News
Opportunity Lost or Taken
Fri, 4 Feb 2011When I look back over the last 30 years in property, one area of the market which has often shown above average growth is “re-zoned” property.
In the past, we have seen suburbs like Scarborough, Joondanna and Yokine to the north and inner northern suburbs such as West Leederville, Subiaco and Wembley that start their life as single residential areas, made up mostly of single houses on large blocks of land.
As the suburbs aged, and given the often larger lots which were usually the old “quarter acre” (i.e. 1012 sqm) both local councils and the broader market recognised them as having redevelopment potential. An “upzoning” of the land was often initiated within parts of these suburbs which allowed for what was a single house to then become a duplex, triplex or quadruplex. Older houses soon become villas and townhouses as the suburb changed.
Along with this change, the population density usually increased, resulting in more traffic and the quiet local deli became a thriving little business.
Whether it is considered by you to be good or bad or whether you are indifferent to these changes, another stark reality of this change was that values of these larger upzoned blocks increased substantially. This increase in value was usually at a significant premium to the average within the locality.
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