http://www.hotspotting.com.au/ www.hotspotting.com.au Articles http://www.hotspotting.com.au/index.php?act=viewArticle&productId=454 Some property investors, well and truly spooked by the hype, seem to be waiting for the sky to fall, while cooler heads have much to gain by looking behind median statistics to identify genuine property opportunities. For the average punter, it has been a challenging quarter trying to make sense of the market, when media reports vary from those who sa http://www.hotspotting.com.au/index.php?act=viewArticle&productId=447 Annual building approvals in Victoria have passed the $20 billion mark for the first time, contradicting nationwide perceptions of a property slump. The Victorian Building Commission says the record-breaking figures for FY2008 have been consistently high throughout the year - with 10 of the 12 months reporting building permits totalling over $1.5 bill http://www.hotspotting.com.au/index.php?act=viewArticle&productId=446 Property prices are higher now than a year ago in all state and territory capital cities, except Perth. The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the House Price Index for Adelaide is 16% above the same time last year, while Melbourne and Brisbane remain 14% higher than a year ago. Across the eight capital cities, prices have http://www.hotspotting.com.au/index.php?act=viewArticle&productId=434 Good research and analysis is the key to most real estate investment successes, but the property market regularly produces its own "accidental millionaires" who benefit from little more than good fortune. There is a growing band of accidental millionaires who are the unexpected beneficiaries of one-off anomalies in their local marke http://www.hotspotting.com.au/index.php?act=viewArticle&productId=433 A softer trend is emerging in the Gold Coast high-rise apartment market as higher interest rates, declining stockmarket conditions and credit retraction take their toll. Buyers in this notoriously fickle market are preferring projects which offer longer settlement timeframes, according to a LandMark White research report. Projects in this latter cate http://www.hotspotting.com.au/index.php?act=viewArticle&productId=432 Demand for housing is on the rise in South Australia as the state's economy is buoyed by a surge in mining and exploration activity, rising employment and record numbers of overseas immigrants. South Australia was ranked 4th in terms of mining potential in the annual Fraser Institute global survey. The state's mineral exploration expe http://www.hotspotting.com.au/index.php?act=viewArticle&productId=428 At some point in the next decade, Australia will experience a massive residential building boom, according to analyst Michael Matusik. In a perfect world, he says, Australia would produce one million new homes in the next five years to meet the underlying demand for owner-occupied, rental, community and social housing. The urgency is underscored by t http://www.hotspotting.com.au/index.php?act=viewArticle&productId=425 More than half the people we old people call "Gen Y" (those born between 1976 and 1991), are continuing to live at home. Predictably, the Housing Industry Association, which proclaimed it so last month, blamed the "still living with the olds" syndrome on Australia's unaffordable housing market. The HIA used http://www.hotspotting.com.au/index.php?act=viewArticle&productId=424 Positive thinkers out-number those with a negative mindset by more than three to one, according to a poll of property investors on hotspotting.com.au.  More than half of the 406 poll respondents see good investment opportunities in the current market  climate, with prices flat or falling and income returns rising.