Buying a property 10 meters from flood zone (Logan)

Hi ,

I am looking at a nice property in Logan but found in Logan flood map that this property is 10 meters away from flood zone. The flood zone reaches 12 meters above sea level and the property is at 12.5 meters above sea level.

1. The Logan flood map shows a 100 year ARI (Average Recurrence Interval) event. Is the property safe from flood? Would you buy it?
   
   
2. If it is flooded, will the insurance fee increase a lot afterwords?
   
   
3. If it is flooded, will council not allow the building to be rebuilt?

Thanks

 

Hi Kai41314,

I suspect the other consideration is when you go to sell this property. The prospective buyers will be asking the same questions you are asking now. So you might not get the price you won't and also take longer to sell.

Cheers,
Michael

 

Check the 1893 flood levels! It can happen!

 

I bought in Deception Bay last year, its on the highest point of the street, would never flood, I looked at the flood maps when I bought it, all those houses in D-bay that flooded in April this year also showed no flooding, it was cause by a temporarily blocked creek for road works/railway construction. So my point is you have to be very wary of flood maps. Would need to be super cheap or some good up side and potential for me, otherwise is it worth the risk?

 

If it's only Logan river, then Go here, and see if you are above these heights for river back flow floods:
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/flood/brochures/logan_albert/logan_albert.shtml#TheFloodRisk
Just make sure your are above the 74 flood

If you are near creek, things are much harder. Creeks flood from freak events.

In May this year scrubby creek Marsden flooded higher than the 1 in 100 year event after about 6 hours of 100mm/hr sustained rain.

Water came within 0.5m and i am 2m above 1 in 100. I am not counted as flood prone and insurance is cheap. 4 houses down they are I the flood overlay, got flooded, and insurance is $4,500 per year, and they are high set!

A good idea is to check how much insurance will be at a few companies. They will have invested big $$$ in making sure they know which houses flood.

Also look at the link above. Notice the gap during el nino now we are going back to la nina. There will be more floods over the next decade.

Logan has already seen 1 on 20 in 2011, 1 in 50 in 2013, and localised flash floods passing 1 in 100 in 2015, which is a big worry since la nina tends took get stronger than it is now.

Despite that, the flood map heights have moved down. I was considered flood effected 1 in 50 in 2007 based on old aerial radar maps. That was updated in 2013 for the 2015 logan planning scheme to be 2m above 1 in 100. Good for me because I'm now subdividing. But is shows that the maps has an error of at least 4m!!

The point is: the maps are mostly guess work and unless there is some big $$$ development opportunity i wouldn't be taking the risk of going below the 1974 height. Get a cervoyer to make sure it's above Logan river 74 height ( or better yet the 1880s flood height which is the biggest one ever known).

 

Ring up NRMA and get a quote for insurance . We did this on one property which the agent assured us had never flooded . Took about 20 mins on phone

Quote 6k ..... Normally around 1 k

NRMA aren't the cheapest , and we have been told there are companies you can get insurance off for a lot cheaper , but it does tell you the property is a higher risk . The risk is that if you have another flood some of the companies may review how they rate properties , so you may find the premiums increase at a latter date .

We did buy one property which is next to a block that got wet feet , but ours is around 15-20 meters higher and has a loading of around 10% . That was one of the first we've bought in that situation . The chances of it flooding would be zero , but knowing what we know now , if we were looking at it again , we might pass on it .

We're looking at one now which is four house blocks away from the high water mark on the flood zone . Going to make the NRMA call .

We had a look at a couple of properties that were flood affected at the back fence , and it was a bit of an eye opener to see how deep the valleys were behind them . I'd guess 40-50 mtrs deep .....

Cliff

 

I think you're asking for trouble buying near flood zones. Insurance premiums will be higher and I've seen trouble with future reval, too.

 

Put offers today on this property and another property in a different suburb. Got quotes from NRMA, the one 10 meters from flood zone will cost $2100 and another one will cost only $700. I decided to pass the "risky" one and bought another one.

Thank you for your advice!

 

There are always other properties. Congratulations on your purchase

 

When I purchased in Kingston 2 years ago (not near any flood zones) I enquired about flood zones with 2 real estate agents. They both quoted that there had been infrastructure to drainage systems since the last floods to improve the situation.

However, I would definitely confirm this with council if I was to buy near a flood zone

 

One problem with this infrastructure, especially in Logan, is that it leads to more flash flooding.

They have built huge under ground flood drains to run water to the water ways quickly, with this also means that when it rains, all the water instantly washes down, and you get flash flood.

The 2015 flood in Logan pretty much got no media attention at all, but it's a huge concern, it should not have happened, it was way beyond the 1 in 100 year flood height. It was almost certainly caused by up stream development being allowed with no requirement for storm water retention. The flood came and went in just 2 hours.

 

Wow.... real eye opener here. I had no idea about the recent flash floodings for example...
I'm happy mine's about 20 metres up on the top of the hill... if mine floods then the entire area is literally up the creek....

 

Can someone pls share their thoughts on buying an IP that is 500 meters away from the flood zone in Marsden.

 

You need to be careful with the overlay flood maps. If you go on the Logan PD Hub and you click on the flood overlay they have just outlined the basic shape of the river. Some places are shown to have the flood maps overlay and some properties are like 10-20 meters close to the blue overlay map but they have NEVER EVER flooded.

Its not a completely accurate representation of the actual risk. Its just a "guestimate" they are using.

 

Thank you for your response. I compared the building insurance for the property I am looking at with other properties in the area. It's double/ $1000 more so I dropped the property from my list.

 

Whats the address?

 

I messaged you.

 

I'd say run but paddle! may be more appropriate