<html><body>
With wages growing faster than inflation over the past year, you’d assume that Aussie households are bringing in more than they need to live.
But spending is also getting away from many people. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, one in seven Australian households is spending more than it earns.
There is a cliché from the older generations: a penny saved is as good as a penny earned. But where can you cut your costs? I suggest you start with the largest item in your household budget, and for most readers that will be your cost of housing: rent, mortgage and maintenance.
You can refinance into a cheaper mortgage, but you could also find several small household savings and put them into your mortgage in a monthly payment. You can save thousands.
Think about a family with an average $350,000, 30-year mortgage, paying a variable interest rate of 6.44%. If you contribute $20 per month extra you can take nearly a year – and $15,000 in payments – off that mortgage.
Of course, in order to have extra money to put into the mortgage, you need to find savings.
These needn’t be complicated: if you work in the city, chances are you’re spending around $12 on a sandwich and a drink for lunch every day. If you pack a lunch just twice a week, you save $24, or $96 a month.
I used our monthly repayment calculator on ybr.com.au and found that on an average 350,000, 30-year mortgage with an average 6.82% variable rate, putting the cost of two lunches per week into that mortgage equates to a savings of $65,500 and takes 42 months off the loan.
Cutting just one cup of take-away coffee at $3.20 per day is a $69 in savings per month. If you put this into your mortgage you’d reduce your home loan by 32 months, saving you $50,532.
What about your phone costs? Many people have mobile phones but they also have a land line. Do you need both? And do you need that size of download on your internet plan? It’s not impossible to save $50 a month between internet and phone.
Other opportunities to save are out there: shop for packaged holidays rather than buying air fares and hotel rooms separately; reduce your dining out from twice to once a week and you could be saving $300 a month; have either cable TV or DVD rentals; time your petrol fill-up for the cheapest days and buy groceries at the lowest-cost supermarket, even if it means bringing your own shopping bags.
Just about any household can find $200 a month in savings: if you put this into your mortgage each month, you save $112,602 and reduce the term of your $300,000 loan by about seven years.
This is not the stuff of financial masterminds – it’s about cutting small costs in your household so you can reduce the biggest cost of all.
Mark Bouris is executive chairman of <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.ybr.com.au/">Yellow Brick Road</a>, a financial services company offering home loans, financial planning, accounting and tax, and insurance.
</body></html>

mbouris-tauSvXGAM2

Small savings can add up to reduce the length and cost of your mortgage

<html><body>
Young people have way too much to think about these days. Even youngsters who have only just begun their working lives are expected to know about superannuation, top-up limits and co-contributions. They’re expected to be responsible now for their retirement in 40 years’ time.
How did we get here? In 1992 the superannuation guarantee required all employers to put a mandated percentage of an employee’s salary into a super fund. The super guarantee could not be accessed until the worker retired.
So the onus for retirement shifted from the government and employer to the employee. And the quality of retirement for those in their 20s and 30s will be their own responsibility: the amount of retirement income they accumulate will depend on investment decisions made now.
The best time to build a nest egg is precisely in those years when you least want to think about it. Because super is a 40-year investment, small increases to contributions and slight changes in what kind of fund you use at the beginning of the journey can have a big impact at the retirement end.
Also, the very people who could be helping young people with advice – financial planners – are moving away from their old commission structure to a fee-for-service model. The fee-for-service model means the client pays for the level of service they receive. And because young people have less money and are less engaged with retirement planning in general, young people don’t go to planners.
This creates what some people call a “service gap”, which could cost people tens of thousands of dollars at retirement. We know from our own research that young people want advice about retirement, but they do not use planners.
Last year we polled 500 young people from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, aged 25-34 years. When asked how interested they were in planning for their future, 92 per cent answered either very interested or somewhat interested.
When asked if they plan on seeking advice to discuss their financial goals, around half answered “yes”.
This means that a huge majority of young people want to set themselves up for the future, but only half of them want to access the right advice. This is an important insight because financial planners don’t just help select the right super funds to invest in, they also set up the associated aspects of a person’s present and future wealth. They attend to the whole picture, something younger generations are not experienced about.
The investment options people nominate when they are not advised is illuminating. When asked what they’d be most interested in investing in, 51% said the share market, which is currently quite risky and volatile.
So the question has to be asked: why do young people feel more comfortable with a volatile investment class than they do with professional advice?
It’s an issue that has to be resolved if the self-funded retirement system is to work properly.
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ybrwealth" target="_blank">Talk to me on Facebook</a> at or on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/@markbouris" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Let me know what you think.
Mark Bouris is executive chairman of <a href="https://www.ybr.com.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Yellow Brick Road</a>, a financial services company offering home loans, financial planning, accounting and tax, and insurance.
</body></html>

Why are young people comfortable with share market risk but not financial planners?

<html><body>
In the 30 years or so that I’ve been running businesses, I’ve noticed that consumer sentiment is often created by a cultural environment rather than what is actually happening in folks’ lives.
This can work in favour of over-exuberance, or it can create gloom. We’re currently in one of the negative phases, but there’s another way to treat the “bad” economic news, and that is to see a free market economy as something that forces the constant reinvention of just about everything.
I’ve been watching the financial troubles of the Darrell Lea chocolate and lolly brand, which has been in administration. Letting go 418 people is not a good thing, however the system works well enough for a new owner to step in and buy Darrell Lea and reinvent what that business does.
The signs of positives defying the negatives are all around us. Yes, Kodak went out of business, but other companies have reinvented personal photography with affordable, high-quality cameras that don’t require film. And Australian steel-making may be under pressure, but there was OneSteel, quietly making itself a miner of iron ore, not letting itself be forced into irrelevance.
Australian business owners and householders can train themselves to think this way as well. There is a way forward out of adversity: you just haven’t found it yet. It could be as simple as rethinking what you sell. The ability to up-skill, find another job, reinvent yourself as a different proposition to an employer, has never been better.
Take the uncertainty created by the European crisis and the US slowdown. It has played on our minds and held back our own economy, but one of the benefits has been a cash rate that – at 3.5% – is in the lowest range of the past 20 years.
How good is this? Ask any baby boomer who was paying 19% on their first mortgage.
There are many people suffering right now, but I urge people to have a look behind some of the negative economic stories: inflation ran at around 1.2% for the year to June, and the wage price index was sitting at 3.6%. So wages are increasing at a greater rate that inflation.
That isn’t bad, especially taken with a low unemployment rate of 5.2% in July. Compare it with the United States at 8.3%, or the EU at 10.4% unemployment in July.
And in a country where we all need a car, they are more affordable than they’ve been for a long time. A Ford Falcon in 1960 cost a man 60 weeks’ pay, while in 2012 it cost 30 weeks’ average male pay.
The economy will cause more businesses to close or to contract. But the important part is: what happens next? And in your own life, are you keeping your eyes open, preparing yourself for what happens next?
A market economy always provides the chance to start again. What’s your reinvention?
Mark Bouris is executive chairman of <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.ybr.com.au/">Yellow Brick Road</a>, a financial services company offering home loans, financial planning, accounting and tax, and insurance.
</body></html>

With interest rates and unemployment low, there are economic positive signs all around

<html><body>
Over the next few weeks a lot of readers will be receiving tax refund cheques. According to the ATO, the average refund issued between 1 July 2012 and 20 August 2012 was $2,217 – not a small amount.
What should you do with it?
First job/tertiary student: If your credit card balance is getting close to the max, a tax refund should be applied to it. If your credit card is looking OK, you should make this money earn more money, without locking it away for the six months or a year of most bank term deposits. There are high-interest savings accounts that allow you to take out the money when you want, but check the fine print: many of these high-interest rates drop once your money has been in there for four to six months.
House savers: If you are saving a deposit for a house, a tax refund is best placed in your high-interest savings account, so long as you don’t have significant credit card debt or a high-interest car loan. For example, if you are paying 15% for your cards, and only getting 5% in your savings, perhaps use the tax refund to control your debt.
Mortgage payers: In most variable-rate mortgage accounts, once you’ve been paying it for 18 months or more, you are starting to pay down principal. Paying lump sums into the mortgage at this stage can noticeably accelerate the pay-out. Be warned: there’s no point doing this in most fixed-rate mortgages, and many variable-rate home loans won’t allow you to put in lump sums. So check your mortgage first.
Mortgage payers with kids: People with mortgage and kids have so many competing priorities for a windfall that there could be 20 places to put a tax refund cheque. My advice is to not absorb it into the general bank account: tag the money and make it work for you. And if you’re stressed and overworked, consider putting that tax refund into a holiday.
Business owner: Business owners can reinvest a tax refund straight back into the business or use it to pay down personal debt, depending on where the refund accrues. Either way, a tax refund shouldn’t be squandered.
Pre-retirees: People in their 50s are still working and paying mortgages, but also preparing for retirement. Look at topping up your superannuation, having first checked with an adviser about the benefits and latest rules. A tax cheque could also be placed into a high interest bearing account, or could buy high-yielding shares (that deliver dividends). A tax refund cheque into the mortgage is a good bet.
Retiree: In retirement investors looking for very stable, high-yield places to put their money. If you’re lucky enough to have a tax refund look at a high-interest account. There’s no point in banking this cheque in your bank transaction account – you’ll be receiving either a zero interest, or an interest rate so low that the monthly account fees wipe it out.
Mark Bouris is executive chairman of <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.ybr.com.au/">Yellow Brick Road</a>, a financial services company offering home loans, financial planning, accounting and tax, and insurance.
</body></html>

What mortgage holders should do with their tax refunds: Mark Bouris

<html><body>
Retirement investors need to learn an approach called portfolio optimisation.
It’s something the professional fund managers aim for, but they create funds that suit many investors, whereas you can tailor a portfolio that is optimised for your own needs.
There are three factors in portfolio optimisation, a concept that is the specialty of the RP Data-Rismark economist (and Yellow Brick Road director) Christopher Joye.
The first is your target return. This is the return you want from all of your investments when you retire. Start with an actual sum so you can track back and find the annual rate of return you are aiming for.
This is where you start deciding what kind of assets and what kind of yields are in your portfolio.
Which brings us to the second factor: your risk.
There are many ways of defining risk, and many that are marketed to us.
But if you are not a professional I think it’s quite reasonable to see risk like this: it’s the risk that you won’t get back as much as you put in.
This is not scare mongering. As you age, you have less margin to earn back the money you lost on an investment and the risk you face is that you might go backwards when you can’t afford to.
The third factor in portfolio optimisation is one of correlation. That is, you can insulate the risk in one type of asset by investing in a different asset with an unrelated risk characteristic.
Bearing in mind these factors, it’s fascinating to read Joye’s research into which asset mixes performed best from 1982-2012.
For non-home owners over this 30-year period, who opted to buy one investment property, this was their optimised portfolio: 46.8% in cash; 36% in Australian government bonds; 9.2% in Aussie shares and 8% in the investment property.
Did you notice what weighting Aussie shares had in this optimum portfolio?
The optimum investment portfolio for home owners 1982-2012 is also interesting: the family home + one investment property should have been 60% of the portfolio, 21.9% should have been cash, 10.9% Australian government bonds and 7.2% Aussie shares.
Volatile listed property trusts and global shares don’t make it into these portfolios while cash and bonds have a heavy weighting.
Exercises such as these are valuable to the independent investor because they illustrate what performs long term, and Joye’s figures are presented as a mix – an optimised portfolio with a high degree of uncorrelated investment.
I’ve been predicting for a while now that Australians are going to move their retirement savings to fixed-income investments such as cash and bonds.
Fixed-income products have reasonably high returns with nowhere near the volatility of equities. And as Joye’s research shows, they seem to be a good portfolio fit with property ownership.
Always get advice, but if you don’t, start thinking in terms of portfolio optimisation.
 Mark Bouris is executive chairman of <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.ybr.com.au/">Yellow Brick Road</a>, a financial services company offering home loans, financial planning, accounting and tax, and insurance.
</body></html>

Getting the mix of property and shares right for your retirement portfolio

<html><body>
It’s become the norm to read about our great luck as Europe and the United States wrestle with soaring debt and high unemployment, and Australia just sails through. But I’m thinking that Australia’s excellent response to the GFC is as much about individual austerity and sacrifice as it is about exports to China and economic management.
There are a number of factors operating on our economic wellbeing right now that average Australians deserve a pat on the back for. For a start, we are saving again. While the Australian household savings rate fell below zero in 2003, it started rising slowly from there and then made a big comeback after 2008. The current savings rate in this country is around 9.6% – much healthier than the 4.3% in the US and 3.3% in Canada.
Australians deserve praise for responding this way during a crisis.
During the post-GFC fallout, Australian household debt-to-disposable income also reduced slightly from 135.3% to 134.5%. It doesn’t seem that healthy, but it certainly looks healthier than the US and UK, where it’s over 160%, or Canada, where it’s 152%.
“Lucky country” notwithstanding, paying down expensive debt and securing cheap debt is smart, and it’s what Australians have been doing. Credit card spending has slowed since 2008, and at the same time Australians have been shoring up their mortgage positions. Around half of Australian mortgage holders are now ahead on their repayment schedules, and the ratio of mortgagees who are on schedule is well over 80%. It’s a very healthy picture.
In the US, the mortgage delinquency rate is at 7.58% of mortgage holders who are at least 30 days in arrears.
In Australia, the Fitch agency ranks mortgages holders at around 1.5% delinquency.
It’s an enormous difference and is partially underpinned by unemployment numbers: 5.2% in Australia, 8.3% in the US.
But it isn’t just employment. Australian households responded immediately to the GFC by curtailing their spending, and those not pulling back on consumption have been shopping smarter, using the internet and high Aussie dollar to save money.
And although Australians can be thankful that unemployment hasn’t spiked and wages growth has continued during the post-GFC, we haven’t had it all easy. During this time electricity prices have risen markedly and while our current cash rate is very low, Australian home buyers haven’t had the virtually 0% finance enjoyed by other nationalities.
Unfortunately, while Australians have pulled their heads in and have been determined to weather the effects of the GFC, it seems they will be saddled with deflated equities values in their superannuation and flat house values, for at least the medium term.
There isn’t too much to be done about that. For now, we can say we’re saving smarter, spending smarter and borrowing smarter.
It’s all the small sacrifices and belt-tightening that makes an economy. Australians have not only been lucky – they’ve been smart.
Mark Bouris is executive chairman of <a href="https://www.ybr.com.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Yellow Brick Road</a>, a financial services company offering home loans, financial planning, accounting and tax, and insurance.
</body></html>

Australia escaped the GFC through saving and hard work, not luck

<html><body>
The Reserve Bank held the cash rate at 3.5% this past week, leaving a lot of business owners none the wiser as to the future state of the economy. But in your own business, you get to decide the value of money as it performs for and within your enterprise. There are eight key segments worth considering:
Spending: When you look at your business, what are you spending on? What are your costs and do all of them contribute to creating revenues? Ask this: if I stopped this expenditure right now, what would happen to my business?
Saving: Many businesses put cash to one side to ensure they can pay essential costs. How much is your savings earning you? Many business owners stash cash in a legacy cheque account, and it may be paying zero interest. Yet there are high-interest rate accounts out there and the money is on-call. Make you money work.
Borrowing: One of the easiest ways to lose money from your business is to pay too much for debt. Whether it’s an overdraft, a term loan, equipment leases or corporate credit cards, have you fallen into a set-and-forget mindset with your finance? Do regular health checks of your debt, or get a finance broker to do it for you.
Repaying: At the end of a finance facility, do you know the most cost-effective way to go forward? Do you know all of your options and how much they will cost you? Sometimes it’s better to roll over a facility and other times it’s better to pay out a loan as fast as you can. You should know what value you get from debt before taking it, and set your repayment strategy accordingly.
Protecting: How do you protect your revenues? There are lot of interesting business insurances, but you have to know to ask for them. It’s worth engaging a broker and seeing what he or she would put in place – the entire rationale for running a business is to create revenues, and if you lose them, you have no business.
Investing: Whether you take out dividends to invest personally or the business buys commercial property, it’s worth thinking about how to make surplus funds work smart, and it’s always worth consulting an expert. This is how I think about it: those investment funds should work as hard as you worked to earn them in the first place.
Tax efficiency: You can’t run a business without dealing with the ATO. And you are taxed according to your legal structure or status. I advise business owners to stay close to their accountants and to make sure that they are paying the right amount of tax.
Budget: Your business budget is not just a road map, but it’s also your official statement about what is critical and what is merely a wish list. It assigns a value to money. If you feel you’ve lost your way with budgeting, engage an expert. It’s your money – value it!
Mark Bouris is executive chairman of <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.ybr.com.au/">Yellow Brick Road</a>, a financial services company offering home loans, financial planning, accounting and tax, and insurance.
</body></html>

The RBA does not determine your business’s finances – you do

<html><body>
There’s a new wave of financial services migrating beyond the computer and onto phones and tablets, as well as moving into social media such as Facebook.
But as these services migrate onto a device that fits in the pocket, people still need something more.
In my current business, Yellow Brick Road, we’re opening branches at a rate of one per week nationally, simply because people still want face-to-face discussions about their affairs.
The key, in my opinion, lies in the difference between the financial services you can turn into a “product”, and those you cannot.
People are happy to use financial products, but they really want advice.
The Nielsen Pacific Global Survey of Investment Attitudes was released a few weeks ago: 70% of Australians used the internet for banking and investment transactions in the previous three months. But the same survey also found that 54% of Australians had visited a physical bank branch in the previous three months.
This shows a nation that is using products but still need to be able to talk about more complex matters such as mortgages, life insurance and super.
It’s a quaint picture of a technology-driven country with a traditional heart. But the problems are in fact, far from quaint. An example of this could include our superannuation system, which puts the onus for retirement investment on the individual.
The first port of call for most people with super is not an advisor, but a product. The super fund member is mailed a brochure with describes the various products and the member ticks the boxes and sends it back.
The Nielsen survey showed just 16% of Australians currently rely on a financial planner or adviser, while 57% preferred to be in charge of their investment decisions.
Now consider the fact that 70% of investment-focused Australians currently maintain a shareholding of stocks, the worst performing assets.
I believe there are many forces that have pushed Australians away from being advised on their investments and their retirements.
Most banks don’t offer advice unless the customer is a wealthy “private client”; stockbrokers don’t give you the full service unless you have a certain amount to invest; and the superannuation funds have become the product.
That leaves the independent advisers and planners, who many Australians avoid because there is either a trust problem or the costs are perceived to be too great.
More should be done by the superannuation industry, the ASX, the government and regulators to encourage people to seek advice around complex and crucial financial arrangements.
However, people have to show some initiative in these matters and decide what’s really important. Most people who seek expert advice get something out of it: an insurance broker reducing your premiums; an adviser finding a lower fee super fund; a mortgage broker finding you a better loan or an accountant getting you a better tax result.
Aussies need to rethink how they balance financial products with advice. A product fills a need; advice is planning for life.
<div>
<div>Mark Bouris is executive chairman of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ybr.com.au/" rel="nofollow">Yellow Brick Road</a>, a financial services company offering home loans, financial planning, accounting and tax, and insurance.</div>
<div>
For more, <a target="_blank" href="/news">view our free webinar Refinancing and the Interest Rates Riddle.</a>
</div>
</div>
</body></html>

Australians need to embrace wise financial planning

<html><body>
I was interested this week in a financial wellbeing survey, which focused on the gap between the size of superannuation, and what is actually needed for retirement. Just 23% of Australians are confident their super will fund a decent retirement. When it comes to superannuation, there are distinct phases: people in their teens and 20s don’t care; people in their 30s and 40s do care but they’re focused on career, mortgage and kids; and people in their 50s and 60s are panicking about retirement. Let’s start with the first group. Those new to the workforce don’t think about retirement, but their decisions now have ramifications 40 years later. The law says your employer has to put 9% of your wages into a complying super fund, so you start with the advantage of a developing nest egg with tax breaks. You owe it to yourself to shop around the funds and see what they offer. Secondly, I suggest you roll any super accounts your might have from previous employers into one super account. You should also put some extra super in each month and select which accounts your super goes into. Your super fund has various allocations, such as conservative, balanced, growth, international, property and so on. When you are young you should have your super in funds that ride the more volatile yet higher-yield shares-based funds. It gives you the best chance of having a large nest egg when you retire. Then we have people in their 30s and 40s. This is a difficult group to interest in superannuation because all of their earnings are going into mortgages and/or kids. But these are also peak earning years so income should be put away to be accessed later. In these years you should start with owning your own home. Secondly, you should be contributing more to your superannuation than the 9% your employer puts in. Fifteen per cent of earnings is a good target. And don’t forget to protect your earning power with life insurance, income protection insurance and total and permanent disability (TPD) insurance. With the complex interactions between tax, retirement savings and tax breaks, you can easily lose advantages that the law provides, so I suggest you get an adviser. The third life stage – people in their 50s and 60s – is the most complex because a certain amount of life has been lived and retirement is drawing closer. Start by knowing how much you’ll need to live on. Secondly, work on owning your home: either do this in your working years or use your superannuation to pay out the mortgage. Thirdly, you must get the most from super, especially if you own a business or you have a self managed super fund. Superannuation is designed to allow you to be a self-funded retiree. But you have to make it work to your advantage, and for most of us, that means taking advice.
Mark Bouris is executive chairman of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ybr.com.au/" rel="nofollow">Yellow Brick Road</a>, a financial services company offering home loans, financial planning, accounting and tax, and insurance.
</body></html>

Sorting your super at every age

<html><body>
The problem with being called “the lucky country” is that it’s passive.
We’re actually hard-working and optimistic. And we’re fighters. So what’s wrong with the “resilient nation”?
I went to the Twittersphere this week and asked followers: “what do you think is the BEST thing about the Australian economy right now?” These are some of the more than 75 replies:
<ul>
<li>@markbouris The strength &amp; resilience shown despite high AUD, world economy &amp; constant negative reporting</li>
<li>@markbouris it's resilience. But without some political leadership that may soon evaporate</li>
<li>@markbouris The tenacity of its people to keep going and believe that things can only get better</li>
</ul>
What struck me about the responses was the way Aussies combine sophisticated understanding of the world with old-fashioned faith in hard work.
Amid the financial stress and uncertainty, the national psyche is still about resilience and working hard, and it will get us through.
And we’ll push forward without tearing ourselves apart with the false “class war” or wealth envy as we’re seeing in Europe and the United States.
We’ve seen a brief hint of it here, but it doesn’t seem to stick. Australians want to work hard for their rewards, not to tear down those who are succeeding.
So when we see negative attention showered on the mining industry – either because the mining moguls are too rich or the miners are overpaid – I think it’s time we got away from the spin and saw this for what it is.
For a start, the mining moguls are employing people, driving exports, building infrastructure and creating billions of dollars in ancillary employment and wealth generation. Every time mining moguls build a new railway line or open a new project or sign a new supply contract, they have to employ construction companies, consultants, professionals and lots of manpower. And they all pay taxes.
Secondly, the people who work in the mining industry work incredibly hard, in remote locations, in the heat and the dust and often away from their families for extended periods. They work knowing that when China, Korea and Japan have a downturn in their industrial output, Aussie mining jobs are on the block.
So give these people a break – they’re as hard-working and ambitious as workers employed in east coast manufacturing.
Resilience shows itself in many ways. Some workers take pay cuts to keep the factory open, while business owners make sacrifices in the home to keep the business afloat. Mothers with young kids go back into the workforce to help with the bills.
Tenacity shows up in the official figures too. Bankruptcies are 6,000 per year fewer now than they were in 2010, and despite the GFC-affected global economy, our unemployment is around 5%. And we didn’t have to drop our official interest rate to zero to do it.
We’re not out of the woods yet, but if we can keep our optimism and our resilience to the fore, and avoid the temptation to turn on ourselves, this nation will emerge stronger than it ever was.
Mark Bouris is executive chairman of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ybr.com.au/">Yellow Brick Road</a>, a financial services company offering home loans, financial planning, accounting and tax, and insurance.
</body></html>

Give hard-working miners a break: Mark Bouris

Roseville is poised for a wave of new apartment development following the NSW Government's rezoning of land around Roseville Station under its Transport Oriented Development program.

The new planning controls have unlocked significant development potential within walking distance of the station, with a number of sites expected to be amalgamated and redeveloped in the coming years as developers seek to take advantage of the increased density allowances.

One of the more restrained developments in the precinct, and set among the first to be delivered having commenced well before the recent changes, is Hyecorp's Juliet. The boutique apartment project is already well under construction and remains on track to welcome residents by the end of the year, offering a markedly different proposition to many of the larger-scale developments now likely to emerge across the suburb.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=7395 project_image_fid=278194]

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/juliet-roseville-64-pacific-highway-roseville-nsw-2069">Juliet</a> will comprise just&nbsp;34 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments opposite Roseville Station. For Hyecorp, which has delivered projects across Sydney's Lower North Shore for more than three decades, Roseville presented a rare opportunity to address a growing gap in the market.

"<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/roseville-nsw-2069">Roseville</a> has long been one of the North Shore's most tightly held and desirable suburbs, offering a unique combination of village charm, established greenery, excellent transport connections, and proximity to some of Sydney's best schools and lifestyle amenities," Hyecorp said.

"We recognised a growing demand from local homeowners seeking to downsize without leaving the community they have built their lives around. The location presented a rare opportunity to create homes that cater specifically to that buyer profile."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=7395 project_image_fid=278196]

The six-level development has been designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/pbd-architects">PBD Architects</a> as a collection of residences that feel more like homes than apartments. The brief centred generous floorplans, abundant natural light, quality finishes, and strong connections to outdoor space.

PBD Architects drew inspiration from Roseville's established garden suburb character, creating a building that sits comfortably within its surroundings rather than dominating them. The architecture incorporates natural materials, soft forms, layered landscaping, expansive balconies, and generous setbacks to strengthen the connection between residents and the suburb's leafy environment.

"The focus was on designing spacious, house-like residences for discerning owner-occupiers and downsizers who wanted to remain on the North Shore without compromising on comfort, privacy, or design," PBD said.&nbsp;

"Every apartment was to feel considered, timeless, and highly functional."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=7395 project_image_fid=278195]

Inside, residences feature engineered timber flooring, stone kitchen benchtops and splashbacks, integrated Fisher &amp; Paykel appliances, ducted air conditioning, and large outdoor entertaining areas designed to take advantage of district and treetop views.

Residents will also have access to a rooftop barbecue and lounge area, alongside practical amenities including parcel lockers, EV charging capability, bicycle storage, a dog wash bay, and a basement car wash facility.

The majority of purchasers so far have been local owner-occupiers from Roseville, Lindfield, Chatswood, Killara, and the broader Upper North Shore, many of whom are transitioning from larger family homes.

"Buyers are looking for spacious, house-like apartments that allow them to downsize without feeling like they are sacrificing comfort or functionality," Hyecorp noted.

"They value large kitchens, generous living areas, ample storage, quality finishes, secure parking, lift access, and low-maintenance living."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=7395 project_image_fid=278204]

Juliet sits directly opposite Roseville Train Station and within walking distance of Roseville Village, while Chatswood's retail and dining precinct is only minutes away. The development is also surrounded by some of Sydney's most established schools, including Roseville College, Ravenswood, Pymble Ladies' College, and Knox Grammar, as well as nearby parklands and golf courses.

Juliet is currently more than 75 per cent sold ahead of its anticipated completion in late 2026.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=7395]

Joel Robinson

Juliet to sit quietly amid Roseville apartment boom

Sherpa Property Group has unveiled the third instalment of its Flourish series, securing full approval for the two-tower, $500 million Flourish Soleira development in Palm Beach.

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/flourish-soleira-1150-1154-gold-coast-highway-palm-beach-qld-4221">Flourish Soleira</a> will rise from a prominent site in the commercial heart of Palm Beach, the long-time home of Cash Converters and a range of local retailers.

The project will introduce a new retail and dining precinct at ground level, beneath 286 apartments.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150017 project_image_fid=370959]

“We’re very committed to not only providing affordable residential offerings that are much needed in Palm Beach, but also delivering a vibrant new commercial heart that complements the extraordinary growth of the southern Gold Coast,” Sherpa Property Group founder Christie Leet said.

The development will sit under Sherpa's Flourish brand, which is aimed at providing a pathway into the beachside suburb for locals, first-home buyers and downsizers. In a move designed to assist first-home buyers entering the market, Sherpa has reserved all one and two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments exclusively for eligible first-home buyers.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150017 project_image_fid=370964]

“Our vision through Flourish is to create a vibrant retail and lifestyle focal point within the Palm Beach centre zone, delivering thriving communities underpinned by lifestyle-rich locations,” Leet said.

“So far, Flourish has been an incredible success, and we hope to carry this momentum as we progress the next two Flourish projects in Palm Beach.”

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150017 project_image_fid=371430]

Located across 1150-1164 Gold Coast Highway and 3 Sixth Avenue, the development will comprise two towers. The northern tower will deliver 154 apartments, while the southern tower will add a further 132 residences, helping address ongoing demand for new apartments in the tightly held coastal suburb.

Flourish Soleira will also feature the most extensive rooftop amenity offering ever delivered in Palm Beach.

The two towers will be connected by a skybridge, with residents gaining access to a rooftop recreation deck featuring a full-width swimming pool, hot and cold plunge pools, wellness spaces, a gymnasium, private dining facilities, massage treatment rooms, barbecue areas, a basketball court, golf simulator, indoor and outdoor dining spaces, sun lounges and extensive landscaping.

LPS Group is expected to start construction later this year.

Sherpa is already well advanced on construction of its debut Flourish project, Flourish Amargo, located just around the corner from Soleira. Meanwhile, Flourish Oasis, positioned opposite Amargo, recently commenced construction and has nearly sold out its collection of 47 apartments.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=150017]

Sherpa unveils $500m mixed-use Palm Beach precinct, Flourish Soleira

Are mortgage holders set to get a reprieve from the RBA in 2026?

Big Four bank NAB believes so. They are now expecting the next move from the RBA to be a cut, rather than a hike, which they had pencilled in for August. They are unsure of the timing of the cut however, they note in their latest&nbsp;NAB Economics RBA Watch.

NAB Chief Economist, Dr Sally Auld, said recent data suggests the economy has lost momentum and the outlook for rates has shifted, noting that the broader economic backdrop has changed since earlier in the year.

“The next move in the cash rate is likely to be down, but the timing is uncertain," Dr Auld said.

"In February, growth was above trend, the economy was operating above capacity and there was uncertainty over the restrictiveness of rates. None of these conditions exist today,” she outlined.

Dr Auld said recent data pointed to softer momentum across the economy while acknowledging that at the same time, uncertainty remains a key feature of the outlook.

“Both Q1 GDP data and the NAB business survey suggest momentum in the economy has slowed, meaning that growth has likely peaked for the cycle. That said, we are cognisant there is still considerable uncertainty around the outlook, both with respect to activity and inflation.”

Dr Auld said inflation risks and labour market outcomes would be important to watch.

“On the prices side, we are still forecasting above target core inflation through to mid-2027. Margins will compress and weaker labour market outcomes are a risk.”

She said tighter financial conditions are expected to weigh on housing and activity.

“Tighter financial conditions will be reflected in a slowing in house price growth and housing credit growth. In summary, we have greater conviction that the next move in rates is down, but less conviction on the timing.”

Mortgage relief? NAB forecasts RBA rate cut, not hike, after softer economic conditions

A local downsizer has splashed $6.5 million on a penthouse in Perifa's Alex &amp; Willow development in Crows Nest. 
&nbsp; 
The purchaser sold their long-held family home in the area before embarking on a six-month search for the right apartment. After inspecting a range of options across the Lower North Shore, the buyer returned to <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/alex-willow-crows-nest-82-90-alexander-street-crows-nest-nsw-2065">Alex &amp; Willow</a>. 
&nbsp; 
The buyer profile reflects the project’s broader purchaser mix. <a>Alex &amp; Willow</a> has attracted predominantly local downsizers looking to transition from larger homes without compromising on space or quality, alongside a smaller cohort of upsizers and investors drawn to the project’s location and design credentials. 
&nbsp; 
The milestone sale comes as the project, developed by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/perifa">Perifa</a>&nbsp;and delivered by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/builders/versatile-made-construction">Versatile Construction</a>, both part of Versatile Group, reaches 60 per cent sold.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=6680 project_image_fid=371325] 
&nbsp; 
Eddie Mansour, Managing Partner of <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/project-marketer/ray-white-projects">Ray White Projects</a>, said the result demonstrates not only a headline price but also depth of demand. 
&nbsp; 
“This is an exceptional outcome and a clear reflection of sustained buyer demand for premium, well-located downsizer product,” Mansour said.

“We’re seeing a consistent pattern of local homeowners selling family residences and reinvesting into high-quality apartments that allow them to remain within their community. Alex &amp; Willow has resonated strongly with this group because it offers genuine scale, thoughtful design and immediate proximity to the village.” 
&nbsp; 
The sale reflects a broader and consistent trend of local downsizers actively seeking high-quality, low-maintenance residences close to established village centres. Agents report that demand for this product type has remained resilient, particularly where developments offer a rare combination of scale, design quality and walkable amenity. 
&nbsp;&nbsp; 
Fabrizio Perilli, Managing Director of Perifa and Versatile Group, said the sale marks a defining moment for the project. 
&nbsp; 
“The penthouse sale is a strong endorsement of the quality we have delivered, alongside our partners, and the clear demand from local downsizers for premium, boutique residences in this location,” Perilli said.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
“Most importantly, we’re proud to see the Alex &amp; Willow community beginning to take shape. As we move closer to completion, we’re looking forward to welcoming residents and seeing the project come to life.”&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=6680 project_image_fid=338516] 
&nbsp; 
Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/nettletontribe">Nettleton Tribe</a> with interiors by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/interior-designers/richards-stanisich">Richards Stanisich</a>, Alex &amp; Willow is a boutique collection of generously sized two- and three-bedroom residences in the heart of Crows Nest village.&nbsp;

Completion is slated for early 2027.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=6680]

Alex & Willow, Crows Nest penthouse sells off the plan for $6.5 million

Fresh from launching the first stage of its Wollongong precinct, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/keira-place-wollongong-120-122-smith-street-wollongong-nsw-2500">Keira Place</a>, builder-developer Urban Property Group has unveiled plans for the next phase of the masterplanned community.

Now on public exhibition through the NSW Government's Housing Delivery Authority pathway is a State Significant Development Application for a further 657 homes on the prominent gateway site opposite Beaton Park.

The proposal comprises three buildings, including two build-to-sell towers rising 25 and 30 storeys, delivering 391 apartments, alongside a 12-storey co-living building with 266 residences, making it one of the largest co-living proposals currently planned in regional New South Wales.

Of the apartments proposed in the build-to-sell towers, the majority, 310, are two-bedroom dwellings. The balance comprises 44 one-bedroom apartments and 37 three-bedroom residences. Apartment sizes range from around 50 sqm for one-bedroom homes to approximately 90 sqm for three-bedroom apartments.

<img alt="Smith St" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="19347059-1612-41a0-9c74-b86a657237f8" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-06-10%20at%2010.02.18%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=sWXnaCcA.cIC6N8YT1dg5pJ2e1V3Z6z7" />

The submission says the proposal has evolved significantly from its original Housing Delivery Authority application following extensive consultation with the State Design Review Panel and Wollongong City Council.

The final scheme has been designed to align with the emerging vision for the Flinders Street Precinct, an area identified by Council as a future high-density mixed-use neighbourhood capable of accommodating substantial housing growth close to transport, employment and community infrastructure.

According to the design report prepared by COX Architecture, the development aims to "deliver a built outcome consistent with the future character of the Wollongong CBD while responding to the site's unique constraints and opportunities."

"Our vision for the next phase of the site evolution in Wollongong is grounded in three design pillars that guide the design response: place, natural environment and celebration," COX said.

"Inspired by its surroundings and grounded in the stories of place on Wodi Wodi Country, the design proposal acknowledges the established character of its setting while creating a unique and timeless identity that sits harmoniously within it.

"The design proposal responds to its specific site conditions, acknowledging the vegetation, climate, wind conditions and solar access of the site."

The architecture responds directly to the site's position between Wollongong's urban core and its natural landscape setting.

COX identified views towards Mount Keira and the Illawarra Escarpment as defining features of the site, while the upper levels of the towers will also capture expansive views across the city and out to the Pacific Ocean.

The design team has positioned the tallest buildings closer to the rail corridor, where overshadowing impacts can be better managed while establishing a landmark built form on the northern approach into the city.

<img alt="Smith St" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="79580d5b-500c-4ebf-9629-797146a4a694" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-06-10%20at%209.51.59%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=WbTB1EKSG.KDfsfz0F3wp1QVa2oCMGR5" />

Urban Property Group secured the 11,000 sqm Smith Street site in 2022 and has since progressed plans for the broader Keira Place precinct.

Construction recently commenced on the first stage of Keira Place, which will deliver 150 apartments across two residential buildings, including 27 affordable housing apartments and 18 specialist disability accommodation dwellings, alongside activated ground-floor retail and commercial space.

Urban Co-CEO Patrick Elias said the commencement of construction marked a significant milestone for Wollongong and reflected the developer's long-term commitment to regional cities.

"Today's groundbreaking is about turning approvals into homes and moving quickly to deliver much-needed housing in Wollongong's city centre," Elias said.

"Keira Place will provide a diverse mix of homes close to jobs, transport and services, while setting a high benchmark for quality, durability and consumer protection."

Read more:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/news/nsw/groundbreaking-marks-start-of-construction-at-keira-place-in-wollongong-cbd">Groundbreaking marks start of construction at Keira Place in Wollongong CBD</a>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Mark Bouris

Editor's Picks

Have something to contribute?

Developments

New apartments

New townhouses

News