Showing posts with label urban edge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label urban edge. Show all posts

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Two Tier Property Market in Brisbane?

Is there are two tier market in Brisbane for apartments?  Are Brisbane owners, investors and renters looking for one kind of apartment, but developers are building another kind of apartment for foreign investors?  Some commentators have said that there will be an oversupply of apartments in Brisbane. For a certain kind of apartment, that may be correct.  But for what Brisbanites want, there may be an undersupply.

Take Bowen Hills for example.  It is close to the city, but has very few local amenities.  It was a light industrial area, and with highways cutting through it.  It is not inner city, and too far to walk to downtown or the Valley.  There are no parks or restaurants or river views.  There are number of large apartment buildings being constructed in that area, with small one and two bed apartments.  A lot of the sales and marketing is targeted at foreign investors, particularly the Chinese.  But do locals want to live in these apartments?  They are very small, and the buildings are very dense.  There are very few owner occupiers in these buildings.

Some examples are Madison Heights (286 apartments) and Chelsea (195 apartments).  It appears that it is taking a long time to rent out or re-rent the apartments in these buildings.  Rents are being reduced, for example, to $485 for a two bedroom apartment.  I suspect that the rental market is saying that, for the location and facilities, you can do much better elsewhere, so the apartments are renting only if rents are very competitive.



On the other hand, river front apartments in Brisbane city, apartments in New Farm, and "normal" residential locations such as Indooroopilly (where very few new apartments have been added to the market in the past five years), appear to be selling well and renting quickly.  These apartments are often much larger (130 sqm compared to 75 sqm for a 2 bedroom apartment, for example), have a better location, have more owner occupiers, and there is not an oversupply.

I also wonder what rents and returns the investors in the new apartment buildings have been promised, and what they are actually receiving, and for how long the apartment sits empty not generating rent?

Will the rents hold up when it comes renewal time in six months or a year?  Will tenants stay on or move out?  The Chelsea is an example of a building that appears to have a number of apartments for rent; it completed in 2012, and received bad press at the time.  (An advertisement below from last year for Urban Edge at Kelvin Grove, settled last year, where apartments will be coming up for renewal about now.  Kelvin Grove is a much better location than Bowen Hills in my view.)


Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Pradella developments

Pradella has a number of apartment developments in Brisbane that are currently being marketed.  These include:

Riverside, West End
1 bedrooms from $400,000
2 bedrooms from $540,000
3 bedrooms from $929,000
These apartments will be located behind the Waters Edge complex.  Project website.

Skyview, Kelvin Grove
1 bedrooms from $335,000
2 bedrooms from $524,000
3 bedrooms from $789,000
Settlement expected late 2014.

Canvas, South Brisbane
1 bedrooms from $346,000
2 bedrooms from $575,000
Settlement expected mid 2014.

Urban Edge, Kelvin Grove -- development completed
1 bedrooms from $429,000
2 bedrooms from $539,000

Waters Edge, West End -- development completed
2 bedrooms from $600,000
3 bedrooms from $889,000

Parklands at Sherwood - development completed
from $395,000


Sunday, June 9, 2013

Skyview Apartments at Kelvin Grove

Pradella is marketing SkyView apartments at Kelvin Grove.  These are part of the Urban Edge development.  The other two buildings on this site have been completed.  SkyView is currently in the early stages of construction.

The building is 14 levels.  There are 174 apartments.  Of these, 100 have one bedroom; 60 have two bedrooms and 14 have three bedrooms.

As at late May 2013, about 20 apartments had sold.

Prices range as follows:
  • One bedrooms -- $326,000 to $484,000
  • Two bedrooms - $506,000 to $705,000
  • Three bedrooms - $789,000 to $889,000
Examples of apartments for sale:
  • Apt 31010, level 10, 1 bedroom, bedroom at rear of apartment with no views, 51 sqm internal, 70 sqm total - $466,000
  • Apt 30709, level 7, 2 bed, 2 bath, second bedroom at rear with no views, 81 sqm internal, 103 sqm total - $654,000
  • Apt 30501, level 5, 3 bed, 2 bath, 114 sqm internal, 137 sqm total - $829,000
These apartments seem to be larger than many of the other apartments being sold by developers at present.  They also seem to me to be expensive.  The location is good.  The views will be great from the higher floors.  The design of building is only one apartment wide, so that airflow can go from the front of the apartment to the back.  Again, it seems that Pradella is putting air conditioning compressors on the balconies, which I do not like.  The living room is narrow -- 3.6m in some two bedroom apartments -- my rule of thumb is that the living room should be 4m wide and 6 m deep a minimum.  Here, the size is 3.6 m wide and 4m deep.

Urban Edge Apartments at Kelvin Grove

Pradella has completed two of the three buildings in its Urban Edge complex at Kelvin Grove.  The "Horizons" building recently completed, and residents have moved in.  The Skyview building, the third of the buildings on the site, is in early stages of construction.

Horizons is an 11 storey development, with about 133 apartments.  As at late May 2013, about 40 apartments were available for sale.  The majority of these apartments are on the Ramsgate Street side, facing west, and not with city views.  I counted 20 one bedroom apartments available for sale on this side of the building.

Some example apartments that remain for sale:
  • Apt 20808, level 8, 1 bedroom, 52 sqm internal, 66 sqm total, $429,000
  • Apt 20506, level 5, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 72 sqm internal, 85 sqm total, $550,000
  • Apt 21105, level 11, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 76 sqm internal, 91 sqm total, $584,000
  • See also REA listings
These apartments appear to be of good quality construction.  However, I don't like high-rise where the air-conditioning compressor is located on the balcony and where there are aircon headends on the walls.  For a number of apartments, the kitchen is just a row of benches on the wall, and the dining area is in this kitchen space.  (That is, no separate room or even an island bench-top for the kitchen.)  Some of the bedrooms have very small windows.


Saturday, April 27, 2013

New Apartment Developments in Brisbane

New developments:


The above is only a partial list of new and off-the-plan apartment developments in Brisbane.  Take care when buying new and off the plan, as often the pricing is much higher than existing near-new apartments in a similar location.

It is also worth reading the following book, available on the Amazon Kindle and Apple stores.  

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Advertised Rents

In today's Courier Mail and on REA, the following new developments had apartments that were advertised for rent:
  • Mirvac's Park apartments at Newstead - 2 beds at $700 a week; 3 beds at $1000 a week; 1 bed furnished at $650 a week
  • Pradella's Urban Edge at Kelvin Grove - 1 bed from $345 a week; 2 beds from $485 a week
  • Metro Property's The Chelsea at Bowen Hills - 1 bed for $405 a week; or $324 via NRAS; 2 bedrooms from $510 a week

Thursday, September 20, 2012

SkyView Apartments at Urban Edge

Pradella has commenced a soft marketing launch of Skyview Apartments, the third building in the Urban Edge development at Kelvin Grove.  Priced from $345,000.  Settlement expected in late 2014.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

South Bank Census Data

One area of Brisbane where there are many apartments is the South Bank area of South Brisbane.  However, there is little data available about this area because it is leasehold land.  The 2011 Census has some interesting data.  The apartments in this area include Arbour on Grey, Saville Southbank (also known as Mantra Southbank) and Urbanest student accommodation.



  • population - 804 people
  • median age - 22
  • Most people are in the 20 to 24 age group (31% of the population)
  • 91 families
  • 17% married
  • 66% have University qualifications (compared with 13.5% for Qld or 14.35 for Australia as a whole).
  • 231 dwellings in total (of which, 92% are apartments)
  • Average of 2.1 people per household
  • 66% of dwellings had 2 bedrooms
  • Median weekly household income - $1,687
  • 70% of dwellings are rented
  • Median rent - $500 per week
  • 0.9 cars per dwelling
  • Ancestry: "The most common ancestries were English 17.2%, Chinese 16.1%, Australian 11.9%, Irish 5.0% and Scottish 4.7%."
  • Country of birth: "In 3111003 (Statistical Area Level 1), 31.4% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were China (excludes SARs and Taiwan) 6.0%, Hong Kong (SAR of China) 4.9%, Singapore 4.4%, England 4.2% and Korea, Republic of (South) 4.0%."
  • 68% had both parents born outside of Australia.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

UrbanEdge

Pradella has commenced marketing Urban Edge at Kelvin Grove, on Victoria Park Road.

The development will have 3 apartment buildings, with 2 of the buildings being marketed softly at present. The Vista building will be 6 levels with 73 apartments. The Horizons building will be 12 levels with 122 apartments. Building C looks to be the largest. One bedroom apartments with car park at said to be priced from $298,000.