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Dreams become a reality sooner thanks to Castran Gilbert’s hands on approach!
Why?
Castran Gilbert’s company Principals’, get involved with all the “behind the scenes” aspects of any new project!
From interior design, floor plans, to choosing which bank to finance the project, the Principals’ aim to take the pressure off the developer by offering educated advice ensuring developers make the most from their investment. This also sees the developer’s project gets to the marketing stage quicker!!
Testimonials
At Castran Gilbert we recognise the importance of pre-selling!
It instils confidence and allows you, the developer, to finance other projects sooner!
Here’s what a few of clients have to say.
Anton Wilson: This is my 3rd pre-sold project since dealing with Castran Gilbert. Their sales team pre-sold 220 apartments giving my company on this latest project more than $50 million in sales revenue …I’m sold on Castran Gilbert!!
Peter Arundel: I first dealt with Castran Gilbert in 1991 with them pre-selling a project of mine in South Yarra within just a couple of weeks! As a developer, this made me feel confident in the project seeing their ability to pre-sell!
Martin Tissot: My latest project has seen another 100% Castran Gilbert pre-sell! They gave me the confidence they could pre-sell then actually did it!! Their huge volume of pre-sales allowed me a construction start and also financed my next project …I have never had so much success since dealing with Castran Gilbert!!
Adding to these testimonials, recently one of our clients went to 1 of the 4 major banks to finance a project and on discovery that Castran Gilbert were involved, the bank proceeded to inform them Castran Gilbert is their preferred selling agent…the bank signed off immediately on the project!!
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IT’S not often a developer starts a project by throwing away a big chunk of costly inner-city land. But that’s what Mantello Holdings has done with its latest project, Richmond’s Tanner Lane.
It is putting a street through the middle of the land in Tanner St, dividing the site in two.
“We cut a road through the middle of it and we’re doing two types of product — townhouses at the front and warehouse shells at the back,” Jeremy Mantello, one of two brothers who run the business, says.
The Mantellos have plenty of experience dealing with tight inner-city spaces.
They built a mixed-use residential and office development inside a heritage-listed building in city lane Bank Place, gutting the interior and retaining the facade.
Three additional levels on top completed the logistically tricky project, which was commended at the 2001 Royal Australian Institute of Architects awards.
In another city project, the Emerald Apartments, they redeveloped and restored 20 McKillop St into 12 apartments.
The Mantellos have plenty of experience in Richmond, where their office is based.
One of their earlier projects was converting the Henry Bucks building in nearby Stewart St into large apartments.
The Henry Bucks warehouses were offered as bare spaces, but most of the 14 units in Tanner Lane, the site of a former warehouse, are to be fully finished.
The eight large townhouses at the front of the development will have Miele kitchen appliances, polished concrete and timber floors, and smart wiring.
At the rear, six smaller properties will be offered as shells.
The development, designed by award-winning Buckerfield Architects, offers something that’s hard to come by in the inner city: each townhouse has a double garage, complete with remote-controlled roller door.
But Mantello says being close to the Richmond train station might prove more of an attraction.
“It’s close to everything,” he says. “You’re within walking distance of the CBD and the MCG.”
It’s also a short stroll from the Swan St shops, pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafes.
The three-bedroom townhouses are split over three levels.
Ground level features a home office that could be used as an extra bedroom and a garage.
The first floor is largely taken up by a huge open-plan living area, but also houses the kitchen and a terrace.
Bedrooms are on the top level, along with another smaller terrace.
The secondary bedrooms have built-in wardrobes and the large main bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe and ensuite.
Prices range from $685,000 for the smallest, a 201sq m shell, to $1.4 million for a fully-fitted 283sq m townhouse.
The project is due to be completed in June or July.
Read the full article here: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24712822-5013926,00.html
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Here’s an interesting article about developers who are spending up to $100,000 to help buyers imagine they’ve already moved in.
http://www.domain.com.au/Public/Article.aspx?id=1228585093054&index=NationalIndex&headline=Dressed%20in%20show
Below is an extract:
Discounts on new apartments, deals to pay stamp duty for buyers, special offers galore . . . With developers desperate for buyers of new apartment projects as the banks continue to rein in credit and with many consumers lacking the confidence to actually commit, there’s still one great weapon left in their armoury: the display suite.
Fitted out with top-quality designer furniture, painted in the latest stylish colour palettes, decorated often with original artwork and regularly finished down to the last detail with cutlery, glasses and plates, it’s guaranteed to leave every potential buyer salivating.
"Apartments look so different when they’re empty to when they’re well-furnished," says Andrew Finlayson of developer Carrington, with penthouses for sale at Kensington apartment complex Capella and Wahroonga’s Beumont both beautifully fitted out by stylists.
"It sets the mood and feel, and shows off the architecture of an apartment and it helps people get the sense of how much space is available."
Selling tools
In today’s soft property market, the chief executive of the developers’ lobby Urban Taskforce Australia, Aaron Gadiel, says display suites have never been more important as marketing tools. Today developers are under huge pressure to sell as many apartments as they can off the plan because of the credit crunch tightening bank finance.
"They’re not able to borrow as much as previously, so a good display suite is vital to enable them to sell as soon as possible," Gadiel says. "You’re seeing a lot more developers at the moment using them and their look, feel and quality are now much more important than ever."
At Mirvac’s new Springdale development in Killara, the display apartment cost between $80,000 and $100,000 to be fully furnished and decorated. Marketing director James Bell says the outlay, with apartments still for sale priced from $1,025,000 for two bedrooms and from $1.03 million for three, is absolutely worthwhile.
"If you’ve got good design, good finishes and a good location, it only makes your product even more attractive," he says.
At Beumont, where the three-bedroom-plus-study, three-bathroom penthouse is for sale at $2.5 million, spending about $80,000 on the display styled by Coco Republic was similarly worthwhile. By the same token, the fit-out of the three-bedroom-plus-study, two-bathroom Capella penthouse at $2.2 million was worth slightly less.
"You can fill a place up with utilitarian furniture but really you want people to feel they can see themselves in the space," Finlayson says.
"And you furnish according to the taste of your target demographic."
How to read a display suite
It’s all very well to fall in love with the look of an apartment display suite but don’t forget: love can be blind. Craig Yelland and Ian Briggs of Plus Architecture advise:
- Take a tape measure.
- Understand how an apartment is measured – mostly from mid-wall to the middle of the party wall.
- Confirm the ceiling heights in the display suite are the same as in the end product.
- Check the size of the beds. Double beds make rooms look bigger because they are smaller but many people assume they’re queens.
- Work out whether your fridge will fit in the fridge well.
- Don’t assume what you see is what you’ll get. What are the standard finishes and optional extras? Ask lots of questions to find out exactly what you’re buying.
- Check what you can’t see. Are the walls strong enough to hold a plasma television? Test the firmness of the vanity basin.
- Ask if there are enough power points in every room. In bathrooms and kitchens particularly, adding extras can end up costing thousands.
- Make sure the lift is big enough to fit your couch and fridge.
- Don’t forget to check other items such as the communal gym and pool, strata fees, location and local amenities.
Mark Forytarz.