“The great Tree Change migration.”  It sounds a little like a national geographic special, doesn’t it, but it’s about the incredible rate of recent contact we as agents are having with a migrating metropolitan population. Our industry is witnessing a once in a lifetime surge in tree changing families coming out of the metropolitan areas to regional Australia. As a result, Armidale in particular has proven to be a very popular destination for our city cousins. So what does this mean for Armidale, and does it affect our Real Estate Market? With the rising cost of living in the city areas across Australia, regional hubs, in particular the evo cities, have all confirmed a rise in migrating population. When I first started in the industry many years ago, I can recall speaking with the odd tree changer – maybe one every couple of months. These days however, we are speaking with 2 or 3 a week who have either decided they are moving to Armidale or they are seeking further information! The majority of our ‘tree changers are young families looking to relocate for lifestyle. Some of the reasons why Armidale features heavily for tree changers are:

• Lifestyle & convenience.

• Being able to pick the kids up from school in 5 minutes

• Being able to whip home for lunch

• No water issues

• Our proximity to the coast

• Our climate

• Our diverse culture

• Beautiful rural scenery

• Iconic residential homes (both blue brick & weatherboard.)

• Idealic hobby farm acreage, with close proximity to town, & excellent transport

options, with airport, train, bus etc

• Most importantly, the educational options and UNE.

So what does all this mean for our Property Market?

Well, when you look at who is purchasing into our market place and what they’re buying, the majority of our clients are young to more mature families who have recently sold in a metro area. They are cashed up, looking to purchase either hobby farm acreage (5 – 100 acres) or a home in what we would consider the top end of the market. Obviously individual situations vary, but the range in which we are seeing tree changers purchase starts around $400,000 and continues to in excess of $1,000,000. How long will this last? Well, how long is a piece of string? My assumption is that it will continue for some time to come! With interest rates set to rise over the next 12 months, I feel as though regional Ausratlia’s appeal to working families will become greater.

Simply put – there have been some really financially rewarding outcomes achieved for local vendors in recent times. If you are considering buying or selling and would like to discuss your real estate needs, feel free to call me anytime on 0432 53 93 83.

Many of them, however – particularly city dwellers – are more likely to be switching on a television set and settling down to watch other people doing things, people who are paid specialists. Our national waistlines are growing in proportion to the amount of time we are just watching.Yet we take sport for granted as part of life in Australia and expect to bathe in its reflected glory. A particularly good reason for really taking sport seriously is that (sorry about this!) it is good for us in so many ways – health, personal development, social interaction and yes, some serious fun.Do you know that the primary meaning of the word ‘sport’ in the Oxford English Dictionary is “Pleasant pastime; amusement; diversion…”?In Armidale, it is more icing on the cake. Accessing sport can be stressful and difficult in metropolitan cities, and not all regions have nearly the range of facilities we have. We can enjoy activities very easily.   Steve McMillan is the President of the Armidale Sports Council. He is a man who doesn’t waste words, and when he speaks he usually has something worth listening to. Steve says it’s easier to name baseball and softball as the only two possible sports that are not currently available in Armidale rather than to list those that are. I’ll take his word for it.The Armidale Sports Council works closely with the Armidale Dumaresq Council to make sure that the facilities are available. Jasmine Galletly is the sports coordinator, and she absolutely fizzes with experience and expertise. The University of New England facilities add that extra cream to the venues as part of the mix, with more major construction activity in progress.  UNE has just done a 3 year deal with the Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) and local Member and UNE Chancellor Richard Torbay says he can’t wait to see UNE host the next 2 Academy Games. April will see ”a spectacular opening ceremony featuring more than 1,000 athletes in Armidale,” he says.Armidale is increasingly hosting so many sporting fixtures “because it is a very desirable destination and the facilities here are good enough,” Steve says. (As an example, Port Macquarie has only 2 turf wickets – we have 8.)  From young participants to masters’ games, Armidale is welcoming them all. And it is wonderful to see the excitement on very young faces on the local TV news – their efforts are still important here, and not brushed aside for the professionals …We should be making sure that all our sporting visitors leave knowing what else we have to offer in our city and district.Armidale has one of the highest motel occupancy rates in the state. This is just one of the spin-off benefits that sport can bring to the community, with the flow-on effect spreading through our economy.The proof of the pudding is in the eating, in more ways than one. It has been estimated that sporting events in Armidale over the last three years have added $55 million to the economy, and last year the figure was $25.5 million! The Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout was a big contributor.Hats off to all involved in sport – this is serious stuff.Steve says that one of the major factors in running sporting contests here is the large number of available volunteers who have always put their hands up for the different aspects of running a successful event.  Armidale has long been recognised as having one of highest volunteer responses in many different fields, and the support of sport is obviously no exception. In changing times we have to make sure this continues. Taking on a committee position or a job is one of the most rewarding ways people can give back some of what they have gained and enjoyed in life.This is the spirit that makes a healthy, happy and functioning community, and here in Armidale it is so easy to be part of it. We are lucky enough to have the opportunity to realise the primary meaning of the word  SPORT – we can actually enjoy it the way we were meant to.For information call:Steve McMillan ASC 0409 663 674; Jasmine Galletly ADC 6770 3807; Dave Schmude Sport UNE 6773 5185;  Peter Annis-Brown NIAS 6766 2526.

It is something that is most successfully promoted by the enthusiasm of those who live in a place, people who demonstrate that where they live has special interest and charm and is worth spending time in and returning to, or at least telling others about their experience. Word of mouth means a lot.

We have a lot of people who come to Armidale for reasons other than tourism. We can all help the image of Armidale by being aware that it is in our interest to be proud of where we live,  to show it off to best advantage and to encourage people to visit at least some of the ‘special’ places during their visit. Every extra few hours spent happily can benefit everyone if visitors become ambassadors for the place.

One of my favourite ‘musts’ for people I meet is to urge them to take the time for a trip out to Dangars Gorge and Falls. It is just 21 km from Armidale along the Dangarsleigh Road, past historic Palmerston, now Peterson’s Wines.

The Gorge is spectacular and, with or without much water, it never fails to genuinely awe people.

National Parks Ranger Don Hardman is a fund of information.

The pools at the bottom of the falls are home to eels, which are reputed to make an epic trip to near New Caledonia to breed. Their offspring then return up the ranges to those same pools.

The Gorge area is also home to the rare Brushtailed Rock Wallaby, best seen at dusk, and also to the rare Eastern Quoll. As well, many bird species, from the great Wedgetailed Eagle, to Rosellas, Thornbills, Finches and Peregrine Falcons are to be found.

There are rare wattles and a variety of trees on both short and longer walks.

To just be there is to have a most tremendous feeling of place. The area has been visited over millennia by the various aboriginal peoples who travelled from the coast and inland to meet and trade. Today’s visitors mostly come to marvel at the power and wonder of nature.

And this is such an easily accessible taste of just one of the National Parks so near Armidale.

On top of all these attractions I have to admit to a personal fascination with the true story of the visit of Signor Vertelli to the Gorge in 1866.  Recorded in the Armidale Express, his visit has so many romantic aspects, but has sadly been down played by National Parks, perhaps in a misguided fear of copycats. Nobody banned guns because Thunderbolt used them, and Vertelli was certainly no criminal!

Vertelli was the ultimate small businessman – he advertised his visit ahead of time and invited the public to see him cross the Gorge on a wire. He tried to get a band from Uralla, which couldn’t make it. But over 200 tourists from the district did take up his invitation and arrived by horse, buggy, etc. through the bush, carrying picnics.

His wire wasn’t long enough so he added some rope (which stretched and he had to walk uphill for the last bit). He walked across, 600 feet in the air, then again pushing a wheelbarrow, then somersaulted across.

He did what he’d advertised and received  “about eleven pounds”, collected from the crowd.

The Express reported that “a pleasant time was passed. There was an extensive series of picnics among the rocks, and the scenery being very fine, people enjoyed themselves heartily”.

Vertelli then continued on his way, leaving Australia at Cooktown.

Some people may remember that some years ago I had contact with Philippe Petit, the man who, among other feats, walked a wire between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. He was keen to come to Armidale and we exchanged correspondence about a project for a while. In the end – the usual long story – it didn’t happen, but it was exciting while it lasted!

However our indefatigable local MP Richard Torbay did consent to re-enact the walk at The Creativity Have-a-Ball at NERAM, supported by other prominent locals in the performance. He made a marvellous Signor Vertelli!

Let’s bring Vertelli back into our tourist equation. I believe in do-able New Year resolutions, and that’s one of mine.

Vertelli’s story is Icing on the Cake!

P.S. The extraordinary tourist experience with Fleet Helicopters over the gorge county deserves a column of its own. A tourism operator from the Bungle Bungles envied the closeness to town of the Armidale gorges and said that his flourishing business would be three times the size if he had the same natural tourist advantages we have.

Let’s celebrate the gorges and their wonders.

So I thought that the focus should be on Armidale and its hinterland and on all of those things that are the icing on the cake.
I wasn’t always a Pollyanna by any means, nor even a ‘glass half-full person’. It took a lot of different life experiences in a lot of different places.
Maybe it’s – ahem – maturity that makes me look at the pluses in life now.
But Armidale certainly makes it very easy to do so, and it doesn’t need a season of goodwill for those of us who live here to know how lucky we are.
Although more and more people are coming to join us, the city is actually nearly the perfect size for what used to be called ‘civilised living’.
As my son said years ago, it is big enough that people don’t inevitably know who you know and what you’re doing, but small enough that when you are strolling down the Mall with some time on your hands there is always someone ready for a chat.
There has to be a critical mass living here for us to deserve all the things we have and often take for granted – the range of educational opportunities from pre-school to university, the cultural and community opportunities, the sporting facilities, the range of shops and businesses, the ability to still relate to the earth and the seasons and what they can produce rather than to be distanced as so many metropolitan people so sadly are, and the incredible natural wonders that surround us only minutes away.
Education is without a doubt the major business in the town – the economic multiplier effect from the schools, the University of New England, TAFE, the Conservatorium, NERAM etc. etc. spreads out into most businesses.
Without the university, Armidale would be a very much smaller place with a lot fewer services, and a lot less opportunities to be taken up by those who seek them out.
Armidale is beautifully placed as a true university city and beautifully placed to capitalise on that in ways that benefit everyone, by no means just those directly involved in education. We have to make sure we maximise our possibilities.
But we have those heart/barbecue stopping attributes here too.
Armidale is the University City with a Portal to Gondwana – how cool is that!
The World Heritage people are pretty happy about it too. This is an aspect of where we live that I’d like to talk about in the future.
With all those wonderful other attributes that can make life here so pleasant, well – that’s all the icing on the cake. This month, make it a nice dark fruit cake with marzipan icing.
Season’s greetings, Susie Dunn.
P.S. (Sorry, I always have to have at least one other word).
Down the track I’d like to talk about the incredible job that organised sport does in this community, how we come to have 150 locals presenting opera with the Armidale symphony orchestra, the highly organised trading culture of the aboriginal people over millennia, the reasons why Hunter S. Thompson’s chum Ralph Steadman talked of “the little community of Armidale who dream of a New Universe and a clean world”, the fact that eels leave the pools at the foot of Dangars Falls to make their way to New Caledonia to breed and then make their way back up the ranges again, the amazing story of Signor Vertelli walking the wire across the same Dangars Falls in 1866, why the New England Regional Art Gallery is worth all the stresses that have surrounded it recently and why and how we should capitalise on the many visitors who come here for other reasons than ‘just passing through …’ Oh, what stories are out there … Icing on the Cake …!

If you want your property sold, it is very important to get the price right. Competition is fierce amongst sellers and the buyers are very astute. More and more sellers are choosing to market their home without a price. This style of marketing allows buyers to view the property and express their opinion of value. This feedback is provided to the owner helping them to set a saleable price. As part of our buyers’ information nights, we have included a section on how to buy at auction, and how to submit an offer under private treaty. This has empowered the buyers to feel confident in their decisions.

The following is a brief snapshot of what has been happening over the last four years. In the year of 2005 there were 500 sales in the 2350 postcode, an average of 41 sales per month with the median price of $215,000. In the year of 2006 there were 461 sales in the 2350 postcode, and average of 38 sales per month with the median price of $230,000. In the year of 2007 there were 498 sales in the 2350 postcode, an average of 41 sales per month with the median price of $250,000. In the year of 2008 there were 333 sales in the 2350 postcode, an average of 27 sales per month with the median price of $265,000. (Information sourced from RP Data).

 As you can see the median price has continued to increase over the last four years, but the volume of sales over the last year of 2008 has decreased. The Armidale market is very resilient and continues to be an excellent place to park your money. What is showing up in our statistics is the volume of sales in the bottom end of the market has increased (under $300,000). The strength of the lower end of the market will be pushed through the market as people upgrade and move within the town. The top end of the market will continue to come back over the next twelve months, because there are fewer buyers.

First home buyers have never had it so good, with the first home owner grant of $7,000 being doubled to $14,000, and an additional boost of $3,000 a first home buyer can purchase a property with very little saved. Most banks are taking into consideration the grants and using tenant history ledgers to support loan applications. We have just conducted the first of a series of first home buyer information nights, which proved a success. Our next information night will be the 18th of February at 6pm in our office. We have limited seats available, so you will need to call our office on 6771 3277 to confirm your place.

Everything is pointing in the right direction, with interest rates low and looking like going lower and house prices stable, with plenty of choices under the $300,000 mark. 

It seems that the only thing holding people back is the fear of losing their job. You can insure yourself against loss of income; there are ways to protect your mortgage. “Fortune favours the brave”, so do not let fear create in you the inability to make a decision. “Life is something that happens to you as you plan other things.” 

Make sure you are a participant in life and not a spectator.