Editorial

Due to further upgrades, we will only be reporting essential news and upcoming events.

Thursday night 29 June at Beachlands Chartered Club is a $1600 members draw followed by DJ Pete. Last Saturday was a hoot at the Razza when Elvis entered the building! The resemblance to the King was eerily realistic, with looks, voice and moves, right down to the curled upper lip! Those who supported the event were well rewarded by a great night, see pix below.

Interestingly, there is a bit of a bun-fight for your attention on Saturday night 31 July. While sporting Kiwis will be glued to the box when The All Blacks face the Wallabies in Melbourne, Beachlands Baptist Church has organised a film show (presumably as an alternative to the big game). That would be great were it not for the film being a Christian drama about "American Football."  We'll try and get an interview with Pastor Neil Hamilton. (see below)

Big events coming up: the Paintball Shootout 01 August courtesy the Cops and Fire Service, Mayoral Candidates John Banks & Len Brown face the public at 7.30pm Wednesday 04 August at Te Puru, courtesy the PCCA.

Look out for Coast Ads noticeboard on Beachlands Road. Each weekend we'll be providing open home information for private sellers in a flyer box plus a list of garage sales. Remember, many home buyers cruize the area on spec, so make sure your listing gets main road exposure.

Heres a link to this week's 'Fair Go' programme featuring a guide to selling your home privately. 

Finally, at 8.00pm Sunday, when all the excitement of the footie is over, join us on a trip down memory Lane with Chae when he plays his Northern Soul selection. Many of the grooves you'll know, some will be new to you, but remember the poms get up on a Sunday morning to listen to óur very own Maraetai music station, so we need to keep the faith with music we grew up with! Listeners can interact on the shoutbox and get requests played. Do not miss it, link below.      

The Big Mis-Match

Providing alternatives to rugby on big match nights is a great idea. Nonetheless, we asked Baptist Pastor Neil Hamilton what he was thinking, when he decided to run a grid-iron film on the same night as Australia v The All Blacks.

Neil explained that the initiative was organised by a member of his church who is not interested in rugby, therefore was unaware of the date clash. He said that his church was honouring the community by putting on a completely free show with ice cream and popcorn. "These are hard times and the church wants to do something positive for the community," he said. Neil also made the point that the rugby doesn't start until 10pm.

Normally we would leave it there were it not for the fact that the promotional material for the event contains no reference whatsoever to the fact that the film is an American Christian movie. This is disappointing as 'honouring the community' needs to be an inclusive activity that everyone regardless of colour, race or creed can participate in. OK you could say, "what else would you expect from a church." On the other hand a visit to the Hare Krishna restaurant on K Road does not include any chanting or readings from the Bhagavad Gita.

We suggest to Neil that people would happily make a small contribution towards licensing a public showing of a secular movie as not all Beachlanders are Christians. Which leads to another point, big screen sporting events come at considerable cost to the venue operator, so go nice and early and enjoy the the pre match build-up. 

The Omana Reserve Road Referendum Results

For the Road Closure 31%
Against the Road Closure 69%

Clearly the nays have it!

A delighted Bill Bateman of Grey Power who has worked long and hard opposing closure along with Paul Johnson of Save Maraetai says;

"Now that the referendum results are in you can see that they confirm the findings of the independent Longdill report.

Obviously the referendum was unnecessary.

The local residents request is that the road remains open to through traffic the right to drive off the said road & park under a tree for picnic. This has been the case for the last 40 years and is greatly appreciated by both visitors & local residents.

Unfortunately, the Clevedon Community Board, together with Manukau Parks has systematically opposed the wishes of the people since 1964.

At the direction of the Manukau City Council they held a ‘meaningless’ working party to decide the future of the Omana Reserve Road in which I participated. At no stage in these deliberations was:

• The Road Closure discussed
• The prevention of the public driving into the park
• That parking areas to be located either end of the road & restricting the public parking to those areas only.

I suggest both the Clevedon Community Board & Manukau Parks are well aware of the wishes of the public to enjoy their old parking rights, but for their own reasons choose to ignore them." 

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 REAL ESTATE ROUND-UP

Harcourts Beachlands had 3 very different properties on offer at auction on Sunday 25 July.

There were 2 upgraded baches and an award winning designer home down at Tui Brae, Pine Harbour. Alas, as with a previous auction the upmarket home didn't attract a bid, nor did a 2 bedroom home in Karaka Road.

The auctioneer advised that there was conditional interest in Tui Brae and immediately after the property was passed in, the agents got on with putting an offer together. Hence it would appear the wisdom of taking this particular home through the auction process seemed to strengthen the buyer's hand rather than the vendor's. Nonetheless a beautiful home in a great location.

The upgraded bach in Karaka Road just didn't press any buttons and was passed in with a vendor bid of $385,000. This indicates that inflated land values are beginning to recede. As with many older type homes the main appeal was the quarter acre section, hence at this level the sums didn't work for the audience. (A similar situation occured with a house in Fourth View Ave at the previous auction)

Clearly the cost of materials and labour isn't going to drop, therefore land values must ease in value in order to redress the the iniquity of homes being worth less than the sum of their parts.

However the star turn was 11 Bell Road. An old bach that changed hands in 1991 for $115,000, the home had been lovingly upgraded in such a way that it competed in price with modern homes. One suspects that the figure of $610,000 was realised due to competing buyers. Situated opposite the school and just down the road from the fire station with commercial buildings on the opposite side of the road, and not a hope in hell of a sea view, Harcourts did a great job. Notwithstanding, the home oozed quality with wood floors, modern layout, 4 bedrooms plus outbuildings on a quarter acre section. The main drawcards were sunny position and indoor/outdoor flow. One also suspects that a quirky bush bath appealed to the buyer. 

Not impressed!

We understand that a number of real estate agents are piqued at Coast Advertiser providing free real estate advertising for private sellers. This is disappointing as new technology makes marketing less expensive therefore change is inevtiable.

Coast Advertiser provides advertising opportunities not real estate services. The onus is on advertisers to provide such things as listing details, property description and price. No real estate advice is given, nor is information (such as property values or outgoings) provided by us if the advertiser hasn't supplied it.  Initially most people list with real estate agents as it is more convenient. Local experts provide knowledge and expertise. Those who choose to list privately, find out from the market whether their asking price is realistic at the current time. Nonetheless when a property has been on the market for more than 90 days and sole agencies have expired, vendors have every right to list privately.

Much of the current real estate malaise is caused by the gap between expectation of buyers and sellers. A well known auctioneer recently explained at a local auction that property is changing hands for less than its replacement cost. A contributing factor with recently built homes is high subdivision costs, compliance costs, reserve and roading contributions to local authorities. Alas, such invisible costs are near impossible to recover on resell in a bear market.

Large developers have traditionally used in-house sales teams, yet a large proportion of their stock is sold by real estate agents with sound local knowledge and a good client base. Even when property is listed privately there are still opportunities for agents to approach owners for listings or with potential buyers. 

Real estate fees are scaled downward as prices increase which means that vendors at the cheaper end of the market pay (dollar for dollar) up to 3% more for real estate services than at the higher end. Ironically it is lower end activity that is the catalyst for the market overall. So where budgets are tight and costs need to be minimised, it is not unreasonable for owners to give it a go! Of course if they don't succeed, a long line of agents will be there waiting to assist!

 Euthanasia - Have your say!

Once again euthanasia has come back into the spotlight. This is largely due to a plea by Auckland GP Dr John Pollock for a law change that would decriminalise assisting those wishing to terminate their lives.

Public opinion seems divided on this one. Those who support change point out that society treats animals more compassionately than humans, while the naysayers believe it is wrong to intervene in any circumstances, both on ethical and religious grounds.

Could a reluctance to legalise human intervention be based on fear of what humans are capable of doing to one another? Clearly if there was a law change tomorrow, there would be a tiny minority who would see an opportunity to speed up inheritances. On the other hand, are we doing enough for those suffering terminal illness whose only crime is that of living too long? 

For as long as people resort to throwing themselves off  bridges and under trains we need to consider the desperation of the terminallly ill. A recent New Zealand Herald Poll of readers showed that 80% of respondents were in favour of a law change, that’s up 10% on 2 years ago. Whether that result is an accurate representation of public opinion remains to be seen as those in favour of law change might be more inclined to register an opinion than those supporting the status quo.

At present, anyone caught assisting the termially ill is dealt with harshly in New Zealand. The writer recalls interviewing a 90 year old man from Epsom who had been charged with murder after assisting in his wife’s death more than a decade ago. If the New Zealand Herald Poll does accurately represent public opinion, then a law change is urgently needed to avoid prosecutions that are not supported by the populus. Nonetheless, there has been a noticeable absence of protest from the public in recent times over jailing of those convicted of aiding and abetting.

Currently the law accepts the right of individuals to end their own lives. However if a terminally ill person decides to drive a car over a cliff, that is not a crime per se, but if the vehicle gets stuck in the mud and a request for a push is heeded, then that is potentially an act of murder!

Is New Zealand liberal enough in its thinking to make such a radical change? Of course law change does not necessarily change public perception. A case in point is homosexuality. While the law has decriminalised gay sex and introduced civil unions, the gay community still remain on the fringes of society.  As one redneck Kiwi recently remarked to his gay son, “You are my son and I will always love you, but please don’t bring your queer friends to the house!”

Relatives or close friends assisting the terminally ill are deemed to have blood on the hands, so maybe legalised facilities operated under strict criteria would be more acceptable to everyone and would remove the need for criminal prosecution. What do you think. Click HERE to blog your views. 

      For Waterblasting Decks & Cleaning Spoutings    
         Call Spic-&-Span 536 7215 - Free Quotes, Pensioner Discounts  

Coin Save Discount Store Changes Hands

Rikki Zhao has just taken over at Coin Save. Much more than a two dollar shop, Rikki stocks some real snazzy Holden & Ford Jackets along with almost everything under the sun from speaker cable to lingerie, inexpensive hand tools to dishwashing liquid. A real old fashioned emporium with a modern look. Coin Save is so handy for buying a last minute present. The other day I got a nice Madonna perfume, a card and some wrapping paper for twelve bucks, which has to be great value. So if you're stuck for something, never say, "they won't have that" as they probably will!

This is one store where you can be assured you will pay not a cent more than in town and probably even less! Give Rikki and his wife a go, they deserve it as the community benefits from having a discount store right here in Beachlands.

                                  Supakleen  Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Services
                                        Phone Bruce on 536 5090 021-022-49764

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