Highgate WA: R80 Project #2

[westminster]

Edith St is a 4 bed with single. Allows 2x living areas and 2 balconies with city views from master.

One carbay. Valuations came back good...why? Because you can apply for a street parking permit if you push.

Some dope is building a 3 storey apartment block in front of these houses so no city views! Darn!

I like your Edith concept but I think it needs bigger living and outdoor areas.

I have to have more outdoor areas anyway as that magical sewer line that is on Turner St comes from this block too. It's 2-3m in front fence.

 

[westminster]

Popcorn time

Contracts are your best friend

The house I am buying is tenanted. Not wishing to be beholden to inheriting their tenants I put in a Vacant Possession clause. BUT said that I would entertain the idea of keeping the tenants if they were acceptable to me and the rent was increased.

Selling REA said that they were paying $550 a week and said it was under market rent. He got his PM to appraise and she said $750 a week. I was VERY doubtful that $750 would be possible.

I did my own DD and estimated $600-650 pw at most and my PM said the same.

Tenant would like to stay and has said they are paying $480 and most they can do is $500 but would like to stay until January at that rate. Ummmm no. Thank you very much Sellers or REA for lying about that

They put in their application yesterday with this request. 9 days before Settlement!!

My clause still stands for Vacant Possession so I am entitled to have them out on Settlement Day.

It could all end up VERY interesting.

If I didn't have this clause I could have been inheriting tenants at a rate of $480 and been totally screwed.

 

[sanj]

$750??? how could anyone say that with a straight face??

$550 would be tops atm imo, rental market has softened.

eg, there is a 4x2 on gardner street around 500m from you available at 650/wk and has been available for a couple of weeks now. better condition than yours judging by the ads

looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

 

[westminster]

$750??? how could anyone say that with a straight face??

$550 would be tops atm imo, rental market has softened.

eg, there is a 4x2 on gardner street around 500m from you available at 650/wk and has been available for a couple of weeks now. better condition than yours judging by the ads

looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Its an interesting dilemma.
At $550 it wasn't so bad and I probably would have kept them but at $500 I need to do the sums on vacancy vs no vacancy.
And whilst they are good tenants they aren't ideal tenants as they are a mission housing 10-12 people there at a time.
I could just rent it out by the room for $600+

 

[Waldo]

And whilst they are good tenants they aren't ideal tenants as they are a mission housing 10-12 people there at a time.

Yuck that sounds horrible. Stick to your guns - let them stay if they come to the party $$ wise, or just do the vacant possession thing.

If the vendor can't do vacant posession due to a lease - can you get compensation from the vendor (as obviously you still want to continue with the settlement).

Best of luck!

 

[westminster]

Today I have declined their application to rent the house. They are on periodical lease and they had already been served notice (I hope!) by the Seller so it should be fine for Settlement on the 11th.

I have pre settlement inspection on Tuesday.

 

[INVSTOR]

Today I have declined their application to rent the house. They are on periodical lease and they had already been served notice (I hope!) by the Seller so it should be fine for Settlement on the 11th.

I have pre settlement inspection on Tuesday.

Good luck! I find it weird how settlement is effective but people have right to access property until midday the next day. I wonder if you could see proof they will be moving, eg new lease.

 

[westminster]

Well in the end I decided to keep them. It's easiest with no vacancy and I have decided that demolition will be my preferred option so I don't want to spend money on it fixing it up.

I should have some preliminary plans in 3 weeks.

Settlement is this afternoon.

Woohoo

 

[westminster]

Well it is 3 weeks later and I have 2 sets of concept plans
1. which is the concept that I asked for (2 facing the lane, 2 facing the main street)
2. which is a concept that my builder thinks will work better (3 facing the lane, 1 facing main street)

I like both But I think concept 2 will actually work better and I'm glad sometimes my builder doesn't just do what I say

It's still needs a lot of tweaks and toing and froing but it's basically 230 sqm of house with
- 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms + study OR 4 x 2 OR 3 beds x 3 baths
- 2 living areas
- ground floor is garage + courtyard + kitchen/dining/living room + laundry + powder room
- first floor is lounge with balcony and minor bedrooms, study and bathroom
- loft is master bedroom + ensuite + WIR

Each lot will be approx 135 sqm so a houselike 230sqm dwelling is a challenge but I'm confident I will get something great.

 

[westminster]

New concept plans have arrived but still need a lot of tweaking.

Making something house like on 135m2 is challenging.

I keep an eye on the local market and this listing came up today. The block is a bit bigger than mine as its 194sqm but the house is no more bigger than what I am building at 250sqm . At $1.2m its a very interesting price and one I will be watching closely.

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-highgate-116171995?rsf=emailalert-propdetails

 

[westminster]

Slowly slowly. Still in design phase - gotta get this right. Design for 2 of the houses is pretty much set, the middle 2 are more tricky but we'll get there.

Tweaks to the concept: I decided on a 3 x 3 concept rather than 3 x 2 so that the middle floor can have a master bedroom or you can have a master in the loft.

Ground Floor: living, dining, kitchen, laundry and powder room
First Floor: 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (one is an ensuite if you want to have master bedroom on this floor) and a living room
Loft: ensuite and master bedroom

The house I linked above for $1.2 has sold setting good comparable for the area however their location is a bit more prime being opposite the park and more street frontage.

I have signed the tenants on for another 9mths at increased rent and that should take us through finishing design, DA (how long is a piece of string?) and building license.

 

[Tano]

So when do you knock over the house? After you receive the development approval letter? Then give the tenants 60 days notice if on a Periodic Lease?

 

[MTR]

New concept plans have arrived but still need a lot of tweaking.

Making something house like on 135m2 is challenging.

I keep an eye on the local market and this listing came up today. The block is a bit bigger than mine as its 194sqm but the house is no more bigger than what I am building at 250sqm . At $1.2m its a very interesting price and one I will be watching closely.

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-highgate-116171995?rsf=emailalert-propdetails

I know this property and location, I will watch with interest too, I think this property is in good location as opposite the park, also the court yard is a decent size. It looks like it has been finished off beautifully inside. Though I think its a tad on the high side.

Here's another that sold for a little less, however the location is far superior and more sort after IMO.

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-mount+lawley-115685147

I hope you don't have any issues getting this one through council etc.

What is the process in terms of bulldozing the existing home?

I am curious my g/friend lives on Hill View Road, Mt Lawley and her neighbour is currently trying to bull doze his property which had been rented for 25 years, not a cent spent on it, its got a lean to it, from the front it looks like its not structurally sound. Council will not let him tear it down. I think the only way around it is he may have to keep the fa?ade of the period home and work out his design around this. This is City of Stirling, so perhaps you may have more joy with Vincent, hope so.

We were looking at developing our previous property in Mt Lawley which was on a massive 880 sqm block and we wanted to pull down the period home, no joy with City of Stirling, we just gave up and did nothing at the end.

Keep up posted

 

[UrbanPlanner]

I am curious my g/friend lives on Hill View Road, Mt Lawley and her neighbour is currently trying to bull doze his property which had been rented for 25 years, not a cent spent on it, its got a lean to it, from the front it looks like its not structurally sound. Council will not let him tear it down. I think the only way around it is he may have to keep the fa?ade of the period home and work out his design around this. This is City of Stirling, so perhaps you may have more joy with Vincent, hope so.

We were looking at developing our previous property in Mt Lawley which was on a massive 880 sqm block and we wanted to pull down the period home, no joy with City of Stirling, we just gave up and did nothing at the end.

Keep up posted

Stirling have a blanket ?heritage protection area' policy that covers all of mount lawley and enforces it rigourously. Essentially anything built before 1960 can?t be touched. Even with partial demolition/redevelopment you need to keep the walls/roof line. If the house were left to rot and ordered to be demolished you would have to rebuild it in the traditional mount lawley character i.e. no ultra modern houses.

I understand what the policy is trying to achieve as Mt Lawley contains some fantastic period homes, but when we?re talking about building that may only be 50-60 years old, there?s not a great deal of actual heritage value in them. Even the Burra Charter (the law for heritage) discourages trying to mimic heritage and encourages that new builds be modern and as far from heritage as possible in order to emphasise the actual heritage buildings.

Vincent on the other hand, treat heritage on a case by case basis and actually examine each building and determine whether it has any heritage significance. If it does, and depending on it?s value, they will protect it. If it doesn?t, then it can be demolished no questions asked.

Sorry for the rant and moving slightly off topic

 

[westminster]

I should have no issues demolishing it as it is not on any register and is very unattractive house

Demolition will be probably after Building License - depends on how things pan out timeline wise.

New plans have come in this morning.

House D is 233sqm (fronts laneway)
House C is 266sqm (fronts laneway)
House B is 266sqm (fronts laneway)
House A is 255sqm (fronts Wright)

Some small tweaks to go but pretty much done for submission to council.

 

[MTR]

That's great Myf, onwards and upwards with this one

Urban
Thanks for this info.
I am sure some of this stuff is just way over the top.

 

[Blacky]

Time to update your signature block Myf....

 

[Chesterfield]

Westminster, I have been following this thread after buying a house just after Christmas in Highgate as well. Entertaining thread!

Just curious as to why you didn't retain and renovate the corner house (on a duplex block) and build two townhouses behind on the other lane? Was it purely because not enough money in it compared to building 4 new, or didn't 2 fit at the back without chopping the house.

 

[Chesterfield]

Also, did you end up going with one car bay, one car bay with stacker or two car bay? Cheers

 

[westminster]

Westminster, I have been following this thread after buying a house just after Christmas in Highgate as well. Entertaining thread!

Just curious as to why you didn't retain and renovate the corner house (on a duplex block) and build two townhouses behind on the other lane? Was it purely because not enough money in it compared to building 4 new, or didn't 2 fit at the back without chopping the house.

The house ended up having quite a lot of structural issues without any appealing period features so demolishing and building 2 in it's place made more sense. And yes some of it would have had to be chopped off potentially causing more issues.

Also, did you end up going with one car bay, one car bay with stacker or two car bay? Cheers

I managed to get double garage to fit