January 2025

 How long could we reasonably expect governments to take, to sort out a problem like the rental shortage? I ask the question because we have had the problem of a shortage of options for tenants in Australia – and the consequent steep rises in rents – for a very long time. And it keeps […]

 There is one thing that Australian politicians are really good at – possibly the only thing – and that is diverting attention from the real issues and scapegoating others for the problems that they, the politicians, have caused. Right now, the core issues impacting Australian households include the housing shortage, the high cost of

 Australia is struggling with a number of crisis situations – a cost-of-living crisis, a housing affordability crisis and a rental shortage crisis. Our beloved Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared on many occasions how much he cares about the plight of ordinary Australians in dealing with these issues. But, as the old saying goes,

 Residential real estate abounds with fallacies and misconceptions, mostly created by dishonest politicians, biased journalists and economists who don’t understand property. One of the biggest is the one that claims that so-called prime property shows the best capital growth. A year ago I attended a national conference for real estate professionals at which a

 There’s endless commentary about housing affordability in Australia but very little awareness that the fundamental issue is the high cost of creating new homes – and that our politicians are the cause of the problem. The value of dwellings across the nation is underpinned by the cost in building new ones – and, in

 How relevant is population growth data for people choosing where to buy? According to the theories espoused by some, the best places to buy are the ones with the highest population growth. But the evidence suggests otherwise. For example, take a look at the latest data on population growth across Australia, published by the

 The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data has recorded a decline in the number of dwelling approvals across the country. Total dwelling approvals saw a drop of 6.1 per cent in the month of August, at a time when Australia needs to be building a lot more homes. According to ABS head of construction

 The rise and rise of the unit market is keeping the Greater Sydney market busy, although below the exceptional levels seen in some of the other market jurisdictions across Australia.  Unit markets are considerably more positive than house markets in our most expensive capital city and the market share of attached dwellings continues to

 The Regional New South Wales market overall is solid, without excelling at the levels seen in other regional areas like Queensland and Western Australia, but with individual out-performers. There is hesitancy in the Regional NSW market overall. It has a high number of locations where buyer activity is lukewarm and price performance below the