View Full Version : Melbourne apartment market back in business for 2005


Grollo
March 7th, 2005, 05:28 AM
http://www.propertyreview.com.au/archives/2005/02032005/headline/02032005005.html

Flinders Wharf price spike as upmarket
towers take-off

Nelson Yap

March 02, 2005

Who ever said the Melbourne apartment market was dead?

Wrong!

Private sales at Flinders Wharf have taken off since the end of a forgettable 2004 for most inner City and in particular Dockland developments.

Propertyreview.com.au has learned that five apartments have sold in the first eight weeks of the New Year. Two were first sales the other three were resales.

Flinders Wharf marketing agent Butler & Co., Mark Butler would not confirm the sales other than to say the development had a number of sales since the end of last year.



“The market has seen consolidation in the first few months of 2005. We have had a number of sales with three of those being resales,” Butler said.

“The speculators left the investment apartment mid way through last year and this has had a positive impact on the inner city market,” Butler added.

Propertyreview.com.au has found that one apartment bought off-the-plan for $965,000 sold three week ago for $1.089 million. The sub-penthouse has three bedrooms and looks back down the Yarra River toward the Bolte Bridge.

Another apartment was bought off-the-plan for $430,000 was sold for $490,000; and yet another resale saw the same investor take a profit on an apartment on the 6th floor he bought for $650,000 and sold mid January for $740,000.

The other two sales, which were handled by Butler & Co., on behalf of developer Far East Consortium, sold for $525,000 and $865,000.

“There is a fair bit of activity in the upper end of the residential market and Flinders Wharf has been the recipient of an improved, more conservative marketplace.

“This activity is expected to continue throughout the year with a park being developed shortly on the west side of the building,” Butler concluded.

Sales at Flinders Wharf for penthouses have eclipsed the $2.5 million mark.


Royal Domain Tower foyer
Butler, who is also marketing one of Melbourne’s most prestigious apartment towers the Royal Domain Tower, in St Kilda Road, said a number of sales over the $1 million mark have been achieved in the first two months of 2005.

“Royal Domain has become one of Melbourne’s most sought after addresses. It is Melbourne’s most expensive towers, but it is also its best address,” Butler confidently added.

The success at Flinders Wharf and Royal Domain will certainly buoy an apartment market that needed some good news after it took a superficial battering from the media in 2004.

Australand’s Rob Pradolin reports that sales at rival upmarket tower Freshwater Place have also been increasingly strong so far in 2005.

“The choice of high quality residential apartments in Melbourne is limited and becoming more and more limited as the weeks go by.”

Grollo
March 8th, 2005, 03:32 AM
I noticed this article from March 2004:

http://www.propertyreview.com.au/archives/2004/10032004/headline/10032004002.html

Presently, on realestate.com.au, Australia’s leading property search engine, there are around 17 pages on Docklands rental properties – or approximately 170 units. That equates to a Docklands vacancy rate of around 17%.

However, the number of apartments will balloon out in the short to medium term and most likely the vacancy rate will eclipse 20%, possibly 30%, as more and more investment stock comes on stream through the completion of the Watergate towers, Devine’s Victoria Point and Kuok’s Village Docklands.

Now in March 2004 1454 apartments were completed in Docklands (including Flinders Wharf which is included in Docklands on realestate.com so the vacancy rate should have been 12%

Today 2008 apartments have been completed in Docklands and only 83 apartments are for rent on Realestate.com.au, for a vacancy rate of 4.1% So the vacancy now is a third of what it was a year ago despite and extra 554 apartments coming onto the market in that time!

Some stats:

Completed:

Yarras Edge 1-4: 565
NewQuay 1-3: 589
NewQuay Nolan: 204
Watergate: 350
Flinders Wharf: 300
Total completed: 2008

Under Construction:

Yarras Edge 5: 191 (owners moving in any day now)
NewQuay Conder: 200
Village Docklands V1: 179
Victoria Point: 447
Victoria Harbour Dock 5: 148
Total U/C: 1165

Overall total: 3173

Grollo
March 8th, 2005, 03:43 AM
So Docklands has successfully absorbed an average of 670 apartments a year for the past 3 years. With 570 to be competed this year and 595 next year I don't think there will be any significant increase in the vacancy rate in Docklands (except for short term increases in the weeks after each tower is occupied.).

I think we will definately see a new round of proposals for all of the Docklands precicnts at the end of this year.

lozza
March 8th, 2005, 04:25 AM
i had a tenant within 3 weeks for my watergate apartment. and that was when there was a whole building up for grabs interms of rental. imagine when all the buildings are filled. it will be almost impossible to find a place to rent there NAh, i am very happy with docklands progress indeed ! :rock:

tayser
March 14th, 2005, 08:55 AM
AFR

Studios top city redevelopment
Karina Barrymore and Nicole Lindsay
10 March 2005

The ever-changing face and fortunes of the Melbourne CBD are epitomised by the plans of developer Asian Pacific Building Corporation.

After buying an empty Collins Street office building three years ago, Asian Pacific, which is controlled by the Deague family, has drawn up plans to refurbish it for office use and strata office suites, to add a hotel and now to top it with studio apartments.

In the last stage of its reincarnation, the 1960s-style office building is having apartments built on the top floors above the as-yet-unsold strata office component and the fully sold hotel component.

With unit prices starting at $179,000 but averaging $230,000, the apartments would rank at the bottom end of the market.

Asian Pacific director Jonathan Deague said 210 of the proposed 290 apartments sold even before marketing started, indicating strong buyer demand.

The property crosses almost every sector of the market, a hodge-podge of office, hotel and residential.

The top-level apartments are being marketed to buyers as a walk in and sit down proposition, being fully furnished including sheets, towels, cutlery and plasma television.

The Deague family launched its hotel group, Asian Pacific Hotels and Resorts, last year.

All 150 rooms in the $50 million hotel have been sold, with a 5.5 per cent guaranteed annual return. The hotel, in the former State Insurance Centre, is due to be completed in July.

The Deagues' foray into the hotel industry includes student accommodation and a hotel at the former Panch hospital site in the Melbourne suburb of Preston.

Last year, when it launched the hotel chain and Collins Street revamp, the group planned to offer five levels of accommodation the four-star Hotel William, which was destined to be its flagship Collins Street property, Hotel William serviced apartments, three-star William Motel, "sleep-and-go" two-star accommodation, and William Lodge backpacker accommodation.

The company bought the building in Collins Street for $16.5 million.

Asian Pacific, which is well known in the Melbourne market for its strata-office developments, recently completed a project at 1 Queen Street in the St Kilda Road office-market precinct.

Several years ago, Mr Deague's father, David Deague, who is chairman of Asian Pacific Building Corporation, was involved in a controversial partial demolition of a historic clifftop mansion in the upmarket seaside town of Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula.

______________

which building on Collins St was this??? Fmr. State Insurance Centre??? nice prices - I think?! :)

Dean
March 14th, 2005, 09:17 AM
i think it's 500 collins or the one next door??? it's directly opposite the 'old' Rialto and Winfield Buildings.

tayser
March 14th, 2005, 11:39 AM
oooh, now the name's familiar, I think I remember MB saying something bout it now.

need to have 0 BAC before I think about it more though :cheers:

Bluestar
March 15th, 2005, 08:49 AM
Woohoo; Bring on Prima!!

Blue

tayser
March 16th, 2005, 10:04 AM
3 Bedroom (http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&ag=&s=vic&c=47386070&tm=1110963434&id=102201185&f=60&p=30&t=res&ty=&snf=rbs&cu=&fmt=&header=) for $315,000 WTF?

http://www.realestate.com.au/objects/props/1185/102201185,20050316124213,p,0,FloorPlan-1.gif

http://www.realestate.com.au/objects/props/1185/102201185ml1110944118.jpg

:eek2:

dynamoultraclean
March 16th, 2005, 10:31 AM
Great value! I'm almost temtped to take out a mortgage!

tayser
March 16th, 2005, 10:41 AM
GoGo Gadget Mortgage? :lol:

Muse
March 16th, 2005, 10:44 AM
:eek:

plotstyle
March 16th, 2005, 12:09 PM
its only about 16 toliets wide....
or about $3700 a sq metre
if you put a queen size bed in those rooms :(
then there could be senario a from the hansen report ;) = 60m infront
then theres the walls im guessing their made out of cardboard
and it looks like their might be a few chubby columns in the walls missing...
and then theres the wide angle lenses and small furniture

plotstyle
March 16th, 2005, 12:34 PM
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&ag=&s=vic&c=71219584&tm=1110972278&id=101948441&f=0&p=30&t=res&ty=&snf=rbs&cu=&fmt=&header=

NOVA STAR GATE - For Immediate Sale! *PRICE REDUCTION*
$120,000 or Make An Offer
203/118 FRANKLIN STREET MELBOURNE
A small investment with large returns is this one bedroom apartment leased at $6,700pa approx to this hotel chain.
Situated in this great part of city close to transport and Victoria Market.

is it just me or do this places have similiar street photo but different addresses?

CULWULLA
March 17th, 2005, 03:08 AM
good news and bad.
i contacted Ivan Rajivek (PRIMA architects) today and enquired about Prima status. They said it wont be starting anytime soon but probably next cycle which he indicated 2008-9.
I also rang Australand and spoke to a agent for FWP and he also said the 3rd tower is abit off atm, maybe next cycle 2008ish. they said there still trying to sell the remaining 200 units in FWP1.

mic
March 17th, 2005, 04:57 AM
Explain how that is bad news--hrmm not really sure, they are demolishing the old buildings for a display suite, I too contacted them and they stated within 2 years constuction should commence, they stated sometime mid 2007, late 2007 so probably 2 years off atm. As for FWP not sure, I might contact them later today or tomorrow

CULWULLA
March 17th, 2005, 05:02 AM
yeah Ivan said see how market goes. but atm there playing waiting game. i already contacted FWP. they will say same thing. i tink melbourne have done well this cycle.
next cycle will also have some innovative stuff.

sirbugalugs
April 23rd, 2005, 08:20 AM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/sirbugalugs/apartment1.jpg