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Sydney has seen the first double digit sale of the year, with the historic Balmoral House in Mosman selling for around $10.3 million.
It was sold by Barclays Global's former senior executive Bruce Goddard and his wife Vanessa, who paid $4.25 million for the sandstone home in 2001.
They bought the home from ad man Wayne Kingston and wife Annalisa, who bought it from publican Peter Bunting and wife Chez for $3.4 million in 1996.
The home was modelled on the villas of the Italian Riviera when built in 1908. It has undergone extensive conservation and renovation works to maintain its period touches.
Offering panoramic views over Balmoral Beach to Manly and North Head, the five bedroom home on 903 sqm features a home office and a wine cellar.
A swimming pool sits in level gardens.
LJ Hooker Mosman agents Geoff Smith and Charlie Biddulph sold the home.
It had been listed late last year with $12 million plus price hopes.
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jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

Historic Balmoral House, Mosman, sold

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Fairfax shares were placed in a trading halt on Tuesday morning after The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk column revealed spin off plans on Monday. 
The media group seems set to retain between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of Domain under the separation plan.
Fairfax Media is considering a proposal to "spin off" its real estate business Domain. Analysts expect Domain to be worth about $2 billion as a separately listed entity.
The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk advised no formal decision has yet been made.
It wrote Fairfax is "seriously considering spinning off Domain into a separately listed vehicle to be run by current Domain boss Antony Catalano."
Macquarie Capital is advising Fairfax, it revealed.
The article comes as Fairfax prepares to hand down its financial results for the six months to December 31 on Wednesday.
Domain is expected to be a key feature at the results announcement despite recent reports of a constipated listings market.
A Fairfax spokesperson declined to comment to the AFR columnists.
Sources told Street Talk key Fairfax decision makers thought that "the time was right" to enact the long-speculated spin off plans before the end of the year.
The business column described Domain as the shining light within Fairfax earning about $130 million a year for the publishing company.
Goldman Sachs analysts expect Fairfax to report $139 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the six-months to December 31, with Domain accounting for $65 million.
Goldman Sachs told its clients on Monday that it was "all eyes on Domain" with particular focus on any pushback from agents on January price rises.
Last November the billionaire small cap investor Alex Waislitz urged Fairfax Media to consider changing its name to Domain to reflect its growing real estate listings business is now worth more than the entire company’s market value.
Waislitz, whose listed fund Thorney Opportunities (TOP) and private fund Thorney Investment Group own more than 50 million Fairfax shares, suggested the Fairfax name was “anachronistic” and urged the media company to consider rebranding itself.
“We think Domain alone is worth in excess of the entire market capitalisation of Fairfax," The Australian reported.
Last December when speaking to Mumbrella, Antony Catalano said there was “no need” for the real estate business to float separately.
“When you have a business that is growing as quickly as Domain is growing then we have an obligation to our shareholders to realise the value of this business,” he said.
“Fairfax is never going to float this business when so much of the value still hasn’t been realised.
"We’ve said publicly this is a business we expect to grow from $120m EBITDA to somewhere in excess of $200m EBITDA over the next two to three years."
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Fairfax reports Catalano's Domain spinoff being worked on by Macquarie Capital

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There has been a “significant fall” in investor purchase intentions in the past three weeks, marking the biggest move in the research group, Digital Finance Analytics’ 10 years of data.
DFA’s data doesn’t always align with future bank lending to investors, but analytics principal Martin North said property purchase intentions could be “on the turn”. 
“If this is the case, then auction clearances, investor lending momentum and property price rises may be impacted,” he said on <a href="https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/" target="_blank">DFA’s blog</a>, as reported in The Australian.
He said the drop in buying intentions was driven by concerns about future prices, falling rental returns, rising investment interest rates and potential changes to “generous” tax breaks for ­investors.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week attempted to affirm the government had no plans to alter the 50 per cent capital gains tax concession for investors who hold a property for at least 12 months after reports suggested changes were being considered. 
Confidence was also hit when measures to cool CBA’s property investment lending growth were advised so the bank was adhering to the regulator’s 10 percent annual cap on credit growth. 
CBA ceased refinancing investors from other banks via mortgage brokers and raised interest only lending rates.
North's reported noted over 1.5 million households aspire to purchase property, 85% are looking for owner occupied, 15% investment.
"At the moment 18% are actively saving, hoping to buy sometime in the future, down from 21 percent a year ago.
"The biggest barriers which are stopping them from purchasing, include that prices are too high (44 percent) and the costs of living (17 percent) although the fear of employment is down to 4 percent from 11 percent a year ago.
"Under 1 percent were expecting to transact within the next 12 months, indicating that the majority are currently disenfranchised from the property market, despite the fact that 42 percent expect house prices to rise over the same period. 
"More than 13% said they were having difficulty finding a suitable loan," the latest report noted.
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Property investor 2017 purchasing intentions wane  

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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/72861/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
GUEST OBSERVERS 
Federal government ministers have cast a cloud over funding for social housing and homelessness services, leading to speculation that the National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA) may not survive the 2017 budget.
Treasurer Scott Morrison and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar point to the recent Report on Government Services, which shows the number of public housing properties has fallen, as evidence of the NAHA’s “abject failure”. Sukkar said:
"We believe it’s crucial that every dollar of spending on affordable housing programs increases the number and availability of public and social housing stock. Clearly, this objective has not been met."
It should be no surprise that Australia’s social housing has been largely static for 20 years. Everything we know about the system tells us it is not funded to even cover the costs of its ongoing operation, let alone growth to meet the needs of an expanding population. Aside from a one-off boost under the 2009 federal economic stimulus plan, social housing has been on a starvation ration for decades.
The whole system system is effectively being run at a loss. So, from the perspective of state governments, building a new public housing dwelling is just one more way of losing money.
The federal government has also long lamented the lack of transparency about how states and territories spend their NAHA funds – about AS$1.5 billion a year. And there are glaring gaps in the evidence about the operations and performance of public housing authorities.
In failing to act on a 2009 commitment to modernise and enhance the Report on Government Services metrics, the states and territories have placed themselves in a weak position to rebut claims of ineffective financial management.
That said, everyone who has any contact with the public housing system knows it to be grossly underfunded. One-off studies occasionally illuminate the scale of the issue. For example, a 2013 New South Wales Audit Office report found a $600 million annual operating deficit for that state’s public housing. But no-one can easily quantify the extent of the problem using routinely published data.
A snapshot of social housing in Australia
Around 320,000 of Australia’s approximately 428,000 social housing dwellings remain under public housing authority control. This stock was amassed through a long series of funding agreements between federal and state and territory governments. These were known as the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreements until their 2009 NAHA rebranding.
From the first Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement in 1945, the basic arrangement was that the federal government would lend funds to state housing authorities to build houses. The states would cover the ongoing costs from the rents paid by working-class tenants.
And, at least to begin with, the housing authorities did build. They made a significant contribution to housing supply, amounting to roughly one in six houses built between 1945 and 1965.
From the early 1970s, the housing authorities were directed, justifiably, to provide more housing to low-income households unable to pay full “market” rents. However, their capital funding also went into a long decline. With the exception of a brief period in the mid-1980s, housing authorities never again built at their earlier rate.
A number of interlocking problems set in. Social housing’s declining share of the housing stock became more tightly rationed to the lowest-income households. This eroded the system’s rent base. At the same time, its ageing buildings and households with greater support needs increased its costs.
Two landmark studies by Jon Hall and Mike Berry charted the implications of these developments for the finances. At the end of the 1980s, all but one of the housing authorities ran an operating surplus. By 2004, all but one ran an operating deficit.
Various attempts to improve the situation have been made. The 1989 Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement switched federal funding from loans to grants; the 1996 agreement allowed federal funds to be spent on recurrent expenses. In the early 2000s, rebates on social housing rents were reduced, slightly increasing revenue.
Modest amounts of public housing have also been transferred into the hands of not-for-profit community housing providers. Partly, this is to take advantage of the eligibility of community housing tenants for Commonwealth Rent Assistance. But although this often enables these providers to run a small operational surplus, it isn’t enough to fund stock replacement or any significant expansion.
Meanwhile, the overall stock has been eaten away, through market sales of public housing, and run down, through skimping on repairs and maintenance. Both are unsustainable strategies.
Running a system without good data
If the broad outlines of the problem are clear, there are major deficiencies in the data as to the details. The Hall and Berry analysis is now dated. There is no current evidence base that shows transparently and consistently what the social housing system in each state and territory costs, and how these costs are met.
For example, the Report on Government Services purports to show the “net recurrent cost per dwelling” for each state and territory. But this does not differentiate between distinct expenditure components such as management and maintenance.
Our 2015 research found that this metric was a “black box”, subject to implausibly large variations across jurisdictions. These reflected the vagaries of departmental restructures, rather than a sound accounting of social housing operations.
There is little doubt that all public housing authorities are now in deficit. However, the Report on Government Services provides no data on the relative scale of these funding shortfalls. Nor do governments routinely reveal the scale of system costs still met by tenants’ rents, nor through stock sales.
What should a rebooted NAHA do?
Although the NAHA does it inadequately, an enduring program of federal funding for operational expenses is essential to sustain the social housing system. Such funding cannot be “replaced”, as Morrison has suggested, by a government-backed aggregated bond financing model.
The bond aggregator model depends on social housing providers having a durable subsidy from government that pays the difference between their ongoing costs and the revenue from rent that low-income tenants can afford.
Instead, NAHA should be rebooted to deliver three things:
capital funding for new social housing stock, distributed according to an assessment of current and projected needs in each state and territory;
recurrent funding, distributed according to the number of social housing dwellings in each state and territory and an assessment of reasonable net recurrent costs; and
clear accounting by social housing providers for costs of provision and the contributions of tenants, government funding and other sources of income towards meeting these costs.
Many in the social housing world would agree the NAHA framework is far from transparent and that there is no certainty that NAHA money is optimally spent. But a ministerial focus on these issues while ignoring the system’s chronic underfunding smacks of re-arranging deckchairs.
Rather than scrapping the NAHA, the system should be rebooted, to properly fund both the growth and ongoing operations of social housing. This must be done on the basis of clear targets for the level of need to be met and the reasonable costs of providing the service.
Chris Martin is research fellow, Housing Policy and Practice, UNSW and can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/chris-martin-203935" target="_blank">here</a>.
Hal Pawson is<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hal-pawson-147969"> </a>associate director - City Futures - Urban Policy and Strategy, City Futures Research Centre, Housing Policy and Practice, UNSW and can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hal-pawson-147969" target="_blank">here</a>.
Both are authors for The Conversation.
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Australia needs to reboot affordable housing funding, not scrap it

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The Melbourne house where 1980s singing actor heart-throb Rick Springfield spent a few formative years (above) sold at weekend auction for $1.13 million.
After competition between four bidders, Springfield’s Parkdale teenage years' home was secured by a young couple who saw the classic <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-parkdale-124558774" target="_blank">clinker brick home</a> for the first time on auction morning.
Buyers Wei Gu and his wife Jiegiong Zhan also only heard the Sydney-born rocker’s No. 1 hit Jessie's Girl for the first time when it was played prior to the auction.
The Hodges Mentone agent Mark Eddy said it was a great result.
"Rick and his brother Michael will be pleased that their mother’s home of many years has sold,” Eddy told the Herald Sun.
Domain Group chief economist Andrew Wilson told Domain the upbeat Melbourne auction market had passed another test, but a record super Saturday of auctions loomed next weekend, further testing the depth of buyer support. 
Home sales across the nation ranged from $166,000 to $5.68 million at weekend auctions.
Both sales were in Victoria, with a likely Brighton knockdown selling at $580,000 above reserve (below) at an executor’s auction for $5.68 million. It was a 720 sqm <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-house-vic-brighton-124543926" target="_blank">St Ninians Road</a> offering.
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/20/Screen%20Shot%202017-02-20%20at%2010.13.43%20AM.png" alt="">
The cheapest was a one bedroom unit at <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-unit-vic-bacchus+marsh-124468598" target="_blank">Bacchus Marsh</a> (below), 57 kms out of Melbourne, which was sold for $166,000.
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/20/Screen%20Shot%202017-02-20%20at%2010.15.56%20AM.png" alt="">
It last sold at $101,000 in 2006, reflecting 4.7 percent annual growth for the Grant Street townhouse which was marketed as having an expected rental return of $190 to $210 per week.
A prime parkside home in Sydney's Chatswood (below) fetched $4,955,000, the second dearest result at auctions across Australia over the weekend.
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/20/Screen%20Shot%202017-02-20%20at%2010.17.40%20AM.png" alt="">
Located at <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-chatswood-124569382" target="_blank">47 Stanley Street</a>, the property was marketed as "an ideal combination of prime positioning and powerful potential."
The solid five bedroom Federation home on a 925 sq m block was knocked down to an local Chinese owner occupier at about 15 per cent above its reserve.
The combined capital city weekend clearance rate remains in the high 70s, despite mid-February auction volumes reaching the highest level so far this year, according to CoreLogic's auction commentator Kevin Brogan.
The larger volume was driven by a substantial rise across the Sydney and Melbourne markets, while there was a small decrease across the smaller capital cities.
The strongest clearance rates, based on preliminary data, were in Sydney and Canberra, where 83 per cent and 81 per cent of auctions returned a successful result.
Canberra’s preliminary auction clearance rate of 81 percent was consistent with last week, and significantly higher than the 61 per cent recorded last year.
A 2011 Philip Leeson-designed <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/50-schlich-street-yarralumla-canberra/1317334380511" target="_blank">Yarralumla house</a> (below) sold for $2.4 million with Peter Blackshaw Manuka agent Mario Sanfrancesco signing up seven registered bidders.
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/20/Screen%20Shot%202017-02-20%20at%2010.19.08%20AM.png" alt="">
The Schlich Street block cost $861,000 in 2008.
Melbourne recorded a strong preliminary clearance rate, with 76 per cent of auctions clearing, just below the 77 per cent national average.
The preliminary combined capital city clearance rate was higher on the weekend than the 71 percent in same period last year.
The 2,280 auctions held was slightly lower as 2,347 auctions were held over the same time last year.
Across Melbourne, the 76 per cent clearance rate was up from 75 per cent last week and also higher than the 74 per cent over the same weekend last year.
Melbourne hosted around 1,100 auctions, around double the 556 held last weekend, and around the same seen one year ago.
This weekend in Melbourne, the number of properties for sale is expected to rise to 1400 with Domain's Dr Andrew Wilson suggesting the listings were big for February when auctions were usually only just starting to build up again.
Of the Melbourne sub-regions, the highest clearance rate was recorded across the North East region, with preliminary results showing 85.5 per cent of the 91 auctions were successful.
Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate this week was 83 per cent across 661 auction results.
There were a total of 844 auctions held across the city. Looking back at the same weekend last year, 800 auctions were held across Sydney and a clearance rate of 76 per cent was recorded.
The North Sydney and Hornsby region hosted the most auctions of any Sydney sub-region this week, with 137 properties taken to auction.
"It's another extraordinary result for Sydney," Domain chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson told Domain.
"Next week it could be even bigger with the number of property listings to rise about 30 per cent to 900."
Brisbane’s preliminary clearance rate was 50 per cent, down from 53 per cent last week.
There were 117 Brisbane auctions this week, compared to 131 last week.
Adelaide recorded a clearance rate of 68 per cent across 86 auctions this week, up from 66 per cent across 91 auctions last weekend.
Perth’s clearance rate of 36 per cent across 41 auctions was up from the previous week's 25 per cent.
Perth's highest sale was $2.1 million when a <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-mount+pleasant-124579946" target="_blank">Tudor-style Mount Pleasant riverfront</a> reserve home (below) sold with views of the Mount Henry Bridge on the Canning River.
 
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/20/Screen%20Shot%202017-02-20%20at%2010.20.24%20AM.png" alt="">
It was the same price as its 2011 sale at $2.1 million.
 
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Rick Springfield's teen home sold at weekend auction

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SPONSORED POST
I have a client getting 100 percent average growth and returns on his investment portfolio year on year. He’s a department head of one of Australia’s top four banks. He’s not alone – I have many clients getting plus 100 percent returns year on year.
The question I often get asked is ‘what are they investing in?’ But that would be the wrong question.
The big question is: what do we want property to do for us? 1,973,000 or around 8 percent of all Australians own an investment property.
Only 18.9 percent have two properties, 5.5 percent own three, 2 percent own four and 0.9 percent have six or more. That tells us less than 2 percent of the population are using property to build wealth.
Around 7 million Australians own real estate.
The three main reasons to buy a property are: to live in, for income or for capital growth.
So what do we want an investment property to do for us? Two things: give us income and/or give us growth.
The general rule of thumb is the higher the income the lower the growth (i.e. commercial property) and similarly the higher the growth the lower the income.
So when we buy an investment property we need to be clear about our primary objective: growth or income.
I’m a growth-focused investor. Income is important but growth is the focus. The only part of a property that grows in value is the land. Rule number one for me is 40 percent land content.
So how do you get 100 percent plus per annum figure? The answer is compound growth
98 percent of investors make the biggest mistake you can make – they’re simple investors. They know two questions to ask: ‘what are my returns and when do I get my money back?’
When it comes to property they have one mantra; ‘location, location, location.’ Generally the best location is close to where they live.
Simple investors buy with a view to then sell. Compound investors focus on growth and use this growth for leverage, enabling them to grow their portfolio on their initial investment. Some very important factors then come into play with the strategy. For example the bank you use is vital – you must get a copy of the bank valuation and resist cross-collateralising your own home.
And to top it all off, Australia’s population growth is 1.5 percent-2 percent p.a. Custodian investors have their land bank strategically placed in growth areas where the average population growth rate is over 6 percent p.a. that’s more than three times the Australian average. ‘
Land is the commodity and land is the focus.
John Fitzgerald is CEO of Custodian Group. He founded his company in 1981 and has since bought, sold and developed more than 10,000 properties in 4 states of Australia. He wrote the 7 steps to Wealth in 1998 - now in its 7th edition. Get a copy at <a href="https://www.custodian.com.au/getthebook/" target="_blank">getthebook.com.au</a>.
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Invest in land - that is where the growth is: Custodian

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The penthouse in Darlinghurst's Top of the Town apartment complex has been bought by property developer Duncan Hardie and his wife, Lyn.
He has paid $10.9 million to former media executive Cameron O'Reilly, who had bought it from the Sutton car dealership family for $8.25 million in 2007.
The dual-level apartment, sold through Alison Coopes at Agency by Coopes, has been rebuilt with swathes of glass and marble.
The three bedroom, three bathroom apartment has 700 sqm of space including its impressive rooftop lawn.
Duncan Hardie recently sold the Hunter Valley's Sweetwater winery.
He built the Mediterranean-style residence and commissioned Country Trader's Geoff Clark to fill it with antiques from across Europe.
Inspired by southern European vineyard estates, the 48 hectare holding came with reduced hopes after being listed with a $30 million price tag in 2015, but sold at a substantial discount to property developer Sam Arnaout.
Hardie has long aspired to an inner city penthouse being the $19 million off the plan buyer of a Wylde Street, Potts Point penthouse that failed to be constructed. 
This article first appeared in the Sunday Telegraph.
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Cameron O'Reilly sells Darlinghurst's Top of the Town penthouse

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GUEST OBSERVER
Super Saturday is coming early for Cooley Auctions with 100 homes set to go under the hammer on February 25 - a personal best for the successful team.
Looking back at the same weekend over the past five years, February has never looked hotter for Cooley Auctions. Only 2014 came close with 97 auctions in one day, but this year will smash that record.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sydney cracks 1,000 auctions. It's definitely going to be a very big day. 
There are already 926 auctions scheduled for February 25 according to APM price finder figures, but that number could be higher on the day.
With so many homes on the auction block on one day, the Cooley Auctions team will be far busier than the same weekend last year when there were 66 auctions scheduled. In 2015 there were 83 auctions on the corresponding Saturday.
All eyes turn to February as the month when consumers and industry insiders can truly gauge how the year's auction season will shape up.
It's extremely important that the day passes the acid test. If the market goes well on a big Saturday with big volumes then the indication will be that the market is in a really good position to continue through the Easter period and most likely well into the first half of 2017.
If the autumn season starts with a bang then it almost always guarantees that the winter market will be hot. However, timing is everything.
Super Saturday usually comes just before Easter, but Easter this year is in mid April which is actually really good news for agents.
Agents can capitalise on that time frame. When Easter is a little bit later it means that we get a couple more weeks of auctions in before the holiday weekend.
Despite 2017 barely being two months in, the Sydney auction scene is already showing signs of market sentiment.
Honestly, I think there is a bit of fear about. A lot of vendors are trying to come onto the market as early as they can because there's a lot of talk of a market correction. There is a fear of missing out on the peak of the market which is absolutely a contributing factor to the number of auctions on February 25.
With such a bumper February that will see 403 auctions in the bag, Cooley Auctions is gearing up for a busy 2017. The closest February auction numbers were back in 2015 when the firm clocked up 379 auctions for the shortest month of the year and subsequently went on to perform more than 6,000 auctions over the 12-month period.
Damien Cooley, managing director of Cooley Auctions and can be contacted <a href="https://cooleyauctions.com.au/" target="_blank">here</a>.
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Super Saturday in February: Damien Cooley

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Opening Remarks to Plenary Panel at the Australasian Housing Researchers Conference
Luci Ellis 
Assistant Governor, RBA
In financial stability, my old role, housing is certainly crucial. Housing is the biggest asset most households will own and the bulk of household sector wealth. Lending against housing is also a large part of financial sector assets. Housing outcomes are therefore central both to the welfare of households and the stability of the financial system.
The housing sector is also crucial on the monetary policy side, my new role. As a sector, it is especially sensitive to interest rates. It is a key part of the transmission mechanism of monetary policy. Housing prices respond to interest rates, and in turn affect household consumption through wealth and collateral effects. And the housing construction industry is one of the most interest-sensitive.
The theme of this conference is ‘Housing and Inequality’. I'd like to talk about two aspects of that. First, there's the inequality – or rather, diversity – between countries. Second, there's the inequality represented by the distribution of housing outcomes across residents of a particular country.
Institutions Matter: The Cross-country Dimension
On the first, we can summarise by saying that institutions matter. Country-specific features are very important to housing outcomes, including the outcomes most relevant to monetary and financial stability policymakers.
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1">A range of institutions determine the idiosyncratic risk that households face, and thus the credit risk they pose to lenders. These include labour market institutions, the funding of health care, and the structure and generosity of the social safety net.</li>
<li class="li1">Geographic and other factors determine the urban structure, which in turn affects the relative price of housing. We know from economic geography that as city populations rise – and the amenities that go together with that – housing prices rise even relative to the higher incomes that often go along with big-city living. So urban concentration affects macro-level variables, like the ratio of housing prices to household incomes, as well as individual-level outcomes, such as people's lifetime housing experiences.</li>
<li class="li1">The structure of the mortgage market matters, for example whether fixed or variable-rate mortgages predominate. These features are in turn affected by a range of tax and other institutional factors. An example of a feature quite specific to Australia is the popularity of linked offset accounts. These change the interpretation of debt data that do not adjust for balances in these accounts. They also change assessments of the resilience of the household sector to various kinds of shocks.</li>
</ul>
Taken together, these factors suggest that we can't assume a single value of any particular macro-level ratio exists that is ‘right’ for all countries or for all time. It depends. We can't assume that a particular level of debt is always and everywhere sustainable. It depends on who has the debt and what kind of credit risk they pose. We can't assume that a particular level of prices is ‘correct’ or ‘sustainable’ in all circumstances.
What we can do is get some sense of the relativities between countries that you might expect, given those institutional and other differences. For example, we can reasonably expect that countries where much of the population lives in smaller, cheaper cities will have lower national aggregate ratios of housing prices to incomes than other countries. That might partly explain why the price-to-income ratio for the United States is relatively low (Graph 1). By contrast, Australia is somewhere around the middle of the pack of mid-sized countries on this metric.
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph1.gif" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph1.gif" alt="">
 
Similar comparisons of household debt-to-income ratios across countries also put Australia in the middle of the pack.[1] The United States is lower, consistent with the lower average price-to-income ratios there. Several small European countries, such as Sweden and the Netherlands, have much higher ratios than Australia does. I would not expect or want Australia's ratio to be as high as it is in those countries. Their institutions are different. In particular, a wider range of debt is tax-deductible in those countries, so households have less incentive to pay debt down.
Distributions Matter: The Micro-level Dimension
The concept of inequality perhaps of most interest to this conference, though, is the differences across households. The way people access housing is not the same. These distributional issues can be considered over several dimensions.
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1">We can consider the distribution of outcomes in the cross-section of households: how outcomes differ for different types of households at a point in time.</li>
<li class="li1">We can consider outcomes for different cohorts: whether the experience of people in a particular age group changes over time.</li>
<li class="li1">We can consider issues of intergenerational distribution: whether outcomes for people in one generation depend on the experiences of their parents.</li>
</ul>
It turns out that these sorts of distributional issues matter for policy. Certainly they matter for financial stability policy. It is rarely the median borrower who defaults. Risk comes from the tails of the distribution. But even something as ‘macro’ as the transmission of monetary policy turns out to depend strongly on distributional considerations (Hughson et al 2016). 
So the Reserve Bank spends a lot of time and resources examining household survey data and other micro-data to inform our macro understanding; some of that work has explicitly touched on inequality as the subject of interest (Dollman et al 2015), while other work has noted the effect of macro-level developments on inequality (La Cava 2016). The rest of my talk today will cover a few interesting findings from this type of analysis. I'm not setting out to be comprehensive here, because that would not be feasible in the time available. But hopefully it will give a flavour of what's possible and the kinds of issues we've looked at.
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1">Firstly, and unsurprisingly, housing ownership and housing wealth are not equally distributed across the cross-section of households.</li>
<li class="li1">Secondly, fewer young people are home owners now than previous cohorts at the same age. This is partly about demography. If it were purely a story of people being priced out, other outcomes would be different.</li>
<li class="li1">Finally, concerns about access to appropriate housing aren't only about ownership. We should also think about how housing is experienced, including security of tenure.</li>
</ul>
One issue of inequality that generates a lot of public discussion is whether people can purchase their own home. Housing affordability is clearly a concern more generally, because adequate shelter is so important to human welfare. But clearly there is great social interest in how that housing is delivered, who owns it, and who pays for it. Of the many inquiries into housing affordability over the past decade or so, at least two – the Productivity Commission's 2003 Inquiry and the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics Inquiry in 2015 – were specifically on home ownership.
At a national level, Australia actually has a home ownership rate that is neither unusually high nor unusually low.[2] Many of the countries that have higher rates seem to manage it by having very high proportions of young adults living with their parents, even into their thirties, rather than renting. But the outcomes do vary across households. We can see this in several independently collected data sets, but for today I'm going to rely mainly on the HILDA survey.
Unsurprisingly, higher-income households are more likely to own their own home, whether with a mortgage or outright (Graph 2). The highest-income group are not only more likely to live in their own home; the wealth represented by their own home, net of debt, is also higher than for lower-income and middle-income households.
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph2.gif" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph2.gif" alt="">
 
More important than income, though, is life stage. Not many teenagers or young adults are heads of households; those that are, are not that likely to own their own home.[3] Over time, people do start purchasing their home. Home ownership rates rise rapidly with age, reaching 80 per cent for households headed by someone aged 55 or more (Graph 3). Housing wealth has the same pattern, largely because the older you are, the longer you have had to pay your mortgage down.
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph3.gif" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph3.gif" alt="">
 
Because higher-income households are more likely to be owner-occupiers, they are also more likely to have mortgage debt (Graph 4). This is why we say that most of the mortgage debt in Australia has been borrowed by those most able to service it. That said, the lower-income households that do have debt, tend to have quite a lot of debt relative to their incomes. Sometimes this is because they have temporarily low incomes, but overall it does speak to the need to be aware of pockets of potential stress within a more benign overall picture.
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph4.gif" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph4.gif" alt="">
 
Participation in the housing market need not be about owning your own home. Many people rent; someone else has to own those dwellings as well. In Australia, most private rental properties are owned by other households. In other words, there are not many companies operating as residential landlords. A good indication of who owns rental properties comes from looking at people who have housing debt other than debt on their own primary residence. In this graph, we have split up the share of people who have any housing debt into those who have only debt on their own home, and those who have some other kind of housing debt; most, but not all, of this second group also have owner-occupier debt. As you can see, this other property debt is even more likely to be held by high-income earners than owner-occupier debt is.
The pattern of rising ownership rates for older age groups does not give everyone comfort that most people will be able to afford a home eventually. People worry that it is becoming harder to achieve home ownership at a given life stage than it used to be. This would be an issue of inequality across cohorts. It is true that home ownership rates have fallen for most age groups over time (Graph 5). The overall ownership rate has stayed fairly steady because the population is ageing. It is also true that ownership rates shifted down between 2006 and 2011; we'll know what happened in 2016 when the Census data come out in a few months.
The 25–34 age group is typically seen as the core group of first home buyers. We can see that ownership rates in this group have fallen by a bit more than 10 percentage points since the 1970s. But we can also see that most of the decline had already happened by the early 1990s, before the big increase in housing prices relative to incomes. What changed during that earlier period was that people started partnering and settling down later in life. The post-war Baby Boom had been characterised by an anomalously young average age at first marriage. Through the 1970s and 1980s, the normal historical pattern started to reassert itself. Ownership rates for young people declined as a result, because many people wait to settle down before they buy a home.
By saying this, I'm not suggesting that people should not worry about whether households can achieve their desired housing tenure. I am suggesting that the situation is more complex than would be suggested by a single-minded focus on a single metric of affordability, such as median housing prices.
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph5.gif" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph5.gif" alt="">
 
Much of the commentary around the difficulty of achieving home ownership centres on the task of accumulating the deposit. It seems common to assume that everyone needs a 20 per cent deposit when they first buy. This isn't actually true: although lenders require some deposit coming from genuine savings, it doesn't have to be as high as 20 per cent. So it's surprising that as housing prices have risen, the distribution of loan-to-valuation ratios – the converse of the deposit – hasn't shifted up over time (Graph 6). If anything it has declined in the past few years for which we have data. It's not entirely clear why this is. And because a high loan-to-valuation ratio does imply higher risk both for the borrower and the lender, it might not be such a bad thing. But it does suggest that, again, the situation is more complex than a simple summary statistic can capture.
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph6.gif" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph6.gif" alt="">
 
One reason why first home buyers haven't needed to increase loan-to-valuation ratios might be that more of them are getting help from friends and family to accumulate the deposit. Careful analysis of the HILDA Survey dataset shows that the share of first home buyers receiving that help has been increasing over the decades, but it actually remains low (Graph 7).
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph7.gif" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph7.gif" alt="">
 
It is common to focus on the different outcomes for owners versus renters in purely financial terms. Another aspect of inequality I would like to talk about today is security of tenure. A range of different data sources confirm that although young people move more often than older people, the big difference is between renters and owners (Graph 8). A similar pattern occurs in countries such as the United States (Bachmann and Cooper 2014).
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph8.gif" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph8.gif" alt="">
 
Looking just at the group of households who can be tracked through the whole life of the HILDA survey, and who didn't switch between owning and renting at any stage, you can also see that renters were also more likely to have moved many times in that 13-year period (Graph 9).
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph9.gif" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/17/sp-ag-2017-02-16-graph9.gif" alt="">
 
Some earlier literature has suggested that transaction costs induce home owners to move less often than they might otherwise do, which makes it harder for them to take advantage of changing labour market opportunities (Oswald 1999). That effect doesn't seem clear in Australian data, so I would not draw that conclusion here (Flatau et al 2002). Yet even without the transaction costs of selling a home – including tax, legal fees and agent commissions – we know that moving house can be disruptive and costly. So I question whether all those moves by renters were desired by those households. Many renters are happy with their current home, but are required to move because the lease expired or the landlord sold the property. If we are concerned about inequality of housing outcomes, perhaps we should focus less on the type of tenure, and more on security of tenure.
That's just a brief round-up of some of the issues we have been looking at recently. Housing issues will always be with us, and will always be important to the functions of the Reserve Bank. That's why we value conferences like this: the diverse perspectives offered help us see the bigger picture. I'm certainly looking forward to the rest of the discussion in this session.
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Housing sector is crucial for monetary policy: RBA's Luci Ellis

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GUEST OBSERVER
The Prime Minister’s statement yesterday that there will be no changes to capital gains tax (CGT) on housing has the full support of the residential building industry. 
New housing is one of the most highly taxed commodities in the Australian economy.
In the lead up to last year’s election there were a range of proposals from reducing CGT on investment properties to applying the tax on the family home. Yesterday’s categorical statement by the government provides continued certainty to the industry and to investors.
The housing industry has opposed changes to the way capital gains are currently treated on investment properties. It would mean investors pay even more tax.
Right now, around two dollars out of every five that an individual pays for a new home is tax. 
Buyers pay those taxes. And then they pay taxes on the taxes. They pay stamp duty on top of taxes, including the GST. And when they eventually sell the property, if they make any money, they pay tax on that. 
Housing cannot be asked to pay even more taxes. It would simply have the opposite effect. 
When it comes to improving housing affordability, the focus should be on increasing supply year on year. This won’t happen by removing the incentives to build new homes and placing pressure on existing housing prices to meet demand.
Graham Wolfe is deputy managing director, HIA, and can be contacted <a href="https://hia.com.au" target="_blank">here</a>.
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PM’s capital gains tax decision the right one: HIA's Graham Wolfe

A mix of Gold Coast locals, fly-in, fly-out purchasers from Sydney and Melbourne, and Brisbane-based families has driven early sales success at Broadbeach's newest apartment tower, Lumara.

The 26-level project, a joint venture between builder-developer 5Point Projects and Bourke Projects, comprises just 37 luxury residences and is attracting a buyer profile that is looking for exclusivity, above the most amenity-rich suburb on the Gold Coast.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150454 project_image_fid=364156]

Jamie Bourke, Director of Bourke Projects, says every buyer secured so far intends to use Lumara as a lock-up-and-leave residence, combining holiday use with the ability to work remotely when required.

“The size of the apartments, both half- and full-floor options, and the different zones within the floorplans, lends itself perfectly to dedicated home office setups and multi-generational family holidays,” Bourke says.

That flexibility has become a key drawcard for affluent buyers seeking a second residence on the Gold Coast without sacrificing the ability to conduct business away from their primary home base.

The absence of holiday letting within the building has also resonated strongly with purchasers.

“This type of buyer doesn't need to generate holiday rental income,” Bourke says. “They're paying for exclusivity, privacy and certainty around who their neighbours are.”

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150454 project_image_fid=366491]

The strong demand comes amid broader shifts in the high-end apartment market following the Federal Budget announcements in May.

“We were already seeing strong enquiry from high-net-worth buyers, but that has only accelerated since the policy changes,” Bourke says.

“A lot of those buyers are looking to place more capital into premium lifestyle assets rather than investment-grade stock that has been targeted by the Federal Government.”

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150454 project_image_fid=366486]

Designed by Cottee Parker, Lumara adopts a slender, sculpted form with an emphasis on natural materials suited to its beachfront setting. The architectural approach draws on coastal influences, with a palette of stone, timber and concrete selected for durability and the ability to weather over time.

Apartments are limited to three and four-bedroom configurations, with a maximum of two residences per floor through the mid-levels and a selection of full-floor and dual-level homes in the upper levels. All apartments are oriented to the north to maximise natural light, cross-ventilation and views across the ocean, city skyline and hinterland.

A two-level amenity offering is positioned high within the building on levels 20 and 21, conceived as a sky wellness retreat. Facilities include a magnesium pool, spa, sauna and steam rooms, alongside more social spaces such as a private dining room, resident lounge, workspaces and outdoor barbecue areas integrated with landscaped greenery.

The uppermost levels are reserved for larger-format residences, including several full-floor homes and a dual-level penthouse with its own private wellness features and recreational spaces.

&nbsp;

To give buyers confidence, 5Point and Bourke commenced construction ahead of the apartments launching to the market, a sure-fire way to prove they mean business, and the building will be delivered. They are targeting a 2028 completion date.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=150454]

Joel Robinson

Locals, interstate holiday makers, drive early sales at Lumara, Broadbeach's newest luxury apartment tower

Often when it comes to purchasing property, the biggest barrier to entry is the deposit. Buyers of established homes typically aim for a 20 per cent deposit to avoid the added cost of Lenders Mortgage Insurance, while most property transactions require around a 10 per cent deposit when contracts are exchanged.

The off-the-plan market works differently, with buyers typically paying a deposit during construction and settling the balance upon completion. As completion approaches at <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/fabbrica-fitzroy-369-gore-street-fitzroy-vic-3065">Fabbrica Fitzroy</a>, developer <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/pace-development-group">Pace</a> is making it easier for buyers to secure a residence through a deposit-matching incentive. Purchasers need only contribute a five per cent deposit*, with Pace matching the remaining five per cent.

The offer comes as Pace unveils a completed display apartment and townhouse, now available for inspection by appointment ahead of the project's Spring completion.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=139552 project_image_fid=371009]

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/sjb-architects">SJB</a> with interiors by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/interior-designers/winwood-mckenzie-architecture">Winwood Mckenzie</a> and landscaping by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/landscape-architect/acre">Acre</a>, Fabbrica draws on Fitzroy’s industrial and manufacturing history, incorporating references to the former Argyle Shirt Factory and Life Savers Confectionery Company that once occupied the site.

The development comprises 85 residences, spanning low-maintenance apartments through to larger-format townhouses with private street access and double lock-up garages, a relatively uncommon offering in Fitzroy’s higher-density apartment market.

Pace says the project has been designed to appeal to buyers seeking inner-city convenience without sacrificing space, flexibility, or amenity.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=139552 project_image_fid=371016]

Inside the residences, Winwood Mckenzie has focused on adaptable layouts and integrated detailing, with features including custom joinery, and concealed storage solutions. The material palette leans into warm, tactile finishes intended to complement the building’s industrial architectural language.

Fabbrica’s rooftop amenity is a key part of the project offering. Spanning around 800 sqm, the communal rooftop includes a private dining room, communal kitchen, lounge spaces, work-from-home zones, and outdoor dining areas overlooking the Melbourne CBD skyline.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=139552 project_image_fid=371017]

Landscape architecture studio Acre has introduced a layered rooftop garden designed to soften the urban setting while creating a more communal environment for residents.

The Fitzroy location also positions residents within walking distance of Brunswick Street, Smith Street, parks, cafés, galleries, and public transport, while remaining only minutes from Melbourne’s CBD. The project has an enviable Walk Score of 96.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=139552 project_image_fid=371025]

Pace, which is also delivering the project as builder, has developed more than 100 projects across Melbourne over the past three decades. The vertically integrated approach has become increasingly common among developers seeking greater control over construction delivery amid broader market pressures affecting the apartment sector.

The strikingly contemporary Gore Street development is now around 70 per cent complete, with purchasers expected to move into their new homes in Spring 2026. A limited number of residences remain available under the current deposit match offer.

*Conditions apply in relation to the deposit match offer.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=139552]

Pace offers five per cent deposit match at Fabbrica Fitzroy ahead of Spring completion

Sydney developer Hyecorp's roots on the Lower North Shore stretch back three generations, and that deep understanding of the market continues to shape where and how it develops today.

From high-rise towers to boutique apartment projects, the family-run developer has built its reputation by focusing on a part of Sydney it knows intimately. Founded by Michael Abolakian in the early 1990s, Hyecorp is now led by his sons Stephen, Troy and Patrick.

Stephen Abolakian, joint managing director alongside Troy, has spent more than two decades in the business, overseeing development, planning, finance, marketing and sales.

Abolakian says the developer's disciplined focus on where it chooses to operate has been, and continues to be, one of Hyecorp's greatest strengths.

“We know the buyer profile exceptionally well,” Abolakian says.

“The demographics between places like Willoughby, Chatswood, St Leonards and Roseville are very similar. There are nuances between suburbs and projects, but culturally and from a buyer perspective, there’s a strong overlap.”

That buyer has historically been overwhelmingly owner-occupier driven.

Unlike many Sydney apartment developers that have traditionally relied heavily on investor demand, Hyecorp’s projects have typically attracted downsizers, upsizers, rightsizers and family owner-occupiers seeking long-term homes rather than short-term investments.

“Historically, investors have been a much smaller portion of our demand profile,” Abolakian says.

“We design for owner-occupiers. We don’t design for yield, we design for comfort, amenity, family living and long-term usability.”

That philosophy extends well beyond apartment layouts.

From landscaping and communal gardens to shared amenities and circulation spaces, Hyecorp’s developments are designed around how people actually live, something Abolakian believes has become increasingly important in Sydney’s apartment market.

“There was probably a period where having an approved project in market was enough,” he says.

“There wasn’t as much competition and if you built it, buyers would come. That’s no longer the case.”

“There’s more supply in the pipeline now, particularly with TOD precincts and low and mid-rise reforms opening up opportunities across Sydney. Buyers have more choice, so if you get the product wrong, they’ll simply go elsewhere.”

[smartcode_project:default project_id=110379 project_image_fid=311393]

The shift has forced developers to become more sophisticated in how they approach apartment design, particularly as owner-occupier expectations continue to rise.

For Hyecorp, that means thinking beyond who the buyer is today and designing for who they may become in five or 10 years' time.

“People buying now often aren’t moving in for several years,” Abolakian says.

“You might have a young couple buying today, but by the time they move in they may have children, older children, or changing lifestyle needs. You’ve got to think about how families evolve.”

That thinking also shapes Hyecorp’s approach to amenity, which positions wellness at the forefront.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=149594 project_image_fid=362634]

While resort-style facilities have become increasingly common marketing tools across Sydney apartment developments, Abolakian says the challenge is ensuring amenities are genuinely usable and appropriate for the scale of the project.

“If amenities are done right, they can materially improve the living experience,” he says, adding however that if you&nbsp;overdo it or get it wrong, you can end up with facilities nobody uses that simply create ongoing strata costs.”

That balance is something Hyecorp is aiming to strike with projects like Roseville Avenue, one of the group's upcoming Lower North Shore developments, which Abolakian describes as bringing a resort-style living experience into a metropolitan setting.

“It’s about creating something that feels special without being excessive,” he says.

“Good gardens, quality apartments, thoughtful amenity. Creating that resort feeling in a metro location.”

<img alt="Hyecorp" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="13c4c0f3-b1b7-44cf-9344-0b3d1d07797a" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-06-02%20at%2012.14.57%E2%80%AFPM.png?VersionId=9OLWjyj2bYkDV35F78WJnyMSPfc2bJ2z" />

The focus on owner-occupier product comes as Sydney’s apartment market continues to navigate a difficult development environment.&nbsp;For Hyecorp, maintaining an in-house operating model across construction, sales, marketing and development management has become increasingly important in navigating that environment.

“We’ve always believed in keeping a lot of the process in-house,” Abolakian says.

“It creates efficiencies, but it also creates quality control. You can make faster decisions and ensure the end product stays aligned with the original vision.”

Despite the challenges, Abolakian believes demand for quality owner-occupier apartments across Sydney remains strong beneath the surface, particularly across established Lower North Shore suburbs where downsizers continue to seek new housing options close to existing communities.

“There are definitely people waiting,” he says.

“Once some of the broader uncertainty settles, whether that’s the global environment or some of the local economic noise, I think the right projects will perform very strongly.”

Hyecorp currently has three residential developments on the market across Sydney’s Lower North Shore.&nbsp;Audrey, St Leonards, positioned opposite Newlands Park, is nearing completion and preparing to welcome its first residents, with the project now almost sold out.

Hyecorp has also recently launched&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/celine-chatswood-37-archer-street-chatswood-nsw-2067">Celine Chatswood</a>, an architectural tower, while continuing to deliver&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/juliet-roseville-64-pacific-highway-roseville-nsw-2069">Juliet Roseville</a>, a more boutique scale of development with just 34 apartments.

Why Hyecorp continues to back Sydney's Lower North Shore apartment market

South East Queensland’s apartment market is entering a new phase defined by rising prices, constrained affordability, and mounting pressure on the construction pipeline, according to RPM Group’s latest SEQ Apartments &amp; Townhomes Market Report.

The May 2026 report highlights a widening divide between what buyers can afford and what developers can viably deliver, with detached house prices continuing to push more buyers toward apartments across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and the Sunshine Coast.

RPM says Brisbane’s median house price has reached around $1.5 million, accelerating the shift toward higher-density housing as buyers are increasingly priced out of the detached market.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135094 project_image_fid=356540]

Median unit prices rose across all three major SEQ markets in the March quarter. Brisbane City recorded the strongest annual growth, with median unit prices climbing 21 per cent to $862,000, while the Gold Coast reached the highest overall median at $950,000, up 17 per cent year-on-year. The Sunshine Coast followed at $870,000, representing annual growth of nine per cent.

RPM noted the affordability gap between houses and units remains significant, with detached homes commanding premiums of 67 per cent in Brisbane and 68 per cent on the Gold Coast relative to apartments.

The report suggests this price disparity is increasingly consolidating buyer demand within the apartment market, particularly among downsizers and owner-occupiers.

“Demand is real. Supply is moving. But they’re operating on different timelines and the gap between what’s being built and what buyers can afford is the defining tension in this market right now,” RPM Queensland and NSW Managing Directors Peter Neale and Clinton Trezise said in the report.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150787 project_image_fid=366230]

While approvals and commencements are strengthening, RPM argues the delivery pipeline remains constrained by construction costs, labour shortages, and extended build timelines.

Apartment approvals across Queensland increased 86 per cent over the year to February 2026, reaching 12,682 approvals, the highest level recorded since 2016. Brisbane overtook the Gold Coast as the state’s most active apartment approval market, with nearly 5,000 apartments approved over the past 12 months.

Unit commencements also strengthened considerably, rising 48 per cent year-on-year to 5,453 commencements in the December 2025 quarter, the highest level since 2018.

However, RPM’s research found apartment delivery timeframes have expanded sharply compared to the previous cycle. Projects are now averaging around 30 months from approval to completion, compared to roughly 20 months a decade ago.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=143932 project_image_fid=367515]

The number of units under construction has climbed to approximately 31,530 dwellings, nearing the previous 2016 peak, though projects are remaining in the pipeline for considerably longer.

Construction costs continue to weigh heavily on feasibility. RPM found the average apartment construction cost in Greater Brisbane reached $630,000 per dwelling in 2025, exceeding both Sydney and Melbourne. Coastal Queensland markets, including the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, were even higher at an average of $817,418 per apartment due to the prevalence of larger premium product.

The report also points to increasing pressure from Olympic-related infrastructure spending ahead of Brisbane 2032, with labour competition expected to intensify over the next several years.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150017 project_image_fid=370960]

ANZ Associate Director of Property Daniel Gradwell said the underlying demand drivers across South East Queensland remain strong, supported by interstate migration, downsizers, and population growth.

“The challenge is bringing enough supply to market to meet that demand, and nothing on the horizon makes that straightforward,” Gradwell said.

RPM’s analysis found the affordability challenge is becoming more pronounced in the new apartment market itself, with only three per cent of surveyed new apartments priced below $1 million.

Instead, the market is increasingly concentrated in higher price brackets, with the most common new apartment price band across SEQ sitting between $1.5 million and $1.75 million. Around half of all new apartment stock surveyed is priced below $2 million.

The report suggests developers are not necessarily avoiding lower price points by choice, but because current construction economics make delivering affordable apartments increasingly difficult at scale.

Rental conditions also remain tight across the region. Median rents for one-bedroom apartments rose 12 per cent in Brisbane over the past year to $580 per week, while Gold Coast one-bedroom rents increased nine per cent to $630.

Despite rising rents, RPM noted bond lodgements have generally trended downward over the past five years, indicating more apartments are being absorbed by owner-occupiers rather than retained as investor-held rental stock.

Looking ahead, RPM expects projects targeting the mid-market owner-occupier segment between $1.25 million and $2 million to remain the most viable part of the market, while premium projects in highly constrained coastal or riverfront locations continue to attract demand.

“Construction costs are rewriting the feasibility rulebook across Greater Brisbane, and with little relief in sight, only projects in the right price band, right location, and with presales secured early will make it through,” the report concludes.

SEQ apartment demand outpacing affordable supply as construction timelines stretch: RPM

Camberwell Junction has long been the epicentre of amenity in Melbourne’s Boroondara region.

For nearly a century, it has drawn both locals and visitors, anchored by the Camberwell Sunday Market, which first operated in 1929 and quickly became a fixture of the suburb’s identity. Over time, the Junction evolved into one of Melbourne’s most established retail and lifestyle precincts, now comprising more than 400 stores and over 300 commercial businesses.

Despite that depth of amenity, one thing has remained notably limited: the supply of new apartments.

In a suburb defined by its heritage streetscapes and tightly held residential stock, new development opportunities have been scarce, particularly within the core of the Junction itself. That lack of supply has left a gap in the market for larger, design-led apartments suited to downsizers and owner-occupiers wanting to remain in the area.

Boutique developer Above Zero identified that gap when it secured a prime site on Burke Road, in the heart of Camberwell Junction.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=4896 project_image_fid=368543]

The site has a long planning history. Various proposals have been put forward over more than a decade, many of which were knocked back by the City of Boroondara, with initial applications dating back to 2015. Above Zero acquired the site in 2022 and returned with a revised scheme, refining both the building’s height and its ground-level interface to better align with Council expectations.

That process has culminated in approval for Camberwell House.

The Cera Stribley-designed development will deliver 57 residences on a 1,950 sqm site within the Camberwell Activity Centre, placing it directly within one of Melbourne’s most established retail and transport hubs.

It is expected to be one of the only new apartment developments to launch in the Junction in recent years, reinforcing the rarity of new supply in the precinct. Currently, there are just a handful of projects on the market in Camberwell, underscoring the significance of a development of this scale and positioning.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=4896 project_image_fid=368544]

Camberwell House has been conceived with a clear focus on larger-format apartments. The project will offer a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom residences, alongside a limited number of penthouses, targeting owner-occupiers seeking scale rather than volume-driven product.

The building’s vertical presence will also set it apart.

Positioned on Burke Road, the development is set to become one of the taller buildings in its immediate context, allowing for elevated outlooks across Melbourne’s CBD skyline and toward the Dandenong Ranges. In a precinct characterised by lower-scale built form, that height provides a point of differentiation, particularly for buyers seeking outlook and natural light.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=4896 project_image_fid=368568]

Architecture has been led by Cera Stribley, with interiors by GOLDEN and landscape design by Florian Wild. The design approach centres on material consistency and restraint, with residences oriented to maximise light, ventilation and connection to outdoor spaces.

Full-height glazing and generous terraces form a key part of that strategy, allowing apartments to extend beyond their internal footprint and engage with the surrounding environment.

Beyond the private residences, a significant component of the project is its amenity offering.

Above Zero has positioned Camberwell House as a “complete living environment”, incorporating a full floor dedicated to resident facilities. At the centre of that is a wellness zone, including a 12.5-metre lap pool, spa, sauna and treatment spaces, alongside a gym and recovery-focused amenities.

This level of amenity is more commonly associated with inner-city developments, rather than established middle-ring suburbs like Camberwell.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=4896 project_image_fid=368588]

Additional shared spaces include a private library lounge, dining and entertaining areas, and an indoor golf simulator. A self-contained guest suite has also been incorporated, allowing residents to accommodate visiting family or friends without impacting their primary living space.

The inclusion of these facilities reflects a broader shift in buyer expectations.

As more downsizers look to transition from larger family homes into apartments, there is increasing demand for developments that offer not just a residence, but a lifestyle. That includes access to wellness, social and entertaining spaces within the building itself, reducing the reliance on external amenity while still maintaining proximity to established precincts.

Camberwell House is positioned to benefit from both.

Its location places it within immediate walking distance of Camberwell Junction’s retail and dining offering, as well as public transport connections, including tram and train services. That combination of internal amenity and external convenience is central to its appeal.

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Jellis Craig Projects Director Stephen Bowtell is handling sales for the project and says Camberwell House offers a rare entry point into one of Melbourne’s most tightly held markets.

“Buyers are recognising that Camberwell House offers something they simply haven’t seen before in Boroondara,”&nbsp;Bowtell&nbsp;says.

“It combines a level of resident amenity and service typically associated with Melbourne’s premium inner-city developments, while being positioned right in the heart of Camberwell Junction.

“The response to the concierge offering has been particularly strong. Buyers appreciate not only the convenience, but also the sense of security and peace of mind that comes from having a dedicated presence in the building every day.

“When you combine that with the wellness facilities, the exceptional arrival experience, and panoramic views across both the CBD skyline and the Dandenong Ranges, it creates a lifestyle proposition that is genuinely unique within the local market.”
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Jonathan Chancellor

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