Filed under: Boom FHOG, Research,
I’ve just been to a very exciting local auction (yes, I’m a property geek) in Hawthorn. The price was quoted for $1.3 million dollars and the five keen bidders pushed the price up to $1,685,000. The vendors are popping the champagne tonight! The agents told me that they had sold 20 properties out of 22 for auction. It looks like it could be another weekend of 80%+ clearance rates. And I’m wondering if this is the turn in the property market?
NEW RESEARCH
The Victorian Guide to Property Values 2008 is now available. This wonderful source of information is only $20, and provides a history of prices per suburb. It’s a great little resource. If you’d like to order one check out www.land.vic.gov.au
BANK MISTAKES
As you’ve heard in the news, the four big banks are super busy at the moment with very little competition from smaller institutions. They have hired a lot of new staff and we’re starting to see mistakes in existing accounts. Recently we have seen offset accounts being de-linked, monthly charges for clients on professional packages and packages being removed. If you see something that doesn’t look right please chase it up. The first point of contact is always the bank, but if you have no luck please call us and we can help you.
FIRST HOME OWNERS GRANT
The Victorian State Government is tackling the shortage of homes available by increasing the grant for first home buyers who build a house to $11,000. So, if you are a first home buyer and you enter in to a contract to build before September 30 you’ll get $21,000 from the Federal Government AND $11,000 from the Victorian Government. That’s a whopping total of $32,000. And if you’re building in a regional area they’ll add another $4,500. (Purchases that are eligible for the state grant are up to $600,000.)