Owner occupiers, renters and the deals

Village Property has been 'appointed' in some capacity to contact each owner and discuss whether they will be living in their apartment (owner occupiers) or looking for tenants (investors). While any owner could give any agent the right to find a tenant, Village claims there is merit in coordination from one agent. Fair enough.

While totally respecting the right of any owner to decide who should live in their apartment, let's hope there is a high proportion of owner occupiers, or at least long term tenants. These people are more likely to create a pride in the building and foster a community. You're more likely to put effort into watching out for and getting to know your neighbours if you expect to live with them for the next five or ten years rather than six months.

So it was good to hear from Village that at least half the building will be owner occupied. This is probably a decent result for an inner city building. Perhaps most surprising, many of the small apartments (studios and one-bedders) have been bought by people who plan to live in them. Yeh!

How much rent can we expect? Obviously, depends on size of apartment and number of bedrooms and parking spaces. While higher is probably better, the agent did not think the side of the building was especially important. The east side has the road but it also has the morning sun, while the west has the better view but the westerly sun.

A typical two bed, two bathroom, two car space would rent for about $850 a week, and more as the building becomes occupied and established. Initially, there is competition for tenants.

It was also surprising to hear there will be a 'building manager'. Maybe this is only initially to ensure a smooth move in, to protect the building while 130+ sofas are pushed into the lifts. But payment for a building manager, and whether one is needed permanently, is a decision for the Body Corporate, which has not met yet.

So come on folks. We know it's an investment for many, but let's have plenty of owners living in HM as well.    

Fish Markets and Bays Precinct developments

Harbour Mill will be the centre of the action over coming years, sandwiched between major changes in Darling Harbour, the Fish Markets and Bays Precinct, and the building of a new school on the council depot site.

These developments are welcome and good for the location, but the most uncertain is the Bays Precinct. Governments find it hard to resist powerful developers who make significant variations after the initial plans are approved. At Barangaroo, for example, the casino building is now an incredible 70 storeys (double the highest building in Barangaroo South) and floor space has doubled since the overall scheme was first approved. Let's hope access to the waterfront is not compromised.

So what will happen even closer to HM in the Bays Precinct? The site next to the Fish Markets, in the direction of Anzac Bridge, has been bought by a Chinese developer, Jin Huiming of Duhua, who also owns 25% of the Fish Markets. This deals him into the development big time, and clearly he will want to build a tall apartment block in this location.

As this graphic below shows, there's still considerable support to retain the Fish Market, so it would be a surprise and disappointment if that was not part of any redevelopment.

Apartments will pay for the public space and community facilities, so we'll become familiar with sights like this (in fact, we already have at Jackson's Landing):

The Great Wall of Pyrmont

The wall being built beside the stairs down from HM to the light rail, and alongside the lift, is ginormous. Each time we look at progress, it is bigger, as shown by this photo taken near the council depot under HM. It's a decent piece of public infrastructure. As you can see comparing it with the original plan above, this was not anticipated on such a scale.

They have also started work on the path that will lead from the bottom of the stairs to the platform - here you can see the first part of digging out the path, along the old track.

 
And a view of the west side, looking into the entrance from the light rail platform. From this angle, the building looks finished, the old blending with the new.

#1 high density development

I was very excited today to open the newspaper and find that Harbour Mill has been voted #1 out of 6 of the best high density developments!! Great to see!

Moving in update from developer

The developer of Harbour Mill, Ceerose, sent me this update today:

Ceerose will send a notification out to purchasers in mid June of the status of the project and anticipated completion. This is around the time purchasers should start thinking about settlement and getting their finances as ready as they can be. By this time purchasers have usually organised finance with their bank, but if they haven't done anything to organise finance, they should really start locking something in soon. Banks typically take 2 to 3 weeks to get a matter ready for settlement. Some banks will require a site visit to do a valuation, some will do their due diligence without a site visit. The bank will require the purchaser to sign a loan offer (if not already signed) and mortgage documentation.

 

Completion of the building is expected in July 2015. This is around about the time an occupation certificate is issued for the building and the strata plan is registered.  In the mid June 2015 update, we will let purchasers know that the strata plan has been lodged for registration - assuming it is ready to lodge at that stage. The registration process usually takes a few weeks, but can take longer.

 

After the strata plan is registered and the occupation certificate is issued, Purchasers solicitors are notified.  Settlement occurs 2-3 weeks after this date.

 

The time period of 2 to 3 weeks is consistent with what it usually takes to get matters ready to settle for both sides.

 

After registration of the strata plan is notified to the purchasers solicitors, the parties solicitors will undertake the usual searches and pre-settlement preparations. In or about a few days before settlement the purchaser will arrange a final inspection of the unit.

 

Purchasers should enquire with their solicitors about settlement practices as each law practice will have a slightly different procedure for settlements.

 

Work starts on garden and access to Darling Harbour update (and 15,000!)

First, it's good to go over 15,000 page views. Keep visiting and commenting!

They've started work on the garden area on the east side of the building. It's been a concreted work area for two years, the place where the toilets and work sheds were initially located. Now the excavator has moved in to start the transformation. How different this will look once the trees and shrubs go in. Let's hope they remove the graffiti as well, and preferably, plant something growing up the wall under the road. Or maybe we do that later as a body corporate, when the owners can choose what the place looks like. The existing trees have survived the construction, and they will filter the light into some of the eastern apartments.

Most of you will know one of the great features of HM is its proximity to Darling Harbour. Not only this, but there is an easy to access walkway alongside the expressway, and then a lift into Darling Harbour. This lift is being replaced. It's currently the red dot, but because the Exhibition Centre is being expanded, it will move about 10 metres further into Darling Harbour, shown in the yellow dot. Long term, it's good to have a shiny new lift in a good location.

However, from the start of June until late July, when we are scheduled to move in (I have written to the developer asking for an update, no response yet), while they replace the lift, this access point will not be available for people who cannot use stairs. The blue and pink lines show the 'flat' alternatives, or take the light rail.