Inner City Living

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

In the last 15 to 20 years the shift to living in the centre of the city or in the inner suburbs became as strong as the shift to the edge of the city to live in a house on a quarter acre block had been in the 1950s and 60s. The reversal has been driven primarily by the desire to live a more exciting, cosmopolitan lifestyle and the convenience of living close to work. Many single or sometimes double fronted older style houses are being renovated to reflect modern day living. Some of the disadvantages to overcome are traffic

Renovations on the Rise

Monday, June 24, 2013

Australia's love affair with renovating is expected to continue with property equity levels beginning to improve. In Victoria, current levels of housing starts remain higher than anywhere else and renovation investments are at record levels. The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveal that in 2012 building approvals for home renovations totalled $6.35 billion or around $500 million every month. This trend of growing renovations is likely to continue not only because Australians love to renovate, but also as households increasingly prefer to direct excessive property transaction costs towards improving their existing homes, rather than trading up.