Expensive properties on bush fire prone land

Hi All,

Wanted to get your thoughts on expensive properties on bush fire prone land in Sydney's upper north shore (there are a lot of them). Will the owners have trouble selling it? I assume (have not researched) that these people probably purchased their properties a long time ago as their PPOR and might want to sell closer to retirement.

Have a friend who is thinking about extending her home in the area - the house is not on a bushfire prone land (as per RFS website) - however close to a small forest. She wanted to know whether she should extend the current home (best option financially) for more space or upgrade a bigger PPOR in a different area (worst option financially). She is worried about the value of the property due to bushfire risk and therefore wants to decide how much to invest in it. I don't know the answer, have been curious about this myself so wanted to ask more smarter and informed people on this forum.

Thanks

 

Plenty of houses in bushfire prone areas change hands, I have seen this myself multiple times. Many people want to live in these areas for different reasons so the demand is there. Aside from higher risk ratings from an environmental perspective on the valuation and higher insurance costs there is no tangible difference to buying a house in a non-bushfire prone area.

 

People will buy for location, she can't change that.

 

Saw a program on current affair or abc tv recently about how residents in Warrandyte, a village type outer suburb in melbourne with high bush fire risk, were building their own underground bunkers. May well be worth a watch as they seem to think the risk is real.

My friend who works at BoM has also been mentioning that their models are predicting higher temperatures moving forward to the point where a few have bought places in tassie/nz south island in preparation. Although in saying that their predictions are not always on the mark

 

I've had rural properties in declared bushfire zones, where there was barely a tree around ... and properties declared non-hazardous, where trees/scrub was thick on the ground.

People have short memories and, if she comes to sell, as long as there isn't smoke in the air, people will buy because they either love the property (and it's inherent risks) or not.

She might be better investing her monies in another property for rental income, rather than potentially overcapitalising on where she is

 

There are lots of properties with environmental risks such as bushfires, floods, coastal erosion, earthquakes, ...

If we didn’t live in these areas, we would all be living in Alice Springs .

 

Alice Springs has its own risks too. How far can a ballistic missile travel these days?

 

but what about the memories of insurance companies?