hello and welcome to expert talks on calcan tv i'm your host rose jacobs this is a show where
we meet experts and industry leaders from right across the globe to share their knowledge advice
and insights helping you build your own success and businesses and investments today we're looking
at why airspace is going to be the big real estate trend of this decade australia is poised to admit
large numbers of immigrants to kick-start the post-covert economy and this begs a very obvious
question where will all these people live one answer might be to take advantage of a growing
trend called airspace development i'm pleased to introduce our guest today warren livesey
founder of by airspace and a strut out property development specialist warren welcome to the show
oh thank you very much for having me now this is quite fascinating australia is poised
as as we've said to admit large numbers of immigrants and this is kickstarting
the post covert economy so where do you propose all of these people could potentially live
uh well there's two options one either within our existing um infrastructure that we have at the
present moment or obviously stretching and making the the city that much wider so my main suggestion
to us is that we use the existing infrastructure in the roof space about apartment buildings
now of course we're talking about a roof space that may or may not already exist so can you talk
us through uh first of all the growing real estate trend called airspace development what exactly
does this entail well ultimately airspace is from where the building kind of finishes the roof space
until where you permitted to go to with council regulations so when you actually buy a plot of
land and maybe that is um you know maybe 300 square meters you actually own all that air
space from the ground all the way up until where council allow you to build so that airspace is
either built at the present moment which you would obviously cap off but what we're quite interested
in is from the roof space up to the uh additional uh headspace that you can actually build too
so would you say that there are many people um currently
living in there in their place and they're unaware of the fact that that they have some
um budding real estate sitting right there above their heads rosie i'd say pretty much everyone
i've really ever spoken to um people do when they buy a top floor apartment they uh generally do so
with the understanding that they may extend into the roof um but this generally is kind of a small
attic space or or a small addition to their existing property where we're actually suggesting
putting a new apartment or two up in that roof space um because presently all the roof spaces as
you can well imagine is this a frame type space that um we actually don't need along the coast
line of australia because we don't get snow we don't need the snow to kind of sit on the roof
and then fall away we can actually get away with flat roofs um so yeah so hopefully just using that
idle space that's not being used to try and get more people into a closer proximity of schools
hospitals and police and the likes it sounds like a bit of a no-brainer really when you think of it
that way now i'm curious as to how the council determines how much space can be accessed above
buildings is that to do with not blocking out neighbors views or is there more to it than that
uh when council started to put down the various different zonings that most of the buildings were
already built to be honest so you may be looking at a certain area which would be a
low density area be it around the beach side but you'll see a lot of apartment blocks being built
so they weren't if they were to knock them down and rebuild them they wouldn't be able to do that
so what we're trying to do is just what they call using the existing space more efficiently and
ultimately trying to put an additional apartment above in that space so the main the main point
of this is really to use those particular areas to house somebody else and then we can
sell that particular space to an investor or the group of owners and then that amount of money can
be used to fix up the building because majority of the buildings along the the east and west coast
of australia are called lacking funds they just don't have any money in the sinking fund to fix
up their buildings and they've been corroded away with the ocean and the likes this is a way that we
can actually then fund the sustainability upgrades to all these apartments that are so desperately in
need of work so there are really quite a few win-wins out of this scenario i mean strata
owners can be gaining a huge amount of extra value and it's a benefit for the buildings as well
absolutely look uh in um australia it's possibly that the largest housing sector we have
is uh within apartment blocks they are insured up to about 1.1 to 1.2 trillion dollars that's
with the t uh and on estimate uh the unused space within apartment blocks ranges from about 10 to 15
so there is a potential of of recapping between 110 to 150 billion dollars worth of
real estate that is presently just sitting there in idle
it's interesting that uh that there aren't more organizations or companies out there
that have been on to this for for some time already is it just a no-brainer for you
uh it's very common in europe uh the us the uk um they literally put modular homes on top of roofs
it's quite a part in the uk they are automatically guaranteeing the people and go up another level
it just hasn't been needed in australia australia has so much land and you have 28 million people in
the round we've been able to fit in and amongst that but when we start looking at growing the
population by you know five ten percent where are we going to be able to put these people um as well
as you know we have the hospitals and the schools and already set up in these particular areas so
if we are to stretch out the the um the town in order to facilitate for these new people then
we're going to have to build all those facilities as well which is going to be very very expensive
i've also heard that penthouses or very brand new top level apartments here
can be typically a lot cheaper to build than to start from scratch with a new build is that right
absolutely the the joys of the apartment blocks is that you've got the foundations already there
um your electricity water and gas are already plugged in so you are constructing up in the
roof space is primarily wood and glazing glass work that can be done by predominantly
carpenters so it's the cheapest form of construction um and obviously the most
affordable to reach for the maximum amount of of uh return because obviously up in the roof space
you have a large amount of light and privacy and obviously um space for those issues it really is
a win-win and i guess as well you know any extra income that comes from building these
new bills and the strata owners can then use the proceeds from the sale of these new spaces
to potentially pay for repairs or maintenance of the existing building
that's absolutely right um really it's where um a lot of people along the the coast they've they've
spent their last dollar trying to get into this property market which is going absolutely through
the roof uh pardon the pun but um you know they they don't actually have the additional funds
that are needed to fix buildings so this may be plumbing fire upgrades electrical you know outer
skin starting to need be replacement and they sit there going you know am i going to have to sell
this apartment in order to be able to fund this and um this is just a method or way to actually
find the funds for the building in order for them to actually stay in their residence
and obviously make some money because where a top floor apartment may be worth
say two to three million dollars once it's been built um and most of that say two million of that
can go back to the apartment owners and they can use a million dollars to fix up their building
and make it more sustainable you know get us more off the grid but then obviously there's a million
left over which can actually be divided equally amongst the owners based on their unit entitlement
and if that space is on their own personal name as in they own their apartment it's a it's a tax-free
so it's not just a win-win where on one side people see it as a huge expense of fixing the
building this is actually a way of making money and making their building more sustainable which i
think we need to do with climate change happening around the corner indeed a very valid point there
i can't imagine why anyone would say no to such a proposal so i'd like to know you know is it quite
a difficult process for strata owners to gain the approval uh what's involved in in that process
uh it's it's incredible uh because you're looking at fractional ownership
you know so many people earning everyone has their own financial goals settings uh your neighbors
possibly not the first person you would consider going uh into a financial relationship with um
but in in saying all that you know we are all uh apartment blocks of having this 10-year kind of um
what they call capital works plan of how they're going to fund fixing their building um and a lot
of them are at a loss of how they're going to do it they ultimately are either increasing their
quarterly levies or they do a a once-off payment that ultimately getting funds into the strata from
the owners to then fix it up so what we're trying to do is is that the the process kind of generally
falls over with the owners doing it themselves because there's so many approval stages so the the
suggestion that i have after doing 75 developments and speaking to over a thousand apartments is is
to try and um gets the um the owners out of the decision-making process sooner than
later in the fact that if they are comfortable with selling that particular roof space for
a million dollars or a million and a half then the investor or the group of owners can then take
that particular space and design it accordingly uh without it through all the various levels of
approvals which generally stop and get everyone into this death role sadly it sounds like it's
quite vital to have somebody like you involved in that process that's for sure so if people are
actually interested in finding out more about this um what's the best way for people to learn more
i have genuine information on my website by airspace.com.edu and of course just getting
calling me and getting some general information um because it is an amazing opportunity that i
honestly think can help us you know not only um help those particular owners that don't
have the additional funds but also this huge need to make buildings sustainable so
reusing the the rainwater and solar power to to charge batteries that you you know ultimately use
for the building consumption so everything that can get us off the grid and make us more climate
efficient in regards to intelligent lighting and windows and airflow is just what we're going to
have to be thinking of doing because every degree or two degrees of change here in the coast it
changes five six seven degrees uh in the inland so certain areas are going to be uninhabitable
in the next 15 to 20 odd years potentially if nothing's done at the present moment
but it certainly sounds like it's a very exciting time in terms of uh real estate
and and where we're going over the next decade or so and it certainly sounds like you're the
man for the job we're aaron livesey founder of by airspace and strata development specialist
thank you so much for your time today ah thank you rosie appreciate the opportunity and that's it for
expert talks for today but stay tuned for plenty more content coming your way and in the meantime
as we say here stay apprised and invest wise with kalkine tv i'm rose jacobs thanks for joining us