Canberra real estate comparison. Six McMansions worth an island?

Really ? thats not to bad, I had a quick look and came back with this

Noyying Hill, the Charnwood of London, obviously, at those prices 🙂

poetix said :

There are two bedroom monocretes and weatherboards in O’Connor and fibro places in Narrabundah. But these are ‘inner’ suburbs so they are still expensive. For O’Connor I would think about $650,000. Not many first home buyers could afford that.

There’s something wrong with the world if first home buyers set their sights on a prized location like O’Connor, quickly find there are no houses they can afford, throw their arms up in the air and decry the unaffordability of Canberra real estate (I know that’s not the point you were making, Poetix – I’m just using your post as a springboard to my own rant)

Traditionally, if you’re starting out in property and not in a high paying job, you’ve got to aim lower. Either an apartment/townhouse in a relatively central location, or a house in a less desirable suburb / Queanbeyan. There are plenty of properties around going for under $400k or even $350 at the moment (don’t look at asking prices, look at sales histories). Yes, they may not be in the inner north/south and they may not be 3b+ freestanding houses with all the latest modcons, and some of your friends may be reluctant to visit because your new home because there are bogans with vicious dogs living next door, but you’ve got to start somewhere. Alternatively, you can always keep renting (nothing wrong with that), or get rich fast through narcotics trafficking/people smuggling/advertising etc.

Having said that, yes house prices in Australia are much higher than in most comparable countries, but Canberra is no more expensive than other Australian major cities with employment opportunities (in Sydney even fibro houses in slum ghettos like Bankstown go for $500,000 these days, so a house in Forde or Belconnen for the same money ain’t bad)

shadow boxer said :

I think your pettycoat is showing,…..

My decision to wear women’s underwear underneath my clothes remains my business.

Thumper said :

haha, wouldn’t buy you half a house in central London though.

Finsbury Park near the Islington, pretty close in, 300-350K will get you something decent. Well, it did last year when I was living there.

Really ? thats not to bad, I had a quick look and came back with this

http://www.foxtons.co.uk/properties/uk-london-notting-hill-167/properties-for-sale-in-notting-hill.html

Jethro said :

shadow boxer said :

yellowsnow said :

for examples of McMansions (or poor taste/excess money more broadly) see here:

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/omalley/121476610

or here:

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/harcourt-hill/121899910

Most of those houses in Harcourt hill appear to ooze quality on quite reasonable blocks.

Wish I could afford some of them but good luck to those who can. I think the term McMansion refers more to mortgage stressed couples who bought beyond their means than any problem with the houses themselves that tend to be filled with the finest eurpean appliances, furnishings and swimming pools.

Without which you will find it harder to impress Xavier and Adelaide’s friends’ parents.

I think your pettycoat is showing,…..

xperfect_darkx said :

Someones been reading cracked.com

I read widely!

shadow boxer said :

yellowsnow said :

for examples of McMansions (or poor taste/excess money more broadly) see here:

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/omalley/121476610

or here:

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/harcourt-hill/121899910

Most of those houses in Harcourt hill appear to ooze quality on quite reasonable blocks.

Wish I could afford some of them but good luck to those who can. I think the term McMansion refers more to mortgage stressed couples who bought beyond their means than any problem with the houses themselves that tend to be filled with the finest eurpean appliances, furnishings and swimming pools.

Without which you will find it harder to impress Xavier and Adelaide’s friends’ parents.

haha, wouldn’t buy you half a house in central London though.

Finsbury Park near the Islington, pretty close in, 300-350K will get you something decent. Well, it did last year when I was living there.

Someones been reading cracked.com

It’s about as glamorous as Nauru, and is covered in weird concrete constructions as well as the dank fortress. Being an artificial island, it has no wilderness etc. It’s windswept and ugly. I’d far rather own ten McMansions in Campbell than that island!

I bet the Copenhagen option has better insulation without a pink batt in sight…

When I hear the term McMansion, it always seems to be said with a snear and a little underlying jealousy or snobbishness. Big house, small block is not my style, but I get why this appeals to some people. Solar passive is wonderful, but many of the designs don’t appeal to everyone – an example being the necessity for big north facing eaves and a dark inside thermal mass.

Similarly, I drive a small car, but I get why some people choose a 4WD even though they aren’t going off road.

Why get so bent out of shape by other people’s choices?

Ben_Dover said :

$1.5 million would buy you Cornwall.

haha, wouldn’t buy you half a house in central London though.

poetix said :

Captains Flat is probably the most reasonably priced place near Canberra, but it’s a fair drive. And I have heard that there are problems with the water, although I don’t really know.

Yass still has some good prices under 300k for a 3 bedroom house and it’s only 45 mins up the Barton Hwy. Many drivers in outer ‘burbs of Syd, Bris and Melb would love that sort of commute.

$1.5 million would buy you Cornwall.

$1.5 million would buy you an absolutely awesome period property in the Cotswolds. With land, and outbuildings.

Even with the exchange rate.

EvanJames said :

poetix said :

Sorry EvanJames, I managed to put some of my comment about James Bond into your sensible comment. I don’t know how I did that.

I hadn’t even noticed until you mentioned it!

I’ve been watching that Renovators show, and there’s a fibro in Blacktown (or is it the weatherboard?) that cost like $300k+. We just don’t have that here. Even Quangers’ fibros are nudging around $400k, generally.

So we don’t have that breadth of market. If a person’s willing to start humble and work and save, their options in the $200-300k range are a flat in Queanbeyan, rather than a fibro in Blacktown.

Captains Flat is probably the most reasonably priced place near Canberra, but it’s a fair drive. And I have heard that there are problems with the water, although I don’t really know.

“Compare and contrast to what $1.6 million will get you in Campbell.”

A 3d picture of a house???

Ben_Dover said :

johnboy said :

A mcmansion is a large house on a standard suburban block.

Usually designed in exceedingly poor taste, and totally without sympathy to or consideration of neighbouring existing building design.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&ll=-35.33728,149.092573&spn=0.000018,0.020556&t=h&z=17&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=-35.337365,149.092508&panoid=gQlxMmOtHM2JIjstxpq2bQ&cbp=12,103.16,,0,0

OMG, That’s my house you…

Nah, just kidding, but in all seriosness, i really do pitty the neighbors of the owner of this cashed-up-bogan-box, it really looks like: “cherryl thought it was real classy and she won, like, lotto, so she made it”

johnboy said :

A mcmansion is a large house on a standard suburban block.

Usually designed in exceedingly poor taste, and totally without sympathy to or consideration of neighbouring existing building design.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&ll=-35.33728,149.092573&spn=0.000018,0.020556&t=h&z=17&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=-35.337365,149.092508&panoid=gQlxMmOtHM2JIjstxpq2bQ&cbp=12,103.16,,0,0

yellowsnow said :

for examples of McMansions (or poor taste/excess money more broadly) see here:

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/omalley/121476610

or here:

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/harcourt-hill/121899910

Most of those houses in Harcourt hill appear to ooze quality on quite reasonable blocks.

Wish I could afford some of them but good luck to those who can. I think the term McMansion refers more to mortgage stressed couples who bought beyond their means than any problem with the houses themselves that tend to be filled with the finest eurpean appliances, furnishings and swimming pools.

poetix said :

Sorry EvanJames, I managed to put some of my comment about James Bond into your sensible comment. I don’t know how I did that.

I hadn’t even noticed until you mentioned it!

I’ve been watching that Renovators show, and there’s a fibro in Blacktown (or is it the weatherboard?) that cost like $300k+. We just don’t have that here. Even Quangers’ fibros are nudging around $400k, generally.

So we don’t have that breadth of market. If a person’s willing to start humble and work and save, their options in the $200-300k range are a flat in Queanbeyan, rather than a fibro in Blacktown.

Keijidosha said :

More specifically, a McMansion is a house built using the fast food mantra: Produce it fast, cheap and always upsize. Package it up and sell to those with a big apetite and little regard for taste.

http://thingsboganslike.com/2010/02/02/mcmansions/

Awesome! That’s exactly what I understood McMansions to be too: big houses on little blocks, built to a price budget, and where possible make sure to flaunt the fact that you have intentionally done exactly the opposite of sustainable & passive solar design.

poetix said :

EvanJames said :

Everything’s inflated in our market. In 1992, you could get a 3 bedroom standard house in Kambah for $140,000. Look at what that house costs now, yet wages have not increased to the same extent.

look at the lines of cars commuting back and forth from Cooma, Goulburn and Yass. Canberra people, forced to live outside Canberra by the unaffordable prices.

Incidentally, the island looks like something from a James Bond film.

Unlike Sydney, which has little fibros and things in outer suburbs, our basic housing starts at brick 3 bedroom homes. And if you can find almost half a million dollars, you can have one.

There are two bedroom monocretes and weatherboards in O’Connor and fibro places in Narrabundah. But these are ‘inner’ suburbs so they are still expensive. For O’Connor I would think about $650,000. Not many first home buyers could afford that.

The island looks very James Bond.

Sorry EvanJames, I managed to put some of my comment about James Bond into your sensible comment. I don’t know how I did that.

EvanJames said :

Everything’s inflated in our market. In 1992, you could get a 3 bedroom standard house in Kambah for $140,000. Look at what that house costs now, yet wages have not increased to the same extent.

look at the lines of cars commuting back and forth from Cooma, Goulburn and Yass. Canberra people, forced to live outside Canberra by the unaffordable prices.

Incidentally, the island looks like something from a James Bond film.

Unlike Sydney, which has little fibros and things in outer suburbs, our basic housing starts at brick 3 bedroom homes. And if you can find almost half a million dollars, you can have one.

There are two bedroom monocretes and weatherboards in O’Connor and fibro places in Narrabundah. But these are ‘inner’ suburbs so they are still expensive. For O’Connor I would think about $650,000. Not many first home buyers could afford that.

The island looks very James Bond.

yellowsnow said :

for examples of McMansions (or poor taste/excess money more broadly) see here:

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/omalley/121476610

or here:

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/harcourt-hill/121899910

+1

Holden Caulfield said :

But they’ve been sucked into this belief that unless they build a house of that size nobody will want to buy it when they come to sell.

Which is the other thing… people don’t build homes any more, to live in. They’re “investments”. And they look like bland hotel rooms as a result. People don’t live in them, they occupy them for a time.

for examples of McMansions (or poor taste/excess money more broadly) see here:

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/omalley/121476610

or here:

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/harcourt-hill/121899910

Everything’s inflated in our market. In 1992, you could get a 3 bedroom standard house in Kambah for $140,000. Look at what that house costs now, yet wages have not increased to the same extent.

look at the lines of cars commuting back and forth from Cooma, Goulburn and Yass. Canberra people, forced to live outside Canberra by the unaffordable prices.

Unlike Sydney, which has little fibros and things in outer suburbs, our basic housing starts at brick 3 bedroom homes. And if you can find almost half a million dollars, you can have one.

johnboy said :

A mcmansion is a large house on a standard suburban block.

More specifically, a McMansion is a house built using the fast food mantra: Produce it fast, cheap and always upsize. Package it up and sell to those with a big apetite and little regard for taste.

http://thingsboganslike.com/2010/02/02/mcmansions/

There’s a pretty thorough examination of the McManson phenomenon on Wikipedia, might be easier to just look it up rather than asking us bewidered questions.

Deref said :

johnboy said :

A mcmansion is a large house on a standard suburban block.

Make that half a suburban block. Add “cheaply built to maximise block coverage and interior space at the expense of quality and with no no consideration for climatic suitability.”

And with a 4WD or two out front.

“5 bedroom Country McMansion surrounded by scrub grass in Sutton for example.”

Apparently this new name also applies to houses outside the suburbs. Sorry to harp on, but how anyone can possibly think owning a house (as opposed to an apartment) is a bad thing amazes me. Presumably it’s people who live in one.

Haha, best you get over it. And given the term has been in use for probably 10 years or more I’m not so sure why your knickers are in such a twist.

McMansion also refers to our growing consumer-based society where the children of parents who grew up in modest sized houses with little in the way of luxuries cannot imagine their first home be anything less than a 4 bedroom new build with a plasma in each room and probably two in the obligatory home theatre room.

Also refer to post #10.

IIRC Australia has the largest average house size (new builds) of any western country. My retired in-laws are building a new home that has 4 bedrooms and 3 living rooms, in addition to an open kitchen/dining room.

Why? It is madness. They don’t need a house anywhere near that big. But they’ve been sucked into this belief that unless they build a house of that size nobody will want to buy it when they come to sell.

johnboy said :

A mcmansion is a large house on a standard suburban block.

Make that half a suburban block. Add “cheaply built to maximise block coverage and interior space at the expense of quality and with no no consideration for climatic suitability.”

The McMansion bubble is going to burst – the only question is when.

Further to Johnboy’s comment, they tend to be mass produced with little quality. Like fast food.

johnboy said :

A mcmansion is a large house on a standard suburban block.

My favourite is the term ‘garage-mahal’ 🙂

johnboy said :

A mcmansion is a large house on a standard suburban block.

Would you like to upsize your number of rooms for an extra 50¢?

A mcmansion is a large house on a standard suburban block.

*points knowingly at the screen*

It definitely looks ‘shopped. I can tell from some of the pixels and from seeing quite a few ‘shops in my time.

I could have bought an island and mansion in Nicaragua for $250k.
The people there couldn’t believe my house in Australia was cost more than that on less land with no island 🙂

OK so Nicaragua isn’t on the top of everyones list, but its a nice place and many Americans are flocking to that part of the world to retire.

Pretty sure that house is ‘Shopped.

you don’t even need to go that far. you can buy 10+ bedroom 1800’s mansion (plus guest house) estates in the French countryside for only 2-3 million Euro, compared with a 5 bedroom Country McMansion surrounded by scrub grass in Sutton for example.