Fairfax retracts after "Media Ambush"

In November this year the Sun Herald reported that Joel Hollis, the Principal of Ray White Concord, was fined $3000, in an article talking of "dodgy agent caught by crackdown by Office Fair Trading".

Ray White Corporate wishes it to be known that they believe Joel had been unfairly ambushed and subjected to media coverage resulting in punishment incongruent with the clerical error he had made.

Ray White Corporate has obtained from Fairfax a commitment to print a new article, same prominence and position, explaining that the individual was not a dodgy agent, his Real Estate licence and Corporation licence for Ray White Concord were fully paid up and current, although he was correctly fined because his other Corpoation licence, for Hollis Residential, had not been renewed.

Dilapidation Reports around Construction Sites

On behalf of Uniting Care, structural engineers are carrying out dilapidation reports on all properties around the planned 41 Unit Development between Hannah Street and Copeland Road.  Some of our tenants and owners are concerned about these surveys.  The idea is that owners need to be able to prove that any cracks found AFTER the adjacent building completes were not there before.  Conversely the builder is entitled to be able to show that such cracks were pre-existing, and not caused by the building activity.

At the tenant's request, Ray White Beecroft recently escorted one of these engineers through a property we manage, and the engineer thanked us for our prompt assistance, saying that many agency PM departments are not so cooperative!

RBA Cuts Interest Rate

As expected, the RBA cut interest rates another 0.25% today.

Beecroft Village No Vacancies!

The Richard Hickey gallery opened in 14 B Hannay Street on Thursday 22nd November to showcase the work of this gifted photographer.  Richard has a passion for landscape photography and is able to capture and present landscapes in an exceptionally beautiful way.  Go to http://richardhickeygallery.com/ for more details.
The significance of this is that now The Module, the Arcade, and the 5 Wongala Shopping Precinct are all now fully tenanted (the new Sushi bar in the Arcade is rented but not yet open).  The only vacancy in the village is the St George Bank building on Hannah Street.  How many other shopping centres can claim such vibrancy?

Local Listings Increasing

Around Beecroft and Cheltenham there are now over 70 properties listed for sale, which is the most since December 2008, when there was a surge in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis.

NWRL Acquiring your land!

Don't panic, it's not really a problem.  It's just that, legally, an owner owns the land all the way down to the centre of the earth, so if someone wants to put a railway tunnel in under your property they have to "Acquire Sub-Surface Stratum Land".  So anyone living over the intended path of the North West Rail Link tunnel will soon receive a notice of the formal acquisition process for the land beneath your property.

Except in special circumstances there will be no compensation, and all experience shows you won't hear or feel a thing.

Well Done Nicole - beware a new Scam

Ray White Beecroft's Property Officer Nicole received an email from one of our owners who lives in Bangkok. “I am in Spain and have been robbed, no cash no passport no credit cards no phone. Please send money to this Spanish bank”.  Correct email, correct salutations.

Nicole, not convinced, tried phoning him on the numbers we hold for him, no response. Emailed him on an earlier email address we had in our records, no response. So she replied to him asking him questions for which only he would know the answers – “Who sold you the house?” (answer, Douglas Macarthur) “Name of your next door neighbours?” and so on. He replied angrily that he is owed rent money, and demanding that we send it immediately.

Nicole, still unimpressed, did as young people do nowadays, she went on Facebook, found him there, “friended” him, and told him what was happening. She also Skyped him, and left a message on his mobile phone Skype app.

Finally a response – from the owner, still in Bangkok. “My email has been hacked, do not send any money, do not obey any emails from me, I will phone you when I have sorted things out.”

We will give the full story once the owner can explain what happened, but meanwhile we expect him to send Nicole chocolates for Christmas!

Changes at Beecroft Shopping Centre

IGA has now taken over from Franklins, with new signs going up all around the Module.

In order to prevent commuters and others from parking in The Module's private commercial car park, a vehicle equipped with number plate recognition cameras is now regularly patrolling, and anyone overstaying the 2 hour allowed parking is likely to get fined.  It doesn't help moving the car, or going away for a bit and returning, as this new technology will spot the vehicle and any car is allowed just one two hour stay in any day.

The block of land in the corner of Chapman Avenue and Beecroft Road, Nos 7, 7a and 7b Chapman Avenue, has been sold to developers and we can expect an early application to develop this block as five storey mixed commercial, retail and residential.

Cut Rates, say agents

Property industry leaders have urged banks to pass on the recent rate cut quickly, to "continue the momentum" of the improving spring property market. Ray White Beecroft has experienced this surge of buyer interest, with eight sales last month and three properties settling on one day, 3 October! We have some excellent new listings, but need lots more.

Three Sales in One Day

After a great September for property sales, October started with a bang with three properties settling in one day, 3 October, in Beecroft Road, Redgrove Avenue, and Jesmond Crescent. Well done, Douglas, Peter and Luke!

Interest Rates Cut, more to come

This afternoon the RBA announced a 0.25% cut in the official interest rates, to 3.25%. Most authorities seem to think there will be more cuts to come.

Swimming Pool Registration and Inspections

According to NDT, all NSW backyard pools will have to be registered under legislation proposed by the NSW State Government. Cost of registering will be $200, and mandatory annual safety inspections are expected to cost $150. Also an inspection will be required before any property is sold or leased.

Changes to Strata Laws

Changes are being proposed regarding strata titles. One of the main changes is to allow a strata property to be sold despite some of the owners not agreeing. The objective is to prevent a small proportion of the owners from preserving old and decaying buildings that would be better off demolished and rebuilt. However there must be effective checks to protect the rights of those who legitimately want to keep their houses. Another proposal for change regards the level of competence of strata managers and strata committees, who might be managing large annual budgets yet have not even read the local bylaws or the strata act. It is proposed that for large buildings the executive committee should be required to attend training, and basic online training should be made easily accessible to everyone else.

RWB Dynamic Duo Sells Swiftly

Ray White Beecroft has just sold a Beecroft house within three weeks of listing it, due to the combined efforts of Peter Raco and our new salesman Luke Frendo.  Peter took the initial vendor phone enquiry, appraised the property, and listed it.  On the first open, Peter and Luke combined to welcome prospective buyers.  Luke met the interested buyer, showed him the house, and quickly negotiated the sale despite the building inspection finding a crack in the basement, for which they had to negotiate a mutually acceptable price reduction.  In the end both Vendor and Buyer seem to have been very happy with the speedy result.

Beecroft Houses in the Best Price Bracket

Many houses in and around Beecroft are in the $700,000 to $1,000,000 bracket, which data from Australian Property Monitors reports shows has grown 4.5% for the first half of this year, rising 1.2% over the June quarter alone.  Given an anticipated rate but by the RBA in August, this bodes really well for house sales in the second half of the year.
APM's data shows that prestige prices are down 1.4% over the last six months, and 8% down on a year ago!

Marlow Property in line for UDIA Award

Marlow Treetops project has been selected as a finalist in Categories 9, Seniors Living, and 10, Medium Density Development!

Denistone Seniors Units Nearing Completion

Ray White Beecroft is managing the sale of 11 beautiful Seniors Living apartments being built in Marlow Avenue Denistone, and interest for the properties has been very high. Five units are already sold. A full occupation certificate is expected next week.

Ray White Biggest Ever Sale

The commercial department of Ray White recently announced that the ACCC has approved the sale of 30 public houses to a Woolworth's joint venture, for a price in excess of $400M.  This is the biggest sale in the history of Ray White.

Rental Price Gap Closing

According to Australian Property Monitors, the difference between the rent of an apartment and an equivalent house is now only $30.  Over the June quarter median weekly rents for Sydney apartments rose by 4.4%, to $470, while house rents were stagnant at $500.
People like the security of an apartment, they are usually on one level with a lift for the higher level units, whereas most houses have stairs between various living areas.  Many apartments have great views, whereas few houses are high enough to see over neighbouring properties.  And apartments are low maintenance.  Most owners like to have their own garden, but for most house-renting tenants the garden can be more of a burden than a recreation space.
However in and around Beecroft, tenants enjoy the privacy of living in their own (rented) property, and families enjoy the garden and if available the swimming pool.  But also in our area there has been a shortage of new property coming onto the market, and rents have been firm.
Ray White Beecroft manages rental apartments over a wide area, from Kellyville to Ultimo and Artarmon, so is well placed to monitor rental changes throughout the northern suburbs of Sydney.

House Prices Down but Steady

According to the REI, Sydney's house prices, which slumped in the 12 months to March this year, have stabilised and are expected to start rising again soon.
A report in the SMH today says that, due to the Euro crisis, European banks have cut their lending to Australian businesses by $20B, down from $60B since 2009, compared to growth of 20% pa before then. However it seems that Asian banks are taking up much of the slack from this drop.

Murray Farm Road Bridge Closure

The Murray Farm Road Bridge over the M2 will be closed from 2pm Saturday 30 June to 5am Monday 2 July.

New Jewellers Shop in the Arcade

We are pleased to welcome new tenants to Shop 26, The Arcade. The window shows some really classy jewellery, hand bags, etc, and all the ladies on our staff are eagerly awaiting the opening! Ray White Beecroft sold the shop to the new owners and found these new tenants, and wish them all the very best of success.

Natasha's New Car

Property Management Staff Changes

Victoria Kohlhagen has left to have a baby. Natasha Guyatt has joined, after spending 4 years managing a large rent roll elsewhere in Sydney.

Property Management is Back on Line

After working through the Easter weekend, our expert at Maxcom Technology managed fully to recover Nicole's computer from the SMART Hard Disk Drive virus she picked up on 4 April (see the last blog). Not only that, but all the emails sent to her since 4 April have been backed up on our server and are now available to her. There are 100 emails, which she now has to handle, please give her a bit of slack!

For information, I talked with our main IT group, they say that the SMART virus is rampant, there is currently no anti-virus software that can protect you from it if you happen to access an infected web site. They say that in half the cases they have handled they have had to reformat the disk with loss of anything that wasn't backed up! So beware, internet shoppers!

The Hidden Cost of Internet Shopping

Our property officer Nicole must, as part of her duties, spend a lot of time on the internet searching for new or alternative products or services. Recently her computer was infected by the SMART Hard Disk Drive virus, and our IT specialist has spent several days trying to recover the computer and the information on it.

This virus has been around for several years, and apparently the most common method of being infected is by browsing infected internet sites. Clicking on links offering to ‘speed up your disk drive’ or similar links immediately loads the virus, but apparently in some cases these viruses are downloaded simply by visiting the perfectly normal and innocent but infected web site. And this virus totally shuts down your computer and won't let you even start using it.

Perhaps Myers and David Jones should stress this hidden cost of internet shopping!

Meanwhile Nicole will probably not be able to access any of her emails before the weekend. Our apologies if you were waiting for a response. Please phone the office, 9479 8444, or email me, peter.hewitt@raywhite.com, if it’s urgent.

Also note the office will be closed over the Easter break, call me (0417 215 774) if you need assistance over this period. Happy Easter to you all.

Doug in the Top Salesperson List again!

For the second year running, Douglas Macarthur's annual sales performance earned him a place in the Ray White Corporate Premier Members list.

Rail Freight Corridor and the BCCT AGM

At the BCCT AGM, Scott Lyall of Transport for NSW gave an excellent presentation on the current state of planning for the third rail coming through Cheltenham and Beecroft. The rail is needed to allow north-bound passenger trains to pass slow moving freight trains struggling up the steep track there. The new rail will cut into existing railway land west of the present rail, including the children's play park by the bus stops, and the commuter car park. The car park will be relocated north of Chapman Avenue, maintaining the same number of car park spaces.

Beecroft Road Bridge Closed over Easter

The following has been received from the M2 Project:

All lanes on Beecroft Road Bridge will be closed between 4am Saturday, 7 April and 12pm Monday, 9 April 2012 while essential concreting work is completed. The westbound off ramp and citybound on ramp will remain open to motorists throughout this period. Motorists will not be able to turn left onto Beecroft Road from Kandy Avenue during this period. At 12pm on Monday, 9 April 2012 all lanes will reopen to motorists and a 40km/hour speed limit may be in place until 5am Tuesday, 10 April 2012.

Delays are expected so please plan your journey, allow extra travel time and consider using alternate routes via Pennant Hills Road and Carlingford Road. Please check www.livetraffic.com or call 131 701 for traffic updates.

Parking in the Village

Someone asked about overall parking availability in the village. There are a total of some 243 spaces in the village, including street parking. Of these, 97 spaces are The Module (48 at the rear over Franklins, and 49 in the main area). There are 65 spaces in the Arcade parking areas, 27 near the firestation, 8 in front of R&H, 14 in front of 5 Wongalla, and about 32 on Wongalla Rd and Hannah St. There are also a number of private spaces behind many of the shops.
The key factor then is that The Module car park is nearly half of the available off-street public parking. But people need to remember that it is not "public", it is for use of staff and customers of shops and offices in The Module.
But it is clear that there is lots of parking available, so we should be encouraging the friendly village atmosphere of the precinct, not forcing people away by only letting them park for the "authorised" two hours. Our motto should be "Come and Browse".

Parking in the Module

Further to my blog of 10 Feb, I have continued to monitor the parking spaces behind the Module, and have so far never counted less than 16 empty spaces. The average over the whole month, between 9:10 am and 4:40pm, has been 33 spaces.
Despite this, someone has been complaining to strata management, and letters are being put in windscreens for people who stay beyond the 2 hour official parking time. This seems a pity, since it compels customers to come, do their planned business, and leave, instead of dalying, enjoying a coffee or a meal or a massage, and roaming the shops. Very short sighted by those who are making the fuss.

Paper Wasps

We had a complaint of a wasp nest in the eaves of a property.

We sent our specialist around, he found and destroyed a total of sixteen active nests. Here he is at work.

Be Gone Foul Wasps!

Interest Rates on hold again

Last month the forecasters were wrong, official rates stayed fixed. This time the forecasters were right, official rates stayed fixed. Will be interesting to see how the banks respond this time.

Rail Freight Corridor Guest Speaker

A representative from Transport NSW will speak at the Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust AGM on 26 March to explain intentions for the third rail track through Cheltenham and Beecroft. Cheltenham Recreation Club, 7:30 pm start.

Parking in the Module

Last Friday someone complained they couldn't find a parking spot at the Module. An hour later there were 26 spaces, showing how many shoppers use the spot. Given that the shops in the module pay with our rents for that car park, it concerns some shopkeepers that so many staff from shops elsewhere in the Village park in the Module car park. There is talk of restoring the council rangers, and enforcing the two hour limit, but it's probably more important to restrict access to those working or shopping in the module. Perhaps a ticket system that you can validate in Module shops?
However the problem isn't that bad, a survey all this week has found that during shopping hours there were an average of 31 space available, with never less than 14 free spaces. Don't be put off by the bottom two rows of spaces being full, there are always places up the hill and round the corner. Compare that to trying to park in Carlingford shopping arcade!

RWB Web Site

Visiontech, who were hosting our raywhitebeecroft.com.au web site, has gone into liquidation.
The old website has been replaced with a new Ray White Corporate format website with much more flexibility. It's worth recording that in just under three years the website had been visited 17,365 times by 8,192 unique visitors, with 76,539 page views!

Rezoning Blitz in Push for Housing

According to an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald, the NSW state government is moving to bypass councils and rezone sites nominated by developers as suitable for tens of thousands of new homes.
Mr McMahon of Wollondilly Shire Council points out that "we don't want just residential". Any such new tranches of housing need to be associated with commercial development to give local job opportunities, as well as shopping, schools, etc.
One of the big complaints registered by Beecroft residents against the Uniting Church's Development Application 1305, for 51 new residential units between Hannah Street and Copeland Road, is that there is no supporting infrastructure. No places for entertainment, no room in local schools, no room on the roads. It's not good enough for state government to hand a "licence to build" to developers without also providing the infrastructure needed by the new residents.

House Prices Emerging from Doldrums

Simon Johanson of SMH Business Day gives an optimistic report "after almost two years of gloom house prices in Sydney are showing some signs of improvement, and real estate agents hope lower interest rates will accelerate the trend."
Data from Australian Property Monitors suggests median house prices were up marginally across Australia in the December quarter, the first time since a year earlier.

New Digital Display Screens

As part of our constant technological improvement, Lymlive have just upgraded our digital screen computers to provide improved clarity and reliability.

DA1305/2011 High Rise Development on Hannah Street

A number of locals have been into our Ray White Beecroft office asking for information on the Uniting Church's Development Application to build 51 residential units in two tower blocks between Hannah Street and Copeland Road. We appreciate that relevant DA information on the Council's website is not easy to find or follow, so are happy to help local residents to find the information they require. Please call in and ask for Peter Hewitt, our Business Development Manager.

Break Lease Clause

A lot of applicants don't seem to know about the optional Break Lease clause brought in last year. This allows tenants to break a long lease (less than 3 years) paying rent of only 6 weeks if been in less than 6 months, or 4 weeks rent if in the property for more than 6 months. Obviously this makes taking out a long lease much safer for the tenant.
The clause is officially optional, but because it so clearly benefits the new tenant Ray White Beecroft includes it as standard in our Lease agreements. It helps the owner too, because it gives new tenants courage to sign up for long leases even when their future is not completely clear.
Of course signing up for even a six month lease says nothing about how long the tenant will stay in residence, we have several tenants who have been in a property on a 'continuing lease' for over ten years after signing a six month rental agreement.

What a week for rentals!

Ray White Beecroft opened on 3 Jan, whereas many agencies stayed shut for that week. We were inundated with requests to see rental properties, and got lots away over the next week. Vacancy rate had shot up to 3.5% at end of the year, due to all the new vacant properties listed with us, but is already back at 1.8% with a number of applications still being processed. Our average vacancy rate last year was 1.1% and we should be back there soon.