Residents join forces for real estate windfall of $1.9 million each
FOUR Canley Heights families have pocketed a windfall of about $1.9 million each by selling their properties as a group to a developer.
Fairfield
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FOUR Canley Heights families have pocketed a windfall of about $1.9 million each after joining forces to sell their properties to a developer.
While Sydney’s residential market is red-hot and increased by an estimated 10 per cent over the past 12 months, the boom prices are spilling into the outer suburbs where demand for more affordable living is driving prices upwards as well.
The line of properties — 27, 29, 31 and 33 Ascot St, Canley Heights and with a combined frontage of 61m and area of almost 3000sq m — sold for a cool $7.6 million.
The site is earmarked for a high-rise development.
Depending on council approval, the elevated block could accommodate up to 74 units over six storeys.
Selling principal Tom Lu, of Ray White Fairfield, was ecstatic with the selling price he secured for his four clients.
“I’m more than ecstatic,” he enthused.
“A bit more than a year ago, one of the neighbouring properties sold for $1.38 million. A year down the track, we’ve been able to get the residents an extra half-a-million dollars each.
“I’m more than happy.”
No. 27 last sold in 1991 for $134,000, No. 29 in 2000 for $180,000 and No. 33 in 1999 for $196,000 (in sales history is available for No. 31).
Mr Lu said in his 20 years in real estate, he’d never struck such a lucrative deal.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said.
While Canley Heights is one of the Fairfield local government area’s more prestigious suburbs its median sale price (last 12 months) is $775,000, according to Core Logic data.
There have been just 56 property sales in the last 12 months.
Mr Lu said the demand for property in the area, coupled with the relatively small number of listings, had fired the local marketplace into action.
He said the buyer of the Ascot St property was local, another group of people who’d banded together after spotting an opportunity which didn’t present itself very often.
The highly attractive selling point of the Ascot St parcel of properties was the zoning which allowed for high-rise development.
“There’s not many blocks that can go up,” Mr Lu said. “It won’t satisfy the demand ... it’s a niche market.”
Meanwhile, the four Ascot St households are ready to make some decisions based on their life-changing good fortune.
Mr Lu said the families all had lived at least 20 years in the area but were happy to move on because of the changing landscape.
He said he knew of two who were moving completely out of the area, one towards Campbelltown and another to Five Dock.
BOOM TOWN
SYDNEY’S property market is booming and Fairfield and Cabramatta are following suit with soaring house prices.
A four-bedroom home in Cumberland St, Cabramatta, sold for a whopping $1.4 million last week.
Laing + Simmons Cabramatta principal Sonny Tran, who sold the property, said prices in Cabramatta were “skyrocketing”.
“We put (the property) on the market ... and closed the deal for $1.4 million,” he said. “It was a 1200sq m block of land and an old fibro home.”
At least three other properties in Cabramatta have sold for more than $1 million this year.
Mr Tran said the suburb was becoming an increasingly popular place to live.
“A lot of the Asian communities want to get back to Cabramatta because they have all these facilities, the culture and it’s so close to the station,” he said.
According to Core Logic, there has been a 53.2 per cent change in the median price of a property in Cabramatta in the last five years. The median asking rent for Cabramatta is now $410 a week.
“People say prices are going to be coming down but I haven’t seen it yet. I see it keep going up,” Mr Tran said. “For the next few months it will depend on interest rates.”
Core Logic reports Fairfield has experienced an 80.7 per cent change in the median house price in the past five years.
In March, a four-bedroom brick home on 650sq m in Anthony St, Fairfield, sold for $1.125 million.
Meanwhile in Horsley Park, a six-bedroom home on a 1ha block is listed on realestate.com for $4.9 million.
Mr Tran’s advice to people looking to buy in Cabramatta and surrounding suburbs is “just go for it”.
“If you buy today you might think the prices are too much, but look back tomorrow and you will be laughing, prices will change again,” he said.