Charnwood, Crace and Ngunnawal "best value"

thebrownstreak69 said :

HiddenDragon said :

poetix said :

Masquara said :

poetix said :

HiddenDragon said :

Surprised at the inclusion of Crace – I’ve heard stories of people going to extraordinary lengths to get into that hallowed turf (must have been developer spin). At the other end of the scale, the figures for our top suburbs wouldn’t buy all that much in Sydney.

But even O’Connor prices would buy something modest in some interesting bits of of Sydney:

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-newtown-115125103

It depends what you want.

You’re going on the infamous “agents’ price guide” there, Poetix … If you scroll down and look at actual sales in Newtown, $750,000 will buy you a one-bedroom place. $650,000 will buy you nuffink.

Oh let me keep my feeble dreams.

Although I may transfer them to Melbourne.

I think many of us are, in a sense, wishin’ and hopin’ for a worthwhile property price “adjustment” with a helpful compression of relativities between markets. Periodic doses of macrobusiness.com.au may provide succour and encouragement in this regard!

Macrobusiness is a well known property bear site. It has some interesting info, but I wouldn’t be relying on it.

Canberra is currently in the middle of its property price contraction. I’d say you have another 2-3 years before prices start to rise again.

Yes, the Macrobusiness gang are not shy about their views on this subject. I assume most of the contributors to that site are Gen X and Y (and some boomers wishing they’d bought more when they could) who are understandably depressed and frustrated about the insane bloody property prices in this country.

Meanwhile, back at Crace – any more girasoles in prospect, I wonder?

Seeing Crace as one of the top 3 affordable suburbs is confusing !

Sure there are plenty of properties available around the $400k mark in Crace, but they’re all 1 bedroom apartments, at the aged care villiage or houses only (exc. land)

There is a 3 bedroom town house advertised (the cheapest inc land and house) for $470,000 for this you get a massive 189sqm BLOCK and 98sqm of living space.

This isn’t affordable at all !

arescarti42 said :

HiddenDragon said :

Surprised at the inclusion of Crace – I’ve heard stories of people going to extraordinary lengths to get into that hallowed turf (must have been developer spin). At the other end of the scale, the figures for our top suburbs wouldn’t buy all that much in Sydney.

I suspect it might have to do with the way that RPData defines houses and units. Potentially houses are anything with separate title to the land, and units are anything with strata title. A large proportion of of the dwellings at Crace are 2-3 bedroom townhouses with separate title, and if RPData is counting them as houses, it’d pull down the average for the suburb substantially.

I suspect the median price for traditional, detached houses in Crace is probably closer to double the median for ‘houses’ quoted by RPData

dodgycamel said :

I’ve noticed a few people giving Crace a bit of a hard time recently… Just wanted to say as someone who lives there, that I think it’s undeserved.

When I was looking around to buy it appeared from the outside to be nicer than similar aged developments happening elsewhere in Gungahlin. Having lived there for a couple of years now I’d say it’s turned out better than I expected it to be.

Anyway, just wanted to offer a slightly different view on it.

DC

I agree. The unfortunate reality for developers is that it’s extremely difficult to build homes that their target demographic, first home buyers/young families etc. can actually afford to buy. If they tried to replicate the big blocks and wide streets of suburbs from the 60s-80s, the price would be so high that only people who bought before prices went nuts could afford them (and then why would they want to move out of an established suburb to a new one).

So with that constraint, you can either go for awful quality houses on postage stamps out on the fringe to create affordability, or you can try something a bit different like Crace.

My opinion is that with these constraints in mind, considering the innerish location (and higher land costs relative to the far flung fringe), the developer has done reasonably well to offer a balance between “affordable” and higher end homes without making the former cheap and god awful.

I certainly think they’re much better than some of the other budget offerings around town.

This study might tell us how good a job they did when it’s completed: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/search-for-worlds-happiest-suburb-starts-in-crace-canberra-20130909-2tgk9.html

I moved into Casey (Springbank Rise) a few months ago and even though I expected to really hate it, I quite like it too. And think they’ve done a good job at keeping some green space and making some nice parks, making roads wide enough and having footpaths everywhere, and encouraging a variety of different types of housing and units and designs. We actually quite enjoy exploring our neighbourhood.

dph said :

Considering a lot of houses in Crace appear to be made out of Lego, I’m not surprised at all.

Danish precision design, enduring reputable brand, modular/easy to extend, and resistant to white ant. Might have to check it out.

HiddenDragon said :

poetix said :

Masquara said :

poetix said :

HiddenDragon said :

Surprised at the inclusion of Crace – I’ve heard stories of people going to extraordinary lengths to get into that hallowed turf (must have been developer spin). At the other end of the scale, the figures for our top suburbs wouldn’t buy all that much in Sydney.

But even O’Connor prices would buy something modest in some interesting bits of of Sydney:

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-newtown-115125103

It depends what you want.

You’re going on the infamous “agents’ price guide” there, Poetix … If you scroll down and look at actual sales in Newtown, $750,000 will buy you a one-bedroom place. $650,000 will buy you nuffink.

Oh let me keep my feeble dreams.

Although I may transfer them to Melbourne.

I think many of us are, in a sense, wishin’ and hopin’ for a worthwhile property price “adjustment” with a helpful compression of relativities between markets. Periodic doses of macrobusiness.com.au may provide succour and encouragement in this regard!

Macrobusiness is a well known property bear site. It has some interesting info, but I wouldn’t be relying on it.

Canberra is currently in the middle of its property price contraction. I’d say you have another 2-3 years before prices start to rise again.

Considering a lot of houses in Crace appear to be made out of Lego, I’m not surprised at all.

poetix said :

Masquara said :

poetix said :

HiddenDragon said :

Surprised at the inclusion of Crace – I’ve heard stories of people going to extraordinary lengths to get into that hallowed turf (must have been developer spin). At the other end of the scale, the figures for our top suburbs wouldn’t buy all that much in Sydney.

But even O’Connor prices would buy something modest in some interesting bits of of Sydney:

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-newtown-115125103

It depends what you want.

You’re going on the infamous “agents’ price guide” there, Poetix … If you scroll down and look at actual sales in Newtown, $750,000 will buy you a one-bedroom place. $650,000 will buy you nuffink.

Oh let me keep my feeble dreams.

Although I may transfer them to Melbourne.

I think many of us are, in a sense, wishin’ and hopin’ for a worthwhile property price “adjustment” with a helpful compression of relativities between markets. Periodic doses of macrobusiness.com.au may provide succour and encouragement in this regard!

Masquara said :

poetix said :

HiddenDragon said :

Surprised at the inclusion of Crace – I’ve heard stories of people going to extraordinary lengths to get into that hallowed turf (must have been developer spin). At the other end of the scale, the figures for our top suburbs wouldn’t buy all that much in Sydney.

But even O’Connor prices would buy something modest in some interesting bits of of Sydney:

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-newtown-115125103

It depends what you want.

You’re going on the infamous “agents’ price guide” there, Poetix … If you scroll down and look at actual sales in Newtown, $750,000 will buy you a one-bedroom place. $650,000 will buy you nuffink.

Oh let me keep my feeble dreams.

Although I may transfer them to Melbourne.

LSWCHP said :

A friend of ours just sold her large but (IMHO) ordinary house in Rose Bay for a bit over 2.5 Million.

That’s a shitload of money, no matter how you look at it. It was advertised by the agents as being a property that “wouldn’t stretch the bank account”, so I shudder to think what a really flash place up there would cost.

You do get a nice neighborhood though. The last time I was there I saw some deranged bogan woman cursing like a trooper at full volume while she kicked in the door of a new BMW cabriolet that had been illegally parked by a gorgeous tattoed bottle tanned and bottle blonded young woman who was shrieking F-bombs back in return. Who wouldn’t want to live in a place like that? 🙂

How vulgar – makes one’s life of genteel poverty here in Canberra seem so much nicer.

I had the same thought as Masquara about the natty little place in Newtown which poetix pointed us to – $600,000 might be the starting bid in the hot Sydney market.

HiddenDragon said :

Surprised at the inclusion of Crace – I’ve heard stories of people going to extraordinary lengths to get into that hallowed turf (must have been developer spin). At the other end of the scale, the figures for our top suburbs wouldn’t buy all that much in Sydney.

I suspect it might have to do with the way that RPData defines houses and units. Potentially houses are anything with separate title to the land, and units are anything with strata title. A large proportion of of the dwellings at Crace are 2-3 bedroom townhouses with separate title, and if RPData is counting them as houses, it’d pull down the average for the suburb substantially.

I suspect the median price for traditional, detached houses in Crace is probably closer to double the median for ‘houses’ quoted by RPData

dodgycamel said :

I’ve noticed a few people giving Crace a bit of a hard time recently… Just wanted to say as someone who lives there, that I think it’s undeserved.

When I was looking around to buy it appeared from the outside to be nicer than similar aged developments happening elsewhere in Gungahlin. Having lived there for a couple of years now I’d say it’s turned out better than I expected it to be.

Anyway, just wanted to offer a slightly different view on it.

DC

I agree. The unfortunate reality for developers is that it’s extremely difficult to build homes that their target demographic, first home buyers/young families etc. can actually afford to buy. If they tried to replicate the big blocks and wide streets of suburbs from the 60s-80s, the price would be so high that only people who bought before prices went nuts could afford them (and then why would they want to move out of an established suburb to a new one).

So with that constraint, you can either go for awful quality houses on postage stamps out on the fringe to create affordability, or you can try something a bit different like Crace.

My opinion is that with these constraints in mind, considering the innerish location (and higher land costs relative to the far flung fringe), the developer has done reasonably well to offer a balance between “affordable” and higher end homes without making the former cheap and god awful.

I certainly think they’re much better than some of the other budget offerings around town.