Melb family reveal energy efficient renovation ahead of auction timed for May rate cut
The pair have spent the past few years renovating and extending their family home at 33 Adelaide St, boosting its energy efficiency along the way as they sought to minimise bills.
But with the itch to find another project growing, the electrician and former interior designer turned analyst have listed their home for auction on May 31 in the hopes a rate cut will kick the market fully into gear and give them the best odds of selling well.
With the family yet to buy their next home, yesterday's 0.25 percentage point reduction to the nation's cash rate by the Reserve Bank was likely to add some heat to the property market to help their $1m-$1.25m home sale plans — but not so much that they would be left behind as they looked for their next home.
Reduced mortgage costs are a win in the short term and should allow them to take a family holiday, but the bigger plan is to upsize their life off the back of the rate cuts — and to better accommodate their growing children, currently aged 1 and 8.
'I think it's a good time to sell, and I think it's a good time to buy as there's some positivity,' Dean said.
'And it means you can be more comfortable spending a little more as everyone is getting more confident. So everything seems to be trending in the right direction for buying a home.
'Rate cuts are always good as they give you more options.'
Emily added that their home renovations, which expanded their original 1960s weatherboard to more than twice its original size and created a four-bedroom floorplan, had helped them cope with mortgage payments as energy efficient inclusions zapped their bills.
Ray White's Marcus Fregonese is handling the family's sale and said he was already seeing signs of buyers 'pricing in' future rate cuts.
While first-home buyers and young couples would be the first to act, especially in the $600,000-$900,000 price range, Mr Fregonese added that renovated family homes at the top end of the suburb's property market were also likely to see rising interest.
Bill saving features, such as better energy performance have also proven a winner with buyers lately, making the extra insulation and almost-all-electric fit out installed at No. 33 even more appealing.
'And I'm sure buyers will this week be having questions with their brokers about whether they have any more borrowing capacity and if they can bid a little more, especially knowing there's a probability of extra rate cuts on the horizon,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Housing to be a focus at the upcoming economic roundtable
JACOB GREBER, POLITICAL EDITOR: It's one of the biggest challenges facing the country and it's at the heart of the government's reform agenda. JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER: We have got a very big, broad, ambitious housing agenda, which is about building more homes, because that's the best way that we provide more affordable options for people who are trying to get a toehold in a difficult market. JACOB GREBER: But it's in places like the Wollondilly region on the outskirts of Sydney where rhetoric splits from reality. Cassandra Mast and her siblings used an inheritance from their mother to invest in land believing it would be the pathway to building a new, affordable home. CASSANDRA MAST, HOME BUILDER: We wanted to do something that would honour her, and she was always about welcoming people into her home, making sure anyone in trouble had a place to stay. JACOB GREBER: After buying a half-acre block last year almost two years after the previous owners began the process of subdividing it – the project remains mired in red tape. CASSANDRA MAST: We've had to remove so many trees and so many plants for the fire regulation even though the fire rating was downgraded, in between the time first application was made and us starting construction. JACOB GREBER: Anyone doing a renovation or building a home knows exactly how Cassandra Mast feels. CLARE O'NEIL, HOUSING MINISTER: We've got too much red tape and regulation; we are not seeing enough innovation in housing. JACOB GREBER: Housing Minister Clare O'Neil has been touring the country in the leadup to next week's roundtable talking to home builders, who've been telling a familiar story. CLARE O'NEIL: We had a good chat with one of the builders here before and he said to me, you know, a decade ago, the hard part about building a house in this country was the actual building. The problem now sits in the approvals and the delays. JACOB GREBER: Building houses in Australia has become more challenging, tangled in paperwork, and costly. According to a recent study by the Housing Industry Association, almost half the million-dollar cost of a house and land package in Sydney goes into regulatory fees, taxes, and delay. JOCELYN MARTIN, HOUSING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION: It is made up of cascading taxes like stamp duty and GST. It can take up to almost 12 months for a planning approval to take place and then of course for the build itself to take place. JACOB GREBER: Few dispute that housing has become one of the worst inter-generational fairness issues of our time. But unlike previous efforts to fix the problem via demand-boosting incentives like first-home buyer grants - the benefits of which have often flowed to older generations of sellers - the emphasis today and next week's roundtable is about increasing supply. JOCELYN MARTIN: We are hoping that there will be discussions around how to make the delivery of housing more productive, how to address significant amounts of regulation and red tape, to look at all the things that are holding back the delivery of housing supply. JACOB GREBER: The much-hyped economic roundtable is all about momentum building. Three days of talks have been scheduled. The only problem? The government 's messaging over how ambitious they should be has risen and fallen like the tide. JIM CHALMERS (17 June): I expect, I anticipate, I welcome tax being an important part of the conversation. ANTHONY ALBANESE (7 August): The only tax policy that we're implementing is the one we took to the election. JACOB GREBER: The whiplash has stoked speculation of tension between the Prime Minister and his Treasurer. Though both are denying it today. SALLY SARA, RADIO NATIONAL: Are you and the Prime Minister in lockstep about what this roundtable will ultimately achieve? JIM CHALMERS: Completely. ANTHONY ALBANESE: We talk every week, almost every day. We talked yesterday. We talk every day, either in person or exchange messages. JIM CHALMERS: I think it has been a very worthwhile thing that we are shaking the tree for ideas and the Prime Minister and I are aligned in the way we go about that. ANTHONY ALBANESE: We are up for big reform, whether it's strengthening Medicare, the changes to childcare, the benefit to education. JACOB GREBER: Despite the bold talk and the Prime Minister and Treasurer's media blitz of the last few days – almost pre-budget-like in its intensity - it's far from clear what the roundtable will ultimately achieve. For now, major tax reform is off the table, unions are pushing for regulation of artificial intelligence and a four-day work week. But as we've seen, it's in housing where hopes are highest. JOCELYN MARTIN: It is a slow ship to turn around, but we are seeing some changes. JACOB GREBER: For people trying to build homes now, it can't happen fast enough. CASSANDRA MAST: If we can add a home, and someone else can add a home, and someone else can add a home, we won't have a housing problem. We don't need huge developments.
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Punching above our weight': Booming sector helping to lift Aussie economy
Australia's economy is getting a surprising boost from the wellness sector, which has quietly grown to one of the nation's leading sectors. According to a new report by Global Wellness Institute, Australia ranks seventh in the world when it comes to spending on their healthcare. In total this added $194.4bn in 2023, up 10.9 per cent year on year or around $7,402 per person. Wellness now makes up seven per cent of Australia's GDP, placing it behind the construction sector. Currently the construction industry accounts for around 9 per cent of GDP and employs more than 1.3 million people. Anytime Fitness managing director Simon Thompson says the results show the wellness economy is doing its share of the heavy lifting when it comes to Australia's economy. 'When you consider our population, Australia is punching above its weight and has pioneered many wellness communities that support healthy lifestyles, vibrant social connections, and sustainable living in its growing housing markets,' Mr Thompson said. Mr Thompson said the push was coming from younger Aussies. 'Gyms, instead of pubs and clubs, are now often the number one choice for weekend outings, and even dates,' he said. 'Gen Z now spends seven times the amount of money on getting fit than Gen X.' According to the report, Australia's overall wellness growth is coming across a number of sub-sectors. Wellness tourism has swelled by 32.9 per cent between 2019 to 2023 while thermal/mineral springs are up 21.5 per cent. Wellness real estate, mental wellness and physical activity round out the top five sectors. The report comes as prime minister Anthony Albanese separately spruiks the benefit to Australia reviving its building and manufacturing sectors. During a doorstop in the electorate of Bonner in Brisbane the prime minster and Energy Minister Chris Bowen talked up the home battery incentive and solar panel uptake. 'It's good for everyone because what it does is take pressure off the grid during peak times, and that's why this is such good public policy, good for households … of course, good right throughout Australia,' Mr Albanese says. According to the ministers, 28,000 Australian homes have installed a home battery under the government's policy. But Mr Albanese wants more Australians to take up the scheme and for the panels to be built in Australia. 'Chris (Bowen) was at the South Australian factory producing solar panels earlier this week, or at the end of last week, that's expanding by nine times,' Mr Albanese said. 'We also want to produce more things here. We have everything that goes into a battery. One of the progress we have is for battery manufacturing.' Mr Albanese went further calling for more large infrastructure projects such as trains and boats to be built in Australia. 'We want things made here and here in Queensland. I want more manufacturing, more jobs to be created here.'
Daily Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Daily Telegraph
Expat snaps up Bellevue Hill home for $21m at hot auction
A grand Bellevue Hill estate has sold for more than $21m— $6m above the latest price guide — at an exciting private auction tonight. There were 19 registered for the four-bedroom circa 1930s deceased estate 'Fernlee' at 41 Drumalbyn Rd, bought in 1990 for $2.3m by two doctors, Katherine Tang Yiu, and her late husband Robert. The property, on an elevated 930sqm block, has magnificent harbour views and is in a dress-circle position. It was marketed by Laing + Simmons Double Bay's Steven Zoellner and had a $13m to $14.3m guide when Fernleigh first hit the market early last month. It was revised to $15m 10 days ago after two offers were received. The exact sale price was $21,076,000. MORE: Wild way Aussie scored home for just $4,000 MORE:Infamous Fadi Ibrahim 'masterpiece' for sale Prominent buyer's agent Simon Cohen represented the buyer, but he had no comment when contacted. Other sources said the buyer was an expat currently living overseas. There'd been speculation in other media that the buyer was media mogul Lachlan Murdoch, who lives nearby, but the sources said he wasn't the successful purchaser. When asked to explain why the home went so far above the buyer's guide, Zoellner said: 'This house is so unique, in a style that the buyers like something like … it has the elegance of an older-style home, with high ceilings, views and big rooms. 'There were 19 registered bidders, and it was super active. 'It was a private auction and only registered buyers could attend, and the room was completely full.' It's understood the property was bought in a company name. Auctioneer Jake Moore of Cooleys is understood to have had eight of the 19 who registered competing at rooms at Double Bay, with bidding opening at $16m and rising in $500,000 increments up to $20m. It was down to $1000k bids at the end, with four bidders over $20m and down to just two bidders above $21m. The underbidder was a Bellevue Hill resident. Katherine died at the age of 91 last July, but moved out six years ago and the house had been sitting empty. In an obituary, her beloved niece, Cho-Wai Cheung, wrote: 'I always marveled at her energy in handling a huge house and the expansive front and back yards. 'Aunty Katherine was gracious and resilient. She was a dedicated and loving wife, mother and grandmother. 'She had a good knowledge of the Chinese history and Chinese antiques. 'I was always fascinated by the historical background that she told me about the furniture and paintings in her house. 'Her mind was still so sharp!' The home was once owned by a man who received one of the highest awards that can be given by the Pope. It was purchased by Ulisse Pellegrini, managing director of the firm Pellegrini and Co, and his wife, May, in 1931 for an unknown amount. The respected firm, established in 1890 in Melbourne, provided religious supplies to Catholic churches and schools. Pellegrini died at Lewisham Hospital at the age of 56 in February 1950. According to his death notice in the Sydney Morning Herald: 'Mr Pellegrini was honoured with the Papal Knighthood of St Gregory in 1947 … Mr Pellegrini has been abroad on four occasions and in 1929 was received in private audience by the late Pope Pius Xi.'
