We are well into the month of July and things are still pretty solid in the marketplace.
All well priced homes are attracting plenty of attention but if they are slightly over the top then the buyers are holding back. June saw school holidays, inclement weather and the end of the financial year but all in all it was relatively strong for the middle of winter. A recent Auction on Saturday the 10th July saw a 2 Bedroom, Brick Veneer unit keenly sought after with 3 bidders fighting for the property which reached a sale price of $328,000 sold to an investor off a reserve of $285,000. Its a great time to list your home too with a distinct shortage of properties. Call Paul Fenech today on 0418 325 466

The staff and Stockdale & Leggo Croydon recently attended AREC (Australian Real Estate Conference) in Sydney. In attendence were some fantastic Real Estate agents from all over the world importing their knowledge to the masses and also the guest speaker Sir Bob Geldof, talking about his life long struggles, trials, tribulations and experience in his goal to stop world poverty. The conference went for 3 days and ended with a managers and leadership conference conducted by Australia’s leading agent John McGrath. As Paul Fenech quoted; “The conference is a great refresher to keep you focused on customer service and trying to deliver the best outcome for our clients.” Technology certainly played a part too with Facebook and Twitter now heavily involved with the social networking side of Real Estate.
For more information or for a personal chat about your Real Estate matters please call Paul Fenech on 0418 325 466 or at the office on (03) 9725 2777.

What an outstanding combination with two of the most recognizable companies in their respected fields joining together for cross promotion! Stockdale & Leggo has undertaken to commence their advertising campaign for the upcoming football season. With 3AW recently acquiring the services of Brian Taylor and Tim Lane to title airwaves,  its sure to create massive media attention on the radio and will be a great draw card to the Stockdale & Leggo brand. There will be over 1200 mentions of the Stockdale & Leggo name with advertisements prior, during and after the games so with Football being such a massive part of the Melbourne culture its sure to help promote and drag more buyers to your home!

The following article is taken from The ‘Real Estate Business’ daily email on Monday January 18 2010.
(No copyright infringement intented)

January has gotten off to a flying start, with many New South Wales agents reporting high buyer interest.

Belle Property Annandale principal Robert Clarke told The Australian Financial Review that an increase in demand from buyers throughout December forced him to cut his traditional Christmas break short.

‘We would normally close until January 11 but we had so many calls in December from people wanting to get started early that we are virtually at capacity’, Mr Clarke said.

‘Most people don’t call until after Australia Day, but this year it’s ridiculous,’ he said.

Mr Clarke attributed the momentum of this year to a strong sales quarter last year. ‘I think because the last quarter of 2009 was so strong people are trying to get on top of it as quickly as they can.’

McGrath Estate Agents principal John McGrath agreed that there had been a clear increase in activity, with the agency already scheduled to auction 118 properties in February.

‘We have a lot more vendors wanting to take action in January, whereas normally they would start making a decision in February to list a property in March,’ Mr McGrath said.

With Christmas fast approaching and everyone wanting to finalize their Real Estate purchasing we’ve been extremely busy throughout the spring months. Our market between the prices of $350,000 and $400,000 has been very solid and for quality homes has been in the price range of $600,000 to $700,000.  There is certainly a strong demand as long as the property is priced according to the market and sharing value.

On the office home front we at Stockdale & Leggo Croydon recently received the Number 1 Office for the 3rd year running for the entire Stockdale & Leggo network.  Lee Fenech was named number 1 salesperson again (4th year in a row) and Sean Cantelo cracked the number 2 position for the entire company.  Not bad for 2 local Croydon boys!!!!

From myself as well as all the team at Stockdale & Leggo Croydon, please enjoy the Christmas period, drive safely and enjoy the time with family and friends!

The following article was written by Alex Brooks for Domain.com.au on september 24th 2009. No copyright infringement intended.

If I hear the property cliche of “location, location, location” one more time, I’m going to shove someone’s real estate sign right up their smart suit.

That cliche is as annoying as “great opportunity to add value” (TRANSLATION: spend heaps of money renovating) or “wonderful chance to invest” (TRANSLATION: you won’t want to live here but some other sucker will rent it from you).

The real reason “location, location, location” makes me so crazy is because it is frustratingly, universally true. No matter which street, state or suburb a property is in, the best located property always wins.

As a property writer, I find this a little boring and predictable. I love stories about areas like Redfern and St Kilda that start out as slums but miraculously turn into sought after locales. When Toorak or Vaucluse mansions break yet another predictable property record, I find myself yawning.

Well-located properties attract premium capital growth and the best rental returns because demand remains strong, regardless of market conditions. And let’s face it, most people are sheep and we all like to live in the “best” areas.

We all have wants, prejudices, price-restrictions and the power to decide which property locations we wish to live in — so most of us go with what we are familiar with.

But now that the population is growing so fast — we added another half a million people in the year to March 2009 — quality locations could become even more popular (and pricey), forcing us to seek similarly located properties that smidge further away.

Australia’s population growth is the talk of the international community, with this country’s population predicted to be one of the fastest growing industrialised nations in the world, according to the Population Reference Bureau.

Interestingly, property economist Jason Anderson from forecaster BIS Shrapnel, says it won’t be property prices that will grow on the back of booming population growth so much as rents.

“Most immigrants will not be prepared to pay the price premium of the inner ring and I think values will be stronger in the middle and outer ring suburbs of capital cities,” he says. “It’s rents that will grow rather than prices.”

Anderson is forecasting Sydney rents to rise by between 8 and 10 per cent next year, with Melbourne and Brisbane rentals growing by 6 per cent.

That also means more of us may start searching further afield for affordable properties, with more Redfern and St Kilda stories happening in Australian suburbs that start to gentrify. And if Anderson’s right, this could happen in the suburbs further away from our inner city suburbs, where prices, space and land are that bit more attractive.

But what makes one real estate location better than another?

PROXIMITY TO EMPLOYMENT: Employment opportunities are the prime location drivers in property, which is why places like the Northern Territory and Western Australia have been growing so strongly in both price and population. Being near economic and employment opportunities is the prime driver of property prices and rents. After all, how else can property prices rise if people aren’t earning better incomes to pay for them?

SURROUNDING INFRASTRUCTURE: People rarely make property choices based merely on the four walls of the actual house. In fact, the schools, roads, parks, cafes and shops around those four walls are usually more important than the house itself, hence the value of location. You see, property values are rarely about the bricks, timber and materials of the home but more about the land value of the location. That’s why apartments in the inner city can be worth more than a house on a quarter acre block further away from the city – the apartment attracts a location premium that the house cannot.

LIFESTYLE CHOICE: The lifestyle you live is the most important determinant of location – if you’re single and work in the city then a home close to work, friends, restaurants and going out is probably important. If you have small kids, the suburbs might be calling your name and you probably want something close to work and schools. If it’s a seachange you’re after, then being close to the beach or the bush might be more your thing.

Equally, there are a whole bunch of things people never want a property to be close to – things like nuclear waste dumps, power lines, busy roads and even police stations (we all want the police to protect us, but not all of us like them around the corner from home!).

There’s now refined search tool on Domain.com.au that allows buyers and renters to find the best located properties online.While you can still search like a Luddite if you choose, you can actually set up a Radar search to seek out the best located properties according to your personal criteria.

If it’s restaurants you want to be close to, you can ask for properties within 500m of restaurants. If it’s train stations, then you can set up that search, too. Oh, and if you want to be away from those rubbish dumps, you can key that in too.

Easy! Well, it would be … if we weren’t all so obsessed with living in the same great locations as everyone else

The information below is taken from the RP Data Weekly Property Pulse Professional Edition email from the 25th September 2009. No copyright infringement intended.

According to the ABS, Australias population growth has hit the record books (again) with a net increase of 439,000 new residents over the year to March 2009. To provide some perspective, in raw numbers Australias population growth has never been this high. In percentage terms, population growth hasnt been this high since the baby boom. Population growth is fundamental to the property market as it constitutes demand for housing.
The higher the population growth, the more homes need to be built. Unfortunately, there is a major divergence between housing demand and housing supply; there is simply far too few new dwellings being constructed to provide homes for our growing population.

Weekly Key Statistic – Rental Markets
Rental markets around the nation have shown large increases in rental rates over the last three years; however, over the last quarter rental rates have peaked and in some cases fallen. Rental demand has temporarily eased as many renters took advantage of the improvement in housing affordability brought about by low interest rates and the boost to the First Home Buyers Grant.
With vacancy rates remaining at historic lows across the capital cities, any reprieve for renters is likely to be short-lived. Rental rates will most likely start to increase again due to a shortage of rental housing and a pull back of first home buyer demand coupled with record levels of population growth.
Latest National Auction Clearance Rates
The number of auctions held last week was the highest yet this year at 1,686. Clearance rates are now peaking just below 80 percent in stark contrast to last year when only 45 percent of auctions were successful.

Advertised Stock On The Market
The number of new property listings entering the market broke the 50,000 mark last week, bringing the total advertised stock level up to 208,260. The number of new listings jumped by 12 percent compared to last month, however the total stock level increased by just 1 percent which suggests a very strong rate of absorption. Rpdata.com expects new listings to the market will continue to expand over the comings months, as foreshadowed by our Market Activity Index.
In total listing numbers, there are now 22,500 fewer properties (10 percent) available for sale compared to the same time last year. This overall stock reduction reflects the fact that a great deal of the stock overhang has been absorbed by the market, a sure sign of an improvement in market health.
Want to know what is happening in your local patch? Make sure you have subscribed to rpdata’s On the Market® service. Click here or phone 1300 734 318 for a free 2 week trial.

Units no longer housings poor cousin!
The capital growth associated with apartments has virtually been on par with detached housing over the last five years, putting to bed the myth that houses appreciate at a faster rate than units.
Many home buyers and investors have adopted the philosophy that houses will generally outperform units. Most would argue that the underlying value of the land associated with a house is the real driver of capital growth. However over the last five years there has been little difference between the two property types based on the rate of capital growth. Nationally, houses have recorded an annualised rate of capital growth of 4.8 percent while unit values have increased by 4.7 percent per annum over the same period.
The equivalent level of capital growth associated with units is a relatively new phenomenon. Over the last ten years houses have outperformed units by about two percent per annum.
The improvement in capital growth associated with units may be attributable to housing affordability. Based on the national house value ($506,000) and national unit value ($409,000), units are about $100,000 more affordable than houses; a fairly compelling differential for many home buyers.
Another reason for the improvement in unit values is the changing demand side factors in the Australian market place. More baby boomers are downsizing from their empty nest;  twenty and thirty somethings are more interested in living in the same location as where they work and play; and the lack of purpose built student accommodation has seen demand for units increase markedly from the overseas student sector.
Developers have responded accordingly, introducing units designed for a very specific segment of the market: luxurious boutique apartments for the empty nesters, smaller one and two bedroom apartments with minimal kitchen facilities for the young professionals and tiny apartments with communal social areas for the student market are just a few examples.
Additionally, units tend to provide higher rental yields than houses. This is partly due to the fact that unit developments are typically located in areas that have high rental demand: close to major transport networks, employment nodes or retail centres.
With population growth now projected to be well beyond expectations (Treasury recently announced that the Australian population is projected to reach 35 million in 40 years time; 7 million more residents than was originally forecast) and strategic land supply likely to remain constrained for a long time, the demand for well located unit projects is likely to increase.
Of particular interest to investors will be transit oriented developments (TODs) that take advantage of more affordable but strategically located land to provide unit product that is both affordable and desirable. This style of development is generally mixed use in nature, incorporating a mix of residential, retail and office space that is located directly on a key transport spine such as train line or bus way. The TOD concept works on many levels: traffic is reduced as the population will prefer the speed and efficiency of the public transport system to commute into work, the land use is maximised to provide the highest and best use through medium and high density housing close to a major transport spine, and the mix of residential, retail and office space provides a vibrant environment in both day and night time hours.
Other types of developments that have been popular amongst investors and owner occupies over the last decade have been urban renewal projects where inner city or strategically located industrial precincts have been converted to residential and/or mixed use providing many of the same benefits as outlined above. Urban renewal projects will normally be developed around a central master plan that ensures a good balance of housing with non-residential uses as well as appealing urban design that includes sustainable landscaping, pedestrian and bicycle friendly pathways and public transport.