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Hi everyone,
Thought to throw my 2 cents worth in on this topic.
Was up in Rocky/Gladstone over xmas break and over the past year or so have been analysing and waying up options to invest there. The gameplan has been to buy a block large enough for duplex/small lot houses/villas and sub-divide and build 4 bed/4 bath workers accommodation.
The following information was provided by Gladstone Regional Council (GRC) planning section. Heres the run down of requirements and fees:
Requirements for lodgement of DA application are as follows
Full Town Planning Report addressing GRC planning scheme;
Full survey plans of site showing elevations, footprints, easements,
water and sewerage connections, etc; and
Dept of Local Govt and Planning forms with required supporting statements and documentation.Also duplex developments are impact assessable, this increases the fees to
council. We were originally working on approx $30K for council fees, however this was way under as the list below illustrates:Impact Assessable Application Fee – $3,900 + $2,000 (for advertising and public notificaitons)
Small Lot Housing Fee – $2,497
Reconfigure of Lot Fee – $$2,000 + $300/lot = $2,300 as one lot exists if duplexing.
Infrastructure Charges – $28,000.If only doing duplex on one title only need to pay impact assessable fee.
Within the boundaries of the former GCC, minimum block is 800m2, within the former Calliope SC minimum block is 900m2 for these types of developments.
A breakdown of numbers so far is:
$300K land
$12K Stamp Duty
$1500 per square metre build cost (turnkey price) = $250K per unit (assuming approx 170sqm each unit)
$50K subdiv costs
Project total = $862K
To achieve a min 20% gross return on sale = each unit price approx $517.5K.Haven't kicked this off yet due to:
1. New estates covenants do not allow subdiv/duplex on lots even though they are big enough, so it is proving difficult to find a developable block;
2. LNG proponents have been handing back houses to the rental market as their workers camps are being built, therefore this should damper demand for buy and rentals (have a search for rentals in Gladstone and see how many available, especially in new houses), a case in point neighbour to rellie in G has had their fully furnished near new house advertised for rent at $1000/week for 4+ months;
3. New estates and stages of existing ones are due to kick off in April/May, therefore hopefully land prices will drop later this year.Also here's a tip for those looking to invest in the mining towns, after speaking to a mortgage broker (Mortage Choice in G), unless you have 20% deposit, you won't be able to leverage into these places. The LMI originators won't go near them and they do not take into consideration the high rent return. Effectively its a risk profile attached to these places in the view of the banks/LMI companies. (Any mortgage brokers/bankers on this forum that can confirm this advice?)
If this is the case shame really, as there are some good positive cashflow deals in Blackwater from my reseach!!
podney wrote:I am currently setting up an account with hsbc and i was told by them that the US checking account is for internet banking only. To bank a cheque with hsbc you also need to set up a savings account with them but I was advised that it will not be worth it if cheques are of low value. They have to send the cheque back to the US to varify it, then it gets returned back to here. This can take up to 6 weeks also. Charges of $18 min each time it is posted along with other fees.
Hopefully most of the US counties will get up to speed and be able to do direct bank transfers into our US accounts. I have emailed Lee county asking if they will be heading in this direction soon, still awaiting a reply.
I assume if worst comes to worst we can post the cheque ourselves to our US bank for them to deposit into the account. Well hope so anyway.
will post any new information when it comes.Rodney,
Can you clarify, were you advised you had to set up a HSBC Australian savings account? If so, i could understand that you will get charged to deposit a US drawn cheque (all banks do this, but the fee varies though). If thats the case I would just accumulate the cheques and send them to the US via registered international mail to the HSBC branch where your account will be located.
I have been looking at HSBC too. From my reading of the documentation, I should only need to set up a US cheque account. The only downside for these accounts is that they do not provide interest on the money in the account and they do have monthly account keeping fees (if you are below the minimum monthly amount).
Crazya
nateb wrote:It appears that Florida state law requires the counties to start their sales before or on June 1st, so they are all now finished, and I can't see any more starting until at least 3Q 2010. So that means we need to look at over-the-counter. Is anyone exploring OTC tax certs held in Florida?Hey nateb
Yep exploring those options right now. Just doing practice searching for OTC certificates and getting used to the various county sites. Currnently up to Clay County. Unfortunately some websites are very cumbersome and not user friendly, lee county is streaks ahead of some.
I am finding that OTC Certs are the dregs of the sales and it does take some effort to find anything worth investigating further. Therefore getting in on the auctions may be more efficient (but i guess the due diligence will take the same time)
That said, I can't seem to remember how to find if past tax liens on the property were paid?
Cheers
Crazya
