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Developer Caydon has been using virtual technology to sell homes off the plan since 2015, but many buyers still want to visit a display suite before purchasing.

Victoria’s construction pipeline is “under extreme threat” after a ban on real estate and display suite inspections in Melbourne was extended by six weeks.

The road map out of stage four lockdown provides for physical inspections to resume from October 26, almost 12 weeks after inspections were barred on August 6.

In a letter to the state government, the state’s powerful construction and development lobby has warned having inspections banned for close to three months would “severely” damage the state’s $26b a year home building economy and leave it requiring long-term stimulus.

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“The length of time the restrictions are proposed to be in place will mean that the new home sales pipeline will have been decimated for the months of August, September, October and possibly November, before entering the two quietest months of the year being December and January,” the letter warned.

“The extended restrictions have the potential to leave the new home sales pipeline effectively non-existent for up to six months. This possibility combined with the devastating overall impact of COVID-19 on the housing sector, will mean that the new housing sector will be severely damaged and in need of longer-term government stimulus and repair.”

Pace Development Group launched a display suite at their Pace of Sunshine North development on June 6, but it closed two months later and may not reopen until October.

It adds that Victorians’ access to the $25,000 HomeBuilder grants for new home construction will be limited as a result, reducing the impact of the federal-funded stimulus package.

The letter is signed by Urban Development Institute of Australia Victorian chief executive Danni Hunter, Master Builders Victoria chief executive Rebecca Casson and Property Council of Australia Victoria’s Mike Zorbas.

They have proposed capping numbers of people allowed to inspect display suites or homes, requiring customers register upon entry with a date and time stamp, and where possible to use discrete entries and exits to control movement through premises.

Home builder Porter Davis provided an example of how display homes could be reopened for public inspection after Melbourne’s first lockdown.

On Sunday, Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Leah Calnan described the extension of the bans as “disastrous”.

Caydon international marketing director Steve Williams said while limited property sales had continued for off-the-plan homes, the continued ban on inspections was a “heavy blow”.

“The implementation of social distancing and hygiene measures were swiftly implemented by the real estate industry in lockdown 1.0,” Mr Williams said.

“It is therefore disappointing that government hasn’t recognised that fact that we are a very low-risk industry when it comes to the spread of coronavirus. Extending the closure for an additional six weeks is, in our view, excessive.”

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The post Melbourne inspection ban poses ‘extreme threat’ to $26b building industry appeared first on realestate.com.au.

The Royal Hotel in the ghost town of Linda, on the Lyell Highway, east of Queenstown. West Coast, Tasmania. The Royal Hotel was closed in the 1950s. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

THE concrete shell of the Royal Hotel in the ghost town of Linda on Tasmania’s West Coast has a new owner.

The hotel ruins, and the mothballed cafe next door, were on the market for $149,000.

That ruins come with half an acre of land and two sheds – one currently being used as a bedroom and living area.

The property has been sold in the past to owners keen to restore it to its former glory but so far nothing has come of those plans.

New owner Zara Trihey is also in no hurry to start work but is keen to find out what her options are and what the locals might like to see.

Historical the town of Linda on the West Coast The Royal Hotel at Linda

Ms Trihey told Channel 7 said she was drawn to the hotel and would get to know the place before making any big decisions.

At one time Linda had a population of 600 and the Royal Hotel was at the heart of the thriving mining community.

The pub, built in 1901 was destroyed by fire in 1910 and rebuilt. In 1925 a young man was fatally stabbed at the pub.

Linda was starting to lose some of its sparkle by the 1930s and last drinks were poured in 1952.

The ghost town is about 10km from Queenstown.

In nearby Gormanston, also once a boisterous mining settlement with 11 pubs, you can pick up a three-bedroom house for under $40,000.

helen.kempton@news.com.au

The post The Royal Hotel at Linda on Tasmania’s West Coast has sold appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Copenhagen knows how to do it.

Just because we can’t jump on a plane to visit our favourite European hot spots doesn’t mean some of the joys that come with an overseas holiday are off limits.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have grounded flights for now, but you can still immerse yourself in the beauty of exotic holiday destinations with some clever design and decorating moves in your own home.

Porter Davis lead interior designer Patrizia Romeo has captured some of the most popular style aspects of iconic getaways — including Spain, France, Italy, Denmark and London — as part of the builder’s World of Style themes.

“You can make every day at home feel like a holiday escape,” Ms Romeo said.

Here, she reveals how to add a little decor flair from five Euro faves.

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SPAIN

Taking cues from the vibrant city of Barcelona, this look embraced timeless elegance with a modern edge, Ms Romeo said.

“It’s a beautiful blend of old and new and explores heat and adventure, so let these elements inspire your decor choices,” she explained.

Timber furniture plays a big part. Ms Romeo advised sticking with pieces that had a rustic appearance, and mixing the timber species up a bit.

Explore heat and adventure with Spanish style.

Blend old and new.

Different types of timber add a rustic touch.

She said handmade ceramics, lamps with coloured glass bases, arched mirrors, furniture with matt-black or brass detailing, and lots of greenery, including palms, succulents and exotic florals, went a long way in enhancing this look as well.

With colours, she recommended a base palette of soft greys combined with inky blues and charcoals.

“Then layer in some pops of brighter colour, such as mustard or a sunburnt orange, to bring in some vibrancy and keep the home fun and fresh,” she added.

ITALY

For those after a relaxed summer-lifestyle vibe, Ms Romeo suggested shifting focus to the island of Capri.

“Keep things light and airy with inviting colours such as blue, lemon and pink,” Ms Romeo said.

She also encouraged maintaining a strong indoor-outdoor flow with the main entertainment areas, and accentuating some connection with the garden.

Move to Capri, in your mind and home.

Keep it light and airy.

Embrace curved-back upholstered chairs for a sophisticated ambience.

“Keep windows and doors quite open and use beautiful, flowy sheers to soften the space and light entering the room. It will add to that resort feel,” Ms Romeo said.

Go for a rustic-style dining table, but take it up a sophisticated notch by pairing it with a set of curved-back upholstered chairs.

“Greenery is also essential here to elevate the feeling of being among nature and being on holiday,” she added.

FRANCE

This look is as classy as they come, with plenty of romantic touches woven through.

Ms Romeo said layering and natural light were key to keeping rooms comfortable and filled with French character.

“It creates a softness that underpins the whole feel,” she said.

Dusty blues and pinks — and even touches of lemon — combined with inky blues and sage green is the colour palette you’re after. But Ms Romeo cautioned against using too much colour.

Layering and natural light are key.

Ornate touches, of course.

Small hits of colour.

“You’re looking for small hits of colour, nothing too overpowering in the space,” she said.

Classically ornate furniture — picture a beautiful marble-top side table next to a freestanding bath or ornate, framed mirrors — are must haves that will elevate the room’s charm.

DENMARK

Mid-century furniture is at the heart of this look that beautifully speaks to Denmark’s capital city, Copenhagen.

Ms Romeo advised sticking to a black-, white- and grey-based palette, then layer with smoky greens, mid-tone dusty blues and amber accents.

“Introduce warmth and elegance to the space with refined timber furniture (either walnut or oak) and soft furnishings, such as natural linens,” she added.

Walnut and oak introduce warmth and elegance.

Scandi dreamin’.

Contemporary abstracts or black and white imagery on the walls.

High-quality ceramics, organic-shaped feature lighting and matt-black or brushed-brass fittings get a big tick. For the walls, contemporary abstracts or black and white imagery worked best, Ms Romeo said.

LONDON

Hyde Park and the grand homes and apartments that surround it serve as inspiration for this decorating theme. Ms Romeo said the London look was classic and refined with wonderful attention to detail.

“A touch of tan leather adds elegance,” she said. “And when it comes to colour, you’ll want some richness, so choose olives, merlots and inky blues for some of your accents such as cushions and throws.”

Heavy drapery will build on the luxurious feel and create a heightened sense of class.

Think inky blues, olives and merlots.

A touch of tan leather for added elegance.

Get the London look.

“However, heavy drapes don’t mean a heavy colour. Pick a neutral colour and take the drapes from wall-to-wall on larger windows, and pressed to the ceiling to really soften to space,” Ms Romeo said.

Chairs or sofas with button detailing mixed in with sleek-lined contemporary seating, patterns including houndstooth and check, brushed nickel or matt-black frames and upholstered bedheads will round out this look.

“All the different warm tones and textures that come together is what makes it so comforting,” she said.

porterdavis.com.au

The post Interior design: How to make your home a European escape appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Luke Parker has listed his Malabar home. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Sydney Swans co-captain Luke Parker has listed his Malabar property.

The 27-year-old midfielder is selling the five bedroom house with $3 million hopes.

Parker bought it for $2.66 million in 2017 when it promptly became an $1800 a week rental, and then ­offered again at $1700 last year.

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Ray White Maroubra agent Nader Hotait has scheduled a September 26 auction for the two storey home which is encased in glass.

He bought the home in 2017.

Views from the $3 million property.

Set on a 375sqm block, the home features a split level master suite with a balcony, a gourmet kitchen with a 5.5m island bench and a living area with designated dining space.

A pool sits in the garden with native Australian flora. There are ocean views from its Victoria St location.

Parker is a dab hand in property, having been selected by realestate.com.au to provide video content on his projects undertaken with his seven year partner interior decorator, Kate Lawrence.

Parker has had success on the property front before. (Photo by Matt Turner/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

It has five bedrooms.

Parker, whose Swans are three games out of the eight, and set to miss the AFL ­finals for the second year in a row, recently finished working on a stunning ­duplex in Matraville with Lawrence. Tenants are being sought for one of the Lawson St houses, which has four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

Modern interiors in the kitchen.

There is a pool in its north facing yard with large entertainers’ deck and grass.

“The landlord was open to including pool and garden maintenance as part of the letting,” its Belle leasing agent Luke Overs advised.

Earlier this year Parker sold a Maroubra investment for $1.45 million having paid $1.3 million in 2016. Parker was picked up in the 2010 draft by Sydney after playing for the Dandenong Stingrays.

The post Sydney Swans co-captain Luke Parker lists luxury Malabar property appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Princess Rose and Train Master Graham (Rose Zemlany and Graham Russell) are selling their Magical & Colourful Kingdom of Penolaraya. Pic: Tait Schmall.

The long-time home of a fantasy kingdom in a small regional South Australian town is back on the market.

The neighbouring Penola properties at 38-40 Riddoch Street, more commonly known as The Magical and Colourful Kingdom of Penolaraya, are up for sale for the third time in the past two years.

The fantasy train showroom and park, which has been open to the public for more than a decade, features a collection of themed artwork, sculptures and model railways.

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The Penola properties at 38-40 Riddoch Street are back on the market. Pic: realestate.com.au

The Magical & Colourful Kingdom of Penolaraya. Pic: Tait Schmall.

The Magical & Colourful Kingdom of Penolaraya. Pic: Tait Schmall.

Owner and mastermind behind the imaginative world Graham Russel – or Train Master Graham as he preferred – listed his prized possession for sale in May 2018 to retire.

However, property records show it was taken off the market a year later.

It was listed again for a brief period between March and May this year before hitting the market again in September with a $350,000 asking price.

Thomas DeGaris & Clarkson real estate agent Meg Redman, who is selling the property with Karly Honner, said the offering was a little bit different this time.

The Magical & Colourful Kingdom of Penolaraya. Pic: Tait Schmall.

The one-bedroom cottage was built by Penola’s founder in the 1850s. Pic: realestate.com.au

It sits on the property at No. 40. Pic: realestate.com.au

Instead of selling the three-title property together, they have split the parcels.

“We’ve split it up – the block is for sale separately and then (parcels) 38 and 40 are for sale together,” Ms Redman said.

Prospective buyers also won’t get the chance to take over the theme park, as it was being removed.

The 1013sqm property at No. 38 is occupied by mostly warehouse-type structures, while the 1296sqm parcel at No. 40 has a one-bedroom cottage built by Penola’s founder Alexander Cameron in the 1850s.

The properties have been on and off the market since 2018. Pic: realestate.com.au

The Magical & Colourful Kingdom of Penolaraya. Pic: Tait Schmall.

“It’s a unique piece of property,” Ms Redman said.

“The cottage at number 40, it’s really beautiful and historic, which really fits in with Penola.

“I think it could be open to a really wide range of buyers.”

Ms Redman expected the properties to be in high demand, particularly since the Penola bypass had been completed.

“It’s essentially made Riddoch Street a dead end, and it’s really made it a hugely desirable street to live on,” she said.

“It’s probably one of the best locations in Penola without that through traffic anymore.”

The post Penola properties home to a fantasy kingdom back on the market appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Ray White Whitsunday has sold ‘Chesapeake Whitsunday’, a three-storey house perched on a mountain 300 metres above Airlie Beach.

HOG’S Breath Cafe co-founder Don Algie has sold his hilltop Whitsundays mansion for $6.5 million in the region’s biggest sale in years.

The local legend, who opened his first restaurant in Airlie Beach back in 1989, has offloaded the three-storey property known as ‘Chesapeake Whitsunday’ at 3/188 Mandalay Road to horse racing personality Alan Galloway.

The off-market sale, through the Ray White Whitsunday office, is the highest sale price achieved on the Whitsunday mainland since 2018, when Mandalay estate sold for $14 million to a Sydney family.

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The breathtaking views from Chesapeake Whitsunday, which overlooks Airlie Beach and the islands.

Mr Galloway, of the world famous Alabar horse breeding stud in Victoria, said he fell in love with the architecturally designed Chesapeake when he saw it from the air.

“I was flying and I saw the mountain with Chesapeake on the top at 1000ft above sea level, it was like a beacon,” Mr Galloway said.

“It’s a magic location here. Johnny Depp stayed at the bottom of the mountain when they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean.

“It’s a very special part of the world and it’s been rebuilt after Cyclone Debbie, but now the tourism industry has taken a knock as there’s no international tourists.”

The property features two helipads and a 25-metre lap pool.

Mr Galloway’s father was well known for breeding horses and he also owned the yacht, Koomooloo, which won the Sydney to Hobart in the late 1980s.

Mr Algie built the four-bedroom house on the site, boasting 360 degree views to Shute Harbour and Hamilton Island from every room.

The property comes with not one, but two, helicopter pads and a 25-metre lap pool.

Ray White Whitsunday principal Mark Beale with Hog’s Breath Cafe founder Don Algie at Chesapeake Whitsunday.

The sale of the Whitsundays mansion is the largest transaction in the region for two years.

It comes as this column reported last week that Mr Algie had sold a block of land he was holding onto for future development in Airlie Beach.

The property at 21-23 The Cove Road sold for more than $700,000 to a prominent local in the real estate industry.

Whitsunday Regional Council records show that a site, which can never be built out, was granted a development permit for change of use to short-term accommodation in July.

The sale comes as agents in Queensland’s far north report unprecedented demand from southerners looking for luxury tropical getaways.

Hog’s Breath Cafe founder Don Algie has just sold his mansion at Airlie Beach.

Ray White Whitsunday principal Mark Beale said his team had just sold more than $21 million worth of stock in August and was fielding “dozens of calls” a day from southerners ready to travel to Airlie Beach as soon as the lockdown was over and the borders reopened.

“So many people are looking to buy a holiday home in Airlie Beach with the option of living here full time or working from home,” Mr Beale said.

“It feels like everyone from down south wants to have a property here. So many of our buyers are working remotely anyway.

“Next time there’s a pandemic they will escape the lockdown as things are pretty much normal compared to down south. Rentals are going nuts. Holiday letting inquiries are very strong in particular for the expenses homes at Mandalay and on the waterfront in Airlie Beach.”

The post Hog’s Breath Cafe founder sells Whitsunday mansion for $6.5m appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Postcode 3350 in Ballarat is the nation’s most at risk.

Fears are rising Melbourne’s battler suburbs will bear the brunt of a looming mortgagee sale crisis.

Modelling by boutique financial consultancy Digital Finance Analytics shows upwards of 437,000 Victorian homeowners are now spending almost all of their income on bills and their mortgage.

More than 25,000 of that number are at risk of defaulting in the next year, according to their algorithms.

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The figures show postcode 3350 in Ballarat as Australia’s most challenged, with 7462 households living without any financial wiggle room and 244 facing foreclosure.

But eight outer-ring Melbourne postcodes feature in the nation’s top 30 by number of households in stress, including Cranbourne where 5532 are struggling and a staggering 740 are tipped to face a forced sale.

Some six-month mortgage holidays have reached the end of their time span.

DFA principal Martin North warned growth areas were particularly at risk as they had a higher proportion of recent purchasers, meaning higher mortgages and lower equity.

“High-growth postcodes are seeing high stress,” Mr North said.

“And there is a strong correlation between mortgage stress and default.”

National Growth Areas Alliance executive officer Bronwen Clark said she feared an avalanche of mortgagee sales could cause a house price crunch in some Melbourne growth areas at the end of JobKeeper when a “harsh reality will set in”.

“We would imagine in the next six months, we would see a lot of movement in the outer suburbs,” Ms Clark said.

“All of this distress will lead to lower house prices as people are selling out of desperation.”

Non-bank lender Firstmac, which has $13b in loans nationwide, figures show one in 20 of their Victorian borrowers are now in hardship arrangements, such as mortgage holidays.

Firstmac chief financial officer James Austin said the figure was closer to one in 10 for those working in professional services, retail or education and training following the stage four lockdown.

The firm would begin urging some to sell in as little as three weeks’ time, and other lenders were expected to do the same, Mr Austin said.

Melbourne’s stage four lockdown will put more homeowners at risk of a forced sale.

“There is more concern about Victoria now than any other state, and it has been softer in prices than any other state,” he warned.

Investors with multiple properties and homeowners struggling with repayments who had bought recently and had little equity would be the first to hear from their banks, he advised.

“I think banks will be urging some to sell, but I don’t expect they will be forcing them to,” Mr Austin said.

MELBOURNE BATTLER POSTCODES AT DEFAULT RISK

3977: Cranbourne – 740 homes

3029: Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit – 419 homes

3064: Mickleham, Roxburgh Park – 364 homes

3754: Doreen, Mernda – 219 homes

3429: Sunbury – 187 homes

3199: Frankston – 179 homes

3178: Rowville – 150 homes

3076: Epping – 120 homes

+ postcode 3350 in Ballarat — 244 homes

Source: Digital Finance Analytics

nathan.mawby@news.com.au

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