Showing posts with label tennyson reach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tennyson reach. Show all posts

Monday, February 13, 2012

End of the Road for Mirvac at Tennyson

Mirvac and an off-the-plan purchaser, Mrs Dunworth, have had protracted legal battles regarding Mrs Dunworth's contract to purchase an apartment at Tennyson Reach that flooded.  Mrs Dunworth got out of the contract in this decision.  Mirvac appealed that decision to the High Court, but on Friday last week, the High Court refused leave to hear the case, so Mrs Dunworth wins and does not have to settle.  A rare win for an off-the-plan purchaser trying to get out of a contract.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Regulations relaxed for Tennyson Reach - then Floods

Real estate agent David Dunworth told the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry he bought a luxury unit at the Tennyson Reach complex, which adjoins the State Tennis Centre at Tennyson on Brisbane's south-side, without doing a flood search on the property.

The unit, along with another one in the complex he was leasing, was inundated during the Brisbane floods in January this year.

After the flood, which caused major damage to his unit and destroyed furniture, art and other belongings, Mr Dunworth said he discovered his unit was more than two metres below the 1974 flood level. He also discovered regulations that required the property to be set back 20 metres had been relaxed to allow his unit complex to be built just six metres from the river.

"I think if I had known all these things we would have considered making a different decision," he said.

He said sellers should be required to provide the information up front. Mr Dunworth said he believed that since a major property developer, Mirvac, was behind the project and it had the backing of the state government and planning approval from the Brisbane City Council, all necessary precautions would have been taken.

"I just assumed that the most stringent conditions were being imposed," he told the inquiry.
Source: SMH

The values at Tennyson Reach have dropped by 30% to 50%.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Tennyson Reach Contract Cancelled Due to Flood

Mirvac lost a legal battle in the Queensland Court of Appeal this week, in relation to an apartment at Tennyson Reach that flooded in January. Mirvac had two senior counsel to argue this appeal - it flew up Alan Myers QC from Melbourne and also used a local Senior Counsel -- both very expensive barristers. But that did not assist. The buyer was allowed out of the contract. See Judgment and The Australian.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Tennyson Reach Write Down

"LEADING property developer Mirvac Group has written down the value of a flood-damaged development, Tennyson Reach in Brisbane, by $80.8 million.

The latest writedown, which the company previously foreshadowed, brings the total in the group's residential land assets to $295m this year.

Mirvac said that since the January floods, the Tennyson residential market had limited transactions and pricing had been affected by uncertainties created by the pending results of the Queensland flood inquiries.

The group revalued the carrying value of Tennyson Reach, including 43 unsold apartments and the remaining undeveloped land.

"This has led to a provision of $80.8m, resulting in zero value as at May 31, 2011," the company said in an ASX announcement."

The Australian

See also Courier Mail

This is not a surprise. This development was not in a great location, and there are very few facilities for residents in the area. The development had bombed well prior to the flood -- the flood was the last blow for a dog of a project.


Monday, June 6, 2011

Mirvac Abandons Tennyson Reach

Mirvac was developing Tennyson Reach, and aimed to have six apartment buildings along the river. Three have been built. They flooded. The apartments have dropped significantly in value (even prior to the floods). Three more apartment buildings were planned. Mirvac has now abandoned Tennyson Reach as a bad dream. No more apartments are to be built. I guess this means that the current owners should be happy that there will be less competition from future development. But it also shows that Mirvac thinks there will be no demand for further apartments in this out-of-the-way location that has few amenities.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Tennyson Prices

It is interesting to see the current pricing for apartments being resold at Tennyson Reach. This is a Mirvac development in the middle of nowhere, and three more buildings are planned.

This complex was badly impacted by the floods. The Mirvac website says:

"Thank you for your enquiry through the Tennyson Reach website. Mirvac does not have any apartments for sale at Tennyson Reach but anticipates that apartments will be made available in the near future. "

They have put their sales program on hold -- they still have many unsold apartments in building three.

Currently, you can buy a prestige riverfront 3 bedroom apartment for $998,000, on the 6th floor. This is about $600,000 less than the original sales price. Beware, body corporate levies are high. The original purchaser would have lost a significant sum of money on this apartment. No guarantee that the next purchaser will not loose too.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Tennyson Reach - Legal Decisions

Mirvac and about 15 buyers have gone to court regarding Tennyson Reach, in a number of cases. For the most part, Mirvac has been successful in enforcing off-the-plan contracts against buyers. Here are some extracts from some of the decisions.

"As already noted, Mr Cox values the apartment at $1,500,000 and said that its value would have been $1,750,000 had the view been the equivalent of that from the display centre. " Mirvac v. Holland

"The defendant [Mirvac] is in possession of the apartment. After the flood, it removed the mud. The walls of the apartment consisted of Gyprock sheeting. The defendant removed the lower level of the Gyprock, which was flood affected. Wiring was disconnected; switches were removed and piled into a heap; appliances were disconnected. Dunworth v. Mirvac

"It is that the area of a part of the actual Lot varies by more than five per cent from the area depicted upon the drawing for that part. In this case the area of each of the balconies varies from what was shown within the original drawing by, in one case, 10.35 per cent and in the other by 15.30 per cent. Because clause 6.3(a) of the proposed (and actual) contract permitted a change up to five per cent to the “size of the Lot or any part of the Lot” it is argued that these changes made the actual Lot different from the proposed Lot as originally identified." Mirvac v. Beioley

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Tennyson Reach Clean Up

At least four million dollars for flood clean up. See this decision.
"On 20 January 2011, Mirvac stated it will not charge any margin or for its time in relation to the rectification works. Its estimate includes prospective costs of up to $1,000,000 for priority works (completion of clean up works currently underway, preliminary electrical works to enable restoration of power and preliminary fire control equipment), and costs of $2,950,000 (including priority works) to complete clean up works, to rectify damage to ground floor lobbies, lifts and the completion of works including electrical, fire and hydraulic works."

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Flood Clean Up Costs

A number of buildings are now realising the costs of flood clean up. I have heard of costs ranging from $400,000 to $10M, depending on the damage. Even buildings with slight damage appear to have huge clean up costs.

Body corporate committees are discussing special levies, in the thousands, for each unit owner.

From what I have heard, some unit owners are obtaining legal advice. Often, the body corporate manager recommends the insurance policy (and takes a large commission). So there is talk of suing the body corporate manager for the loss. In many cases, the developers appear to have been negligent as to where they placed critical equipment. So there may be lawsuits against developers and body corporate managers.

See this article about the Tennyson Reach flood cleanup costs.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Tennyson Reach Flooded

Extracts from Story from The Australian:

"Yesterday, as the smell in the luxury dwellings at Tennyson Reach, home to tennis greats including Ashley Cooper, rose with the temperature and humidity, owners wondered how the planning controls that were meant to regulate development could have gone so wrong.

Several said they were assured before buying that the ground level would not flood unless the Brisbane River reached a mark of 8.4m, well above the 4.46m at which it peaked last Thursday after a massive discharge of 645,000 megalitres from Wivenhoe Dam on Tuesday.

Between cleaning up and moving out yesterday, several owners said they needed explanations from Mirvac and the council about their true flood immunity and whether the development, completed less than two years ago, should have been approved, given its history of inundation.

The flooding at Tennyson Reach is one small part of a major problem for Brisbane City Council and the Queensland government, as the losses of owners, the liability of developers, and the policies of governments combine in a perfect storm of recrimination and confusion. The residential precinct went through all the council's usual approvals process after the Beattie government sought tenders to make something glorious from the site of the abandoned and obsolete power station.

Apartment owner Chrissie Buchanan, who bought in June 2009 with her husband, Sam, who is a quadriplegic, has had damaged floors, walls and cabinets. She said she was fortunate to have insurance and was in a lot better position than many in Brisbane.

"The things that have been damaged are easily replaced," Ms Buchanan said. "There are people who have lost their businesses and houses. I feel for people who are a lot worse off than ourselves."

She said flooding risk was "not an issue" that was canvassed when she and her husband bought the property. "You never believe it's going to happen to you," she said.

Keith George, who paid $2.25 million for his ground-floor apartment 18 months ago, said he had waist-level water throughout his property. As a result, he will have to rip up floors and carpets, rebuild walls, and most of the apartment's cabinets will have to be replaced. "I'm going to have to spend at least $100,000 to replace the cabinetry," he said. "We won't be back in here for months."

Mr George said the flood risk never came up when he was buying the property, partly because City Hall had approved the development.

"And I always believed the Wivenhoe would not let the Brisbane River come up," he said.

Another resident, Julie Savage, said most people living in the complex were not too concerned on Tuesday night when other parts of the city started to evacuate their homes.

"I got the impression everyone was relaxed because it could withstand a flood of 8.4m, so it would all be fine," she said.

It is not only residents on the ground floor who are affected, with those on the many levels above unable to return home because there is no power and no lifts working. "They were saying 12 weeks until they can return, but it might be eight," Mr George said.

...

Mirvac Development Queensland chief executive Matthew Wallace, who inspected the development yesterday, said the priority was to work with the body corporate to get the buildings reinstated, and "get peoples' lives and properties back together".

The flooding hit the apartments 12 hours before the peak in Brisbane of 4.46m. It is believed the body corporate does not have flood insurance.

Several owners who bought their apartments before the global financial crisis had looked for loopholes to litigate a way out of their contracts before settlement, but failed after filing actions in the District Court. The irony is that being misled over the level of their flood immunity might have provided a perfect exit.

After successfully defending itself against some residents' claims that it misrepresented the quality of the river views, as well as a host of technical legal arguments surrounding the contract documents, Mirvac said the original buyers had to meet, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars in default interest and associated costs."

Mirvac Group said its Waterfront Newstead development had experienced some basement flooding, while its Tennyson Reach building had basement and ground floor inundation.

Mirvac added that the Brisbane floods were having a limited impact on its residential projects.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Brisbane Floods

With the flood water going down, the clean up is starting. Many Brisbane apartment buildings were impacted by the floods -- basement carparks full of water and mud; no electricity; residents evacuated.

Some of the buildings that have significant water in their basements include:
  • Admiralty Towers
  • Admiralty Two
  • Admiralty Quays "we only had minor flooding in the lower level of the basement (about 50cm deep)"
  • Riverplace
  • Riparian (access tunnel to carparks - carparks are above ground level)
  • Felix
  • 212 Margaret
  • Festival Towers
  • River City
  • Vue at Milton
  • Water's Edge
  • Flow
  • SL8
  • Parklands Sherwood
  • Fresh Toowong
  • Encore Toowong
  • Arbour on Grey at South Bank
  • Tennyson Reach
  • Most apartments on the river at St Lucia
  • the list goes on
Pradella writes about Parklands at Sherwood: "Sadly this site has experienced quite a lot of damage. The Outlook – which are the entertainment facilities has been completely submerged by water. The car park under Jacaranda and Brookline is also completely submerged. Whilst floodwaters did not reach the interior of the apartment buildings, it did however breach a number of houses and townhouses. The entire complex was evacuated late on Wednesday afternoon. Power has been cut and access to the property restricted."

and about Waters Edge:

"There has been significant damage to the pool and the grounds however the water from the river has NOT entered the building. The car park under the building has flooded, and all residents evacuated. Power has been cut."

Admiralty Towers has it status (current evacuated) on its website.

I am amazed that the Council allows buildings to be built with basements that flood, forcing loss of power and residents to be evacuated. See also this article.

I am not sure how the floods will impact property prices in Queensland. After the 1974 floods, the prices of impacted houses decreased for a period. There will be a shortage of rental accommodation, as many people are looking for places to live. Foreign press is reporting on its nationals being evacuated -- see for example, this article from Singapore and Malaysia -- and QUT and UQ were flooded, which will not be good news for those trying to attract foreign students to Brisbane.

On the positive side, it could have been much worse. Only one person died in Brisbane, and the flood levels were lower than initially expected.

Friday, December 24, 2010

2010 Brisbane Apartment Awards

These are our awards for 2010:

1. Wildest Advertising Claim
FKP Properties wins this for their overpriced The Milton development. Their sales agents are giving out printed information to potential investors about future property values. They have a sheet of paper showing investment returns for a 2 bed, 1 bath apartment listed at $650,000. The prediction is that this apartment will be worth $807,500 on completion of the project in 2013, and will be worth over $1M by 2016. The predicted rent is over $720 a week in 2013.
2. Worst Investment
This is a hard one. Many investors who purchased off-the-plan in 2006 or 2007 had to settle this year. Some were unable to get bank valuations anywhere near settlement. The contenders for this category are:
  • Mirvac's Tennyson Reach
  • Niecon's The Oracle at Broadbeach
  • Raptis' The Hilton Surfers Paradise
  • Evolution.
I think they are all bad investments, so maybe a four way tie!
3. Biggest Delayed Development
Again, a number of contenders for this category. There are many big developments that have been delayed indefinitely -- Trilogy, Evolution, Empire Square, FKP's Albion Mill. South Point is another contender here -- although it looks about to finally begin.
But the winner is El Dorado at Indooroopilly. Construction has been about to start for years now. What is going on at this development?

Saturday, December 4, 2010

More Losses

Mirvac's Tennyson Reach: Apt 3302 is listed for sale at "half price". This is a three bedroom riverfront apartment (on a low floor). Approximately 150sqm. Listed for sale for $865,000 (a huge loss for the current owner).

Riparian, Apt 4504 at 71 Eagle Street. Sold by Mikki Finlay for $1,286,000 at auction last week. 2 bed, 2 bath, 2 car, 186 sqm. Last sold in March 2006 for $1,575,000. Good job Mikki, you only sold at a capital lost of $289,000 plus stamp duty. Hope you didn't charge commission?! Maybe sellers would do better listing on eBay?

Friday, August 6, 2010

Mirvac's Hamilton Project

Listed real estate group Mirvac is set to continue its successful track record of quality residential development on Brisbane in-fill sites after the purchase of a prime 7,637-square-metre former Department of Primary Industry site at Hamilton.

Previous projects by Mirvac on classic in-fill sites in Brisbane include The Arbour On Grey (at South Bank), Quay West, Grosvenor, Waterline Bulimba, Park Hill Village, Mariner’s Reach, Cutters Landing and more recently Waterfront Newstead.

Mirvac’s Queensland CEO Matthew Wallace says the Hamilton site, located in Hercules Street, is six kilometres from the CBD and will likely accommodate more than 500 residences. Its end value will be around $300 million.

“We are very excited about the purchase of this site and while our planning is still in its initial stages at present we will be delivering a residential product that will broaden the price segments in which we operate,” he says. “The site is extremely well located and the same team that has delivered such projects as Cutters Landing, Tennyson Reach and more recently Waterfront Newstead will be behind the Hamilton development.

“The product will be affordable, it will be quality, it meets the State Government and city council’s planning goals of higher density in the CBD fringe and will be a prime example of contemporary urban design.” Wallace says the Hamilton development is a prime example of Mirvac’s national strategy to continually review and refine its product offering in line with demand and opportunities that arise.

...

Wallace says the Hamilton development will leverage off the established amenity within the immediate locale and it is proposed that the urban street environment will integrate with the existing Portside development.

The site is adjacent to the Portside Wharf development and cruise ship terminal, is approximately 500 metres to the City Cat, five minutes to the Gateway Motorway and 10 kilometres south of the Brisbane Airport.

The DPI has recently vacated the site.

“We are planning a range of innovative one and two bedroom product on the site and our research indicates that there will be significant demand for this product and this location,” he says.

“Our plan is to provide affordably priced, high-quality residences to a broad section of the marketplace and our team is excited about turning their minds to a new challenge.

...

Wallace says it is expected that approvals permitting, Mirvac will release the first of the residences at Hamilton next year.

See QBR

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Buyer Gets Out of Contract with Mirvac at Tennyson


"it is declared that the applicant has validly cancelled, pursuant to s 214(4) of the Body Corporate and Community Management Act1997 (“the BCCMA”), the written contract entitled “Sale Contract Tennyson Reach” dated 4 December 2007 between the applicant and the respondent"

"The apartment was to be the principal place of residence for the applicant, her husband, and two teenage children. It was adjacent to the Queensland Tennis Centre (a major public facility) and a busy public thoroughfare. At the time the applicant’s husband’s occupation was such that the whole family might reasonably have a heightened sense of vulnerability to unlawful attack. The security system had been promoted as an integral feature of the development and arrangements for its management. Viewed objectively, a person in the applicant’s circumstances in August 2009 would be disadvantaged in a substantial way by its omission. That disadvantage was compounded by the omission of other items of property which would have enhanced the amenity of the apartment."

See also Changes to Your Development: When is a Buyer Materially Prejudiced? - Property and Commercial Services Update - May 2010

Monday, May 3, 2010

Talking Up the Top End

"Publicly listed property company Mirvac has also started the decade on a positive note, selling $30 million worth of $1 million-plus apartments around Queensland in the first three months.

Mr Johnston said the exclusive riverfront development at Tennyson Reach had exceeded everyone’s expectations in the current market. "The fact it’s sold so well in a market affected by the GFC is testament to the quality of the product and the prime location," he said.

The Tennyson Reach sales ranged up to $2.845 million for luxury apartments on the riverfront, located close to the new Tennyson Tennis Centre. Mr Johnson said that apart from families with old money, 2010 had seen the return of the investor – and they’re not all mum and dad investors with $600,000 to spend on a three-bed, one-bath inner-city renter.

An increasing number of multi-million dollar sales have been to investors, such as one riverfront apartment Mr Johnston sold for nearly $3 million last month. The investor is planning on renting the apartment out.

Ms Havig said foreign investors and expats were also present in the prestige market.
"They feel that the market is still going to rise considerably and want to get in before it does," she said."

See Brisbane Times for full story.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Mirvac's Park

The public release of Mirvac's Park is taking place today -- the same day that 3 apartments at Mirvac's Tennyson Reach are being auctioned due to failure of the buyers to purchase -- and where the off-the-plan contract price is now above market price.

In my opinion, Park is overpriced:
"One, two, three bedroom apartments plus Pavilions are available for purchase now off the plan. Featuring classic toned interior colour schemes with functional spaces, clever storage and useable outdoor areas, each tower has a selection of floor plan styles to choose from.

One bedroom apartments from $495,000

Two bedroom apartments from $675,000

Three bedroom apartments from $975,000

Pavilions from $1.6 million"

See this post for a comparison of these prices with current market pricing. Before buying in Park, I would go to the auction of a 2 bed apartment in Mirvac's Quay West -- which is over 125sqm in size, park and river views, a better location, plus a pool (which Park does not have).