Showing posts with label car park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label car park. Show all posts

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Car Spaces

According to Matusik in the Courier Mail today:  "The premium for a car space within a new inner Brisbane development ranges in prince depending on the location, but the average cost is close to $75,000."  He said that apartments without carparks are harder to sell.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Brisbane Downtown Ghost town

An interesting article from The Telegraph that says that the Brisbane downtown is a ghost town.  But despite this, car parks are charging $72 to park for 3 hours.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Comparing Different Apartments

This note came from a real estate agent's newsletter (HS Brisbane Property):
This is, funnily, exactly what's happening in the Brisbane CBD with some reported and advertised property sales' prices - they are both CBD apartments, they both have 2bedrooms, so should they sell for the same price? Absolutely not. They may have different numbers of bathrooms, different views, different numbers of car spaces ... and more.
So when I read 'Highest achieved price for 2bed unit in building 'XYZ'  in 3 years!',  I think "Hmmm ... could be that they're comparing apples with tomatoes!". 
Without going into details it's interesting to note:
à       An additional car space will add approx. $60,000 (or in some cases more) to the price of an apartment. However, a tandem car space will not achieve the same price as a single carspace. Example: 2bed unit with 2 car spaces will sell for approx. $60,000 more than one with only 1 carspace.
à       Views mean $$$ ... sometimes. Apart from the direct riverfront views of some buildings and the eagle-soaring views from the top of 74-floor Soleil or 69-floor Aurora, views can be here today, gone tomorrow. Nice corridor views may remain while other better views may be built out in a few years. Check Brisbane City Council Development Approvals before spending extra money on a view.
à       Apartment size and no. bathrooms. For a 2bed apartment, 2bathrooms would normally achieve higher prices than 1bathroom, but this may also depend on other factors such as the overall apartment size. A larger, well-designed apartment would also be expected to sell for more than a smaller type. Compare the apartment sizes and floorplans.
 Be informed!!
Back to our advertised highest price. Always ask yourself : what types of apartment is this being compared to? What size, floorplan, level, outlook, no. bathrooms and carspaces, and what does it include?
It may still be the highest price in years, but it may be like comparing apples and tomatoes .. they are very different.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Brisbane City Census Data

For the past few weeks, I have been looking at the 2011 census data.  It is very useful for property investors.  In my view, the best place to search is via an address search, and the results are then available in layers, from a few blocks, to suburb, post code area, and so on.  You can search here.

For Brisbane City downtown area, in 2011, here is some interesting data (full results here):



  • population - 7,888 people
  • median age - 29
  • Most people are in the 25 to 29 age group (22% of the population)
  • 1,526 families
  • 32% married
  • 37% have University qualifications (compared with 13.5% for Qld or 14.35 for Australia as a whole).
  • 4,516 dwellings in total (of which, 98.7% are apartments)
  • Average of 2 people per household
  • 50.9% of dwellings had 2 bedrooms
  • Median weekly household income - $1,828
  • 54.5% of dwellings are rented
  • Median rent - $530 per week
  • 0.8 cars per dwelling
  • Ancestry: "The most common ancestries in Brisbane City (State Suburbs) were English 18.0%, Australian 11.3%, Chinese 9.8%, Irish 7.0% and Korean 5.8%."
  • Country of birth: "In Brisbane City (State Suburbs), 33.3% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were Korea, Republic of (South) 6.6%, England 4.4%, China (excludes SARs and Taiwan) 3.9%, Taiwan 3.3% and New Zealand 2.5%."
  • 63.5% had both parents born outside of Australia


Sunday, May 15, 2011

Car Space

I would never buy an apartment without a car space. The value of a car space is between $60,000 and $90,000 depending on the building and location. An agent's email newsletter had the following information.

"Looking at going rates for Brisbane CBD short-term parking, it’s no wonder that parkers must think their car spaces are made of gold!

Brisbane CBD parkers now have the dubious honour of paying the third highest short-term parking rates in the Asian Pacific region – behind Tokyo and Sydney. Averaging $21.70 an hour, the price is enough to make people really think twice about shopping in the city or enjoying a relaxing Riverfront dining experience. Even Melbourne CBD parking is ‘cheap’ in comparison, costing only $15.98 per hour on average.

Budget on spending big if you plan using the Riverside Centre’s car park, situated in the heart of the financial, business and Riverside fine-dining precinct – at $21 for up to 30 minutes, it’s the most expensive place to park short-term in Brisbane’s CBD.

As public transport fares also continue to skyrocket, leasing a CBD car park weekly - from $80 upwards per week - is now seen as a financially viable alternative for some who often visit the CBD, whether for work, shopping and/or dining and entertainment."

Monday, May 3, 2010

Oaks Fined for Car Park Leasing

A newspaper reports that the Council fined Oaks $25,000 for renting our carparks to non residents, in breach of development conditions.

"BRISBANE: One of the largest building management agencies in the CBD has been fined $15,000 for illegally leasing out car parks to inner-city workers.

Brisbane City Council has fined The Oaks Group for unlawfully leasing residential carparks to commuters after an investigation which City News understands lasted several months.

According to its website, The Oaks Group arranges short-term bookings for eight unit blocks in the CBD. Car parking spaces meant for long-term residents have instead been leased to inner-city workers for up to $5000 a year. Councillor David Hinchliffe (Central) welcomed the penalty and said he believed the practice was widespread and was “potentially just the tip of the iceberg”.

He said he believed senior managers in both the private and public sectors had paid for carparks made available in contravention of the Council’s planning approvals. “If you’re operating a commercial carpark, then you need to be zoned and approved for a commercial carpark,” he said. “One carparking space can generate easily around $5000 a year in revenue for the company, 200 car spaces are worth $1 million in revenue.

“My understanding is that apartments are being rented out without carparks so that the company can lease out the carparks separately to commuters, encouraging more people to drive to work and park and adding to congestion.”

Brisbane City Council failed to answer several questions about the practice before City News’ deadline. When contacted for comment, an Oaks spokeswoman replied: “We are not at liberty to respond to that matter.”

Monday, December 1, 2008

Value of Brisbane Car Park?

A car park in down town Brisbane appear to add about $60,000 to the value of an apartment. A two bedroom apartment without a car park is virtually unsaleable.
FindACarPark is a good site to look at to see the rental value of a car park in Brisbane - seems to be about $400 to $500 per month to rent. When I looked, no car park was listed for sale in Brisbane.
See also this site.