Port Coogee along Western Australia’s Coastline

A master-planned waterfront community by Australand, the Port Coogee is definitely a go and has made many headlines for its ambitious real estate development plans that will be on of the biggest coastal renewal projects ever in Australia.

A new landmark is beginning along the western coast line of Australia called Port Coogee. This recreational marina and residential community will see through a nine hundred million dollar real estate development that will be phased into the building and renewal of a luxury and high-end marina, marina village community as well as a variety of different housing types and districts. The development at Port Coogee in Western Australia will be located just seconds away from Fremantle and will become the landmark of this region because of its offerings in both recreational facilities, lifestyle options as well as its truly unique and amazing waterfront location. South of Fremantle and just minutes away from Perth Australia, the Port Coogee development will be located along the shores of Cockburn Sound along the west coast of Australia. Just 18 kilometres south of Perth CBD, Port Coogee will also be just 5 km from Fremantle. A beautiful location offering master-planned designer homes and community planning, the Port Coogee is coming soon.

The offerings at Port Coogee Australia

With many people wanting waterfront and Oceanside living spaces these days in Australia, what better way to move your family or spend your retirement years along the western coast of the country just minutes outside of Perth and Fremantle. Port Coogee is a master-planned Oceanside living community that will have many boutique stores, dining restaurants (both casual and fine dining) in addition to entertainment, nightlife, sidewalk cafes, beaches, marinas and a host of different watersports that will keep everyone in your family happy and healthy. The Western Australia Port Coogee real estate development will be a waterfront neighbourhood that will be a growing place for commerce, industry and retail as well, which will allow many people to work, play and sleep in the same Port Coogee district. With plenty of boardwalks, beaches, water sports including kayaking, boating, sailing, swimming, surf skiing and other aquatic recreational sports, the Port Coogee Australia community will provide an endless amount of joy and fun for your entire family. As welll, the entire western Australia Port Coogee real estate properties just south of Perth will include many stylish homes and elegant townhouses and apartments all along the coastal and waterfront areas of the neighbourhood.

Port Coogee more in depth

According to their marketing materials online, this Western Australia marina and residential neighbourhood will provide plenty of recreation and relaxation options for everyone including things other than watersports too: like cycling, biking trails, park areas and more. In addition, for lifestyle options, the Port Coogee Australia development will also host six hundred dry land lots at the marina as well as a mix of apartments and townhouses in the village. In terms of retail and commercial opportunities at Port Coogee, there will be plenty of space for fine restaurants and cafes, retail outlets, offices and tourism related companies too. Best of all, the Port Coogee district will be sustainable long-term with very little environmental impact through its construction and use of renewable materials that are sensitive to eco-impact. Also, the social-economical impact of the region will be amazing for Western Australia and will become a focal point of the western coastline that will have 1.5 km of waterfront areas and providing many jobs for people who move here.

News, Media and Contact Information

For more details about the Port Coogee western Australia plans for the development of this waterfront area south of Perth and Fremantle, please read the latest press online at the following web site address: http://www.portcoogee.com.au/default.aspx?id=401. You will need Adobe Acrobat reader to open these documents. If you are interested in the lifestyle options, apartments, townhouses or commercial and retail opportunities at Port Coogee, please fill out the online form at Australand’s web site located here: http://www.australand.com.au/WA-Land-form/default.aspx. For the marketing brochure, please visit: http://www.portcoogee.com.au/default.aspx?id=221. This marketing piece for Port Coogee explains the following: From elegant inner city apartments, to stylish homes in master planned estates, to land choices in developing communities, Australand provides a range of distinctive residential living choices for individual needs that suit today’s lifestyle.
Generations of Australians have experienced the Australand difference in planning and purchasing their new homes and have benefited from our years of experience and dedication to delivering superior housing developments and homes. The planning that goes into an Australand master planned community ensures you will always move into an exceptional environment. Every development, in its unique way, demonstrates our dedication to providing quality living environments in sought after locations around Perth.

For other resort communities and resort residential real estate opportunities, click here.

Perth Maintains Appeal (Real Estate)

A survey conducted by Elderslie Finance Corporation confirmed that Perth was the hot favourite for residential real estate property in Australia. Published in the API Magazine January 2007 edition magazine.

The Elderslie Your Interest Survey is a bi-annual barometer which measure the real estate investment opinion of about 4500 Elderslie investors across Australia.

It found that Perth was considered the best value for residential real estate property investment by almost half o the survey respondents (49 per cent). This is the second consecutive time it has been favoured, with 36 per cent of respondents preferring it over other Australian capital cities in the autumn 2006 survey conducted six months ago.

Perth was followed by Brisbane on 23 per cent and Sydney on 10 per cent. Canberra (1 per cent) was voted the Australian capital city with the least value for residential real estate properties investment in a consistent finding between the autumn and spring surveys.

“It’s clear respondents aren’t just choosing their state of origin, with 18 per cent being from Western Australia compared with 39 per cent from New South Wales and 19 per cent from Victoria,” said Luis Garcia, director of Elderslie Finance Corporation.

Meanwhile, 62.5 per cent of respondents said that they further expect increases in interest rates over the next six months.

How much is a view worth?

Research analyst Michael Matusik says a new inner-Brisbane apartment without much of a view would cost about $450,000 today. The same apartment with a glimpse of the Brisbane River or the city skyline would be worth between $500,000 and $550,000 – “depending on the amount of glimpse”.

He says a full-frontage view apartment would attract between $650,000 and $725,000 – the upper end of that price range if both the river and city high-rises can be seen in the same frame.

Matusik says a vacant residential allotment with a view of a golf course fairway can attract between 50 and 70 per cent more than the price of a same size/shape allotment in the area without much of a view. In outer Brisbane today, this means around $180,000 for the no-view block and from $275,000 to $300,000 for the golf course block.

Matusik says an allotment facing square onto the fairway can attract a 100 per cent premium, fetching around $350,000.

Better-located fairway blocks – such as those on a ridge or facing north or with long-range views including over water – have attracted premiums between 125 and 150 per cent, depending on the quality of the position and view – therefore from $400,000 to $450,000 in this example.

Matusik says a waterfront allotment with deep-sea access in southeast Queensland now costs around $1.3 million for an average 895 sqm. This is six times the price of a similar-sized allotment – on average about $225,000 – in the same area but away from the water and with no substantial view. And while the waterfront allotments cost six times as much, their growth in value in the past financial year has been 11 times as much ($9000 versus $100,000).

Published in API Magazine – January 2007.

Perth Real Estate Prices Close in on Sydney and Small Real Estate Developers in Australia

Property prices in Perth are within reach of eclipsing Sydney as the country’s most expensive, median price data for the September quarter of 2006 shows. Originally published in the Australian Property Investor December 2006 edition on Page 18.

Perth House Prices climbed 39 per cent to $491,587 over the year to September, while Sydney house prices were flat at $520,253 according to composition adjusted medians released by Australian Property Monitors (APM). Unit prices in Perth were up 44 per cent at $341,730, whereas Sydney unit prices dropped 4 per cent to $351,922.

Michael McNamara from APM said the margin between Sydney and Perth house prices was now only 5.5 per cent, just three years ago, Perth prices were half those in Sydney.

“It is interesting to observe that if Perth continues to outperform eastern capitals by the same proportions, then it will soon surpass Sydney for the title of most expensive median house price in the country,” McNamara said. However, he said 39 per cent annual growth was “clearly unsustainable” and tipped that the Perth market would peak in the December quarter this year.

Darwin’s explosive growth also continued in the year to September, with its median house price surpassing Melbourne and Brisbane to make it the fourth most expensive city for houses. In the September quarter itself, growth in Darwin was slowing but still relatively strong. House prices were up 5 per cent over the three months and unit prices climbed 4 per cent.

McNamara tipped that Darwin, like Perth, should peak in the December quarter. “For these markets, much depends on commodity prices as property prices correlate strongly with the commodities index,” he said.

Price growth along the eastern seaboard was virtually non-existent in the September quarter for both houses and units, a fact McNamara puts down to interest rates. “Early this calendar year, property markets in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane showed positive signs, leading us to believe that moderate quarterly growth in median prices would be expected throughout 2006,” he said. However, interest rates rises this year have seen buyers in the markets retreat to a more cautious position.

“Eastern seaboard capital cities are now experiencing a stabilisation phase in their property cycles and we predict that trend will continue for the next 12 to 18 months.”

On a different note, Adelaide rentals are in hot demand. Adelaide’s Hills district has put up the ‘no vacancy’ sign, recording a nil vacancy rate in September. The vacancy rate across the city as a whole remained at 1.6 per cent, Real Estate Institute of South Australia figures showed. That is under the national benchmark of 2 per cent. The Hills region, from Crafers to Nairne, recorded a zero vacancy rate, while the western suburbs had the highest proportion of rentals available at 2 per cent.

Small real estate developers and home developments

Tips and inside knowledge from the Dec ’06 issue of the Australian Property Investor magazine.

Inside Knowledge about small real estate developers
Small developers should always allow themselves a little bit of breathing space with their financing, Tom Riley says, because prices tend to change over the course of a job. He says the contract price for his real estate project grew by about 5 per cent over the 12 months it took to complete. However, thanks to the years he’s spent working in the building industry the price rise didn’t come as a nasty surprise to Tom.

“The real estate contract grew just under $20,000 over the 12 months,” he says. “I was anticipating that there’d be the rise and it wasn’t outside the parameters of what I thought it might be.” Other small developers should be aware that the home prices they’re quoted might change as well, he says. “I hear people say, “we’ve got a fixed price contract’ and they probably have, but there’s always a rise and fall clause in there – and it’s usually a rise.”

As a result it’s not the best idea to spend the maximum amount you can access right from the outset. “You need to be in a position where you’ve got a little bit of extra money to play with.” Tom says he doesn’t blame his real estate builder for the rise, as material costs climbed over the 12 month period and so did the charges for real estate sub-contractors.

Tom’s small real estate development tips
1. Not everyone wants to live on the edge. Have a workable back-up plan in case things go pear-shaped.
2. Running your real estate proposal past the council before you buy can save a lot of anguish later on.
3. Put everything in writing. Even things you think are obvious can be misinterpreted by real estate builders, and you may have to make costly compromises later on.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Some real estate developers think everyone else is stupid anyway, so you might as well ask if you don’t know.
5. Don’t over capitalise for the area you’re building in. There’s no future in building $500,000 townhouses in a suburb where the media price is under $200,000.
6. Do the sums, then do them again, then halve the potential profit and halve it again. If you can live with the result, do it. If you’re young enough, do it anyways – time will fix most mistakes. Real estate property investment can be forgiving if you can wait long enough.