"Addams Family House" for sale...

[Matt Crunk]

A nice looking old house for sure, but you can find houses like that right here in the States, sometimes with the purchase price of $1.00 (or some small symbolic amount) with the agreement and proven means to restore it. You just have to know where to look for them, and they are usually in very out of the way places where the local economy has gone to crap. This Old House magazine usually features one or two in the back of every issue. There are places to find them online I'm sure.

 

[lolly_loisides]

A nice looking old house for sure, but you can find houses like that right here in the States, sometimes with the purchase price of $1.00 (or some small symbolic amount) with the agreement and proven means to restore it. You just have to know where to look for them, and they are usually in very out of the way places where the local economy has gone to crap. This Old House magazine usually features one or two in the back of every issue. There are places to find them online I'm sure.

That's the thing, big older houses in that state of repair are very rare in Sydney, and Paddington is one of the most expensive suburbs of Sydney.
Having said that there's an entire inner Sydney suburb up for sale at the moment (Terrace houses that were built for maritime workers in the 1850s that are now used as public housing will be sold off by the Govt. My personal view is that it's appalling, working class communities are being decimated so the Govt can make a quick buck).

 

[Bugguy]

My personal view is that it's appalling, working class communities are being decimated so the Govt can make a quick buck).

This is a personal hot button...

You don't have an exclusive on this in Sydney, in the US it's called "eminent domain" and cheap little municipal equivalents of banana republics are using it to force residents out, then turning around and selling the land to big-time developers. It is in my personal opinion, a perverted travesty.

Note this one definition:

"em·i·nent do·main
nounLAW
the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation. " (my emphasis added)

I guess tax revenues, political favors, and kick-backs constitute public use.

An example:

"Oak Creek City Attorney said city staff started the effort to declare XXX’s farm blighted out of concerns it would hamper development on neighboring land. The city is negotiating with WisPark LLC, the Milwaukee-based development arm of We Energies, to develop a business park on the 171 acres it owns around XXXr’s farm, he said. The farm, YYY said, would make the land less attractive to potential business park tenants and hamper city officials’ efforts to increase Oak Creek’s property tax base."

“The perception was that, given the location of the XXXr’s property in relation to the business park,” he said, “that it would be an impediment to development of this business park.”


""ZZZ, staff attorney in the Minnesota Chapter of the Institute for Justice, said it is a misuse of eminent domain authority to use it to increase private development and property tax generation. “The blight definition is so expansive that almost any property can be declared blighted,” ZZZ said, “and we are seeing this here with a farm being declared an urban blight.”