REAL ESTATE INTERVIEW

Call or visit a real estate agent that practices near to the area that you are redeveloping. This may include Pyrmont, Balmain, Rozelle, Leichardt, Lilyfield, Glebe or Annandale.

Interview a member of the staff to find out about:

The typical demographic buying in the area
If there are any trends in demographics of the area over the last 10 years
Their predictions about who will be living in the area over the next 20 years.
Any insights into pricing and housing affordability
Any insights into renting in the area vs. buying

Transcript of Interview (from the first question asked):

Interview Question: What is the main demographic in the Rozelle area?

Real Estate Agent:When they say demographic, are you asking the types of people who are living there?

Interviewer: Yes - the age, their occupation

Real Estate Agent: Okay, the main age group would be between 30 and 45 year olds, and predominantly seem to be professionals working in the city.

They possibly could house 1 maybe 2 children, but the majority of them won’t have kids.

Interview Question: Have there been any trends with this demographic in the past 10 years, or has the area always been like this?

Real Estate Agent: No, it’s actually changed. So predominantly, say 20 years ago, it was more a working class sort suburb but with the rising price of the homes in the area, it seems to have attracted a different kind of buyer.

Interview Question: Do you have any predictions about who will most likely live here in the future?

Real Estate Agent: I think predominantly it will be either young couples or empty nesters meaning those who have had kids, and want to live in a smaller house that’s closer to the city since their kids have moved out.

Interview Question: What is the affordability of this area? Are there diverse living spaces there?

Real Estate Agent Answer: It’s very expensive - it has one of the highest price per square metre rates in the inner-west. The affordability is actually quite low so it’s more centralised towards affordability.

Interview Question:Is it more popular to rent or buy in this area?

Real Estate Agent Answer: It’s more affordable to rent in the area, but it’s a very popular area to buy or rent in. It’s desirable from both aspects.

From these responses, answer the question:

What insights into demographics, affordability and future trends did you gain through your interview?

This interview provided a lot of insight into the demographics, affordability and future trends for the Rozelle area, meaning that we know who we're building our area for. This new insight allows us to know our potential residents, and to improve anything that is making the other area lack liveability.

The Real Estate Agent that was interviewed was called Daniel Patterson. He provided detailed and well rounded answers for the project. His input was also valuable because he is an experienced professional that was raised in the area, but also has worked around the world. He also has 12 years of experience and was a Finalist 2015 REINSW Awards for Excellence. This meant that the information he gave would have been accurate and well considered.

(Information from http://www.ch.com.au/about/staff-profile.php?staff=208)

A large part of what the Real Estate Agent said, was about the area not being afforable and it being aimed more towards those who are working in the city. As we are aiming to have a diversity of people in our area, we have to figure out how to make the area more affordable. However, the area that we're redesigning is specifically Rozelle Bay, not Rozelle. Rozelle Bay doesn't have any residential areas in it so far, meaning that our group should be able to make it a diverse area and more affordable than the already existing residential areas in Rozelle. In regards to it being aimed more towards people working in the city, this seems like a realistic demographic that we're aiming our residential area towards are our area is very close to the city, and our area will more likely have apartments than larger houses for families.

In the area, it is popular to both rent and buy, and in the future it is predicted that mostly young couples or empty nesters will live there. This means that living spaces in our area must be both to rent and buy to appeal to a greater amount of people. Again, if we're aiming for affordability we have to have spaces that are to rent because he said in the Rozelle area it's more affordable to rent than to buy. As well as this, we have to consider living areas that aren't huge because a prediction was that empty nesters and young couples will be looking to live there in the future most likely as they want to live near to city for work, or are interested in living somewhere that isn't so big. As said earlier, this means our area is most likely to then have apartments than houses. In addition to this - because living near the city is an appealing part of this area - we have to have lots of public transport that allows people to travel to and from the city regularly.