Despite recent media focus on inflation, house prices falling and the rising cost of living, the decline in home ownership is not a recent phenomenon. It’s been a steady trajectory downwards for more than 20 years. It’s linked directly to rising house prices, where younger buyers are simply unable to enter the market. Interestingly, in our area, older buyers are struggling too, many can’t sell, for the lack of suitable seniors style housing – to move into. Hopefully, this imbalance will soon change.
We talked last week about rising rents. Here’s an interesting piece below. Rents are certainly up sharply locally. If you’re thinking of leasing a property, do call us; we have high quality tenants eager to secure something locally. Call Sienna Berney: 0431 302 023.
We’ve talked about the greater affordability of apartments, generally, over houses, especially after the past couple of years.
One concern recently, especially in new unit developments, has been shoddy building by developers. There have been several well-publicised examples. That has resulted in the establishment of the Independent Construction Industry Rating Tool (iCirt) which rates developers on a 5 star rating. If you’re a prospective buyer of a new apartment or townhouse, I thought this could be useful.
We’re loving all the ideas for sustainable homes coming from designers and architects currently. There are some great ideas out there. The recent 2022 NSW Architecture Awards had some wonderful entries, if you’re looking for inspiration, take a peak…
And here’s a piece on the idea that just keeps gaining momentum: Prefab environmentally sustainable homes. They’re cheaper to build, quicker to put up, and altogether a long way from the old models from decades ago. It may well be the way forward…if only we could find a bare block of land!
And locally, good news for the surfing community:
Several Northern Beaches surf life saving clubs have received a big chunk of the $4m annual grant funding from the NSW Government under the Surf Club Facility Program.
Four Northern Beaches surf clubs, including Mona Vale and Bilgola will share in $741,710 of grant funding this year, to support upgrading projects. We’ll also see the results of previous grants, with the official opening soon of the superb redevelopment of Mona Vale SLSC.
Now, a lot of people locally seem to have occasional internet issues, access dropping out etc. No, it’s not because the tide’s out, or the wind’s blowing the wrong way as some suggest…
Apparently, it’s the NBN, rolling out fibre to the kerb locally, which is why you might see a bloke in high-viz with a metal detector looking for the junction boxes…and why you might want to ensure your home’s cabling is upgraded to link into it. Finally…yippee!
The Avalon Plan last year looked at ways to upgrade the village, and make it more user-friendly. Unfortunately, it did seem that parts of it were somewhat ‘one size fits all’ generic ideas that didn’t really factor in the unique nature of the place.
One area that clearly split opinion was cycle lanes. Last Tuesday night, the Northern Beaches Council scrapped the cycleway entirely after a backlash led by three residents’ groups concerned about safety, parking spaces and the loss of nine trees.
There was an interesting presentation last Sunday on a Vision for Pittwater, with a number of long term locals, speakers, architects, engineers and landscapers, essentially about the need for action to protect our lovely area from both over and inappropriate development. For more information, email:
Pittwaterenvironmentalheritage@gmail.com or check Insta @ pittwaterenvironmentalheritage.
If you are looking for a quiet/interesting option for Friday/Saturday/Sunday nights…meteors!
See you on the Headland!
And for some out-of-this-world properties, scroll down…