Interesting article in this week's Sydney Domain about the end of the Sea Change era, in favour of the No Change option. Clive Hamilton, executive director of the Australia Institute, has just completed three focus groups of baby boomers in Sydney, Bathurst (interesting choice here) and Brisbane and found that none were planning a sea or tree change for their retirement. To the contrary, all wanted to stay close to their children and grand children and preferred to downsize in either the same suburb or in the area where their families were. Quality high-end apartments are emerging as the property of choice for this age group, as they are apparently over "pruning the roses" and want time to smell them instead, but not in their own time-intensive gardens
Perhaps those in Brisbane were already close enough to the beaches anyway? Interesting anecdote. One of our PMs in Brissy sent an e-mail out to landlords saying that they were having trouble renting (detached) houses and tips for making them more rentable, such as including garden maintenance (Jim's Mowing, etc) in the rental package, accepting pets, etc. They were having no such problem renting low-maintenance townhouses and units. Dave
What area is this in, Dave? I've had increased rental demand for my Brissy properties and both are detached houses that require maintenance.
Hi Jacque, Coorparoo / inner South East area. The e-mail was based on detached houses taking much longer to rent (relatively), but given the current market I guess that demand for detached houses is still higher than elsewhere (except Perth and Darwin of course). Dave
