21 km section of the motorway. This sounds an implausible coincidence to me.

Good project management would put priority onto widening the spans early, to give more clearance for the widening and other work taking place below, and also incidentally to restore full use of the bridge to the local residents.

If the project insists that early completion, and hence full opening of the bridge, is not possible, then one has to conclude there are other reasons for closing one lane of the road for the duration of the project, such as a desire to use the closed lane of the bridge for purposes not currently announced or approved. No such other reasons have yet been published. In the interests of their ratepayers, Hornsy Shire Council needs to examine this issue urgently.

BCCT M2 Bridge Survey - Last Chance

The BCCT survey of resident wishes regarding the Murray Farm Road bridge over the M2 will close 31 January. At present responses overwhelmingly favour traffic light control with alternate traffic directions. The more numbers the BCCT can quote, the more influence their views have. Please, have your say, by clicking the link on the BCCT website 2119.org.au, and also join the BCCT so their representatives have more clout with the various politicians and authorities.

House Purchase Opportunities

An article in the Sun Herald on Sunday by Andrew Wilson says that in Sydney over the last quarter of 2010 there were declining auction clearance rates, falling prices, and flat rental growth. Andrew attributes this largely to the spate of interest rises culminating in the November 2010 rise with all its unwanted publicity. He says that, despite the flat demand and downward pressure on prices, the fundamentals of the Sydney housing market remain rock solid. He believes the malaise is a "short term irrational dose of negative sentiment and a lack of confidence underscored by a herd mentality of buyer negativity."
However he says this mindset will be short-lived and the current period will later be seen to have been a great opportunity to snap up Sydney property before prices regain "their irresistible upward trajectory".
Certainly all of that fits in with the experiences of Ray White Beecroft. Immediately after the November rate rise buyer interest disolved, and the number of house sales in the Beecroft and Cheltenham area was an all time low. But at the same time a number of new listings appeared.
Last week our website, raywhitebeecroft.com, had more hits than at any time since the November rate rise. And this last weekend we had a bumper crop of prospective buyers going through opens at those new properties.

BCCT Survey on M2 Kirkham Road Bridge RESULTS

The results quoted below are copied straight off the BCCT blog (BCCT2119.blogspot.com).

"The survey being conducted by the Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust is still open for entries, but interim results are very clear.

96% AGAINST full closure of the bridge (92% "STRONGLY DISAGREED". Another 4% "DISAGREED")

85% AGAINST Tidal Flow (AM one way PM the other). (64% "STRONGLY DISAGREED". Another 21% "DISAGREED")

59% IN FAVOUR of traffic light control alternate directions. (41% "AGREED". Another 18% "STRONGLY AGREED") "

The survey included comments by contributors, and they make interesting reading. Regarding the "Traffic Light Control Alternate Directions, the overwhelming comment is "better than the alternatives."

A lot of the comments relate to the need for 22 months with one lane closed, if the reason for that closure is just to widen the spans. People are beginning to ask if this is a furphy, and are wondering whether the closure is being imposed on residents to suit the convenience of the Project!

M2 Project intentions for Kirkham Road Bridge

According to an article in this week's Northern District Times, Transurban has now given a full written commitment that the bridge would not be closed during the upgrade project.
The Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust website, 2119.org.au, now confirms that.
However what has not yet been revealed is, how the one-lane use will be controlled. By far the least disruptive option is to have traffic lights, allowing alternate traffic in both directions. However there has been a proposal to use "Tidal Flow", with access one way in the morning and the other way in the afternoon.
Of course this will be easier for the project, but hugely disruptive to the local residents.
The BCCT is conducting a survey of resident wishes, and this allows respondents to state preference. The results of that survey have not yet been released.

Chilworth Reserve and the M2 Widening Project

Further to my last post, I am now informed that Hornsby Council has received an email from the M2 Construction Group relating to the use of Allerton Road to access the construction camp, which states that they have 'conceded the formal access through the bushland in this location'. There is a suggestion the group may establish a small car park for executives at the end of Allerton Road, but there will only be foot access from there to the construction camp. Obviously this is good news for all the many lovers of the Chilworth Recreation Reserve. Of whom my dog Binzi is one!

Chilworth Reserve and the M2 Widening Project

The RTA and Transurban intend to build a construction camp under the M2 viaducts over Chilworth Recreation Reserve. They will use this while they fill in the gap between the two viaducts and extend the south viaduct out to convert the present M2 into one ten lane highway (one bus lane, three traffic lanes, and a bike lane, each way).
The M2 Upgrade Project has responded to queries about how construction traffic will get to this camp. The BCCT suggested they use the original 1990's construction path between the M2 and the golf course. The M2 Project responds that this "only allows access in - it does not allow access out of the compound area. The existing informal access off Orchard Road has a corridor of Blue Gums, and the potential impacts surrounding this area of vegetation is currently being considered."
An alternative exit path that was at one stage being proposed was to push a complete new road in off the end of Allerton Road, down through the lovely bush areas south of the motorway. It would seem that such an action would impose far more serious and permanent destruction of the park.
Survey and other project vehicles have over the last six months or so broadened that 'informal access' path from Orchard Road into a full width bush car track. Adapting it further to take construction traffic seems a small additional sacrifice compared to the devastation that would result from a complete new road driven in from the eastern end.

Kirkham Bridge Update - "not to be closed"

Greg Smith, State MP for Epping, advises that after significant pressure from the Beecroft and Cheltenham community, the RTA and Transurban have decided not to pursue the option of closing the bridge over the motorway between Murray Farm Road and Beecroft Road! As Greg says, "sanity has prevailed".
I like to think that the petition signed by so many of you helped in influencing this decision. I will retain all your emails in case we need to raise further issues with the project office. One such issue will of course be the Transurban plan for widening the bridge spans while the bridge remains open to traffic. Traffic lights seem the obvious solution, but the community will be pressing to minimise the duration of that obstruction.