Looking for Buyers agent for buying land in Brisbane

Hi everyone, I’m looking for advice on using a buyers agent in Brisbane to buy a block of land for me. What’s your experiences? Can they get me a better deal? My work has me travelling a lot so I don’t have much time on my hands.

Thanks in advance
Tom

 

A

anywhere within 10k of brisbane cbd

 

Hopefully find and old ran down house on a nice block close to the city, demolish it and build a new house

 

Thanks Rolf.

 

For @Westender, please see my comments below:

1) If it is your intention to buy a block of land within 10km of the Brisbane CBD with the intention of building on that block sooner rather than later then:
- Pretty much most of the blocks available will be as the result of recent subdivisions / splitter blocks performed by property developers (amateur and professional alike).
- Most of these blocks will be 405 sqm (16 perch in size), i.e. an 810 sqm block that was subdivided / split. (Note Brisbane LGA blocks of land within this radius are generally a standard size of 405 sqm (16 perch), 607 sqm (24 perch), 810 sqm (32 perch), or 1200 sqm (40 perch - if can find).
- there will be very few larger blocks greater than 405 sqm available where a previous investor has sat on that block for years and is attempting to off-load (they can be there, but one needs to dig and find - hence a BA would be required). Finding an 810 sqm block or larger undeveloped, un-subdivided, or unsplit will be rare as the proverbial hens teeth.
- Make sure the land is fully services with water, sewer, stormwater.

2) If your intention is to land-bank somewhat or sit on a site for the medium to longer term, then recommend don't buy vacant land but buy an existing house on land for which the house could be knocked down in the future (or other value added opportunity e.g. reno / development). In my humble opinion, the best opportunities would be those post-war houses or 70s style boxy brick properties on 607 sqm lots - these can be found within the desired radius for a good price. You can hunt for larger 810 sqm blocks with say a post-war house (they are there) but now commanding premium prices as every newbie developer is on the hunt for these properties. 405 sqm lots with existing houses can also be found, but think in the longer term the larger block would be more desirable. Be careful about buying pre-1946 Queenslander to demolition control issues 0 would need advice from a Town Planner.

3) If you look outside the 10km radius, i.e. 15km to 30km/40km or so, there are a lot of different opportunities and a lot more land available including new estates, new land subdivisions, and more infill areas, and generally different lot sizes available. Some of these opportunities may be outside the Brisbane LGA area.

To get a general feel, use realestate.com.au to do some general searches of land opportunities within your target range (i.e. select land, identify an area and do the search). For example, East side - Morningside / Cannon Hill and surrounds, Southside - Holland Park and surrounds, Northside - Alderley / Ashgrove / Everton Park / Stafford and surrounds, Northeast - Northgate / Banyo, West side - Chapel Hill / Indooroopilly / Bardon etc to get a feel what's going on.

As to recommendations for Buyers Agents:
- Scott McGeever / Carolyn Campbell - Brisbane Buyers Agent & Real Estate Advice. They are one of the oldest BAs in Brisbane. Scott comes from a valuation background not a sales background.
- Shane Hiscock - https://www.linkedin.com/in/buyersagentbrisbane/. Shane is more into development but would know what sites are coming up, and also hunts for sites.
- If you do find a property that might have some development potential, always good to get an appraisal from a Town Planner as well - e.g. Craig Christie ASI Planning ASI Planning | Here’s how to get your Development Approval Faster and Cheaper and with Certainty of Success | Town Planning Brisbane

Hope this helps. I really do need to finish my "Brisbane for Sydneysiders document" one day.

 

Also, check out Shane's facebook page - Property Growth Partners

 

Hiya

I’ve had clients use both Karen from Zest and Andrew from Allen property - all have been happy.

Cheers

Jamie

 

Cheers Jamie

 

What an excellent piece of information mate. Initially I was thinking of just buying a small block with a derilect house on it, knock and clean up the site myself as I work in the construction industry and have the experience and contacts. But I may bite the bullet and spend more on a say 800+ block, subdivide it ,sell one half, hopefully turn a profit on it and get a builder to build my own home to live in, on the block I keep.

 

1) Buying a small block with a derelict house on it, knocking it down and cleaning up the site for which to build a new house is certainly a very viable strategy. You will need to make sure you buy close to land value as possible. Note that to knock down a house in Brisbane, you will still need to get a Building Approval for the demolition, and once site cleared, have the BA certified that the work was done, there is also capping off the sewer with an appropriate permit required. You need to check the house to see if it can be demolished (note pre-1946 houses are subject to demolition controls), and most older houses in Brisbane contain asbestos - this will have to be removed, bagged and tagged with appropriate qualified persons - whilst demolishing yourself can be feasible, it generally cost around $15K to get it done by an appropriate demolition contractor. Anyhow, the core value is what you can buy it for, the demolition is quite reasonable but not as straight forward as one may think.

2) As to buying a larger block and subdividing / splitting - this is a process, the costs would be between $50K - $100K depending if subdivision (more), splitter (less). The market is quite hot at the moment for these types of properties so you will need to work out your end cost value - purchase, purchase costs, subdivision/splitting costs, holding costs etc and compare the current sales of blocks in the area you are targeting to see if it is worthwhile. If the aim is to build a house in the short term, then you may be able to find a block already available and offer favourable terms to the seller. When people are developing like this, manufacturing blocks of land, they want to offload them quickly. Sure they would have make a profit on the block they sell but it would have taken some time and cost for them to do that, and if you are going to build a house to keep for the long term, potentially more upside for you in this case to buy a block already available than to do a subdivision and have paid a high price for the property in the first place. Anyhow, if looking for larger blocks - will definitely need a BA who specialises in these types of opportunities.