In March we crowned South Bank’s Park Avenue building “South Brisbane’s tightest held“, with owners not selling for extended periods. But a recent auction reported in Saturday’s Courier Mail has seen the Apartment 36 penthouse sold for a building record of $4million (having previously sold in May 2000 for $2.85 million). Whilst enquiry from first home owners still dominates locally, this result is another shining example that despite tougher economic times, many still do prize prestige apartment living in South Brisbane.
Archive for June, 2009
Posted by admin on 30 June 2009
Posted by admin on 26 June 2009
More of our “Fridays are for fun!”. If you have a clean joke we’d love you to share it with us!
Artery: the study of paintings, Barium: what doctors do when patients die, Caesarean section: a neighbourhood in Rome, Cauterize: made eye contact with her, Dilate: to live long, Fibula: a small lie, Impotent: distinguished or well known, Labour Pain: getting hurt at work, Morbid: a higher offer, Nitrates: cheaper than day rates, Post-Operative: letter carrier, Recovery Room: place to do upholstery, Urine: opposite of “You’re out”
Posted by admin on 25 June 2009
One of the best ways to ensure a minimum vacancy is to have your property freshened up for the first inspection and this can be done with a simple clean and by installing an air freshener device. A ‘sparkle’ clean (a professional clean on an already tenant-cleaned property) can be as little as $100, but it will give the property that ‘fresh and clean’ feel. Ask your Property Manager to install an air freshener, or have them spray the property prior to tenants going through – you’d be amazed at the difference!
Posted by admin on 22 June 2009
“Continous Division” is a huge steel sculpture crafted by South Australian Greg Johns. While a lot of the public art you see around Brisbane’s CBD has been commissioned by property developers required to contribute to our ‘cultural growth’, this piece is from Expo 88.
Commissioned for that amazing international event, it was part of the visual treat that greeted the the millions of visitors. Visitors who discovered a whole new Brisbane by coming to South Bank for the first time.
Today its home is the sleepy north-western corner of Roma Street Parklands. It may soon be the centre of activity again though, as the Premier last year announced a possible redevelopment of the adjacent rail yards, opening up opportunities for new residential development.
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 19 June 2009
There I am, right between a psychic and a sex worker.
“Real estate agent”, 5th from the bottom of Reader’s Digest’s latest “professions we trust” list, released this month after a nationwide survey. And while it’s maybe a little surprising to be under a sex worker (so to speak…) what really annoys me is to come in at 3 spots below professional footballers. Shocking stuff after the year they’ve had.
For the record ambos and firefighters top the trustworthy list and telemarketers got the wooden spoon. For us in the property business there’s not much glory in earning only slightly more respect than telemarketers, car salesmen (2nd last) and politicians (3rd last).
And while we have a chuckle about the company we keep on this list, it’s yet another sign that we have so much work to do. So much more training of agents, improving of service, making sales a career and not a semi-retirement option, taking a longer term view of this business.
Real estate agents sell people’s most valuable assets. Trustworthiness should be a given.
Posted by admin on 17 June 2009
If true, it’ll be a scandal of epic proportions, but today we’ve heard concerns about the height of Brisbane’s new Kurilpa Bridge. Reports today suggest its unique structure may make it vulnerable to a strike from passing vehicles on the Riverside Expressway.
At 5.55 metres its sits higher than the Victoria (4.4m) and William Jolly (5.28m) bridges, but there’s still a real worry an oversized semi may strike the bridge with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Sure, the vehicle would have to be illegally tall, but it’s a serious issue especially given it’s now being identified as a problem after $63.3 million has been spent and the bridge is nearly complete.
Posted by admin on 15 June 2009
Photo courtesy Courier Mail
The rain that fell over Brisbane on Wednesday May 20th was an extraordinary event, with a third of our average annual rainfall coming in 24 hours. Reports say up to 15% of properties were effected in some way by the drenching that inundated much of the inner city.
And Brisbane City Council’s moved pretty quickly to provide new flood info, allocating $600,000 in its upcoming budget to show water run-off patterns on it maps. BCC already map river and creek flooding info and the Lord Mayor says the change will add overland flow data.
“For the first time ever, people will be able to see how groundwater will affect their homes and their lives, without them having to experience a flood,” he said.
As a home buyer access to the extra info will be very handy. We would suggest some caution be used though as the Council’s method of collecting the info is not 100%. Why? They don’t have staff or cameras in every street and even if aerial photos could be used they don’t capture much at 3am! They’re no dummies though and with use of contour data and the like, their maps will be an improvement.
We’ve always recommended buyers WALK around the neighbourhood of any home they’re keen on, chatting to long-term neighbours and looking for clues on all the things that effect a home, not just floodwaters.
If there’s a pandanus in the garden and flood debris wrapped around the back steps we’d be asking more questions, regardless of what the maps say!
Posted by admin on 15 June 2009
Musgrave Park bounded by Cordelia, Russell and Edmondstone Streets is West End’s home for some of the larger outdoor events. Thousands of people walked, skipped and sang their way to the park for the weekend’s gay and lesbian Pride celebration which kicked off with a rally at the Roma Street Forum, at 10am and wound it’s way over the Victoria Bridge to South Brisbane.
An estimated 10,000 people attended Fair Day, which boasted 25 stands from an array of cultural, community, social and business organisations, including the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities (QAHC), Brisbears, the Queensland Police, Centrelink, Manhunt, Switch 1197 AM and Queensland Pride Magazine.
Carnival rides, a sideshow alley, and of course, drag shows kept everyone entertained. Fair Day was followed by a number of events on Saturday night, including the Official After-Party at the Wickham Hotel and the L-Fling Women’s Dance Party at Uber nightclub, West End.
Here’s one party-goer determined to have a great time!
Posted by admin on 12 June 2009
Todays’ Friday and Fridays are for fun! Here’s this week’s best emailed joke:
Tired of constantly being broke and stuck in an unhappy marriage, a young husband decided to solve both problems by taking out a large insurance policy on his wife with himself as the beneficiary, and then arranging to have her killed.A ‘friend of a friend’ put him in touch with a nefarious dark-side underworld figure, who went by the name of ‘Artie.’ Artie then explained to the husband that his going price for snuffing out a spouse was $5,000.
The husband said he was willing to pay that amount, but he wouldn’t have any cash on hand until he could collect his wife’s insurance money first.
Artie insisted on being paid at least something up front, so the man opened his wallet, displaying the single dollar bill that rested inside. Artie sighed, rolled his eyes, & reluctantly agreed to accept the dollar, as down payment for the dirty deed.
A few days later, Artie followed the man’s wife to the local Woolworths store. There, he surprised her in the produce department & proceeded to strangle her with his gloved hands & as the poor unsuspecting woman drew her last breath & slumped to the floor……..
The manager of the produce department stumbled unexpectedly onto the murder scene. Unwilling to leave any living witnesses behind, ol’ Artie had no choice but to strangle the produce manager as well.
However, unknown to Artie, the entire proceedings were captured by the hidden security cameras & observed by the store’s security guard,who immediately called the police. Artie was caught & arrested before he could even leave the store.
Under intense questioning at the police station, Artie revealed the whole sordid plan, including his unusual financial arrangements with the hapless husband who was also quickly arrested.
The next day in the newspaper, the headline declared …….
(You’re going to hate me for this …)
‘ARTIE CHOKES TWO for $1.00 AT WOOLWORTHS!’
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 11 June 2009
I got out of the car when I arrived home tonight and there it was. The smell of winter.
In a sub-tropical city where the temperature gauge rarely drops into single figures our winter’s pretty quick really. There’s no snow, there’s no birds flying south (or north!) and only a handful of trees dropping leaves.
But anytime the cool southerly winds kick in and our cheeks get a touch of a pink glow, you can drive into any street of Brisbane homes and you’ll catch a whiff. That unmistakable aroma of wood fires being lit all over the suburb. Tracksuit wearing, sniffy-nosed Queenslanders proudly lighting up their fireplace for the first of four times this year! Warming their toes and my heart with that beautifully familiar scent. I love it.
And how else are Brisbanites supposed to survive 7 degrees?!
