Now Brisbane's 2nd tallest: Aurora Tower

The latest building to claim the title of Brisbane’s tallest is nearing completion. At 74 storeys Harry Triguboff’s Meriton Developments has powered through construction of “Soleil” in the CBD’s Admiralty precinct and will soon wrap up its 464 apartments.

The tower is just up the street from the previous title-holder, Aurora, completed in 2006 at a piddly 67 storeys with 478 homes. Harry of course has his next Brisbane project well under construction, bigger and better: the 81 level, 546 apartment Infinity Tower in North Quay.

To give you some idea, the top of the new Soleil building is near enough to the height of the lookout at Mt Coot-tha. Yep, it’s that high…

We’ve written before about the evolution of “super-towers” in our CBD but one topic not often discussed is the dangers of living so high above the ground. Families with kids are a more common sight in our apartments and new changes will soon be introduced to building laws to limit accidental falls. We were recently told that one inner-Brisbane primary school has 32% of their 700 students living in apartments. It’s the little kids that need plenty of supervision and the changes will cover all windows over 2m off the ground (pretty much the second floor of any building). New buildings will need reinforced screens or window locks to prevent openings past 125mm.

The Meriton projects in Brisbane’s CBD don’t include open balconies in their designs and balconies are one hazard that might be impossible to regulate for safety. How do you prevent light furniture being pushed to the edge, a chair used as a climbing point? Does every balcony door need to meet pool fence guidelines? Are you feeling sick in the stomach too, just thinking about a child crawling near a highrise handrail?

 This isn’t a new hazard and you’d have to say that reports of injury are remarkably scarce. But we are becoming more vertical as a city.

Demographer Bernard Salt called it the “Manhattan-isation” of Brisbane and it’s happening whether we want it or not, with all its challenges and opportunities. Many of the residents of these new super-towers will thrive in their homes, and we pray those with small children will take every possible care.

Local rents were flat in the second half of 2011, according to new stats released by the Residential Tenancies Authority. The median rent for a 2 bedroom apartment remained at $560 per week during both the September and December quarters, reflecting the quieter rental market and caution from landlords.

Rents are down slightly ($15) on the same time a year earlier but as the graphs show the trend is slowly upwards. Postcode 4000 remains Brisbane most expensive by a big margin and strong corporate demand for serviced apartments means supply to the long-term tenant market remains very limited. The local rental pool grew by just 2 homes in the December quarter.

January has started with a real rush and enquiry to our office from tenants is the busiest we’ve seen in some years. We’re expecting the RTA data will show 2012 starting as a great year for local investors.

Note: this RTA data is collated by postcode so includes new bonds lodged throughout 4000 including Brisbane CBD.

If you would like  a rental appraisal for your property just give our head of Property Management – Annie von Rudzinksi a call on 07 3214 6899.

For median rent information visit http://www.whatrentmyhome.com.au/

It’s hard to see it in the graphs but rents across the 4102 postcode outperformed most of Brisbane’s inner-city suburbs during 2011, according to new stats from the Residential Tenancies Authority. In the December quarter the median rent for a local 2 bed apartment dropped $80 to $400 per week. But it’s still up 5% on a year ago and it’s worthwhile remembering that Woolloongabba, Buranda and Dutton Park is still a small market – we have less than 1500 rental homes – so you need to read any stats with some caution.

The release of new apartment buildings (and there’ve been a couple recently at Carl Street and Jurgens St) can often skew the data as more expensive apartments hit the market. Overall tenant enquiry has started 2012 very strongly and we’re expecting to see some solid rent rises for local homes.

Note: RTA stats quoted here cover all of postcode 4102 including Woollongabba, Buranda and Dutton Park

If you would like  a rental appraisal for your property just give our head of Property Management – Annie von Rudzinksi a call on 07 3214 6899.

For median rent information visit http://www.whatrentmyhome.com.au/

Local rents dipped slightly in the last quarter of 2011, according to new stats released by the Residential Tenancies Authority. The median rent for a 2 bedroom apartment dropped $10 to $500 per week, reflecting the quieter rental market and caution from landlords.

Rents are up 6% on the same time a year earlier ($470/week) so overall it’s good news for investors. The CBD’s workforce continues to be a big driver of demand for this neighbourhood and crossing the river saves tenants $60 (the median for postcode 4000 is $560/week). And they can live on the doorstep of all our local lifestyle amenities!

January has started with a real rush and enquiry to our South Brisbane office from tenants is the busiest we’ve seen in some years. We’re expecting the RTA data will show 2012 starting as a great year for local investors.

Note: this RTA data is collated by postcode so includes new bonds lodged throughout 4101: South Brisbane, South Bank, West End and Highgate Hill

If you would like  a rental appraisal for your property just give our head of Property Management – Annie von Rudzinksi a call on 07 3214 6899.

For median rent information visit http://www.whatrentmyhome.com.au/

• 96 percent of homeowners are happy with their decision to own and even 84 percent who are “underwater,” or owe more on their mortgages than their home is worth, expressed the same sentiment.
• 79 percent of home owners would advise a family member or close friend just starting out to buy a home, and 69 percent of those who are underwater on their mortgage would offer the same advice.
• 74 percent said that despite the ups and downs in the housing market, owning a home is the best long-term investment they can make.
• Home ownership and a retirement savings program are considered to be their best long-term investments.
• 78 percent of respondents said that owning their own home is very important to them.
• Nearly seven out of 10 who are not currently home owners (68 percent) said it was a goal of theirs to buy a home.
• Job uncertainty and saving for a downpayment and closing costs are the biggest barriers to buying a home

You might be thinking there’s no great surprise in that. Generally Australian home prices have slipped a little over the past year but are overall fairly solid. We should still be feeling good about owning a home.

But what if we told you this the survey was conducted this month in the USA? In a market where home prices have reportedly dropped by a third (down 33% since their 2006 peak) – more than their prices fell during the Great Depression. In that context it’s a remarkable survey.

American or Australian, we love to own our own home.

It’s good news for Brisbane landlords after new Residential Tenancies Authority’s latest stats showed rents remained flat during the second half of 2011.

“Across Brisbane we had a 4% rise in rents last year but all of that was in the first half of 2011. Landlords have been patient and this busy start to 2012 is really encouraging,” Ms von Rudzinski said. “At the moment it’s not uncommon for more than a dozen tenants to arrive at each rental inspection. The supply of rental homes has not grown much at all but we’re still getting new tenants coming to Brisbane,” she said.

“Across Brisbane the total rental pool grew by just 1,131 properties (less than 1%) in the December quarter. In the inner-city suburbs we now have less rental homes to offer tenants than we did 3 months ago, so it’s inevitable rents will rise in that sort of market.”

December’s RTA stats showed no increase in rents since the June quarter. A 2 bedroom Brisbane apartment remained at $380 per week.

There’s no cranes.

Just out of shot to the left there are cranes on the new academic building at QUT and out of sight in the distance at North Quay there’s cranes working busily on the new Meriton Infinity Apartments. But for the first time in what must be many, many years, this view doesn’t include construction of a big apartment or office building.

In the early 1990’s one Brisbane property investor and author jolted plenty of us into investing in real estate. Jan Somers, a former Cleveland school-teacher, wrote a best-seller called “Building Wealth Through Investment Property”. Her message? You can’t do nothing and expect to retire on anything more than chicken feed. Compulsory super won’t be enough so invest then be patient. It’s become unfashionable to buy books like that… but the message remains sound.

So as we kick off 2012 will investors return to Brisbane real estate? We’ve seen self-managed super funds nibbling at the offerings and the ATO reports that of the $418 billion held through SMSF’s less than $15 billion of it is currently invested in residential real estate. And $114 billion is sitting in cash deposits. It’s a huge market waiting for the ‘right time’.

What would tempt you to invest in real estate right now? Higher rents? Scrapping capital gains tax? Reduced stamp duties? Or is just not the right time to buy Brisbane real estate?

We’d love you to share your thoughts in a quick survey (5 questions only). Please click through.