Central Equity returns July 21st with Australian Property Info Sessions
Central Equity’s Australian Property Info Sessions are back by popular demand from July 21st until July 30th in Knightsbridge, London. If you are interested in property investment in Australia then this is a great opportunity to hear “how to purchase, finance, lease & manage an Aussie property while living in the UK.” The info sessions will include tips on how to save tens of thousands of dollars in Stamp Duty, a tax charged by all Australian state governments on the purchase of real estate.
There will be a number of guest speakers on the different days, including a Manager from Commonwealth Bank, Australia’s biggest home lender. He will explain options for non-Australians to get bank finance for Australian property and also discuss some of the latest lending criteria being used by Australian banks. Also present will be a practising property and migration lawyer for overseas purchasers. Both speakers are flying in from Melbourne
especially for this event.
The Australian Property Info Sessions are also a great opportunity to see why Central Equity’s major new release, Vue Grande, has proven so popular.
Central Equity has just completed a brand new Information Centre and Display in Melbourne at the site of Vue Grande ahead of upcoming local marketing activities, so this is an opportune time to check out this landmark tower to be built on a prime corner site facing public open space and with spectacular views of the CBD, river and bay. Vue Grande should be of high interest to property investors due to it’s phenomenal location at the junction of Crown Casino, Yarra River and Melbourne Exhibition Centre (Australia’s largest).
This great location will further improve when, on the banks of the Yarra, the Melbourne Convention Centre is completes in 2008 and will lie just metres from Vue Grande. Construction has just commenced on this Aus$1 billion+ joint project between the Victorian Government, City of Melbourne and private developers. The new convention centre is the only such venue with a six-star green energy rating and will not only be Australia’s largest meeting place but also the only 5,000 seat meeting venue in the world that can offer a totally unobstructed view of proceedings.
In recent years Melbourne has climbed from 30th to 22nd in world convention city rankings and the new centre is the key factor in the Governments aims to continue this growth and establish Melbourne as a major convention destination.
However, the new convention centre is not just about meetings and doing business. The project creates an entire new riverside precinct of restaurants, cafes, a 5 star Hilton hotel, office tower and a new shopping centre. In the last 15 years Melburnians have embraced riverside dining with the success of Southgate, Crown and Federation Square. This new precinct should similarly add to the success of Southbank. Vue Grande is almost at the doorstep to the new centre and is currently the only off-the-plan project within 500 metres of this exciting new precinct.
It is estimated that the new centre will add 2,500 permanent jobs adding to Southbank’s growing corporate family which now includes major offices for IBM, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Fosters, Herald & Weekly Times/News Corp, Esso and Crown.
Vue Grande podium apartments start at just £115,000 and tower apartments from £129,000. To see the model and plans attend an Info Session in July. One lucky attendee will also win an “Escape Winter” luxury holiday to Melbourne in January 2007.
Seats for the Info Sessions are limited so bookings are essential. More event info and online bookings click here
traineeinvestor said,
July 12, 2006 @ 9:54 am
We get these sorts of promotions in Hong Kong a lot.
Whenever I see someone trying to sell property off the plan to overseas investors I have to ask myself why they are incurring all the significant additional expense of selling overseas instead of selling the properties locally (where the selling costs will be a lot less)? I have never been given an acceptable answer to this question.
john said,
July 16, 2006 @ 3:40 pm
Dont’t purchase a central Equity apartment, i bought one 2 years ago 2004 for 435,000 and now its worth 279,000 I was told it would gain 31% in 5 years, but its gone down. My carpark should be worth 50 grand its now worth 30 grand; all these properties are devalued and its hard to compete when all the flats are sold by there own agency micm, who basically give them away for more turnover into micms back pocket. Several of my business collegues have also lost money.
INVESTORS TAKE NOTE… ITS A BAD INVESTMENT, its all lies, the aussies can see it, so now they are trying to suck in offshore investors, a few words DONT BUY A CENTRAL EQUITY APARTMENT EVER.
[Comment has been edited]
Steve said,
July 23, 2006 @ 10:08 am
Having read the above comments. I see that this investment does not seem a viable option. I need to be satisfied I can receive a return on my money not see my investement depreciate in value; and possibly run the risk of losing thousand of dollars in agency fees and service charge costs.
notSureYet said,
July 28, 2006 @ 11:30 pm
hmmm, well, we’ve just come home from one the conferences and we’re impressed. However, now we’re doing our research on CE. Seems there’s a few complaints but when you’re the biggest property developer in Melbourne there’s going to have to be some people who are dissatisfied. We’re looking to buy a place to move in and live and thus won’t be affected (immediately) by the rise and fall in rent prices. But we’re still not sure. Going to keep reading more about CE now. One last thing - traineeinvestor - the reason why CE have come OS to try to sell apartments is that they know that there’s a lot of babyboomers in the uk and europe looking to retire abroad and spend their money. Europeans want to buy into the aussie lifestyle and CE are showing entrepreneurial skills in getting out there and selling it to them. There’s nothing wrong with that
beentheredonethat said,
September 27, 2007 @ 7:31 am
I agree with Trainee and John. And sorry Notsureyet, it sounds like you have fallen for CE’s dog and pony show like I did in 2001.
I bought one (from Hong Kong) and 6 years later it’s up by a total of 6% and cost me more per month (despite a decent rental return) than I made in capital gains. That in a city with a HOT property market that has boasted steller returns from low rise apartments and houses only 2km down the road over the same period. People who bought CE apartments in the 18 months (I know one) after mid 2001 are often sitting on large losses and even had their places valued lower than buying price (by the bank) when they were released for occupation.
The fundamental problem is, they all look the same and they just keep building more of them, so there is no rarity value. Plus, there is oversupply. They own loads of land in Southbank, yet tell you there is none left to build on when you ask them. Every time the market picks up - they bang up a few more towers and that keeps the supply higher than the demand. Not just in Southbank - but in Port Melbourne and Docklands (which BTW won’t be completed for around another 15-20 years due to the amount of land available for development). Not just CE - others too.
Really - do not buy these tower block apartments in Melbourne as an investment. The local market is NOT interested in them - they mostly appeal to overseas buyers and renters from Asia whose kids go to uni here. Southbank is an OK area, but lacks real social infrastructure and community. Sure it has some riverside restaurants and exhibition centre and a casino. Not much like a rsidential neighbourhood tho.
The Aussie market is fundamentaly different to UK where here the land value (size) is a recognised and significant factor in any deal. Land appreciates, the property depreciates. In Oz, houses are VERY often bulldozed to the ground and new ones built - people buy the land as much (often more) than the house itself. Not like UK. Tower apartment blocks have no land component to speak of.
I know all this (and more) since I moved here over a year ago and studied the market locally. I’m now selling my CE place. My house in the suburbs (10km out of the CBD) made more cap gains in 6 months and the apartment did in 6 years.
CE are great marketers - they need to be. And they are a very professional company in many other ways - quite impressive. They own the rental management, building management, buying and selling agencies and short term letting agency. So believe John when he says they are lining their own pocket at whatever transaction you decide on. Even when you give up and sell. :-).
The real reason they sell overseas is that local folks won’t touch them now. Some were burned in the nearby Docklands apartment fiasco and local property professionals advise clients to stay away from them.
I quite like the folks at CE. The quality of their product is OK (not great, but OK). Would I buy and live in one as a primary home if I was young couple/sigle and wanted to be in the city? Maybe, if I could afford the price. Would I recommend it as an investment? Absolutely not.
beentheredonethat said,
September 27, 2007 @ 7:46 am
Something else I found from someone who seems to have attended the briefing and have some local experience with pertinent comments and questions:
Found at:
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:sEP84UTGxPMJ:www.jenman.com.au/news_question.php%3Fid%3D216+complaints+about+%27central+equity%27+australia&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Real Estate Industry
June 9th 2006
PITCHING TO THE BRITISH
Selling Melbourne apartments in London.
I am an Australian living in the United Kingdom and I recently attended one of Central Equity’s property briefings in London.
The session was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Knightsbridge, and concerned a development called Vue Grande in the Southbank area of Melbourne. The presentation seemed to be aimed at investors who would buy an apartment to rent out to people primarily working in the CBD.
A representative from the Commonwealth Bank was present to interview people who wished to arrange a mortgage.
The building would not be finished until 2008 but buyers were asked for a ten per cent deposit which would be kept in a trust fund until the building was completed. Because the properties would be bought “off-plan” there would be no stamp duty.
Slides were shown giving figures for likely rental income and so on, but the slides flashed off very quickly and I was unable to jot down any figures.
I must say I had grave misgivings about their sales pitch, particularly with regard to the prospects of being able to sell an apartment at a later date.
I am always suspicious of a “hard sell” and although a certain amount of pressure was put on me to sign a contract, I made it clear that I would never do that without a good deal of thought.
People overseas are often not very well acquainted with the local property markets in Australia, and it is invaluable to have sight of an article such as yours.
RESPONSE
Message to all British investors:
If Central Equity, an Aussie property developer, can make the journey to London to sell Melbourne apartments then surely you can make the journey to Melbourne to do some research BEFORE buying anything.
Melbourne is a lovely city and Southbank is a delightful part of the city – it hums with activity, restaurants, shops, a casino, buskers, ritzy hotels and, yes, apartments fronting a wide boardwalk on the banks of the Yarra River. A bit like Paris.
So, come down and take a look around – spend some money and have a great time.
And maybe, while in our lovely country, you might start to wonder why Central Equity would make a 24,000 mile-round-trip to sell Melbourne apartments to British buyers.
Why not just sell the apartments to Aussies?
TonyB said,
November 6, 2007 @ 12:20 am
I bought off-plan a unit in Central Equity’s City Point tower, Bourke Street in 2000. I sold it in July 2007 and after expenses got back a little less than what I paid, and while I owned it the rent didn’t cover the mortgage - in the last year the net yield was about 3%. I’d have been much better off putting the money in a savings account. On the plus side, when a tenant left it was re-let in next to no time and the MICM management was efficient.