Tag: Fremantle

Fremantle’s vision continues to grow

Fremantle has been in the news lately with the recent announcement of the $250 million Kings Square project now being a physical reality.

But after Samantha Reece attended the official launch of the “Oval to the Ocean” function, which was hosted by the City last night, we have come to the realisation that Fremantle is setting its sights even further afield.

In the last two years the City has attracted $500 million of investment including the Heirloom apartments ($60 million), Knutsford St apartments ($18 million), Atwell Arcade ($7 million), MSC Building ($8 million) and Quest apartments ($15 million).

But with the Ovation of the Seas docking yesterday for the first time in the Fremantle Harbour, the Council is now keen to refurbish the outdated passenger terminal and create an attractive entrance for visitors into the town centre.

Currently being used as a car park for imported vehicles, the City has recognised that they are wasting prime real estate within South Quay and have set 2029 as its date to celebrate not only the bicentenary of the establishment of the Swan Colony but also the launch of this new precinct.

Predicting private investment of $3.5 billion and 3700 new jobs, the City is both ambitious and proactive for South Quay and in this climate, that is the ideal mix.

In conjunction the City has prioritised the Fremantle Oval and Hospital precinct and a master plan is under way with the intent to host sporting and community events all year round, as well as establish a WAFL Centre for Excellence.

It appears that Mayor Brad Pettitt and his Council are seeking to restore Fremantle to its heyday of the Americas Cup and quite frankly, it is long overdue.

The City has been strategic with approving apartments to house another 4000 residents within its CBD and this will increase its discretionary spend from $11 million to $70 million and this will only bolster the local businesses as well as economic prosperity.

This City not only has a vision – but it is actually fulfilling it – and for that we wish to commend the staff and Councillors.  It takes guts and determination to move a community forward with such momentum and the City of Fremantle is demonstrating that in the right climate anything is possible.

If you are wanting more information than contact the City directly – they have made it quite clear that they are open for business and this proactive approach is very refreshing indeed!

Garbage in – garbage out

Many of you have heard of the saying “garbage in – garbage out” and it is certainly relevant to the property sector.

PropertyESP recently undertook some analysis of the North Fremantle, North Coogee and South Fremantle apartment sales from 2010-2016.

When we downloaded the data from Landgate you can imagine our surprise when 200 of the entries were coded with a land use of “other”.

But unlike other companies that would have just removed this data from the dataset, we checked each record to determine what the actual land use was. And yes it was labour intensive!

But on that basis, we were able to deliver a concise and accurate report to our client.

When generic data is published it often includes the whole gamut of sales – including some with sales prices that we call outliers.

These are generally when one party buys out the interest of another at a price that is substantially lower than the median market price.  As a result, they can distort this data.

While it is a time consuming exercise to validate the data of all the “garbage,” at the end of the day including those sales that are not accurate will affect the final analysis and this then is more the concern.

At PropertyESP we take the extra steps because we believe good data in – good data out and that is what ultimately guides our clients’ decision making!

If you would like to see how we make sense of property contact Sam Reece on 0452 067 117.

River and Ocean Views Command a Premium, but there’s more to it than that

Perth has long had a love affair with the Swan River and its wonderful beaches, and that is strongly reflected in property prices.

And you don’t have to be an analyst to know that properties in riverside and beachside suburbs tend to dictate higher prices and those that command views, achieve even higher prices again.

We’ve long thought of this as a view factor … and it’s true that a great view commands a premium price.

However, recent analysis performed by PropertyESP has found that it’s even a little more complicated than that.

We have recently been focusing on the apartment market in North Fremantle, South Fremantle and North Coogee … all suburbs in close proximity to the ocean or the Swan River.

What we found is that, within the water-front properties there was a distinction between those on the edge of the water and those a little further away.

In fact, properties at the water’s edge commanded a 20% (for river edge) and 13% (for ocean edge) premium in price per square metre over their ocean front counterparts.

Water’s edge properties are those properties where there is little more than a footpath or a cycle path separating the property from the riverbank or the beach.  You could walk out the front door carrying an afternoon bevvy and sit at the water’s edge to watch the passing flotilla or birdlife.

Ocean front properties on the other hand are those where there’s a little more to negotiate between the front door and the riverbank or beach when carrying your bevvy (and you may want to be wearing a little more than your swimwear).

They still have the views that people pay a premium for, but when you walk out the front door there’s a major road (likely to be busy in summer) to cross before you get to the water.

And whilst the size of the price premium varied for different sized apartments (1 bed, 2 bed and 3 bed) and in different suburbs, for the most part this rule held true.  When it didn’t, there were other factors at play, such as differences in the mix of properties for sale  etc.

So what’s the big deal?

This extra factor is something that some developers can work to their advantage with the right property.  And at PropertyESP we are all about maximising price!

The MRA’s Scarborough Redevelopment has already catalyst sales of new and modern ocean front apartment houses.

But watch carefully.  There’s the potential a little further down the coast for some interesting development …

Fremantle continues to perform

Article in last week’s Sunday Times about Fremantle apartments.  If you would like to hear all the details then contact Sam at info@propertyesp.com.au to receive an invite to our session on 9th August at 5.45pm at Bib and Tucker.

 

Sunday Times 31 July 2016.jpg

Fremantle continues to perform

Despite the doom and gloom about the Perth property market, PropertyESP keeps finding some good news stories and Fremantle is definitely one of them!

We had a look at apartment sales over the last five years for North Coogee, North Fremantle and South Fremantle.

Firstly sales were consistent for these three suburbs across the past five years with about 80-150 properties changing hands per annum.

Secondly we saw that the one and two bedroom apartments had maintained their value over that time and three bedroom apartments were beginning to show signs of recovery.

So anyone who is waiting for the market to bottom out in Fremantle is going to be waiting for some time!

median sales price

North Fremantle also outperformed the other two suburbs for property values and this could be related to these properties tending to have ocean or river views and as can be seen from the below graph – ocean/river front is commanding a median price point of approximately $6000/sqm plus.

price per swm ocean views

Rental yields for apartments were also higher than the Perth metro at 4.5%.

While you may be hearing generic news about the Perth property market – there is always value in drilling down – and that is what PropertyESP does best!

PropertyESP will be presenting the findings of the Fremantle sales research at a Mirvac sponsored seminar on Tuesday 9th August at Bib and Tucker from 5.30pm.  If you know someone who is looking to buy an apartment in Fremantle – let them know and they can register at info@propertyesp.com.au

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is it really infill vs greenfields?

Samantha Reece recently MC’d the Future Directions event for the Property Council on the infill vs greenfields debate.

The event came hot on the heels of the Property Council’s Perth Design report which stated that infill only cost the State Government $50,000 while greenfields costs were closer to $150,000.

On the panel were a mix of greenfields and apartment developers as well as LGA representatives and as such the discussion became quite lively.

Certainly the greenfields developers rebuked Property Council’s statements re the cost of outer ring development and reinforced that often they are the ones that in fact incur the costs of infrastructure.  They also felt that WA led the rest of the nation in terms of the calibre of communities and liveability.

On the other side of the fence, Mayor Brad Pettitt of Fremantle Council spoke of the need to accelerate infill in their CBD in order to sustain the businesses and restaurants, which suffered outside of the non-peak weekend periods.

Certainly Fremantle Council appears to have fully embraced infill (unlike other LGA’s) and their focus on delivering excellence rather than ordinary should be truly encouraged!

But Brad also acknowledged that homes in greenfields could also reflect sustainability principles and Josh Byrne’s home, which is 10 star rated and built for the same cost as an average home, is living proof of this principal.

Interestingly Brad raised the point that maybe we should rate homes with the same star rating as dish washers and fridges, and that this may be the starting point for raising awareness of the true costs of operating an unsustainable home.

However what became quite clear from the panel, was that choice was important.

While Psaros have made it their trademark to focus on sustainable apartments, the likes of Stockland and Cedar Woods are dealing with a variety of buyers and budget certainly is an influencing factor.

Hence both companies seek to have a variety of builders for their projects and while some residents may rate sustainability highly – others may not – and that is their prerogative.

There certainly was a feeling that State Government needs to play a stronger leadership role in championing infill and sustainability and once again Brad felt that if some Councils continued to advocate “the no change” status, that in fact they should be penalised by reduced allocation of State and Federal funding.

Overall there is a growing consciousness of the need to demonstrate best practice and while WA may be still behind the eight ball, times are a changing.  Watch this space!

Many thanks to the panel Dr Brad Pettitt (Mayor Fremantle Council), Col Dutton (Stockland), Chiara Pacifici (Psaros) and John Silla (Cedar Woods).