Logan Granny Flats your granny flat experts, and the largest supplier and builder of granny flats in Brisbane and SE Qld brings another interesting snippet to you.

“The Logan Motorway corridor is South Estate Queensland’s major warehousing and logistics hub providing occupiers with unrivaled access to all major arterials that service the immediate South East Queensland market as well as interstate markets‘ – this has to be good news for employment and the Logan area!

Enjoy:

Staff Writer
http://www.theurbandeveloper.com/
20th November 2015

After almost 10 years in the planning, a large highly sought after industrial parcel of the land on the Logan Motorway has been sold.

In one of the biggest industrial land transactions for the year, one of the final parcels of land on the Logan Motorway has been sold by JLL’s Industrial Director, Gary Hyland.

“The 24.6ha area of land at Heathwood has been sold to the Sydney-based LOGOS Property which is now looking to develop the site for large scale pre-leases in excess of 10,000sqm,” said JLL’s Gary Hyland. LOGOS plan to develop the entire land holding into a premium logistics estate with an end value in excess of $200 million, which will be the largest single holding on the Logan Motorway.”

The two parcels purchased by LOGOS have direct exposure to the Logan Motorway, with direct access to the Motorway provided by the Staplyton Road interchange.  The site is strategically located at the centre of the Logan Motorway corridor with Coles and Woolworths both having distribution centres that neighbour the estate.

Mr Hyland said the sale was exciting for the sector, as the estate can accommodate facilities in excess of 50,000m2, with direct Motorway access. “The Logan Motorway corridor is South Estate Queensland’s major warehousing and logistics hub providing occupiers with unrivalled access to all major arterials that service the immediate South East Queensland market as well as interstate markets,” he said.

The estate will be branded Heathwood Logistics Park and with earthworks now completed the estate is available for immediate development.

“Having a buyer who is now firmly committed to a quality large scale development means that demand can be met – already we have strong interest from a number of groups looking to capitalise on the site’s direct Motorway access and exposure,” said Mr Hyland.

Staff Writer
http://www.architectureanddesign.com.au
5 November 2015

Sluggish earnings growth and the strong pace of dwelling price increase in the two key markets of Sydney and Melbourne is causing deterioration of housing affordability.

That’s according to the Housing Industry Association (HIA) whose recently-released HIA Affordability Index for the September 2015 quarter shows that home purchasing is moving beyond the reach of a greater number of Australian families.

According to the report, housing affordability during the September 2015 quarter worsened by 4.0 per cent compared to the previous quarter and was 2.1 per cent less favourable than the same time last year. Affordability of developments in the eight capital cities also suffered a 4.1 per cent deterioration compared to the previous quarter, and was 3.6 per cent less favourable than a year ago. However, affordability actually improved in six of the fourteen markets included in the report.

Observing that affordability was now at its least favourable since the final quarter of 2014, HIA Senior Economist Shane Garrett said the two interest rate reductions in the first half of this year provided a temporary respite from the perspective of affordability. However, the surge in dwelling prices in Sydney and Melbourne, along with near stagnant earnings growth means that housing affordability continues to be impacted.

The commencement of over 210,000 new dwellings during the 2014/15 financial year has created a remarkable pipeline of supply, providing some relief to affordability pains. However, Garrett believes there is still a long way to go before more affordable housing can be achieved.

The burden of taxation on new housing combined with chronic shortages of new residential land in key markets is impeding any progress towards the goal of affordable housing. He added that the unilateral increase in variable mortgage rates over the past month has further aggravated the situation.

Housing affordability is a big issue across the board and one of the ways Ipswich City Council has answered this is by allowing granny flats to be built for others than immediate family members.

Here at Ipswich Granny Flats we have found that roughly 1 in 4 granny flats that we build are for immediate family members! More and more families are deciding that living and sharing the same property might not be such a bad idea after all. The kids and their family live in the main house with grandma and grandpa living in the newly built granny flat in the backyard – what a great thing!

A Great Solution – brought to you by Logan Granny Flats, the largest supplier of granny flats in Ipswich, Logan, Brisbane and SE Queensland.

Ipswich Granny Flats, your local Granny Flat Experts, bring to you another interesting snippet from the Sydney Granny Flat Market...

Ingrid Fuary-Wagner
www.domain.com.au
4 November 2015

When Penelope Roberts and her husband Nicholas bought their Federation home in Randwick back in 2006, the dilapidated old shack in the garden required serious consideration.

The structure in question was an old stable where the original well-to-do owners had once kept their horse.

“I liked the stable because I’m a country girl, but it was really run down,” Roberts says.

But her husband immediately saw the potential of turning it into a functional, habitable space.

“We also knew it was a drawcard because at that point it was hard to get a second dwelling approved,” she says.

That was before the law changed in 2009, allowing granny flats – or second dwellings as they are officially called – to be approved within 10 days and to be built within all residential zones across NSW.

Since then, NSW has experienced huge growth in granny flats, with a 260 per cent increase over five years to June 2014.

Associate Director at research house BIS Shrapnel, Kim Hawtrey, says that while there’s been a lot of focus on the construction ‘boom’ of high-density developments, the rise in the affordable alternative has gone largely unnoticed.

“It is a granny flat boom. We are building almost 5000 granny flats a year in New South Wales,” Hawtrey says.

That figure translates to nearly one granny flat for every 10 new dwellings approved.

According to Hawtrey, there are plenty of reasons why second dwellings have become so popular, including the fact that children are living with their parents longer as well as an ageing baby boomer population.

“You could get a $400,000 apartment or you could build a $150,000 granny flat – so it’s the cheaper option.”

Then there’s the surge in overseas migration, with anecdotal evidence suggesting granny flats are more prevalent in areas with a greater proportion of migrant families.

“International buyers often have multi-generational members of the family around,” Hawtrey explains.

“It means family members can come and stay or live and still have a degree of independence.”

Investors are also tapping into this opportunity, with the potential to earn two lots of rent from one property.

The BIS Building Industry Prospects report shows that a granny flat can improve the rental income on the median house in Sydney from 2.5 per cent to 3.6 per cent – a return of $300 extra per week.

Some home owners are even moving into their granny flats and renting out their main homes, Hawtrey says.

Within Sydney, Bankstown, Blacktown and Parramatta in particular are seeing an increase in granny flats.

Hawtrey says people have come up with ways to deal with the affordability crisis by making use of the quarter acre block.

“It goes to show we don’t necessarily just need high rise buildings to solve the issue of a booming population and affordability crisis.”

For Penelope Roberts, her backyard stable turned granny flat has been used as a home office, an extra space for her teenage sons and a guest house where visitors can come and go as they please.

And now that her home is on the market, she thinks the second dwelling will definitely add value to the property.

“I think it is a big drawcard for potential buyers – it’s effectively an extra room with the house. It could be put on Airbnb or rented out as well,” she says.

Another interesting snippet brought to you by Ipswich (or Logan) Granny Flats, the largest supplier of granny flats in Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay and the whole of SE Queensland...

Herron Todd White
The Month in Review
November 2015

We're on the rise so all you past, present and future investors : this is the place you need to be buying!

An interesting snippet brought to you by your Granny Flat Experts, Vision Granny Flats, the largest supplier of granny flats in Brisbane and SE Queensland…

Starts at Sixty Writers
http://www.startsatsixty.com.au/
13 October 2015

Would you consider going small… really, really small?If there’s one thing we Aussies have in spades, it’s space. Consequently, we have some pretty big homes – the largest in the world, in fact.
For most boomers, however, the Era of Many Bedrooms is behind us. Reports have shown that almost half of us have already trimmed down our household by the time we reach retirement, with many more doing so after the event.
But, where once the question many have been ‘how big is big enough’, these days many are asking ‘how small can we go’?
You’ve probably heard about the Tiny Living movement, which sees people eschewing separate bathrooms, spare rooms and even living space in order to live small.
American architect Sarah Susanka’s book The Not So Big House, showed that clever design and a simple approach to life meant you could meet all your housing needs in as little as 30 square metres – one-eighth the size of the average Aussie castle.
Many of you reading this now will think, ‘no way!’ But there’s probably just as many who say ‘yes please’.
There’s something about being in a tiny space that makes your heart sing. Think about the times you’ve been on a boat, in a caravan or tucked away in a rural B&B somewhere. They’re simple times, with everything you could possibly need – and nothing you don’t.
Those who love the tiny living movement say that less space – a lot less space – provides more room in the mind, better connection with whomever you live with and an absence of clutter.
Of course, it’s not all connection, community and Kumbaya.
Having spent 10 months in a Volkswagen campervan, I can assure you the word ‘tiny’ quickly becomes ‘cramped’ – particularly when it rains for two weeks!
In America, tiny living is particularly popular with baby boomers, particularly those who identify with the hippy movement of the past. The trend today is for building miniature wooden homes on trailers and parking them wherever the council will let you.
Australia’s answer to the tiny living movement could be our legions of nomads, who are arguably living in tiny spaces that provide access to the vast ones.
Granny flats are also increasingly popular, whether they are in the back yard of a relative’s home, or on one’s own property – you can find more about that here. But there are restrictions. For example, in Victoria, a granny flat must be relocatable and accommodate people who are dependent on those in the main residence.
Last year, an expert in affordable housing told Fairfax media that a lack of suitable options for baby boomers wishing to downsize kept them trapped in their too-large homes. Do you feel this way? Would you do smaller if you could? And if so, how small would you go?
Would you consider living in a tiny home, caravan or granny flat on a permanent basis?