Posted by admin on 28 January 2011
It looks like one of the first major projects to be “postponed” due to the floods will be the proposed cross river rail project, the subway that was to put new rail stations into the lower CBD, Woolloongabba and other key inner city locations.
When the government first flagged this in 2008 we pricked our ears up – property owners near those locations could see a major improvement in their values as the commute times around the CBD improve. Now the possible 2016 completion has been harpooned and the nasty choking point for a lot of rail traffic, the South Brisbane rail bridge, will just get more and more congested.
This isn’t great news, and hopefully the postponement is a short one. One report today said it might only be a 2 year delay. Let’s hope.
Tags: Brisbane subway, Brisbane traffic
Posted in Brisbane CBD, Brisbane's future & new infrastructure, Woolloongabba | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 19 January 2011
You have to keep your sense of humour! Photo by Brad Marsellos
Many out of town clients have been asking for resources to get a better understanding of what Brisbane suburbs actually flooded. Here’s some handy links:
Aerial photography of Brisbane floods – use the box in the top left to choose the street and suburb you’re interested in, just be careful to choose January 13th as the date you need. Not all parts of Brisbane were shot on that date, and of course the pics aren’t necessarily the exact moment of maximum inundation for all properties. But a great site to bookmark for the future.
Also try this ABC News page for interactive before and afters.
If you’re on Facebook this collection has over 1,800 reader contributed photos, many of them an amazing record that could only be captured by the people in and amongst the flooding.
One of the better YouTube compilation videos of the Brisbane flooding.
And go to Flickr for one of the biggest collections of photos, with many showing flooded Brisbane homes.
Brisbane City Council has been excellent at keeping residents informed through the crisis.
Please make a contribution to the Premier’s Flood Appeal, however small, to assist the victims. And if you’re a business owner wanting to do your bit please go to www.flooddiscounts.com.au , a great way tooffer something to residents who are going through tough times.
Read more of our posts on the 2011 Brisbane floods.
Tags: Brisbane floods 2011
Posted in Dutton Park, Highgate Hill, Inner Brisbane events, South Brisbane and South Bank, Spring Hill, West End, Woolloongabba | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 19 January 2011
and the clean up begins
A reported 11,900 Brisbane homes were completely flooded last week, with another 14,700 partially flooded. So naturally there’s some panic that Brisbane is about to have a severe housing crisis. If you’ve been forced from your home this is a heartwrenching time and our thoughts are very much with those residents.
But in looking at the potential rental demand we just don’t believe the numbers of inner-city tenants looking for a new dwelling is anywhere near as high as they’re being reported.
Estimates had to be given, no-one can physically check every home and we don’t know the source of the Courier Mail’s data. But according to a spreadsheet on their website South Brisbane for example had 2,132 residential properties either fully or partially flooded. But out there on the ground we just can’t find them! There’s no lines of debris on the footpaths, no army assistance and little of that muddy stench that’s already the tell-tale of a submerged Brisbane street. Brisbane CBD has 1,199 residential dwellings inundated according to the list but most, if not all, of these will be highrise towers.
A number of buildings had some water into their basements and the limited access and power outages are a pain in the backside. A number of these residents have had to seek short-term accommodation. But how many will need new homes? In perhaps many inner-Brisbane suburbs, the numbers may be a lot less than anticipated.
The RTA yesterday released their rental data for the December quarter and it shows many inner-Brisbane suburbs have already had a small rent rise, something we’ve seen amongst our rentals for some weeks now. January and February are our peak leasing months, especially near the universities, and we were expecting a rise in rents before the floods.
Short-term accommodation will be strained to capacity, and rents will see some solid growth. But in our view landlords shouldn’t count on skyrocketing rents as a result of the floods.
To see the latest median rental data for your suburb (choose your bedroom number and dwelling type) go to www.WhatRentMyHome.com.au
Tags: Brisbane floods 2011, Brisbane rents, Brisbane short term rental, median rents Brisbane, rental supply Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market, Dutton Park, Highgate Hill, South Brisbane and South Bank, Spring Hill, West End, Woolloongabba, trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 18 January 2011
photo from Brisbane Area Flood Photos & Info on Facebook
Brisbane is picking itself up from possibly our worst natural disaster. Lives were lost and damage is significant. Two of the Bees Nees team suffered flooded homes this past week so we won’t be understating what’s been a major event for Brisbane.
With the media’s frenzy of interest over the past 2 days we do think some common sense is getting lost in an increasingly emotional debate about home prices. There’s no doubt homes that were completely flooded will see a drop in value. We’ve talked to some old heads in our industry, including two who worked in the aftermath of 1974’s floods, and they offered an informed opinion on how much that might be. We also spoke to the head of a national property valuation firm and interestingly he offered the same number – “up to 20 or 25%”.
This is a big potential reduction and all agree luxury riverfront homes will be worst hit. Cheaper properties might not drop as much, and buying a home that flooded in 2011 might soon be comparable to living on a main road or a railway line: you put up with it to have a better home for the same price.
The scaremongering talk in the media of 50% plus drops is just not based in fact, and irrational fear can follow. Will some flooded home owners panic-sell? Maybe. Will bargain hunters be waiting? Of course. But for most owners of flooded homes we’d expect they will clean up, move back, and accept that their property’s value will not be the same. Based on the 1974 experience there won’t be half-price-homes nor a large number on the market.
Partial flooding might only have a relatively small impact on prices. Houses that had water in their yards only, apartments that stayed dry but with basements that flooded – what will buyers make of these? It’s too early to really know, but early signs are that the appeal of inner city living is still stronger than ever and many buyers will accept some risk to be a part of this.
In 1974 no-one knew what flooded and painted lines on the streets recorded the high water marks. Today there’s a huge number of aerial photography sites and Flickr, YouTube and Facebook pages that have catalogued the damage. Home buyers might actually start using Council’s flood mapping info, launched after our last major flood event in May 2009. (Interestingly we had a third of our average annual rainfall on that one day, a reported 15% of homes were affected and 20 months later it’s already been forgotten by many of us…)
Will “dry” properties experience a boom? Based on the minimal true effect on our housing stock our ‘old heads’ just don’t see enough reason for a price spike. We are in for a surge of spending on renovations and some commentators believe this will give the local economy a huge shot in the arm. Market analyst Michael Matusik believes there could be a silver lining with the flood aftermath and renewed civic pride a “key ingredient to restore long term confidence.”
A lot of Brisbanites are suffering right now and it’s definitely not business as usual for inner-Brisbane real estate. But when the flood effect on home prices is debated at your next weekend barbecue we’d encourage you to see through the hype and consider why homes in these areas have always been so sought-after by home buyers. How much of that has changed?
We’d love to hear your opinions.
Tags: Brisbane flood mapping, Brisbane floods 2011, Michael Matusik
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, Dutton Park, Highgate Hill, Inner Brisbane events, South Brisbane and South Bank, Spring Hill, West End, Woolloongabba, real estate marketing, trends in Brisbane property | 4 Comments »
Posted by admin on 18 December 2010
As you can imagine I spend quite a bit of time driving and walking around Woolloongabba so it is always great to come across something a little different. On the corner of Lucinda and Albion streets in Woolloongabba I came across the Yellow Cabs Shed where, displayed out the front, are a number of fabulous old taxi cabs. Definitely worth a visit to see the changes over the years.
If you have time stop into the Cab Rank Cafe for a cup of Di Bella coffee and a chat to Greg the owner. A few metres down the road is Rotary Park with a great undercover area for the kids to play and covered benches for you to sit and enjoy your coffee.
Tags: Albion St Woolloongabba, Lucinda St Woolloongabba, Rotary Park Woolloongabba, school holidays, yellow cabs
Posted in Woolloongabba, just for fun! | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 25 November 2010
Image courtesy of worldcricketwatch.com
With the 2010 Ashes series kicking off at the Gabba today I thought it was time to revisit the history of this great stadium. Did you know there are two theories about the meaning of the Aboriginal words from which “Woolloongabba” is derived – “whirling water” or “fight talk place”.
With the Aussies now in battle let’s focus on the latter theory. To me it conjures up an image of Australian cricket and cricketers fighting to the very end for victory both with the bat and the on field “talk”! The Gabba has become somewhat of a fortress. Australia has lost none of their last 21 test matches there and had lost only eight of 31 before that.
As mentioned in previous blogs and newsletters, “The Gabba” dates back to 1895, when the land was designated as the site for a cricket ground.
The first event conducted at The Gabba was a cricket match between Parliament and the Press on 19 December 1896. The result was a tie (61 runs each).
The first Test match played at The Gabba was against South Africa from 27 November to 3 December 1931 where Don Bradman made 226 in the first innings of this Test. This still remains the highest individual score in a Test played in Brisbane.
You can test your Gabba Test History Knowledge by doing the quiz on Queensland Cricket website
Tags: history of Woolloongabba, the Gabba Brisbane
Posted in Inner Brisbane events, Woolloongabba | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 5 October 2010
City Council has swooped on a number of overcrowded homes across the city including one in Lockhart Street, Woolloongabba. This house apparently had 15 students living in it when Council’s officers inspected.
Today’s Courier Mail reports the house was one of 298 raided since July.
Council has some fairly clear rules on numbers of people in each dwelling and if there’s more than 5 unrelated residents they have boarding house requirements that apply. There are some unscrupulous landlords out there who know they can make a quick buck renting rooms to international students. Many of these students are prepared to accept lower standards to save money.
Not real nice to live next door to these places either.
Tags: Brisbane City Council, Brisbane landlords, international students Brisbane, Lockhart Street Woolloongabba
Posted in Woolloongabba | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 24 September 2010
It’s a constant dilemma in Brisbane’s inner city suburbs and it won’t get easier. We live near a whole bunch of places that people from the ‘burbs want to visit for work and play, and when they drive in they need a place to park. The CBD itself is Queensland’s largest employment base and the Mater Hospital is right up on that list too.
Add the Gabba sportsground and South Bank Parklands and it’s no surprise Woolloongabba residents often struggle to get up their streets with cars jammed against every spare piece of curb. To make this more of achallenge some of our oldest homes have limited or no off-street parking of their own.
Council is now moving to add more parking meters to local streets, limiting the length of time cars can be parked in the area. And it’s raising some concern, especially from local businesses worried their customers may stay away.
Of course a big chunk of Woolloongabba is already inside the “Brisbane Central Traffic Area”, a regulated patch that has maximum 2 hour parking. If you’re between the M1 and Annerley Road (Merton Road etc) this is you.
It’s never a popular move to introduce parking meters. Council are accused of revenue raising and they argue they’re trying to keep commuters and long-stay visitors from filling the spots.
We heard the international lateral-thinking guru Edward de Bono speak at a seminar earlier this year, and he had a great idea to replace parking meters. De Bono argues that if you want to shorten the time parkers stay in one spot you should simply legislate to require them to keep their car headlights on whenever they’re parked. No need for meters, easy to police and you’re guaranteed to keep their stay nice and short!
Council say they’re open to comment on their proposal for the next 4 weeks.
Tags: Annerley Road, Brisbane City Council, Mater Hospital South Brisbane, Merton Road Woolloongabba, South Bank Parklands
Posted in Woolloongabba | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 5 August 2010
Everyone wants to know the value of their own house, or more importantly what the market is willing to pay for the property. What’s interesting about Woolloongabba is that despite its proximity to the city there have only been 6 sales since 2006 that have gone over the one million dollar mark.
That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of properties in the area that have the capability to reach the mark, it’s just that most of them haven’t been for sale for a number of years. Of those that have sold my favourite is a property on Albert Street that sold for $1.13 million back in 2006. It was on a large block and featured a combination of old world charm on the outside with a tastefully designed modern interior. The finishes were exceptional and I think the buyers got good value from a home that had been thoughtfully renovated.
From dealing with a number of buyers at the moment I’d suggest there is definitely potential for Woolloongabba houses to sell at $1m plus this year. We just need more people to sell!
Tags: Albert Street Woolloongabba, Brisbane house prices, Brisbane houses
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, Woolloongabba | No Comments »
Tucked away in an area of Woolloongabba the locals refer to as “The Pocket” sits a community garden established by residents and created to provide an opportunity for those interested to meet socially and learn about growing organic produce.
