Recent content by willister

Bambou Learning Centre - but no vacancies until 2017 (yes, not a typo). Put our 7 mth son on the waiting list, currently he is attending one in Chadstone where my wife works. He seems happy at the current childcare I don't think we will move him though.

Some news reports are saying Sydney is the next New York/London/Hong Kong in terms of property prices where it's normal for young families to rent or move out further. My personal guess - within 15kms within the Melb/Syd CBD it'll be a pretty close knit rich only zone.

Hi, Anyone have a good one to recommend? No jokes please! I usually donate about $300 to $500 a year - for the last 5 years its been to a family friend who runs a charity in South East Asia. Despite this, we reckon we can probably stretch about $200 more a year since we've recently had an...

Interesting you brought it up - no landline since 2007. Signed up for Optus's $90 Unlimited Cable plus phone about 2 months ago (I was previously on their naked 200Gig Cable). Since the phone lined came in with the deal and I didn't want their fetchtv deal, took it anyway. Purchased a fire...

Another article amongst the many promoting the West. IMHO the gap will close between the East and West relative to distance to the CBD, for example as quoted by the article Box Hill (East) and Sunshine/Keilor (about 15kms from CBD)...

Lacks a decent government school with either Oakleigh South or Westall being the closest ones depending on which end of Clayton you are at. We shortlisted Clayton in mid / early last year, but ended up buying a place in Chadstone instead - offered somewhat more for about $80K more. Bit closer...

For some odd reason 2011 dip in property prices, well at least around my area (Glen Waverley). Had a friend buy close to GW CBD for $870K (2009) - tried to offload it and got offers of $750K Max in 2011. Hung onto it, sold property in 2013 for a massive $1.3mil.

Could be back to the future if there is a bust - i.e. before the boom....anyway, here is my re-collection (I'm in my mid 30s) Circa 1989 - remember the folks visiting a private for sale sign to buy their first home. Auctions was a foreign concept hah. Rang the private number and arranged for...

After Hockey's infamous line....interesting about avg wage vs median price by suburb. Nothing scientific about this nor can any conclusions of substance be drawn from this but nonetheless...

It is not difficult to sell a dilapidated home in GW sitting on a 700m2+ block, within 1.5kms from train station for about $1.2-$1.5mil easy, the highest was $2.1mil if I am not mistaken. I'd say properties are probably between $500-$700K overpriced. A lot of purchasers here are probably...

I've been in GW since 2005. The block my folks and I are currently on is about 750m2 close to the Novotel and fetched around $600K in 2005 (considered a fair bit of coin back then for GW). I'd agree the prices are not justifiable, except the big drawcard for most Chinese people who crave that...

Many moons ago (parent's sold ip) we had a son who rented our place to look after his elderly father. Each Easter & Xmas we would provide a hamper from the big chains or we would do it ourselves of around ~$50 and two movie tickets. He kept the lawn nice and tidy contrary to the rest of the...

Off topic, but SE Asia domination? LOL Unlikely. English is the unofficial lingua franca of the world and International Business Language. Let's look at the leading East and SE Asian economies: China, Japan & South Korea are export orientated economies that heavily rely on USA as an export...

When we were about to build a new place, we were quoted $13K a square and this private builder wasn't exactly "high class" either. We were quoted $7-$8K/sq for a barebones no frills home from a volume builder. I have no real idea whether that house was built with quality materials and...

Curious if it was a Chinese investor? If so, are they trying to shift there instead of the East (which I highly doubt it).