The Module Sells Out

The 130 apartments in Beecroft Place, which used to be The Module at Beecroft Shopping Centre, sold out in six hours on Saturday. The doors to the sales office for Beecroft Place, in a plum location at the heart of the suburb’s village at the corner of Beecroft Rd and Hannah St, opened at 8am, with buyers queuing from about 7.30am.  Beecroft Place’s singlebedroom apartments were priced at $595,000, the twobedroom homes at $745,000 and the three-bedders at $1.075 million.  “To get that level of sales all on one day is certainly unprecedented,” Mr Rees said. “We had a three-week lead-in period and each week the demand got stronger.”  Construction is expected to begin on the development in the middle of August, with completion expected by the middle of 2017.  There are just three apartments left in The Croft development at Beecroft, on the corner block bounded by Beecroft Rd, Chapman Ave and Wongala Crescent.

Kopy Katt opens in The Arcade

Less than a week since taking the keys, Kopy Katt, from the Module, is up and running in the Arcade.

Revised DA

A new DA has been submitted, DA 1006/2014/a, mainly to incorporate 93 Beecroft Road, the LJ Hooker building that was previously excluded.  The DA also includes additional units and changed layouts, presumably to incorporate the new building.  Submissions regarding the application must be into Hornsby Shire Council by 27 May.

This extract from the notification shows the proposed appearance from the west.

Chinese Investment in Sydney Housing

An interesting article by Michael West in the Sydney Morning Herald today describes how some financial experts are predicting $60Billion of new Chinese investment will be spent on Australian housing in the next six years!

The article warns of new money laundering legislation aimed to crimp the influx of Chinese funds where the money was improperly obtained in China.  Real Estate agents are currently exempted from the requirements of Australia's Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act.  So investors from abroad are buying houses to avoid having to comply with that act, rather than risking putting dirty money into Australian savings funds, where the act applies and penalties could be imposed. 

The consequence of removing the Real Estate exemption would be a significant increase in compliance paperwork by estate agents.

Beecroft Rd Church Sold

The disused but heritage listed old church at 179 Beecroft Rd was sold by Hornsby Shire Council this morning for $3M. 

We don't yet know who has bought it, or what their intentions are.

Save the Gang Gangs

A DA is being considered by Hornsby Council to develop the bush area at 89 Malton Road, close to the Byles Creek park and the lovely Byles Creek walking trail.  This area of bush contains the last known breeding pair of gang gangs, and a protest meeting is being held this Saturday morning in the park at Beecroft Railway Station trying to persuade the State Government to buy the land from the developers and turn it into a wild life sanctuary in perpetuity.

 

Please come along and hear what Dr Davis and others have to say on this issue.

The Powerful Owl also breeds in this area of bush.  You must want to save him surely!

Lyne Park Childrens Playground

The new childrens playground at Lyne Park has been nicely installed, with a paved footpath from Lyne Road in case the ground is wet, and the park is fenced off so the Off Leash dog park is unaffected.

 

Traffic around Beecroft Shopping Village

Following a very near-miss involving two Arden children nearly being squashed by a truck, the Wongala-Chapman corner site has been closed, pending a proper traffic-management plan being submitted.  The Police were present last week and apparently were appalled by the traffic issues. This week the middle site was operating with traffic backed up into Beecroft Road.  What will happen when construction of the Module is added to all this?  

Amazing Sales Weekend

Two incredible auctions held today were both attended by over 70 people and each had more than 30 bids, resulting in sales well above reserve.  It's not easy to see how the authorities can control Underquoting, when things like this happen.  Our sales people (Douglas Macarthur with 5 Summerwood, and Peter Raco with 7 York) were as surprised as the owners when the final bids were knocked down.

Five Rentals away in one day!

Over last weekend, we rented five residential properties in one day, in Rodney Ave, Lamorna Ave, Pennant Hills Rd, Mawson Ave, and Carver Place in Dundas Valley.

Downloading from our Website

The raywhitebeecroft.com.au website has a new feature, with downloadable documents.  For instance the Rental Property Application Form is there and can be downloaded directly from the website.  Click on the button 'Contracts' then click the link.

Swimming Pool Fence Regulations

As has seemed inevitable for months, the NSW government has given up on trying to enforce pool fence certification this year.  As happened just before the rules were to come into force in 2014, they have again announced a twelve month slip until end April 2016. 

“We have listened to stakeholder requests for more time and examined the evidence from certifiers,” Minister for Local Government Paul Toole said, announcing that pool owners will be granted a 12-month extension to obtain a compliance certificate before the property can be sold or leased. 

“The evidence showed there was a high failure rate for initial inspections and a heavy demand to make pools compliant,” Mr Toole said. 

One issue is that the certificates are only valid for three years, so those who were ready for the 2014 deadline will soon need to apply for another inspection in order to renew their certificates, further clogging an already overloaded system! 

It would be good to see statistics for how many of the registered pools have been checked and certified since the scheme was first introduced!

 

RBA Reduces Interest Rates

The official cash rate has been reduced to a new record-low of 2.25 per cent after being left on hold at 2.5 per cent since August 2013.

The Reserve Bank’s decision has come as a surprise: a finder.com.au survey of 30 economists and commentators found that 28 expected the cash rate to remain unchanged.

However, a rate cut is hardly a shock given the weight of speculation that has occurred since the last board meeting on December 2.

The Module, Beecroft Shopping Village

Last night [Wednesday, 17 December] the NSW Joint Regional Planning Panel unanimously approved the redevelopment of the Module site, corner Beecroft Road & Hannah Street, Beecroft.  The approved development generally satisfies the concerns of the community that were raised following the first proposal, refused earlier this year.  

Ray White Beecroft Excells in State Statistics

In November 2014, Ray White did the best ever monthly trade of $1.2 BILLION!

As usual, Ray White Beecroft featured in the list of Personal Bests (Metro), coming 50th out of 227 offices.  Not bad with only one salesperson for much of the year, whereas others have 6, 10 or even 15 salespeople.

How to pay off your Mortgage Quickly

The real answer is, you can't.  Here is an extract from a Real Estate news blog.

"An Australian security watchdog has offered an olive branch to a property management and financial planning business, warning them to clean up their act over misleading advertising.

"The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has accepted an enforceable undertaking (EU) from Gold Coast-based Equanimity Concepts.

"ASIC said from January 2012 to July 2014, Equanimity advertised on its website, YouTube and in numerous in-flight magazines and police journals that consumers could pay off their home loan in a very short amount of time.

"For example, one line read, "Pay off your 25-year home loan in less than five years".

ASIC said by making these promises and publishing them in advertisements, Equanimity is relying on various assumptions in its financial modelling, which is considered by ASIC to be “unrealistic”, including but not limited to continued growth in property values, high rental returns, annual rent increases of eight per cent and no upward movements in applicable interest rates.

"Equanimity presented to consumers that they could direct all and any rent and negative gearing tax benefits received in relation to the investment property into their existing home loan.

"ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said the need for finance advertising to be accurate cannot be stressed enough.

“Anything misleading can create unrealistic expectations that may lead to poor financial decisions and, ultimately, consumers could end up in a dangerous debt spiral,” he said.

"ASIC’s investigation found that Equanimity’s compliance processes in terms of its advertising were unsatisfactory and may have breached consumer protection credit laws.

“Consumers who may have comes across these ads may have been misled in Equanimity’s ability to help them pay back their home loan in a significantly reduced timeframe without incurring further debt,” Mr Kell said.

“Advertising of this nature will not be tolerated and ASIC will take swift action when confronted with false claims.”

"Under the EU, Equanimity must appoint an independent consultant to review its compliance with consumer protection credit laws and proper advertising processes, and develop a plan to rectify any deficiencies identified by the expert.

"The independent expert will report regularly to ASIC over the next year on Equanimity’s implementation of the plan.

"The advertisements have been removed."

So ASIC has allowed this company to mislead the public for over two years, and they no doubt benefitted financially from those who believed the adverts.  Yet ASIC imposed no penalty other than to 'appoint an independent consultant'.  ASIC's promise to 'take swift action' might itself seem to be false advertising, as it makes no promise that any effective penalty will be applied, only that swift action will be taken.  Nice to see ASIC at it's ferocious best defending the poor people of Australia from unscrupulous advertisers. 

JRPP Rules to Kill the Tree

Regarding my last post, the JRPP sided with the developers and condemned the tree so that the developer can build another 9 units.  Beecroft shoppers will find the public open space surrounded on all four sides by residential dwellings.

DA for The Module

DA 1006/2014 is now with Council, and appears to be a huge improvement over the earlier DA 545/2013!  There are now retail shops along the street front of Hannah Street as well as commercial offices along Beecroft Road.  The residential units are set back from the street front, and a green public space is provided between the three five storey blocks, looking out to the north.  Hopefully the magnificent White Mahogany tree behind 83 Beecroft Road will be spared from the developers and will then present a spectacular feature of the public space.

The Grove Units Selling Fast

In the first showing of The Grove on 13 September, 12 of the 36 units were taken up!  This was a private showing to people who had put down a deposit to get first dibs.  The next showing on 20 September will be open to all comers and from the interest expresed in the Ray White Beecroft offices the remaining properties should sell quickly.

Two more Sold at Auction

On 30 August RWB sold two properties at auction:

Douglas Macarthur sold 2 Kedron Avenue in an auction with over a hundred people present:

Peter Raco sold 77 Appletree Drive in Cherrybrook, a property we are managing on behalf of the owner who lives abroad.  Fortunately for the tenant the property was bought as an investment and the new owner is very happy to keep the tenant in place: