Luxury Apartment?

Old time property developers, David Devine and Ken Woodley, now of Metro Property Developments, specialised in low end high rise apartments.  They are advertising one of their many new developments, Brooklyn on Brookes, as "Luxury Valley Apartments from $305,000".

I wonder what makes these apartments "luxury"?  Sure, they will be new, but a new apartment does not mean it is luxurious.  Let's look at the facts:

• built on a main road, Ann Street
• no city or river views from most levels
• 191 apartments, most with only one bathroom
• small apartments
• no separate kitchen
• bathrooms do not have separate bath and shower
• little cupboard and storage space in apartment
• no balcony

In my view, calling these "luxury apartments" is seriously misleading.  Buyers beware! 

Mosaic The Valley Adds Hotel

The Mosaic apartment development has added a 41 room hotel component. That is a small hotel. The hotel will be branded as a Grand Chifley hotel, operated by Constellation Hotels (that also appears to have purchased the management rights for the apartment building.) The hotel opening date is expected to be mid-2013. I am not sure if I would be happy with this if I had purchased an off-the-plan apartment in Mosaic prior to this announcement.

Alex Perry Residential

A new development in the Valley is now in pre-sales, Alex Perry Residential. It has 131 apartments, a mix of 1, 2 and 3 bedrooms. The website says apartments are priced from $375,000 to $3 million. It is located at 959 Ann Street, on the corner of Chester St.

See also Brisbane Times

McLachlan & Ann Update

I received a mailing from a real estate spruiker today regarding McLachlan & Ann in the Valley.

1 bedrooms were $429,000 to $465,000

2 bedrooms were $520,000 to $699,750.

This advertisement lists one bedrooms from $295,000 to $480,000.

In July last year, 1 bedrooms were from $345,000 and 2 bedrooms from $485,000.

Mosaic The Valley

Leightons has released a new representative image for the Mosaic The Valley apartment project on Ann Street. It is much blander with less greenery than previously visioned. The building appears to be closer to road, as the footpaths are narrower. The new image is above. The old image is below, and an older view is located here.

Mosaic is being developed by Leighton, which owns about half of Devine and is a constructing Hamilton Harbour with Devine.

Mosaic was launched in October 2009. It has 212 apartments, most of which are relatively small. Advertised today as 1 bedrooms starting at $365,000 and two bedroom starting at $540,000. No pool.

McLachlan & Ann

The new Laing O'Rourke development near James Street in The Valley, called McLachlan & Ann (or M&A) has received development approval and is currently in pre-sales.

There are 234 apartments, with one bedrooms selling from $345,000 and two bedrooms from $485,000.

Mosaic The Valley

When I look earlier this week, Mosaic The Valley had not yet received Development Approval from the Council. Also, from what the agents are saying, they do not yet have enough pre-sales required to lock in finance to start building. It will be interesting to see if and when they start building Mosaic.

One or Three Bedrooms?

I have always wondered whether developers know what they are doing. Take this for example.

The El Dorado Village Indooroopilly apartment development seemed to have its advertising targeted at suburban empty nesters. The proposed development included twenty end apartments that were three bedroom apartments, 105sqm internal (not large) and 35 sqm balcony. The lower floor 3 bedroom apartments were originally priced from $785,000 to about $825,000 when first released , but when re-launched recently, were priced in the low $900,000 range. There must not have been much interest, because the developer has reconfigured 10 of these apartments into 20 one bedroom and studio apartments. The new apartments are either 53sqm or 55 sqm internal, with either a 13sqm or 30sqm balcony. Priced from $400,000 to $465,000. So this development has lost ten 3 bed apartments and added twenty 1 bed apartments. Over a year ago, I was told by the developer's agent that the developer had finance and would start construction soon. That doesn't sound like it was right.

On the other hand, the developer for Mosaic in the Valley has combined one bedroom apartments to create larger two bedroom and three bedroom apartments. The developer has taken a couple of one bedrooms on the north side of the building and combined them into a two bedroom plus media room (94sqm plus 10 sqm balcony). The developer has also combined three one bedroom apartments on the south side of the building into a three bedroom apartment (134 sqm plus 17 sqm balcony).

In relation to the 2 bed plus media room, they have 2 car parks and the prices are:

Level 13 $799k

Level 14 $820k

Level 15 $840k

Level 16 $860k

So it seems that El Dorado is creating smaller apartments and Mosaic is creating larger apartments.

New Development on Ann Street

MacLachlan & Ann -- a new development in a central area of the Valley, selling off the plan soon.

www.mac-ann.com.au

Mosaic in the Valley

Mosaic The Valley is now being sold off-the-plan, with a large advertising campaign. It is located on Ann Street (the major road from the airport to the city), at Church Street. If there are enough off-the-plan sales, so that construction can start, the developer hopes to complete in mid-2012.

There are 16 apartments per floor, mostly small 1 bed apartments. The building is about 15 stories high. There are over 200 apartments. The building does not have a pool. Most apartments do not have a balcony.

The apartments are small. For example, there is a studio apartment which is 50sqm. The bedroom is located internally, with sliding doors that can open. A similar sign is 54sqm. The 54sqm studio apartment, with a car park, on a mid-level is about $500,000 (or $435,000 without a car).

The largest style apartment is a 2 bed, 2 bath, for example, 79sqm, plus a 7 sqm balcony. The two bedroom apartments are located at each of the four corners of the floorplate -- so two are on Ann Street, and the other two face West. Not ideal in either case.

The two bedroom apartments range from $505,000 to $700,000.

The developer is Leighton Properties.