Airport proponents and their sham EIS processes downplay the
depreciation airports cause on real estate values in their
neighbourhood. Objective evidence, such as found by the Senate
report into Sydney's Third Runway fiasco, show the costs are high.
Probably as much as 20 to 30% depreciation.
Even the threat of an airport can have this effect. In Bankstown
and surrounding areas, average prices of some 12,000 homes were
predicted to fall by $50,000.
$50,000 per home
× 12,000 homes = $600,000,000
That's $600 million that ordinary family home owners will lose
to the Federal Government's stupidity and the aviation industry's
greed. You won't see that costed in any EIS or government analysis
of this apalling decision. Nor will you see any costing of the
affects of increased noise and pollution, both on the airport, and
in the air approaching it. Can you put a price on your families'
health ? The loss to the families of Bankstown will far exceed $600
million.
Supporting a Thieving Mongrel
Maybe Bankstown families might reconsider their support of the
airport when they realise it's going to steal so much from them as
it "grows" up. Think of it like a mongrel pup that's only going to
behave more and more badly as it grows. Maybe you should kill it
before it got too big to handle.
It's not hard to think of cheaper and fairer ways of buying jobs
than a mongrel airport. And if you're prepared to treat residents
so unfairly, why should they be fair to you and let you continue
running the airport just because it has always been there ? If you
throw fairness out the window, like this proposal does, then
fairness doesn't have to be returned by residents.
Real estate buyers can see the risk of Bankstown becoming
Sydney's defacto Second Airport, as shown in this article by Fiona
Connolly from the Daily Telegraph, Friday 16th February, 2001.
Aviation interests should think seriously about how unfairly
residents might return their unfairness...
"Home owners near Bankstown Airport had their biggest fears
confirmed yesterday when experts said their property values were
already plunging.
Sluggish sales in flight path suburbs have caused house values
to fall by as much as 20 per cent, one valuer said yesterday.
Local agents said it was "virtually impossible" to sell property
in flight path areas after reports that noise as looud as a
jackhammer would be heard along the main flight path at Bankstown,
Condell Park, Hoxton Park, Alfords Point and Menai - 24 hours a
day.
The property crisis follows the Howard Government's decision
last December to upgrade Bankstown airport to allow 737s to use the
suburban airport.
The Government decided to boost capacity at Sydney Airport and
expand Bankstown Airport by extending the main runway by 600 m to
cater for larger jets rather than build a second airport at
Badgery's Creek.
More than 12,000 residential properties and 35,000 residents
will be affected by increased noise under the plan.
Western Sydney residential property valuer Derrick Goubran
yesterday said buyer sentiment in the area was so low and house
prices had fallen by $20,000 to $30,000. "Potential home buyers in
that area have just focussed their attentions elsewhere," he
said.
"Uncertainty about what might happen in an area like this is too
great a risk for people spending their life savings on a home."
Mr Goubran said that when the Government's plans for the airport
take hold, the median house price in the Bankstown area would fall
from $280,000 to as little as $230,000.
Frank Nashaty, from Raine and Horne Bankstown, said panic over
increased noise had "wiped out" business in his area.
"Show something that's near the airport and people just don't
want to know about it", Mr Nashaty said yesterday.
"And we're not just talking about Bankstown."
Mr Nashaty said sales had been "terrible" with only two auctions
in February compared with a dozen at other times.
For the first time in months, Owen O'Brian, from Century 21 at
Condell Park, will have no properties to auction this month.
Roland and Pauline Boothroyd and their teenage sons will next
month move from their four-bedroom Wattle Grove home, which is less
than 5 km from the airport. But the move has come at a cost. It
took them more than three months to sell the home - even after
dropping the price $12,000.
- Fiona Connolly, in the Daily Telegraph,
Friday 16th February, 2001
Don't it always seem to go
But you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone.
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot.
-Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi.
First Published 19th February, 2001. Last
Revised
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Visitor
since Sat 21-Feb-2004.