26 February, 2011

Solving housing affordability - Chinese style

Isn't it amazing?!!
China is known for radical solving major political and economical issues. Overpopulation was resolved once and forever with one child policy. Now they found a fix for the housing affordability. Imagine this getting through our parliament!!!

"Pushed by fears of the inflationary effects of rapidly escalating property prices and the social effects of the decreasing affordability in major Chinese cities, the Chinese government has introduced tough new rules.

Announced on 27 January 2011, strict new property rules now apply to residential property investments in China, which will undoubtedly have a significant impact on Chinese property investors. These include:

  • Buyers of second homes will require a 60% deposit.

  • Ban on families purchasing a third home.

  • Allowed to purchase only one home outside their registered home city.

  • Stamp duty on full home sale value if sold within five years.

  • Stamp duty up to a maximum of 16% if sold within one year.
Changes to town planning rules will also have an effect, with up to 70% of all land for new housing development being for affordable or social housing.

These new rules are likely to have a significant impact, and in particular, the setting of home selling price targets with heavy financial penalties if values go beyond the targets set. As a result of these changes, we anticipate that Chinese buyers may reconsider their local property purchases and evaluate alternative investments elsewhere.

More Chinese buyers downunder are on their way."
Michael Matusik (property analyst) www.matusik.com.au

03 October, 2010

Project of a month - October

One more Strata Building make over. This one is in Dee Why.

Val, the lovely older lady who is managing the property and owns an apartment here since the building was built in 60’s – is a great story teller! Hard to believe, but this was a very first building of a brand new green field subdivision. The land was previously owned by the Salvation Army, and the condition of property sale was that residents are not allowed to consume an alcohol. How peculiar!

And apparently Paul Hagan was growing up in this block! Val was telling stories of former residents “…We had those Hogans living here. Their young sun Paul was very naughty. The mother was always telling him off and saying – you will not end up well…” And then he grew up to become everyone’s favorite Paul Hogan! How funny!
After

Confirming colours

Before

19 September, 2010

Do man really colour blind?

So many times I witnessed woman teasing man about being colour blind. It got me interested to do a small research.

Aparently colour deficiency is much more common in (European) man (8%) then woman (0.4%). This is not an urban myth! This is because it is linked to the X chromosome. Man only have one X chromosome and would get a colour deficiency if it’s impaired. Woman with one good X chromosome will still recognise colours.

So ladies – next time a guy asks you if something matches, just give him a hand!

Whant a quick test? Within patters below are dots which form a number visible to those with a normal colour vision.

12 September, 2010

How to paint ceilings without damaging walls & furniture

Want to paint ceilings and worry that your walls or belongings can get damaged? Can’t move all furniture away? No need to stress out about!

This is what the preparation for a ceiling panting should look like. We seal with plastic drop sheets & tape all walls and cover all furniture. Obviously this is in addition to the canvas drop sheets that cover all floors. Only after everything is safely covered we would start repairs and painting.

I’m not going to hide – it is time & labour consuming work. But once we safely cover everything your walls and furniture will be protected even from tiny paint over-splash from a roller.

We always use new plastic drop sheet. We never reuse them, as over-splash from previous work would get on your furniture and can stick to it, or just create dust and dirt around your house. New drop sheets ensure your house will stay clean.

Feel confident your ceiling painting will be quick and safe? Concact Ol’ Painting for no obligation quote.

Project of the month - August 2

One more strata project completed – this one is a large art deco apartment block in Point Piper.

We had to collaborat with other traders here - all brickwork was repainted and front wall recalled and we did painting as a part of the same project. We had to schedule our works so we all can work of one scaffold, to minimise inconvenience and cost to the residents. So the work was done in stages over few months.