Aireys Inlet Real Estate Open Home Inspections November 19-20

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New research carried out has revealed that the suburbs voted most liveable in Melbourne in 2005 is quite different to those in 2011. In fact the trend has been from the East to the West of Melbourne.

While reading this, I wondered how the Aireys Inlet to Eastern View area would stack up?

Following was the liveability criteria in the survey.

Close to the beach

Close to the CBD

Public Transport

Galleries and Theatres

Fewer congested roads

Close to schools

Shops

Open space

Hills

Cafes and restaurants

Low Crime

Lets look at these more closely.

Beaches – the top five suburbs that rose the most in the ten years were Maidstone, Docklands, Ripponlea and Seabrook. How do I think access to the beach from these areas compares to here? No contest.

Close to the CBD – Who wants to be? Smog, traffic, congestion. The less said the better really…

Public Transport- Granted we fell down a peg or two here, but there is a seven day a week bus service running up and down the Great Ocean Road linking with the Melbourne train in Geelong.

Galleries and Theatres- we don’t have to pay for ours. When it comes to man-made galleries and theatres we fail miserably, but for natural ones? Our whole region is an ever changing gallery of rolling hills, white sandy beaches and moody seas.

Fewer Congested roads – Hello? There is one set of traffic lights between Torquay and Warrnambool. Next question please.

Close to schools – We have the highly regarded Aireys Inlet Primary School right here, with the Lorne High School a short trip away and some of the country best Private Schools less than an hour away in Geelong .

Shops- Well you can get the essentials at the Aireys Inlet General Store along with usually the cheapest petrol on the coast but the range and prices are not highly competitive.

Open Space – We are surrounded by National Park on one side and the ocean on the other!!

Tree coverage – See previous comment about the National Park.

Hills – Does the Great Otway National Park sound familiar??

Cafes and restaurants – We have Skinny Legs and Truffles for your regular fare and the highly regarded A La Greque for something a little more extravagant.

Low Crime – A friend of mine recently had his laptop stolen from his car. He was livid. He said after living here for twenty years he might have to consider locking his house and car when he was away. Only problem was he had never owned a key for his house!

So on the whole I think we stack up pretty highly on the liveability scale. Top marks in all the categories that really matter..

James Worssam

james@greatoceanroadrealestate.com.au

mobile:             0418 585 815

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Aireys Inlet Real Estate Open Home Inspections Nov 12-13

Open houses this weekend

Saturday 12th November

11:00am – 11:45am  Lot 36 Narani Way, Fairhaven

11:00am – 11:45am  7 Narani Way, Fairhaven

11:00am – 11:45am  Lot 29 Narani Way, Fairhaven

12:00pm – 12:30pm   15 Aireys Street, Aireys Inlet

1:00pm – 1:30pm   12 Brent Avenue, Aireys Inlet

1:00pm – 1:30pm  565 Deans Marsh - Lorne Road, Deans Marsh

2:00pm – 2:30pm  12 Ridge Road, Fairhaven

Sunday 13th November

12:00pm – 12:30pm  9 Albert Avenue, Aireys Inlet

1:00pm – 1:30pm  120 Great Ocean Road, Aireys Inlet

2:00pm – 2:30pm   22 Beach Road, Aireys Inlet

3:00pm – 3:30pm  7 Erica Court, Aireys Inlet

Can we defy the rest of the world economically?

As the European Union continues on shaky ground and the US economy still goes even further into the red, you might question about the Australian position. Can we continue to defy the rest of the world?

Of course as the Euro and US financial markets go up and down that Australian economy will also be affected to some degree.

Luckily for us though, we are blessed to be in an inherently strong position. All the numbers are healthy and the financial barometer that is the Reserve Bank of Australia is quietly confident that interest rates are stable or trending downwards.

One of the interesting outcomes of where we’re at is that the banks have plenty of money to lend. Combined with the soft real estate market, it means that there has never been a better time to borrow.

It doesn’t have to be for a home, whether to live in or investment. If you already have a home and want to use its equity, it could be to buy that long dreamt of beach house along the world famous Great Ocean Road.

Whatever you’re thinking, it’s a great time to act. The first and best step is to give me a call and discuss what you’d like to do. Remember, even if you want to use me as a sounding board, my advice is impartial. Call today and let’s get it started!

Check out this weekends surf here.

List with us.

See you on the coast.

James Worssam

james@greatoceanroadrealestate.com.au

0418 585 815

For the second consecutive year, the Reserve Bank of Australia has managed to upstage the race that stops a nation – Melbourne Cup.

At its November Board meeting this afternoon, the Reserve bank decided to cut 25 basis points from the official cash rate, taking the new rate to just 4.5 per cent.

The announcement failed to shock industry pundits, with many economists predicting a November rate cut.
Last week’s benign inflationary growth provided the RBA with the right impetus to cut rates, according to RP Data’s national research director Tim Lawless.

“The rate cut should not come as a surprise from a housing market perspective, considering the soft market conditions that have been evident since June last year have created no inflationary pressures,” he said.
“In fact, capital city home values are down 3.6 per cent from their December 2010 peak and rental rates have increased by just 4.5 per cent over the 12 months to September.

“The improved debt servicing position will be a welcome improvement to anyone with a mortgage, however the primary benefit from the rate cut is likely to be seen in an improvement in consumer sentiment which should lead to an uplift in housing transaction volumes which are currently tracking about 13 per cent below the five year average nationally.”

Today’s announcement that coal mining will be allowed to continue at Anglesea is possibly the worst in a long list of bad environmental decisions since the Baillieu government was elected, according to Friends of the Earth. The government says that the supporting legislation, introduced by the government today, will “modernise” its agreement with the Anglesea coal mine and power station and support regional jobs.

Friends of the Earth campaigns co-ordinator Cam Walker said “what the government fails to mention is that the Point Henry smelter is not dependent on receiving energy from Anglesea to be viable. Alcoa could buy renewable energy to meet its needs and keep Point Henry going.”

Alcoa began operating the mine in 1961 and indicated in 2008 that it would exercise its right to extend its lease another 50 years. Any future mine expansion will now be limited to three per cent of its total lease area, which is 7,145 hectares, and be subject to a new environmental process.

“The Energy and Resources Minister, Mr O’Brien, says that the revised agreement is a ‘win-win’ outcome. But who wins? Alcoa, who gets to continue to burn dirty, high sulphur coal,” Walker said. “Who loses? The community of Anglesea, who will have to bear decades of public health impacts. The environment loses, as climate pollution will continue. The highly significant coastal heath lands will continue to be negatively impacted”.

“The time for further investment in dirty coal is over. The Baillieu government has yet again missed a significant opportunity to begin the transition to sustainable energy”.

“While the government can say that Alcoa had the right to extend its agreement, the fact remains that the coal resource is the property of the state, not the corporation. A giant corporation has won out against the long term interests of the local community. While landowners in places like Bacchus Marsh also have no control over new coal and CSG operations on their land, the government has chosen to side with a multi national corporation. It should have had the courage to oppose this extension.”

Aireys Inlet Real Real Estate Open House Inspections October 22 -23

Home loans rise again: housing steadies

The housing sector is stabilising as talk of an interest rate rise wanes and Australians are encouraged to borrow more, economists say.

The number of home loans approved in August rose 1.2 per cent to 50,965, official figures show. Economists’ forecasts had centred on a 1 per cent rise in housing finance commitments for the month.

August was the fifth straight month that housing finance commitments had risen.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said total housing finance by value rose 1.0 per cent in August, seasonally adjusted, to $20.848 billion.

JPMorgan economist Ben Jarman said the figures showed the housing sector was stabilising rather than rebounding.

‘‘It certainly means it’s not falling into a hole,’’ Mr Jarman said. ‘‘In the last few months worth of data, the housing finance figures have benefited from the perception that the RBA won’t be doing much in the near term.

‘‘So, if you went back to the start of this year, the RBA didn’t hike rates but there was all the forecast and all the language were making noises that you would get a couple of hikes this year.

‘‘Those aren’t being delivered and things offshore have turned a little bit sour.

‘‘What you’ve seen in the last few months in the home loans data is these fading expectations are helping out and people are coming back and they are happy to take on new debt.

‘‘We’re kind of calling this a mini-rally, but don’t think that this is the start of a tear away in the housing market.

‘‘There’s still a lot of uncertainty globally and that’s what’s keeping the RBA on the sidelines.’’

Mr Jarman said JPMorgan still expected the RBA not to change the cash rate from its current 4.75 per cent until at least the middle of 2012.

Check details on this weekends surf here.

See you in Our Backyard.