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On this week’s episode of Purchase or Pass, Chris Gray is joined by Arthur Charlaftis general manager of Realestate.com.au and Tom Panos of News Limited to analyse an investment property where the block has one majority owner.
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It’s a two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit with an undercover car space, 8.4 kilometres from the CBD and 650 metres to the local facilities. It’s on the top floor in a block of 12 units facing north east, so it gets the sun in the morning and has some district views. It has a separate bath, shower and internal laundry. The uniqueness about this property is that one person owns eight of the 12 units and with a 75% vote; he effectively controls the majority of the decisions when it comes to what strata funds are spent or not spent.
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Chris Gray: In terms of the main unit as it is, it ticks all of the boxes.
Arthur Charlaftis: It ticks a lot of the boxes. It’s small in terms of the small block, I think there’s 12 in this. It’s well renovated and it’s got a balcony off the living space so it ticks a lot of the boxes. Location is good, I think rental return and rental demand in the particular suburb we’re talking about is high, so it does tick a lot of the boxes.
Chris Gray: Tom for you when auctioneering, and you’ve got something in the sun with a balcony, some outdoor living, a nice small block and in a reasonably quiet street, most of the time is that a no brainer to sell?
Tom Panos: Tick, tick, tick.
Chris Gray: But there’s always one thing, and this is where you have to have inside knowledge because how many people would know that one owner owns eight out of the 12? So what’s actually happened in this block is that there is no strata fees in the fund and the guy hasn’t spent any money looking after the building, so it’s getting into a bit of disrepair, even though those real estate pictures look really beautiful of the actual property. Arthur, would you get into a block where somewhere controls exactly what you’re doing and could raise a special levy for $50,000 overnight, or they could spend nothing and your property falls around you?
Arthur Charlaftis: You definitely want to be on the controlling side of that, in terms of any changes you want to make. Chris I was going to ask you, in terms of how the voting entitlements work, how does that work in terms of what percentage you need?
 
Chris Gray: Generally, for most decisions you only need a 50% vote, or they have it in reverse and not more than 50% can vote against it. But if you wanted to double the size of the building or something like that, then you need a majority like 75%, so then it’s if more than 25% vote against it. I think the real key here is he owns eight out of the 12, but you need to look at what proportions he owns because if you have the top more expensive units or the bigger units, they’ve got more of a vote. You could own eight of them and have 80% control on it, which means the other guys have absolutely nothing they can do.
Arthur Charlaftis: So you would do a check of the strata records to see what the situation is?
Chris Gray: The easy way to check on this kind of stuff is to do a strata check, which may cost you $250, or you could go off and do it yourself. Then you can see where all the mail is being addressed. If all the mail is being addressed to a certain place, you then know that they’re owners. This is a good way to see whether there’s owner-occupiers or investors, because if the addresses are in the building then you know they’re owner-occupiers and if they’re outside the building you know they’re investors. So, what do you think, purchase or pass?
Arthur Charlaftis: I would pass on the basis of the discussion we just had in terms of ownership.
Tom Panos: I would pass I think, you don’t know how good a person he is, or how reliable he is or where he is at. I think the safest thing is to keep looking.
Chris Gray: He could be the best guy in the world but then he could sell all eight apartments to the worst guy in the world. Certainly for me as a buyer’s agent, I often try to take over the majority control of the block myself with my clients, so we can actually control it. However, I wouldn’t like to be on the other side of that and wouldn’t be that keen on buying into a block where I have no control. For that reason, I’m going to pass.
 
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Investment property in a block with one majority owner: Purchase or Pass?

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On this week’s Purchase or Pass, Chris Gray is joined by John Edwards of Residex to take a look at a property whose strata’s administration fund is deep in the red and discuss whether or not it would still qualify as a worthy purchase.
It is a two-bedroom, one-bath unit in a block of 21 units, 8.6 kilometres from the Sydney CBD and under a kilometre to the local action. The main question is that while the sinking fund has $36,000 in it, the administration fund is $30,000 in debt and the strata levies have recently been upped to $1,250 per quarter. There have been some water issues and there have been some expensive contractors looking after the building and gardens.
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Chris Gray: Now, obviously for the administration fund, and that’s the fund that pays all the day-to-day bills and that’s $30,000 in debt. What are your thoughts on that? That’s usually a pretty scary warning sign straight away isn’t it?
John Edwards: Yes, I think there is probably something else worthy of looking at that we didn’t talk about there and that is, looking at the people that are actually in that strata unit block, are they elderly people? Or are they young people? Or young professional people? If they’re elderly people, it’s quite possible that they don’t have the resources behind them to fund that strata title and do the things that they really need to do. So you need to take some care and actually look at the people in the dwelling. The other thing in this is to be a little cautious about making sure the structure of such a building was good, and that building looks quite fine.
Chris Gray: So again, you have the building and pest inspections and the strata inspections as well. With the deficient, I guess the main thing to start with is, the actual overall funds are $6,000 in credit. So I’ve had a lot of buildings that have been taking the money from the wrong account, overall at least it is positive. One of the things that we actually found through the strata report is that a normal levy was about to come in, so if you have 21 people all paying $1,250, that almost puts it back to zero in one levy.
John Edwards: So this particular strata title looks ok and I don’t think it’s an issue here. However, just remember in all states of Australia, not all strata titles actually have to have management funds or sinking funds. You go to Victoria and small blocks of units don’t, so take some care when you get into those sorts of positions with some units. This is all about research.
 
Chris Gray: Another thing that we thought about is, these guys have decided to up it, say from normally $750 is normally what I would pay on a strata levy. They’ve said right, lets put an extra $500 a quarter in, because over the next five or six levies, we’re going to raise an extra $3,000 per unit, which is $60,000, that goes from $30,000 debit to $30,000 credit. Or, there’s an alternative, they could just raise $3,000 special levy each and then suddenly they’re $60,000 up.
John Edwards: And there’s another alternative; they could go and borrow money. A strata title can actually go and borrow money to actually manage short falls that its got. I don’t think that overall this is a big problem.
Chris Gray: The reason I’ve bought it up is I think the average person would see that as a major issue and certainly when you pass the strata report onto your solicitor, your solicitor would be going “no no, don’t go anywhere near this, it’s obviously badly managed.” So reading into things, the other things we found out was that they’d actually sacked a lot of the contractors and then found some cheaper ones, so a lot of the overrunning bills and the rest of it they’ve had the last few years maybe wouldn’t happen either.
John Edwards: And that so often happens in strata titles, you find that all contractors seem to think that they can actually hit the strata titles very hard and it’s a warning to all title strata managers, they really need to watch they’re contractors new expenses.
Chris Gray: So purchase or pass for you?
John Edwards: I would still be interested in this property.
Chris Gray: Good stuff, and look for me, I think the strata fund issue is a minor one and is of no major consequence. However, most buyers wouldn’t be able to read into it and would probably be scared off by it, but it could be fixed by $3,000 a unit. So, I would definitely make a purchase as I think it’s a great opportunity to buy it at a good price for a reasonable property where other people are scared off.
John Edwards: And a gem of a negotiation position.
Chris Gray: Exactly, a great negotiation position even though it’s a booming market at the moment or a heated market.
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Strata's administration fund deep in the red in Coogee: Purchase or Pass?

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On this week’s Purchase or Pass Chris Gray is joined by Arthur Charlaftis of realestate.com.au to look at something that’s been on the market for a long time and see whether it could be an opportunity to pick up a bargain.
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It’s a three-bedroom, three-bathroom townhouse style property in a unit complex, five kilometres from the Sydney CBD. It’s got double parking and the complex includes a gym, pool and sauna and the strata fees are $1,300 a quarter. The property is very close to the transport links to the airport, city and local beaches. It was listed in September 2012 for $850,000 plus, rose to $880,000 plus and then was still listed in June 2013 for $845,000 plus.
Chris Gray: I guess to start with, what are the positives on that property?
Arthur Charlaftis: The rent seems to be geared at about greater than 5% so the rental return is not bad, assuming that’s achievable. It’s a three-bedroom, three-bath residence, which is sort of unusual to find in terms of that situation. I think whilst it’s a townhouse it has all the benefits of a large complex.
Chris Gray: And that’s the thing; certain people want that kind of stuff. It’s almost like having a freestanding house, or maybe some people that are downsizing don’t want all the maintenance of having the house, the garden and the pool, where as they can get into a complex and use all that sort of stuff.
Arthur Charlaftis: You mentioned it’s been on the market for a long time, that could be an opportunity, how do you see that?
Chris Gray: A lot of people would usually say it’s an opportunity, where as from what I know from the areas I deal in, I don’t deal in this area, is that good properties sell well and that’s what Tom says. His properties sell very quick because they’re in massive demand. So I think in the hot suburbs, I think it’s a bad thing because it means its overpriced or there’s something wrong with it. But again, maybe in more a secondary area, that’s the thing, it’s just an opportunity there.
Arthur Charlaftis: Right, ok. What comments do you have on the strata fees?
Chris Gray: For strata fees I’d say that’s pretty expensive. So normally, we’re buying $600,000 to $900,000 units in block without all those amenities and we’re maybe paying $600 to $700 a quarter, so to pay an extra $600 quarter is to pay another $250,000 to $300,000 or so, and that eats into your rent as an investment. So the thought is, they had three different agents over that time. I tried to track it online, and even tried on realestate.com.au and I think they’ve potentially taken it off the market so I don’t even know if it sold for that kind of money - certainly interesting. Another thing I’ve picked up is there are lots of similar developments and that’s a hard thing to stand out from the crowd. So, it’s a tough one. What are your thoughts?
Arthur Charlaftis: Based on the strata fees, because I do think they’ll offset the rent as well as what time it’s been on market, there’s always a worry when that is occurring, so I would pass.
Chris Gray: While I have friends that live in this area and absolutely love it, I’m not necessarily a fan of large blocks in highly densely developed areas, especially when there are expensive gyms, pools and saunas to pay out of the rent. I think the time on the market to me is a warning rather than an opportunity so I’m going to pass as well. But I would put it in there, for the right type of person, it potentially is the right kind of opportunity.
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Purchase or Pass? A lingering property in Zetland - an opportunity or warning sign?

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On this week’s episode of Purchase or Pass, Ingrid Willinge is joined by Tom Panos of News Limited and Duncan Gordon from Raine and Horne Newtown to look at an investment property with double parking and loft space potential in Bronte.
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It’s a two-bedroom unit in a small block of six, 7.1 kilometres from the Sydney CBD and under 5,090 metres to the local action. The property has a lock up garage plus space for a car in front. The unit faces north east and so its gets plenty of sun from first thing in the morning and as there’s windows on three sides, it will be sunny all day long.
Ingrid Willinge: What do you guys think? Take me through some of the upsides to this property in your opinion, Tom?
Tom Panos: I like it. Close to the water, lifestyle, small block, you can add value to it, parking for two cars which is very valuable and unique, and at the price level it might appear as being at the upper end but for that part of the world, it’s a pretty realistic figure, so I do like this property.
Ingrid Willinge: Duncan, what do you think are the key selling points on this property?
Duncan Gordon: I think Tom touched on them. They’re definitely the double parking, I mean, you’re so close to the beach, that’s a great thing to have on the weekend when everyone comes around with their cars. The add value thing is terrific, the loft potential to go in there but the small block is the other thing, only six in the apartment. I’m not sure what the strata levis are but they’re probably a reasonable rate being only a small block of six. So it ticks a lot of the major boxes when you’re looking for an investment, I think that’s a cracking property.
Ingrid Willinge: Looking at that loft space, would you want to find out, obviously there’s rights to build in the loft space, but would it be best as a buyer to talk to strata to find out exactly what your rights are?
 
Duncan Gordon: Absolutely, you would want to make sure you investigate all that before you commit anything in it. You might only get exclusive used to it and it might not end up being part of your lot. But yeah, definitely ask those major questions before you go in and sign the contract.
 Ingrid Willinge: With the other properties that have loft space, can you assume that there’s often a way to get rights to it? A lot of top floor properties would have this space above the roof.
Duncan Gordon: You need to ask those types of questions. I’ve got a property that’s coming up on the market and the same situation is with it, but when it gets run across the body corporate, there could be an expensive involved. It might just not be you get the rights to use it, you have to pay the owners corporation a sum of money to utilize that space, because it is common area at the moment.
Ingrid Willinge: Even though no one can use it?
Duncan Gordon: No one bar you, but yes.
Ingrid Willinge: Ok. What are some of the downsides to this do you think, and should we start with you Tom?
Tom Panos: Look, I don’t think it has a lot of downsides because I’m looking at the rental return on this property and it’s very good. I wouldn’t be too fussed about making use of the loft space or not because I think its got enough ticks there going for it and the most important thing is, it’s in a suburb that I think always performs well. A bit like, where Duncan works in Newtown, it’s a good part of the world and you’re always going to have a demand whether you’re looking for a tenant, or whether you’re looking for a buyer, you will always have people lining up for your open for inspections. These are the sorts of properties that real estate agents love listing because they know they’re going to be transacting them very quickly. I don’t think it actually has a lot of negatives and I think this property is going to sell pretty soon, and it’s good to try and get it at a good price.
Ingrid Willinge: I think that’s the whole issue right, price?
Tom Panos: Yep.
 
Duncan Gordon: It’s always the issue, isn’t it? In the market at the moment, I don’t think the buyer can be too choosey on that. The important thing is to try and secure something.
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Purchase or Pass? An investment property with loft space potential in Bronte

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On this week’s Purchase or Pass, Chris Gray is joined by Stuart Waugh of Bell Partners to look at a property that has a few problems and downsides to work out whether the positives will outweigh those negatives.
It’s a <a href="https://www.belleproperty.com/selling/NSW/Eastern-Suburbs/Maroubra/Apartment/14P0353-4-458-maroubra-road-maroubra-nsw-2035" target="_blank">two-bedroom unit</a>, in a small block of six, 11 kilometres from the CBD. The property is directly across the road from the beach, so you couldn’t get any closer to the water in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. However, it is a busy thoroughfare and there is a roundabout outside and a bus stop just around the corner. Internally, there’s polished wooden floorboards, contemporary finishes, a security intercom and a large sunroom or study. It also has a large 20-square-metre lock up garage.
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Chris Gray: So Stuart, looking at the numbers and some of the negatives to start with, the yield - $530 a week – works out to be about 3.5%, that can’t be too hard?
Stuart Waugh: With interest rates the way they are at the moment, it’s getting closer to it, but you’re right, I wouldn’t be rushing into it if I didn’t see it with a propertyism and what’s going. We’ll talk about the advantages in a minute, but definitely if you just saw the numbers as far as yield to purchase price, you’re going to be going, what’s wrong with this property?
Chris Gray: But again, you look at that ocean there and obviously they’ve got the turquoise in that water and it’s looking pretty glistening out there, which is good. Now, some of the things that weren’t in the advert; the exterior building, a lot of work needs to be done on that, there was leaking water coming through the enclosed balcony so paint is starting to peel away, and that’s before we even start talking about the roundabout.
Stuart Waugh: This sort of property so close to the water is going to have issues regarding the salt water coming in and having an affect on the concrete and things like that. It’s going to have issues and a property close to the water is going to get that, and you know that.
Chris Gray: That’s just what you have to deal with, don’t you? So again, concrete cancer, some people, if they’ve never heard the term, think it’s the worst thing in the world. Once you realise and you’ve been around Sydney long enough, you realise pretty much every property in the eastern suburbs has concrete cancer.
Stuart Waugh: Yeah, and they’re getting better with dealing with it too. You have to look at the minutes to make sure the sinking fund has some money in it, making sure the building is preparing for these sort of things and there’s definitely ways of overcoming concrete cancer but it’s definitely something you should look out for.
Chris Gray: There’s only six in the block, which is a good thought. At least if you need to deal with stuff, you’ve only got to persuade maybe three or four other people. It’s not as though you have 20 in a block, that’s obviously a bit of a positive. What are your thoughts about roundabouts, bus stops and thoroughfares?
Stuart Waugh: I don’t run away from it anymore. Personally, I’ve lived in a place that was close to a roundabout and had a bus stop not far away. Busses do stop about 11pm and they’re not always coming every 10 minutes so you have to look at the timetable to make sure it doesn’t come every 10 minutes. There are some things there, but you have to look outside the realms of just a property when you’ve got that kind of thing to consider. Who would have thought when you buy a property you have to look at a bus timetable. So you have to look at every realm of it.
Chris Gray: Again, it’s really the agent’s job to sell you that photo, isn’t it? Sell you the beach. This is where you have to be the accountant kind of type and the unemotional type to say well okay lets leave that a side and look at some of the other types of issues and are the issues big enough to stop me from buying it.
Stuart Waugh: Yeah, and we’re talking about a blue chip, good property area as far as Sydney, you know. We’re on the beach here, we’re walking to the beach, we’re having a good lifestyle, we have the sun aspect in the morning or the afternoon. It’s actually a good property, so you have to look at where you are and what it offers. Not only the traffic and things like that, it’s not as though you’re on a highway.
Chris Gray: We had a case probably about two years ago, we were developing a building and there were tenants in there and we actually had to cut off the power and the water. The tenants were so keen, because they loved the place so much they actually said, look don’t worry about it, we’ll still stay here, we’ll even still pay full rent. Legally, you can’t have no power and no water and the rest of it, but it goes to show, if you find the right property in the right location, tenants will do anything to rent that property and if there’s noise, they’ll put up with it.
Stuart Waugh: Sydney does have a shortage of supply, but people want to live where they want to live and they see the beautiful ocean and see the things it offers and they get used to that kind of stuff and they want to stay there.
Chris Gray: Now, another thing that you need to think of with prices these days, because interest rates are half of what they were before, people’s buying capacity has gone up. So, they might now be able to borrow say $900,000, where as before maybe $700,000 or $800,000. They have to be careful comparing like with like and they know a property’s value rather than paying what the bank will lend them.
Stuart Waugh: Exactly right. People are going to start weighing up their options as far as what they can pay in rent, what they can pay in interest, and you’re right, both sides of the story need to be careful what they’re pricing it. So a vendor who’s putting their rent out there has to make sure it’s affordable or comparable as far as someone’s going to buy it.
Chris Gray: So in this case, purchase or pass for you?
Stuart Waugh: Well I said purchase, and the reason I said purchase was because I do feel, in this circumstance, there may be a renter who has been there for a long period of time and therefore the rent may not have been reviewed, and also, I don’t usually buy properties without balconies but in this case, I did say purchase.
Chris Gray: I’m definitely not a fan of noises, it does upset the tenants and a high turnover of tenants reduces your income. But everything else is cosmetic on the problems there, so I’m stilling going to go for a purchase with this one as well.
The property sold for $780,000 last month through Shane Vincent and Mathew Demetrios of Belle Property.
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Purchase or Pass? An investment property opposite a roundabout in Maroubra

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On this week's  Purchase or Pass, Chris Gray is joined by Stuart Waugh director of Bell Partners Accountants to take a look at an investment property with high strata levies to decide whether they think it’s worthy of a purchase.
As always, we’re assuming the location is a given, it’s more the finer details we’re trying to analyse. This week we have a two-bedroom unit with parking, 7.8 kilometres from the Sydney CBD and 700 metres from the local action.
It’s in a blonde brick block of nine units, which isn’t that attractive. The unit itself is on the top floor and faces north so it gets plenty of sunlight. It’s in good condition and has a balcony for some outdoor living and the strata fees are around $1,200 a quarter. What are the initial thoughts on the description?
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Stuart Waugh: I don’t mind it. The initial purchase price and the initial rent looked quite attractive. I mean, we’re going to talk about the strata levies in a second but from initial thoughts and the photos I’ve seen, and also the way it faces and the rent you’re getting for the purchase price, I like it.
Chris Gray: Yeah, so certainly all those pictures it’s perfectly livable, there are plenty of trees in the background and an ocean view, so generally it does look pretty good there. One of the things it said on the advert was pet friendly, now with a lot of young people these days, not everyone’s getting married in their twenties like the old days. Pet friendly has got to be another bonus as well, doesn’t it?
Stuart Waugh: It is for people who like pets, for people who don’t like them –
Chris Gray: I hate them myself.
Stuart Waugh: Yeah I’m not a huge fan of pets myself, especially in an apartment block. For people who want to bring pets it’s a big plus.
Chris Gray: Obviously the blonde brick is a bit of a negative there; it doesn’t look that pretty, but again that can be rendered for a price. So really it’s the strata fees, so $1,200 a quarter, we would probably look around $750, so an extra $500 or $600 bucks, do you think that makes a difference?
Stuart Waugh: It makes a huge difference. It’s more the outgoings Chris, it’s not just the strata levies. The strata levies are a part of that obviously, but you’ve got rates, you’ve got land tax if that comes onto it as well, a special levy, that comes onto it as well. They’ve got to look at all the outgoings as far as what they blend together, whether they make it affordable or not. The other thing with this one though, I thought the rent was quite attractive at $650 against $695,000, it’s getting up towards 5%, so I did like that and that will make it very affordable as far as the strata levies.
Chris Gray: Yeah, I mean the big thing is I’m just doing my accounts, we’re only a week into the year but I’m trying to get my accounts done in advanced so I know where I am with things. A lot of my expenses used to be 1% of the property value, now they may be 1% to 1.5%, so again another $500 is suddenly another $2,000 a year. Sure, it’s tax deductible but it does start to mount up with all the other figures doesn’t it?
Stuart Waugh: It does and you have to try to make sure you’re getting the growth out of the property for the maintenance fees you’re paying. I mean ultimately, a strata levy is a maintenance fee, so you’re maintaining your asset; therefore you’re trying to maintain your growth to make sure you can pay yourself back. 
Chris Gray: Now the other thing I thought I’d bring up is, look if they’re raising money to maybe put on another level or some bigger balconies or even glass balconies. Sometimes that can be a good thing, rather than raise $10,000 on a special levy they might add an extra $500 on for the next few years. So you do need to look at the reason for the high levies, but if it’s generally that they’re just not doing anything and it’s high levies then it’s probably not a good thing.
Stuart Waugh: And that comes in to it. If you’re going to be a person who holds that property for a long period of time, hopefully if you’re a good part of the body corporate there, you might say, well yeah you are going to put something into the property in the next five years and if you’re going to hold the property for ten years, you’d be part of that improvement.
Chris Gray: So a purchase or pass for you?
Stuart Waugh: I say purchase.
Chris Gray: Well this property does tick a lot of the boxes but cash flow is already negative in those inner city areas and strata fees over $750 a quarter do drain a cash flow so for me, until I see the strata reports and see what they’re putting in to it, I’m probably going to pass on this one for the moment.
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Purchase or Pass? Chris Gray looks at high strata fees in Coogee

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On this week’s Purchase or Pass, Chris Gray is joined by Tom Panos from News Limited to look at a block of units situated next door to a block of housing commission properties.
Once investors have bought a number of units they often chase blocks of units, but is that the right strategy to go for and would you still buy if it was next to a block of housing commission properties?
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It’s a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-maroubra-113609991">small block of four units</a>, 10.9 kilometres from the Sydney CBD and just 150 metres to the beach. The units are in reasonable condition with fairly new paint and carpet but there is potential to upgrade them as the years go on. The units are all identical layout and feature two bedrooms with an internal living space of 87 square metres each. There is parking for four cars at the rear. Next door to the unit block is two housing commission blocks of units.
Chris Gray: I guess the first question Tom is, how much demand is there for small blocks of units and I guess, blocks of units that are close to the beach?
Tom Panos: Enormous demand, enormous demand. Even last Saturday I was doing a block of four in Lakemba, which isn’t a suburb that is regarded as a hot suburb in terms of real estate, but I think there were about 20 people registered to bid there. Every block of unit that I’m ever involved in auctioning, you just see record number of registrations. Big demand for blocks.
Chris Gray: Everyone seems to want this, but it’s getting more and more expensive. So say if you have a budget of $3 million, there’s probably not that many blocks around for under $4 million is there?
Tom Panos: Very rare, that’s the bracket everyone wants to go in, so the smaller the block the more attractive it is for buyers.
Chris Gray: So I guess the big question here is obviously it’s a good unit, close to the beach, its got parking and all the rest of it, but the housing commission next door. Would you generally buy next to a housing commission? Would you recommend that sort of thing?
Tom Panos: Look I’ve lived in a street that had housing commission and I never noticed it. So I think the whole issue Chris is, how much of the proportion is there normal to housing commission in a street? That would be the factor I would be looking at. So close to the beach, it depends if there’s only a few housing commission properties there. I wouldn’t think it was a big issue.
Chris Gray: And what if there’s say, 90% housing commission and there’s only one or two houses, or one or two blocks that are regular blocks?
Tom Panos: I think you are then faced with a dilemma, when you are going to be a seller, everyone’s going to know that that’s a housing commission street. You’ve got to take into account that its going to affect the resale value and you should take that into account when you are actually buying the property.
Chris Gray: Because affectively, you’re buying the best house in the street aren’t you?
Tom Panos: Correct, which is generally not the greatest strategy in real estate. But I would say if it’s a small proportion of housing commissions, don’t let that stop you from buying a great block of units.
Chris Gray: When people are looking at blocks of units, a lot of people like the control they can have, all four units themselves and they don’t have to worry about other owners. What are some of the other risks maybe with finance or leasing or anything like that with blocks of units?
Tom Panos: I think maybe the biggest thing is the repair bill. Generally speaking, when something goes in a block of units, because it's far bigger in metres it's more expensive. So the cheque that you write out to the agent for the repairs or the trades people when you’re dealing direct is significantly more. I think the financing can be more expensive, the ratio of the amount of money you can borrow decreases because there’s a higher risk.
Chris Gray: Quite often once you have three or four different units the bank will actually treat it as commercial won’t they? They might only lend say 70% and charge you, maybe 10% interest, say maybe than 6% or 7%.
Tom Panos: Correct, which affects your return because if you look at it, it's about input output. So you might be getting a decent return, but if you’re paying 2% more in a commercial rate, that does affect your final return in your investment.
Chris Gray: Ok so purchase or pass at $2.55 million close to the beach for you?
Tom Panos: Based on what I’ve seen there, beach, small block, rare, purchase.
Chris Gray: And look, for me I think this is a pretty rare opportunity and with a current rent of 4.5% before you even do anything, then it’s a pretty good price based on that yield. I wouldn’t worry about the neighbours when you’re only 150 metres to the beach, there’ll be a whole queue of people to rent or buy, especially if you do it in the summer months. So I’ll definitely go for a purchase on this one as well.
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Purchase or Pass? A block of units next to a housing commission in Maroubra

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In our Purchase or Pass segment this week we check out some of the finer details involved with choosing an investment property.
This week it’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-nsw-coogee-112901251">a two bed, two bath unit in a very small block of five</a> located 8.7 kilometres from the CBD and 500 metres from the local attractions. The unit features two balconies off the bedrooms and the lounge and is pretty large at 115 square metres. It’s situated on the ground floor at the rear of the block so is pretty quiet away from any traffic.
<img alt="coogeemarch15one" height="348" width="470" src="/images/stories/2013/03/coogeemarch15one.jpg">
Chris Gray: What are your thoughts on this?
Arthur Charlaftis: Well it’s quite a large unit for a  two bedroom unit, we always talk about being on a small block so I think that meets the criteria there. I was going to ask you what you thought about ground floor versus first floor.
Chris Gray: That’s a bit of a funny one. We quite often get some clients that say I have to get ground floor or I don’t want to be ground floor because they’re worried about people breaking in so maybe it depends on what suburb you’re in. But obviously some of the ground floor apartments are great because there are no stairs and sometimes you can get off into the back. I’m 50-50 on this one.
Arthur Charlaftis: Obviously the location on this one isn’t going to be too much of issue with the ground floor apartment.
Chris Gray: In the good suburbs I don’t think there’s too many problems these days.
Arthur Charlaftis: It presents well so there’s not much to do. So it depends on what type of investor you are for whether it makes sense for you to do this.
Chris Gray: Exactly. If you have the cash and you want to renovate you can’t really add any value but if you’re really stretching for $750,000, that’s a lot of money, then you can get something that’s really done up.
Arthur Charlaftis: Now tell me about the strata fees, $1,800 per quarter seems very high.
Chris Gray: Yes $1,800 per quarter is quite high. Quite often we’re looking at about $650. So it’s about three times as much. Our graphic of the cash flow here shows the cash flow on this one, assuming a rent of $750 per week, you’re going to be paying $7,200 in strata fees before all your other fees, so your net rent there of $31,800 there are more costs to come out of that. But if you’re only paying $650,000 you could have $36,000 so to me looking at 4.85% net return compared to 4.24%, there’s quite a difference there.
Arthur Charlaftis: So, on an investment basis I’d look at passing on this one.
Chris Gray: This unit ticks a lot of the boxes in that it is larger than most units and in a smaller block in a quiet location. However it’s all about the numbers and high strata fees can make it into an expensive investment. I would prefer an older apartment with lower strata fees and so for that reason I’m going to pass.
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Purchase or Pass? A Coogee apartment with high strata fees

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A couple of weeks ago on our Purchase or Pass segment we featured a property which had a potential view loss and we still decided to purchase it. This week we check out another similar property and debate whether to buy it or not.
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Address: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/Apartment-Unit-Flat/NSW/Maroubra/?adid=2010222973">9/34 Bona Vista Avenue, Maroubra</a>
Location: 10.9 kms from CBD
Beds: 2
Bath: 1
Parking: 1
Size: 71sqm incl car
Price: $600k est
Rent: $590/wk
It’s a two bedroom, one bathroom unit with undercover parking, 10.9 kms from the CBD. It’s in a small boutique block of nine and at the rear of the block there’s only one unit per floor and only a small common wall. It’s 130 metres to the beach. The unit is well maintained and has low strata fees of $560 per quarter. The block, like many in the street, is three stories high and the neighbouring property in front of the view is only 2 stories high.
Let’s decipher some of the real estate language to see exactly what it means.
Chris Gray: If it’s block of 9 with only one unit at the back what does that mean?
Charles Tarbey: From a developer’s point of view you’ll look at whether there’s too many apartments in the complex. You look at whether there are 10 on one floor because it does change the dynamics of the building. I know I’d rather live in a building with a lot less number of apartments and a lot more owner-occupiers in the block. And a lot fewer people on the same floor that I have to deal with, especially if there are elevators or stairs to navigate. From a privacy issue it’s better too.
Chris Gray: I think the way this operates is you come in from the main entrance at the front and that’s access to six. Whereas if you’re in the back part that’s only three units so you’re not getting doors crashing and rest of it. It’s a bit more of a peaceful life.
Charles Tarbey: It is more of a peaceful life but looking at the size of that property, 71 square metres the entire block would fit in my front yard in the Blue Mountains. You have to get used to the suburbs.
Chris Gray: Undercover space versus garage, do you think it makes a difference?
Charles Tarbey: It makes a bit of a difference but in those areas just getting off-street parking is very good, so if you can take the property off the road a car-port is really pretty sound.
Chris Gray: If you look at the floor plan, 71 square metres including the garage so more like 50 square metres, when you’ve got no hallways you actually look at the size of the bedrooms, they’re both double size and a loungeroom, it’s actually not too bad.
Charles Tarbey: I guess the bedrooms would come off the loungeroom so you’re basically walking into the whole thing. My biggest concern is you’re really paying for an outlook. So what happens if they decide to build bigger or higher than you down the road and they block out everything from there. That’s definitely a possibility because that’s happening a lot now.
Chris Gray: Because you haven’t got a big unit, you haven’t got big balconies, you haven’t got a big anything, you’re actually going to be paying that price for the view so if you lose it potentially the property will go down in value.
Charles Tarbey: There are a lot of properties that are hidden. I spoke to a lady at security at Qantas, strange place to talk real estate, but she bought the house in Hurstville and that’s really taken off. And I said yes because that’s a hidden gem. I speak to a lot of agents, I spoke to an agent today and he’s telling me the apartments there are going crazy at $400,000 to $800,000. And that’s a magnificent area. You’ve got water views in a lot of areas, you’re away from the city. I mean why would you stretch and pay a lot of money for a small apartment when you can get that something just that bit bigger in a quieter area.
Chris Gray: So given there’s three storeys pretty much across the whole street and the neighbour is two stories, would you buy that or take a pass.
Charles Tarbey: I think there are plenty of other places to buy.
Chris Gray: For me this is a very tough question – the unit would have had the view from the day it was built. More owners are looking at developing buildings these days so there’s a chance someone is going to build up a level, it might even be me, so I’d be trying to target that two level one next door. If the property was very large, had a great balcony or something else unique about it I might still buy it. But as it hasn’t I’m going to pass for the moment.
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Purchase or Pass? A Maroubra room with a potential loss of view

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In our Purchase or Pass segment this week Chris Gray is joined by Tom Panos, head of real estate advertising at News Ltd, to check out a potential investment property in North Bondi. It’s a two-bedroom, one-bathroom, unit with lock up garage, 8.6 kilometres from the CBD and 600 metres to the local action. It’s in a blond brick block of just nine units and has a leafy outlook across the district. The unit is in reasonable condition but certainly not shiny and new. There are windows on three sides and there are balconies off both bedrooms and the lounge.
The property rents for $700 per week and sold for $732,000.
With clearance rates around 50% many people would have good reason to assume the property market is in a pretty tough place. But inside that property market are many micro markets, and they are all doing something different. In our Purchase or Pass segment this week we take a look at a property that sold for over $50,000 above the vendors' expectations and after just one open for inspection.
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Chris: What are your general thoughts on this property as an investment?
Tom: I like it. We see good properties that sell well, this is a good classic example. Some say that the buyer may pay a premium for a property like that, but I think that good properties always get good prices. 
Chris: We have talked about the vendors' expectations, wanting $675,000 and it sold for $732,000. When you get vendors expectations, are they usually high or low? 
Tom: Every vendor across Australia, across the planet, thinks they have the best house in the street. 
Chris: So what is it about a property that makes it stand out and sell in a week? 
Tom: Location is a big thing, no question about it. If someone has the right spot, it will attract a lot of people. If it is a well-renovated property or is it a dump and they can see it being totally renovated. It is the ones that are in between which are often take or leave. It is either beautiful renovations suited to the general population or dumps and deceased estates which fly through the open for inspections. 
Chris: Reading into the detail of the ads, saying there are windows on three sides, it's going to be pretty sunny. 
Tom: Absolutely, sun is a big thing. It is a questioned asked to agents all the time. They usually turn all the lights on before the inspection anyway! 
Chris: Also, it’s a small block, people want to live in massive townhouses, people want to live near the beaches and the city. It's location, isn’t it? 
Tom: Location and small community where you get to know the people is a big thing, less changing people all the time. 
Chris: So if it was you, purchase or pass? 
Tom: I would buy it, but I would buy most things. 
Chris: We always say that good properties always sell well and this is a classic example. Some may say the buyer paid a premium for this property given the vendors; expectations, but if there were plenty of buyers that were offering similar amounts of money then that’s the market price. I would much rather pay a few dollars more for a property that has the potential to sell in a matter of days than get a property for a bargain that no one really wants and might take a year to sell. So for that reason I’m going to purchase.
Chris Gray is a buyers' agent at <a href="https://www.yourempire.com.au/">Empire</a>. He is host of Your Property Empire on Fridays on the Sky News Business Channel.
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Chris Gray

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