dotty

Just ripping open the mail. Estate we bought in Early December for $136,000 (Land Only), just sent us their latest release. Same size block, similar aspect, $202,000. Not a bad price increase for 5 months! Land seems to have gone up about $12,000 a month. Yet the demand for the land will probably see some blocks go for over the asking price.

Last week I posted my tip to buy here ASAP and not wait for pound to go up, hopefully this info clafifies my point.

scoobydooathome

Nothing compared to the pot of gold we made here in the UK, he he he ...

scoobydooathome

###

Good tip that, er NOT the Pound has gone up, he he he ...

The Ozzy is only taking advantage of the weak US Dollar, it's gonna bite back in the next few months, so Dotty if you want to come back to England, you better change your Millions NOW ...

Rosy

Come on now girls, lets not get into one of those "I`ve made more money on my house than you" arguments.

It`s all a bit daft, isn`t it???

Megalania

When State Govt or local Council start to make pronouncements on turning out more developed land or become directly involved, the boom is near done.

mikeburt

where is it you bought the land that cost you that much dotty?I assume we are looking at beachfront or somewhere near Sydney.I've found loads of land parcels going for a fraction of that price,mind you they're nowhere near the city!

dotty

Land is in the back of Mountain Creek, Sunshine Coast. A huge suburban housing estate, nothing flash at all. Waterfront stuff here goes from 600+ for land on a canal to millions to be even in sight of the beach.

The post was not put here to Brag, merely as a informative and follow up piece on how land developers are drip feeding the land to get higher prices and unfortunately it is working.

Scooby, I dont know why you keep going on about what you made in the UK, as others have pointed out we have heard it dozens of times. It cant be very much or you would not keep having to spout on about it and post constantly about how the dollar is going to dive. I have no idea why you think the post was directed to you? it was not.

Get real love, selling one house in the North of England is hardly a fortune in 2003.

People with money do not have to clap their hands every time the pound goes up one cent.

mikeburt

I think you should add to that Dotty.My father in law is a very wealthy man indeed but he is very"careful"with what hes got-wealth is something you should keep to yourself,if you throw it about,insist on buying the drinks etc the richest man in the crowd is the one who'll let you do it!thats how you get rich!!!!!!
I wasn't targeting you as a bragger Dotty,just wanted to know where land is going for so much money,because thats far more than you'd pay for a plot(depending on the size mind you) over here.
Mind you,I think the speculators may get their fingers burnt as I can't see there being a huge housing shortage in OZ,is there?

dotty

Its OK Mike You were not the one I pointed the bragging bit at.

Land here has certainly gone a bit silly, but only in certain places. Agree you could buy hundreds of acres just 3 hours from here for the same price. Its hard to understand from the UK, that OZ population is very concentrated around beaches and Cities and the rest is a useless wasteland that you could not live in. I mean Oz is Huge but how many are going to move into the equivalent of the Sahara Desert? People all want to live in the same bits and it causes a price surge. One thing I will never understand here is what people pay to see water. Block here sold last month for 1.3 million and you could only see the water, it was a good 10 minute drive from the actual beach! Agree its madness, but untill someone can turn the desert temps below 55degrees and get water out there I guess cities and anything within half hour of a beach will be very popular.

Megalania

Maps: max temp, min temp, rainfall, humidity, population:

cresta57

Slightly off topic but I had been led to believe that buying land and sitting on it as an investment had been recently outlawed in Queensland to speed up the development of the housing estates and stop the unsightly overgrown blocks. Any land had to be developed in a set time frame or penalties paid. Is it a load of bollocks or have such regs been introduced.

GengaKev

Dotty,

We're going over to validate soon and are probably going to try and buy a plot of land while we're over there. How much did your solicitor take for sorting out your land purchase?. Other than solicitors fees, stamp duty and the actual cost of the land is there any hidden costs??

Would you reccommend letting a builder get on with things while I'm back in freezing Scotland?

I'm a bit apprehensive about give a building firm so much scope while I'm so far away but it seems they take charge of everything if you believe their web-sites.

Last thing, -promise!, Do you pay "on the drip" as over here, eg. payment once foundation complete, payment once kit erected, etc.

Thanks,

Kev

Kiwipaul

If your intent on building buy the land by all means, but unless you have total confidence in the builder, I'd say don't start building untill you can check up on what he's doing. Their are loads of good builders out here but also some shonky ones, and how can you be certain which one you contract to.

Their are regularly items on the news programs about building disasters, and if you are half the world away you are just asking for trouble.

Me I've never buy to build, I like to see what I'm getting, and then I can decide wether it's worth it or not, but different people different ideas.

Good luck.

Ceri

When we were first looking to buy we looked at some newly released plots and there was a time limit on when you must build your house by. I can't remember the exact time frame, but I think it was something like within two years you had to build.

The plot of land, which we have now, was bought privately by us and not straight from a developer. There was no time limit on it to build; it had been sitting empty for 15 years. The guy which we bought it from bought it years ago but he had never built on it because of family probs. Regarding overgrown land - you must keep the grass cut or the council will cut it for you and add it your rates bill (I know this as I received a warning letter from my council last year - telling me to cut my grass on my then empty plot - cheeky b*ggers! I thought it looked nicer looking " Natural" a nice bush garden - mind you it was about 4ft high! )

Don't know - perhaps it's new plots/just released plots, but our plot of land had no time restrictions on it (maybe because it was an "old" plot), but I have seen the new plots around here with a certain time limit on them.

You also see in the local paper/small land for sale that says "abandoned land".


Cheers

P.S

No I would not build if you can’t keep an eye on them. I’m building here, and we check up on it most days – thank god we do! We’ve had a few problems, “insert tiles� in the wrong place, sharp corners, leaks on the connections behind the wall (they actually put a wall up over a dripping connection – but we spotted it before the plasterers came in). We have made them rip out a wall – fix a leak and put in a new wall, the tiles we have told them to rip them off and start again – the breakfast bar needs to be ripped out again – not happy with the workmanship – they have agreed to rip that out too – they must love us!

I’m not the only one who has had probs. I was talking to an old woman the other day that is building with a different company to mine and she and her husband have also had numerous of problems. So I would say it is best to be here when they build, or you may find they will just cover things up.

Regarding solicitors – it depends on the solicitors, without digging out my receipts, it cost us around two thou in fees – included in this was “title searches� “land Tax clearance� etc, then we paid a rates adjustment in favour of the seller.
I’d say around 2 and half to three grand extra we have paid on top of the original price of the land.

GengaKev

Cheers Folks,

Looks like its a resounding "you'd have to be mad" to the idea of building on the other side of the world.

Glad to have had the benefit of your experiance.

Kev, Perth next year.