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Granny flats the new way to help the next generation stay local posted on the 5th September 2016
This week, Ipswich and Logan Granny Flats bring to you a fantastic article about how granny flats are heightening community spirits and keeping families closer together. With house prices in some suburbs, particularly Sydney, rising and housing availability hitting an all-time low, granny flats give the next generation the headstart they need in the property market – and for the rest of their lives…
Read and enjoy…
Kathryn Welling, News Corp Australia Network
September 3, 2016
GRANNY flats are being used as family homes to house a young generation priced out of the northern beaches property market.
Mum-and-dad homeowners are turning to the granny flat as a way of helping their adult kids stay on the northern beaches.
Some homeowners offer the granny flat to their children while others move into the granny flat themselves and offer the main house to the next generation.
Newport couple Maggie and Paul Taylor’s 23-year-old daughter Claire is getting married next month and she and her fiancé are struggling to afford a home. Paul and Maggie have decided to build a two-bedroom granny flat in their garden to help out.
“It will give them a headstart and save us mowing the lawn,” Maggie said.
Granny flat builder Paul Mathias of Multidwell in Brookvale said four years ago homeowners built a granny flat in the garden for a second income. Now they are offering the flat to family members who can’t buy on the northern beaches.
“Eighty per cent of the granny flats we now build are for children and grandchildren,” he said.
“Four years ago it was mostly to rent out but now people are buying them to give their children a leg up.
“Parents help their kids and when they do move out in five years or so the parents still have an investment.”
Real estate agent Andrew Strong, of LJ Hooker Collaroy, said some parents even sold up entirely to buy a house with a granny flat.
Last weekend seven parties registered to buy a Wheeler Heights property on 1570sq m of land that had the potential for a granny flat. Mr Strong said families competed with builders for the old home at 44 Rose Ave that sold for $1.66 million.
“The new owner will be looking to maximise the potential of the block,” he said.
There are 22 homes for sale on the peninsula with self-contained accommodation.
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Written by Sonia Woolley