Ballina Real Estate

Ballina has managed to squeeze into Your Investment Property Top 100 survey in the position number 100. The Ballina real estate market, while not cheap, is well be low capital city median house and unit prices. According to RP Data medium Ballina house prices equate to $420,000, while medium unit pricing is currently $330,000.

SQM research predicts that population will grow at a rate of 2% per annum, with an expected large influx of baby boomers looking to escape their inner-city dwellings. With demand expected to strengthen over the next decade you could say that it’s a good time to invest in Ballina property.

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As many of you are aware there has been a great deal of negative publicity surrounding property prices at the moment. Many respected journalists and publications have been communicating a 2.1% fall in prices during the March quarter, however the opinion of Residex CEO John Edwards is that the figure has been misinterpreted based on poorly calculated seasonal adjusting.

John Edwards stated in his blog:

So what happened? A well-known Australian research company within the industry reported that home values across Australia softened by -2.1 per cent (seasonally adjusted) over the March quarter (-0.4 per cent in raw terms). The raw number was the real result or close to it. (Residex, have reported that houses fell in value by 0.55 per cent for the quarter while units in fact increased in value by 0.65 per cent.)

It is not the fault of journalists who reported that house values fell by 2.1 per cent. In reading what was written, you could be forgiven for interpreting the large fall. However, what was really meant by what was said?

Over the long term, the usual growth rate in property in the March quarter is 1.7 per cent (as calculated by them) and during the March quarter just past, house values didn’t perform as well as they typically do, which is producing a growth rate of the 1.7 per cent. Values fell by 0.4 per cent, meaning they performed 2.1 per cent worse than they typically do on average in a March quarter – so no great fall, just worse than what is typically.

You can read the full article here!

Ballina’s two largest shopping centres, Ballina Fair and Ballina Central, are both up for sale.

A few weeks ago the owner of Ballina Central, Mirvac, placed the centre on the market at a price believed to be $30 million. This has been followed by Colonial First State seeking expressions of interest for the Ballina Fair shopping complex.

Marketing agent Simon Rooney has said that he expected to receive offers for Ballina Fair in excess of $70 million. “There has already been a lot of interest from organisations and high net worth individuals” he said. “I feel pretty confident that we will be able to sell it by the close of the expressions of interest.”

With a fully leased net income target of more than $6 million a year, Ballina Fair as solid long-term leases with the three major tenants – Target (lease expiry 2024), Woolworths (initial expiry in 2018), and the Cinema. These three major tenants bringing $1.5 million (20%) of rental income.

Do you think it is a coincidence that both major shopping centres are for sale at the same time that the Ballina bypass is near completion or am I reading too much into this? Let us know in the comments below!

Ballina Shire residents will soon receive an information kit outlining the changes that will take effect to garbage services as of July 2011.

From this July Ballina Council will move from a 2 bin collection service to a 3 bin collection service. The new service will consist of a weekly Gardening and Organics collection and alternating fortnightly Recycling and Garbage collection.

At this stage detailed information is fairly scarce but from the information I could obtain from the council website the service will consist of:

Gardening and Organics

Bin Colour: Dark green with light green lid (new bins provided to all urban residential properties)
Collection: Weekly
What to Put in Bin: Garden and lawn clippings, Food scraps wrapped in newspaper, Food contaminated paper and cardboard (eg pizza boxes)
Where Will It Go: For processing as compost in Lismore initially.

Recycling

Bin Colour: Green or dark body with yellow lid
Collection: Fortnightly (alternating with garbage service)
What to Put in Bin: Paper/cardboard, Plastics (numbered 1-6), Glass, Cans
Where Will It Go: Sorting, processing and recycling on the Gold Coast

Garbage

Bin Colour: New garbage bins will be issued with red lids to comply with state regulations
Collection: Fortnightly (alternating with recycling service)
What to Put in Bin: All other waste such as plastic wrapping and plastic bags, broken glass, ceramics, nappies.
Where Will It Go: Baled for placement in landfill at Ballina waste depot.

* Recycling and garbage bin colours will change to standard colours over time as bins wear out and are replaced.