Amesbury School opened its doors last week to let the Community have a look around the brand new facilities. Over 800 people attended the open day. People were very pleased with what they saw. Today, the 1st of Feb 2012, the school echoed with the excited sounds of children discovering their new school as the working history of the school officially begins.
Amesbury School is a new Year 1-6 school in Churton Park, Wellington. It has been opened to cope with the growing roles in the suburb as subdivision and house building continues.

Enrolment Zone

The zoning that previously was covered by the Churton Park school in Churton Drive has been divided between the two schools. The new zoning for Amesbury School is:

From a southeast corner start, the eastern boundary of the Halswater home zone includes both sides of Westchester Drive between house numbers 1 – 162/183 inclusive and below. Includes Melksham Drive. Halswater Drive is out of zone.
Amesbury Drive both sides of the road and all the roads off Amesbury Drive are in zone.
The lower western boundary area comprises Erlestoke Crescent both sides of the road with off-streets included.
The southern boundary comprises Waverton Terrace to include both sides of the road and its off-streets with a connection back to Westchester Drive.
All residential addresses on included sides of boundary roads and all no exit roads off included sides of boundary roads are included in the zone unless otherwise stated.

For more information visit the Amesbury School website    http://www.amesbury.school.nz

The property market in NZ starts 2012 in better shape than it has for the past 5 years. It would not be too optimistic to say that the industry, certainly in terms of volume sales has turned a corner. Some parts turned that corner 6 months ago (notably Auckland) whilst some will take a few more months before witnessing this change.

In the 12 months of 2011 a total of 61, 269 properties were sold across the country as reported by the Real Estate Institute. This represented a modest 9% growth as compared to 2010. The word modest is most appropriate when the volume of sales is viewed against the perspective of the past 20 years.

20011 was much improved from both 2008 and 2010 which represented the lowest sales volumes of the past 20 years, barely struggling to reach half the sales volumes of the peak years of 2002 to 2007.

As ever 20/20 hindsight is a powerful tool and applying it now applies a clearer view on those heady days and reflect that this period was a bubble – one unlikely to be repeated for many years, if ever again.

What drove that bubble and created that frenetic pace of market activity?

A number of factors were conspicuous: the rise in investor market activity as the NZ economy grew through global growth and strong immigration, the banks were certainly relaxed about deposit requirements and other investment options showed far less appeal or tax or leverage advantage. That convergence of events lead to a virtuous cycle (depending on your perspective as many would argue a fateful and perilous cycle), whereby those on the treadmill of property ownership felt richer as asset values as a surrogate of property prices grew at a heady 10+% a year rate.

The important thing to see is that if this heady period is ignored as an aberration, the current sales levels still sits well below the levels of the market through the 1990′s. This is the validation to the proposition that the industry has turned a corner. Average annual sales through 1993 to 2001 was 78,000 a year – that means the current year up 9% vs 2010 is still down 22% from the average of the 90’s.

This perspective is seen even clearer when property sales are matched to the growing population of NZ and the number of houses. It makes logical sense that as the population grows, the housing stock must grow and thereby so must sales as people always need to relocate for the logical need of jobs, lifestyle, financial, schools, family etc.

Over the period from 1993 to 2001 the number of houses in NZ grew from just under 1.2 million to 1.37 million and has continued to grow (even allowing for the depressed construction market of the last 4 years) to around 1.55 million today – that is around 350,000 more houses in NZ today than there were at the beginning of the 90’s. Yet the volume of property sales are 22% less!

This conundrum is best visualised in the chart below which tracks the % of property sales on a moving annual total basis against the total number of properties in NZ.

The chart provides a further validation to the belief that property sales are likely to see growth in the coming years. The current rate of sale is 4% of all properties sold per year. The long term average for the past 20 years is 6%, during the 90’s the rate was 6.2%.

If the rate of sale were to return to the 90’s levels we would see a 56% rise in sales to 95,000. If we only saw a rise to the lowest point of the 90’s at 4.7% we would still see a rise in sales of 73,000 a rise of 19%.

Source:  visit unconditional.co.nz for more helpful insights into the NZ property market

I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about a recent house sale of mine that to me highlights the power of the internet in today’s world especially in the marketing of residential property.

About a month ago I received a phone call out of the blue. The lovely lady on  the other end of the line told me that she owned a property in Wadestown and having been out of NZ for a number of years, she wasn’t familiar with the agents in the area and so had googled real estate agents in Wellington. This website popped up near the top of her search (success number one for me!).

After spending time reading through my site and becoming familiar with me (success number two!), she discovered that I had spent my early years in Wadestown and so thought I’d be a good person to talk to about selling her house. I visited with her and after talking, we both came to the conclusion that we gelled well together and she employed me to market and sell her home (success number three). This may not seem a big thing to you but to me this is huge. I work for a boutique company whose footprint is firmly in the Northern Suburbs of Wellington primarily Churton Park, Newlands, Johnsonville, and Broadmeadows. We have very little exposure as a company in Wadestown and I personally have zero. So to be contacted before other well-known agents who work the Wadestown area hard, and to be employed to sell a home there by someone who doesn’t know me is a big deal. Wadestown (along with other city fringe blue chip suburbs) are hotly fought over by many agencies especially the city based ones. There are well over 100 individual salespeople who are active or want to be active  in these suburbs.

We decided on a marketing plan known as Deadline Private treaty because we both felt that being a 1910 character Villa, there is a lot of emotional value that is hard to measure in dollar terms. Also the owner felt that the section was subdividable and wanted to realise some of this potential in the sale price.

She had approached another agent who worked in the area and as part of her plan, she demanded a $5000 vendor contribution for marketing purposes mainly focused on very expensive Dominion Post advertising. I suggested that we could get just as much marketing success by channelling a much smaller budget of $500 into online advertising.

The way buyers search for real estate has changed dramatically over the last ten years with the web as the first port of call of the overwhelming majority of buyers, but the majority of real estate sales people are still pushing the old school print media wheelbarrow. Doesn’t make sense right? Why would they do this? The answer is simple – personal profiling. When they get advertising money out of home sellers, they turn into a campaign of self promotion. Have a read of this article.

My lovely lady from America agreed. $5000 was definitely too much to invest in a promotion of her home, $500 was just right!

Four weeks later after three open homes, well over 2000 unique web visits, 74 physical visits to the property and five offers later, I was able to put the sold sticker up (success number five) . A small premium was obtained that reflected the owners view that the property might be subdividable (success number six) and there were smiles on all sides (success number seven) with the lovely young couple who purchased the property getting the best xmas present they could hope for after being chased by other keen buyers right to the finish line.

Everyone was happy, the efficiency and veracity of the web as a tool both for marketing myself as an agent to prospective sellers, and marketing property to potential purchases has again been reinforced in my mind. As an agent, I no longer have to work in an office or have a physical presence in a specific location in order to do a good job of marketing property, the web knows no boundaries, no geographical restrictions.

If you’re a home owner in Wellington and would like to chat about selling your home, I would love to visit with you regardless of where in Wellington you live. Email me at david@northernsuburbs.co.nz or phone/text me now on 0274374351 to book in a chat. 

If you are thinking about selling your home this Summer, I would love to talk with you now about my special offer…

25% off my standard commission rate
PLUS
complementary advertising in the Property Press for the first month
PLUS
massive web exposure on five websites including realestate.co.nz and trademe, firstnational.co.nz, and google
PLUS
social media exposure including facebook and twitter.

NO money upfront for advertising with this basic package means no financial risk to you to give it a go. The only cost to you is keeping the house clean and being prepared to vacate the premises or keep a low profile when buyers are bought through.

Sounds like you? Click the link  below and fill in your details and I will make contact with you to organize a quick and painless visit to your home to give you an indication of market value and have a chat about marketing and costs etc.

SPECIAL UPGRADE PACKAGE

Purchase my online feature upgrade for $500 and have your home photographed by a specialist real estate photographer, have your property advertised to an international audience on open2view.com, receive feature listing upgrades on trademe and realestate.co.nz providing you with up to four times the traffic over the life of the listing, feature property on the front page of northernsuburbs.co.nz,  you’ll get your complementary adverts in the property press doubled in size for a month, and as a bonus, you’ll receive a complementary spot in the local community paper the (City Life) Independent Herald.

If you’re not thinking of selling right now but would like to know how much your place is worth, I can easily provide you with an online appraisal with a broad range of value for your place along with recent sales stats in the streets surrounding your home. You’ll get this back by email so don’t need to have direct contact with me if you don’t want it.

Please give me an indication of value for my home

PS. this is free and is totally no obligation

In the last 5-10 years the real estate market has undergone a major paradigm shift with the web more prevalent than ever as a tool to search and filter homes to buy, talk to someone in the business who gets this!

The real estate industry at large is still holding on to the old values, but there are agents that have embraced the new technology and home sellers are benefiting.
Forget giving cash to your agent for overpriced and obtuse advertising in the Dom Post or other print media,

click below to read more…

Be where your buyer market is!

ps. the photo was taken by none other than myself on a lovely Wellington day in the Wellington Botanical Gardens. The ethereal model in the above pic is a friend named Bridee. I thought I did quite well to capture the essence of Summer, don’t you?

A warm and breezy day saw thousands of locals turn out for the annual parade. Though the number and variety of floats seems to have waned in recent years. many of the local businesses and schools get behind the parade as a chance to give something back to the community. Little faces waited to see Santa with Peter Dunne making an appearance yet again as Santas lead elf.

Christmas is truly just around the corner once the parade has meandered through central Johnsonville.

FS = full screen   SL = slide show

I discovered from a very reliable local source today that the New World supermarket in Lakewood Avenue, Churton Park will be opening its doors for business possibly as early as next Tuesday the 6th December.

The shopping precinct has taken shape very quickly over past months and is nearing completion.

More of my reliable sources have confirmed that a Monteiths bar and Restaurant is also planned for the area.

See you there!!

With more light, warmer weather, and a bit of non work time on the cards over the Xmas break, this is the time of year that potential house movers use to get their home spruced up and ready to market in the New Year.

It is important to make your budget and your energy go as far as possible. Make you sure you focus on the right areas when preparing your home for sale.

If you are considering moving or want to renovate, get me up for a short visit. We can have a chat about the best things to focus on to add value at selling time. If you’re looking at adding on or upgrading amenities, make sure you don’t over capitalize.

I have been selling in North Wellington for 15 years and have personally renovated many houses. In that time I have seen plenty of great affordable spruce ups and some that simply were a cash hole that didn’t add any real value to potential purchasers when the house entered the market place for sale. Take the opportunity talk over your plans with me before you invest your hard earned cash.

Email me at david@northernsuburbs.co.nz or text me on 0274374351 to book a short friendly chat.

Have you thought about owning a home but don’t know how to go about it?

This is a great opportunity to find out all the things Home Buyers need to know.

Learn about:

The Welcome Home First Steps workshops from Housing new Zealand take you through the following seven modules about the house buying process:

• Is home ownership right for you?
• Goal setting and budgeting
• The home buying process
• Getting a home loan
• Building a home and affordable house design
• Maintaining your home and refinancing
• the benefits, risks, costs and obligations of owning a home
• how to buy and sell a home
• getting a home loan
• financial assistance for home buyers

8:45am  to 1pm, Saturday 19 November 2011

Newlands Community Centre –  9 Batchelor Street, Newlands

How do I register?

For more information and to register  phone Connect Global on 239 0998 or email mereana@connectglobal.co.nz

Spaces are limited – Register now.

Light refreshments will be provided

Find out more about “First Steps” on their website www.welcomehomefirststeps.co.nz

Just in time for Halloween, personal finance website Credit Sesame has compiled 11 ways different cultures around the world design their homes to keep evil spirits away. Some ghost-proofing methods may sound familiar (avoiding the 13th floor, nailing a horseshoe to a door), but others are not as well-known. For example, curving roofs or curving driveways are believed to ward off malevolent beings in some cultures. In the South, porches are sometimes painted “haint” (another word for ghost) blue because it is believed ghosts are afraid of water. In some Southeast Asian cultures, people build “spirit houses” (shrines) filled with goodies to lure spirits away from the main building meant for the living.

Click the pic to see a larger view

 The commencement date for the Unit Titles Act 2010 (Act) has just been announced.

From 20 June 2011, sellers of unit title property will need to comply with disclosure obligations under the Act, including in respect of existing agreements, and will be obliged to provide buyers with up to three separate disclosure statements.

The Act also brings in many other changes relating to bodies corporate and developers of unit titles, which will be the subject of a separate update.

Types of disclosure

The required disclosure statements are:

Other requirements

All disclosure statements must be dated and signed by the seller or a person authorised by the seller.

If, before the settlement date, the seller becomes aware of any inaccuracies in any disclosure statement, the seller must give another statement correcting those inaccuracies.

Effect of non-disclosure

If the additional disclosure statement or the pre-settlement disclosure statement is not given within the required timeframes, the buyer may:

• postpone the settlement date until the fifth working day after the day all disclosure is provided; or
• cancel the agreement by 10 days’ notice in writing.

Effect of disclosure

The Act states that a buyer is entitled to rely on the disclosed information as “conclusive evidence” of its accuracy. A seller and the body corporate will need to ensure the disclosed information is accurate.

A buyer does not have any remedies prescribed under the Act if it is not happy with any of the disclosed items. Accordingly, a buyer will need to include either a specific condition or warranty in the sale and purchase agreement if it wishes to be able to approve the information in any disclosure statement.

Prohibition on contracting out

The Act prohibits any provision in an agreement that seeks to exclude or limit the obligation to disclose under the “disclosure” subpart of the Act. It remains to be seen how widely this prohibition will be applied.

Our view is that the prohibition will not restrict including buyer-friendly amendments (such as providing that the seller must also bear the costs of additional disclosure). However, it may affect standard vendor clauses relating to limitations on liability, costs and options for cancellation.

Receivers and mortgagees of unit title developments will need to be aware of the disclosure obligations and potential liability under the Act when exercising their power of sale.

Timing

The Act comes into force on 20 June 2011 and applies to all sale and purchase agreements from that date. Accordingly, you should consider the provisions of the Act for any existing or new agreements that may be uncompleted after 20 June 2011.

Click here for further details on the timing of disclosure obligations on the commencement of the Act.

Information sourced from www.bellgully.com