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How a blank cheque offer won the battle for a luxurious apartment

A Sydney home seller has pocketed a huge price for their luxurious property after a determined buyer showed their agent a signed blank cheque and invited them to fill in whatever price they wanted. The offer was made during an open inspection of the three-bedroom Barangaroo apartment, and proved to be too persuasive for the sellers to turn down. Despite being reluctant to sell their home, the owners signed the paperwork and accepted the cheque with their own asking value. Their price: $6.58 million. The eye-watering sum was $1.5 million above the price the sellers expected to make on the waterfront property, which was scheduled for auction just a few weeks later. It was not the only staggering offer the sellers received for the apartment on <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-apartment-nsw-barangaroo-138857119?rsf=syn:news:nca:news:spa">601/19 Barangaroo Avenue.</a> Another buyer reportedly showed selling agent Peter Li a banking app on his phone and offered to transfer the money to Mr Li directly to lock in the sale. “The successful buyer was the guy who brought his cheque book, he lived in the building and wanted to upsize to a three-bedroom apartment … this was the last three-bedroom option available,” Mr Li said. “Five million was our initial price guide, we sold this for $1.5m more than the initial price guide – about 30 per cent.” “The vendor was determined to go to auction, but changed her mind when she saw the price we had already achieved. The same apartment sold (at the) off the plan launch for $2.95m. Now it’s more than double.” Despite Sydney’s current housing crisis, Mr Li believes many wealthy buyers are heading to Barangaroo. “The results that we are seeing in Barangaroo are extraordinary. People are moving away from Point Piper to Barangaroo … they are finding it difficult too, as no one is currently selling there.” “Apparently, Barangaroo is immune to the current market slow down.” Image credits: realestate.com.au

Real Estate

Artist turns in blank canvases after hefty payday

A daring art heist has been carried out in the most audacious way in a Danish museum. The <a href="https://kunsten.dk/en">Kunsten Museum of Modern Art</a> in the Danish city of Aalborg offered artist Jens Haaning to recreate two of his most famous works titled An Average Danish Annual Income and An Average Austrian Annual Income. The politically charged artworks used actual banknotes to reflect the average working wage for citizens of Denmark and Austria. The remakes were set to appear in a current exhibition titled Work it Out, which delves into the role of artists in the labour market. The institution lent Jens Haaning $117,000AUD to complete the recreations, and offered an extra $9,700 if needed. As per the contract the artist signed, the money would have to be returned to the museum at the end of the exhibition on January 16th 2022. Upon receiving a suspicious email from the artist, the museum curators suspected something was not quite right. The email told the museum that the title of the artwork had been changed, and was now called Take the Money and Run. <img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7844667/jens-haaning.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/1d04863eb9c145c0a60a0ab854c8d506" /> Image credit: Getty Images As the museum staff opened the box containing Mr Haaning’s ‘artworks’, they discovered two blank canvases while the cash had completely disappeared. “The money had not been put into the work,” museum director Lasse Andersson told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jens-haaning-take-the-money-and-run-blank-canvases-kunsten-museum-modern-art-denmark/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h">CBS</a>. Despite the controversy, Mr Haaning defended his bold decision. “The work is that I have taken their money,” the artist <a href="https://www.dr.dk/lyd/p1/p1-morgen/p1-morgen-2021-09-25">told Danish radio program P1 Morgen</a> of the performance piece and mega-minimalist work. “It’s not theft. It is a breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work.” Jens Haaning said he thought of the idea as a protest against the small sum he was offered to be included in the exclusive exhibition, as well as making a bold political statement on the status of artists in society. “The artwork is essentially about the working conditions of artists. It is a statement saying that we also have the responsibility of questioning the structures that we are part of.” “And if these structures are completely unreasonable, we must break with them.” Image credits: Getty Images

Art

“Totally dumbstruck”: Passengers furious as budget airline’s refund cheques bounce

Budget airline Ryanair has been made to apologise to customers after compensation cheques were found to have bounced. Countless passengers were overcharged during a pilot strike period where flights were cancelled. Many customers have not yet reached a resolution after their cheques were rejected at banks around the UK as they had not been signed. One woman named Karen Joyce was left €20 (NZD$35) out of pocket after she was charged by her bank. Ms Joyce took to Facebook, writing: “I was totally dumbstruck. We were loyal Ryanair customers and for them to bounce the cheque as well I just thought was disgusting.” After being on the phone with Ryanair for 20 minutes in an attempt to resolve the situation, the customer services rep hung up on her. “Then he just put the phone down. I have not received anything from Ryanair,” she said. The strike caused major disruption as thousands of flights were forced to cancel. A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “Due to an admin error, a tiny number of cheques (less than 190 out of over 20,000 compensation cheques in July) were posted without a required signatory. “These cheques were reissued last week, and we apologise sincerely for this inconvenience which arose out of our desire to issue these compensation cheques quickly to our customers.” The UK Civil Aviation Authority has advised passengers to apply for compensation under EU law 261. Previously, Ryanair had said that they are not planning on compensating affected passengers over the strikes as they were “caused by extraordinary circumstances.” The budget airline told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ryanair-defies-watchdog-over-compensation-for-strike-chaos-gwlr5qqmk" target="_blank">The Times</a> that the unions were behaving “unreasonably.”

Travel Trouble

This grandpa’s sweet gift will bring a tear to your eyes

A teenager from Texas has received an incredibly sweet gift from her grandpa to mark her 16th birthday. And this one’s so touching it might just bring a tear to your eyes. Lauren Blank, who just turned 16 this week, received a gift her grandfather has been working on for years – journals that documented every moment they spend together. Blank said she was confused at first, but as she started to notice the heart-warming diligent detail her grandpa had gone to, she become overwhelmed and started to cry. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> today for my birthday, my grandpa gave me 3 books filled w stories of each time he hung out w me from the age of 2 to 5. I am speechless.😭 <a href="https://t.co/fyeOUV1K2J">pic.twitter.com/fyeOUV1K2J</a> — ren (@renblankk) <a href="https://twitter.com/renblankk/status/844725153774944256">March 23, 2017</a></blockquote> Blank said, "I had no idea that he had these, and neither did my parents or anyone in my family. It was a complete shock. I didn't cry at first, but it was so overwhelming." Blank was very close to her grandpa growing up, who helped raise her due to her mother’s busy schedule. Blank explains, "He said that it was a memento, and he wanted to give it to me after he passed away. My mother said, 'No, give it to her now so it has more meaning!'" Blank's tweet has been retweeted 140,000 times so far, with a half million likes. What a lovely story. What’s the most heart-warming gift you’ve given or received?

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How a blank cheque offer won the battle for a luxurious apartment

Artist turns in blank canvases after hefty payday

“Totally dumbstruck”: Passengers furious as budget airline’s refund cheques bounce

This grandpa’s sweet gift will bring a tear to your eyes