Sydney apartment development lets first home buyers have first dibs
2015-06-30An innovative scheme in Sydney's south-west giving first home buyers the chance to buy off-the-plan properties before anyone else is unlikely to be rolled out in inner-city areas, experts say.
In what is thought to be the first of its kind in Sydney, these buyers would get one day to themselves to buy properties ahead of investors and other owner occupiers who traditionally have deeper pockets. But to do this they would need to sign a statutory declaration saying they had not bought property before, the selling agent Sam Elbanna, of CPM Realty, said.
"The reason we're doing it is because we think it works, it levels the playing field for first home buyers, and gives them a chance," he said.
Another developer was planning a similar scheme for an off-the-plan apartment project in February next year, "also in an up-and-coming area like Greenacre with good amenities", Mr Elbanna said.
At The Eden, prospective buyers have already started handing over $5000 deposits that get them in the door on the day – expected to be in the third week of September. On the strength of the interest so far Mr Elbanna expected "a good proportion" of the project would be bought by first home buyers.
All of the one, two and three-bedroom apartments are priced under $650,000, which means first home buyers are eligible for the NSW government's $15,000 first-home owners grant. And 21 of the 33 apartments (17 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom), which are priced under $550,000, attract no stamp duty. The 14 townhouses start at $789,000.
The proportion of mortgages taken up by first home buyers in NSW dropped to 6.5 per cent in April, the second-lowest mark on record, while investors accounted for more than 61 per cent of such loans.
Another agent Murray Wood, a director of residential projects at CBRE, said while it was encouraging that developers were starting to provide a leg-up for first home buyers, they were unlikely to introduce similar incentives on apartment and townhouse projects in inner and middle-ring areas because higher land costs meant fewer first home buyers could afford to live there.
"It's fair to say that the middle to inner ring is mostly for second or third property buyers, it's not normally your first home buyer who is active in that area," Mr Wood said.
"If they need larger accommodation they're going to have to look in the middle to outer ring purely because of price."
Mr Elbanna agreed that not every off-the-plan project would be suitable for this kind of incentive, saying that the project had to be within a first home buyer's budget to make it worthwhile. "There's no point doing it on a harbourfront development where the average price is $3 million."
Paul Lowe, sales and marketing director at Frasers Property, which is developing Putney Hill at Ryde, said Frasers made sure that first home buyers were identified in the early stages of the sale process so they could be given "extra support" and then invited to a special buyers' day before a project was open to the public.
This had helped more people buy their first home, he said.
Source :http://news.domain.com.au/domain/domain-news/sydney-apartment-development-lets-first-home-buyers-have-first-dibs-20150630-gi0slr.html
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