Mortgage broker Daglish

Few local sales, and what that does to your valuation

Daglish is small and does not turn over quickly, so in any given stretch a valuer may find only a handful of genuinely comparable sales inside the suburb itself. When that happens they widen the search into Subiaco, Shenton Park and Jolimont.

That is ordinary practice and not a problem in itself. It does mean your figure can be pulled by what is happening in a neighbouring suburb with quite different housing, and that is not always in your favour.

It also affects which kind of valuation a lender can use at all. Automated valuations are built on sales data, and where the data is thin they tend to come back with a low confidence score or no figure at all.

• Comparable sales drawn from Subiaco, Shenton Park or Jolimont when Daglish has none
• A low confidence score on an automated valuation, which many lenders will not accept
• The land component, which carries most of the value on these interwar lots
• Proximity to the railway line, which a valuer notes street by street
• Approvals for any past extension, frequently missing on a house of this age

Interwar stock, character policy and the streets around the station

Most of Daglish went up between the wars, and a great deal of it is still the original house on the original lot. The City of Subiaco applies character-area policy across much of that housing, which limits demolition and puts alterations through an assessment.

Owners often realise this only after settlement. It rarely dents the value, but it decides whether your project is a rebuild or an extension, and those are two different loans set up two different ways.

The station sits in the middle of the suburb rather than off at one edge, so a large share of the housing is within a couple of streets of the line. Valuers note that, and a small number of lenders take a more conservative view where a property backs directly onto rail.

1. 1

   Confirm what the character policy allows

   Ask the council what can be altered and what cannot, during your due diligence rather than afterwards. The answer decides the loan, not only the plans.

2. 2

   Get a real figure for the house as it stands

   An extension is funded against your current equity and an as-if-complete valuation. In Daglish both usually need an inspection rather than an estimate.

3. 3

   Match the contract to a lender who funds extensions

   Some lenders write a major extension as a construction loan with progress payments. Others will only lend against the property as it is today.

4. 4

   Draw down in stages and hold a buffer

   Payments follow slab, frame, lock-up, fit-out and completion. Working around a house of this age turns up surprises, so keep contingency outside the loan.

None of that rules out doing serious work to a Daglish house. It means the finance is arranged around what the council will actually approve, which is a conversation worth having before an architect is paid.

What Daglish owners come to us for

Daglish produces few first purchases, for the simple reason that so little comes up. Most of our work here is with people who already own the house, refinancing, releasing equity to extend, or finally moving off a rate they have sat on for years.

Our office is on Cambridge Street in West Leederville, a few minutes up the road, so meeting in person is easy for anyone here. It also means we watch the Subiaco and Shenton Park results that end up being used as your comparables.

We are brokers rather than property advisers, so we will not tell you what a Daglish house is worth holding for. What we can tell you is which lenders cope well with thin valuation data, and what moving could save you against your current rate, subject to approval.

• Refinancing where an automated valuation came back low, or produced nothing at all
• Equity release to fund an extension the character policy will approve
• Construction finance for rear additions and second storeys on interwar lots
• Home loans for buyers who have finally secured one of the few houses to come up
• Expat home loans for owners keeping a Daglish house while posted overseas