Here’s an interesting photo (courtesy of www.overseasproperty.com) showing the Kurilpa Bridge (which was joined at the start of this month). The unusual design was the concept of Cox Rayner Architects, the creators of the Goodwill Bridge. When complete in September 2009, Kurilpa will become the first large scale bridge in the world to be built using a method that combines tension and compressed steel – a technique known as “tensegrity.”
Archive for May, 2009
Posted by admin on 29 May 2009
Posted by admin on 28 May 2009
Demolition work along Stanley Street South Brisbane has begun in preparation for the commencement of building the new Children’s Hospital. When complete, the new building will combine the services of the Royal Children’s and Mater Children’s Hospitals into a new single entity capable of offer specialised treatments for young people up to the age of 18.
Posted by admin on 27 May 2009
Traffic congestion will get worst before it gets better in South Brisbane, with recent changes along Peel and Cordelia Streets adding to driver’s frustration. With Peel now continuing 2 ways to Cordelia Street only (due to councils placement of a site office on the corner of Cordelia and Peel!), drivers traveling into West End must make an agonizingly slow right turn into Cordelia Street before backtracking up Boundary Street adding more time to their journey.
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 22 May 2009
It’s not often that I tear-up watching TV. But when the ABC ran its “Choir of Hard Knocks” series it was hard not to.
This was a moving look at a choir put together from homeless Melbournites. People whose lives were full of personal tragedy and challenges from abusive relationships to drugs. What they also shared was raw singing talent and a passion for music. Fronted by the inimitable Jonathan Welch the show led us through the formation of the choir through to their public performances and CD release. Inspirational stuff.
Brisbane now has “The Transformers”, a group of aspiring choralists drawn from our own homeless community in a similar way. Their first performance will be next Wednesday May 27th at City Hall during the “Homeless Connect” event. We’re hoping the group can be an ongoing attraction around the city.
Council hosts “Homeless Connect” events twice a year and draws government and community resources together to offer varied support to Brisbane’s homeless. Along with thousands of clothing and food donations there’s medical, accommodation, legal and even hairdressing teams on hand. BCC estimate we have 350 homeless in Brisbane’s inner city.
Posted by admin on 22 May 2009
RP Data's Tim Lawless
Last Wednesday’s seminar was full of info for Brisbane landlords, with the head of the RTA outlining major changes in their new legislation and RP Data’s Tim Lawless talking us through the current market.
The main “take home”? The new legislation is more complex for landlords, with greater rights for tenants that have to be handled very carefully. Each review creates new challenges and this one will catch some landlords and agents out if they’re not right up to speed on the new Act.
Here’s a full copy of the notes we took from the seminar. You can also click through to copies of the presentations from Tim Lawless and Rob Honeycombe.
Posted by admin on 22 May 2009
A man in a hot air balloon realised he was lost. He reduced altitude and, spotting a woman tending to the flowers in her garden shouted, ‘Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend that I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.’
The woman below replied, ‘You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.’
‘You must be an Accountant,’ said the balloonist. ‘I am,’ said the woman, ‘How did you know?’
‘Well everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you have delayed my journey.’
The woman below responded, ‘You must be in Management.’ ‘I am,’ replied the balloonist, ‘but how did you know?’
‘Well,’ said the woman, ‘you don’t know where you are, or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise of which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow it’s now become my fault!’
Posted by admin on 21 May 2009
It’s fine to manage your property yourself…until it all goes wrong. There is this constant debate about whether or not you should rent your property out yourself….
Over the years I’ve stepped in to help so many self-managed ‘gone wrong’ properties. The comment that I receive over and over again is ‘but it’s always been fine in the past’ and ‘nothing’s gone wrong before’. This is the thing, most tenancies – if I had to take a guess maybe around 90% of tenancies, all run fairly smoothly. The thing is, 10% don’t. And the other thing is, those 10% of tenants can have a bad name somewhere so specifically try for private landlord properties because they know you don’t have access to a tenancy default database and you may not have the time or expertise to check their rental history.
For eg. I recently had a tenant put in an application for a property. First of all, I didn’t get a good vibe about the tenant – (ok so vibe is a wishy washy word, but it’s the 10 years experience renting to tenants!). We did the inspection – he didn’t take his shoes off, was trying to offer a higher rent and said ‘can I just take it right now if I pay the money straight away’…ALARM BELLS!
I explained the application process and asked the tenant to fill in the form. He had I.D that had different addresses to where he said he lived and he named a ‘private landlord’ and gave the person’s number as his reference. I called the reference and went through the normal checks – then I asked ‘do you own the property yourself?’. The reference replied ‘yes’. I decided to check on the ownership of the property through our database – he definitely didn’t own the property, QLD Housing did.
Another eg…I had a call from an owner-manager recently. She was beside herself because she rented her home to a ‘lovely young lady’ who had been quite a good tenant. But the ‘lovely young lady’ all of a sudden rented out the other two bedrooms to ‘big burly guys’ (didn’t tell the owner) and then took off – with the ‘big burly guys’ bond money. The owner didn’t take a bond from the first woman. The guys had not paid rent in two weeks and when she confronted them, they said, ‘we don’t have to pay rent – we’re not the tenants. We’ll move when we’re ready.’
We had another owner recently, who asked us to let the property for him as his tenant was moving out (he gave the tenant a notice to leave for objectionable behaviour). The owner lived in a house and the units were down the back. Once the tenant got the notice to leave, his behaviour went from objectionable to downright dangerous and the female owner needed to move out with her young child until the tenant was evicted. This caused much stress on the owners’ relationship.
Then there are times where the tenants are great, but things out of your control happen – like the hot water system blows up and you’re just too busy to get all the quotes, wait for contractors and issue the correct notices for people to enter. Or, the tenants were great…until you wanted to put the rent up by $10 per week.
I have countless more examples and can only offer you this advice, unless you have worked in Real Estate, honestly, it’s best to have your property managed by a professional. Just like it’s best not to diagnose your own sicknesses, best not to work on the engine of your car, it’s best not to manage your biggest investment without the right knowledge.
It really can end in disaster and usually hits you in the hip pocket!
Posted by admin on 20 May 2009
"Lily Pond 1" by Christine Donaldson
This weekend’s celebration of all things Greek, Paniyiri 2009, has been postponed with the bad weather and will now be held on July 4th and 5th. Musgrave Park is more like muddy park at the moment and wouldn’t mix well with the thousands who attend each year!
A group of local artists are pushing ahead with their art show this weekend. Led by Kangaroo Point painter Christine Donaldson the Home Ideas Centre in Merivale Street will host a diverse mix of talent from 9 artists. We’ve seen some of their work and it’s well worth venturing out – even if you need the brolly to get there!
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 20 May 2009
and here on page 493...
No-one would deny that buying and selling real estate is an important legal issue. These are usually peoples’ biggest assets and the risks are too high for any of the process or documentation to be taken lightly. But we don’t believe quantity equals quality and with our current sales contracts at 21 pages (apartments – 15 for houses) you do have to wonder. It’s all for consumer protection we’re told…. page after page of warning statements and disclosures.
One page in the wrong order and the contract may be worthless. The first page must be a warning to get a valuation and legal advice (unless you read the Body Corp act which says its disclosure must be the first page). Then there’s the form to make sure the agent’s disclosed their fees, the section with the name of the body corp secretary… and on it goes.
So now we use another form to tell a buyer what’s attached (listed in one order) and the process of reading and signing (in yet another, different order please). Then we have another form at the end for them to acknowledge that they signed in the right order, stood on the correct leg while reading, and held their head at an incline of precisely 82.5 degrees while signing.
I promise we’re not making this up – only the last bit.
While the industry backed another truckload of paper up to the office door the government finally agreed something had to be done. Various departmental officials were annoyed that those darned buyers don’t seem to be reading this stuff… Ya wonder!
When a review of legislation was kicked off in 2007 we looked forward to some simpler documents. And a couple of weeks ago (yes it’s mid 2009) the state government responded to that review, agreeing the paperwork could be made simpler. But not yet.
Why?
“Implementation should be delayed until mid 2009. This is because as part of the Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs (MCCA), the Standing Committee of Officials of Consumer Affairs (SCOCA) has commissioned research by an independent consultant (UniQuest Pty Ltd, via University of Queensland) into pre-contractual disclosure under the Uniform Consumer Credit Code, with the goal of developing an evidence-based disclosure model which addresses the needs of consumers.”
Oh dear…
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Posted by admin on 15 May 2009
Australia has fewer million-dollar suburbs as the global financial crisis erodes home values, according to RP Data’s latest report, with the total number of suburbs with a median home value of $1million down from 152 to 134 for the year to end February.
In South Brisbane there have been 1 sales above $1 million so far in 2009 with 1/225 Vulture St selling in March for $1.32m and 6/212 Vulture St selling in January for $3.3m.
