Residz Team 2 min read
Wanted: a place by the sea to call home, with plenty of space, a garage and a garden. This could be the wishlist of any Aussie buyer right now, but it’s the first line of a BBC article about lifestyle choices of Brits during the pandemic.
Across the world, buyers are packing up cramped homes in search of affordable places where they can stretch out and work remotely. Real estate expert Andrew Winter says lifestyle options of what look to be great areas must be weighed against any risks associated with the suburb or property.
“How many times have I heard people say ‘I wish I’d known that before I bought it?’,” he says. “Most home buyers know how many bedrooms, bathrooms, car parking, and garden
space they prefer in their new home,” he says, “but a really thorough property search should be done to highlight both lifestyle and risks.”
This is especially important when you’re moving away from an area you know well. Make sure you do research on the neighbourhood, not just the home.
Andrew says assessing the risks associated with your potential new home is more than just ticking off the legal checkpoints.
“Sure, your building inspection report may disclose structural and maintenance issues,” he says, “but what about whether your home is at a higher risk of bushfire than the one across the street?”
The natural beauty of regional and coastal areas can throw up such risks, which may not be on the radar of buyers coming from urban areas.
Further, Andrew points out building inspections don’t reveal the benchmarked results of the local high school, nor neighbourhood demographics, traffic, local shops, crime statistics, health facilities, or even local development applications.
“Some of this information is on property or government websites,” he admits, “It can be a hell of a job as a property seeker to bring it all together, and there's always a worry that you've missed something important.”
Andrew points buyers to a brand new and free property research website called Residz.com. Developed by experienced data experts in Sydney, Residz makes it easy for property buyers to see information about their new home or suburb all in one place. By typing in a property address or suburb, buyers can see extensive data on 12 million properties around Australia, including average suburb property prices and recent sales, as well as an extensive list of lifestyle and risk information for their chosen suburb or home.
“Best of all, it’s completely free,” says Andrew.
For example, bushfire season in the Blue Mountains local government area of NSW officially started at the beginning of October 2021. If you typed a specific Hazelbrook address into Residz.com, as we did, we can see that a particular house for sale has a potential bushfire risk of 4.2 out of 10. Along with information about any potential risk of subsidence or land contamination, a buyer of this home could within minutes glean important information to help them make a decision.
As Brits flock to seaside Cornwall, and U.S.residents look for yard space in Sacramento, Las Vegas and Austin, Australian buyers are researching similar lifestyle properties here at home. The advantage for Australian buyers, though, is the comfort from accessing important lifestyle and risk information free of charge using their new local research tool Residz.com.