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Is this quote by Johnny Isakson the perfect property quote – “In the real estate business you learn more about people, and you learn more about community issues, you learn more about life, you learn more about the impact of government, probably than any other profession that I know of.”
Let’s focus on the part of governments in property – more particularly as it relates to Sydney and its many niche property markets. Local governments are being amalgamated so that the NSW government can put on its developer cap and start approving thousands upon thousands of new developments. They identify overseas buyers as the driving force so they then introduce higher duties to get a greater tax grab. The federal government (since December 2008) allows one hundred per cent of all new developments to be sold offshore driving overseas investor demand to levels never seen before – the perfect property storm has been created but who will clean it up?
Firstly, we need to pinpoint when this newly created apartment – a – thon peaked which would be around mid – 2013. Barangaroo was the star attraction with 750 new harbour side apartments that sold in a matter of hours smashing per square metre records. These per square metre rates were then factored into every other new development and the investors came in fast, which in turn led developers to pay record prices for property sites thus creating an insatiable property appetite for investors and property developers.
Then 18 months later the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) on December 9, 2014 tightens lending regulations resulting in higher deposits from investors buying off – the – plan. Although not much was said at the time the investor cracks were starting to appear despite developers and real estate agents buying record amounts of polyfilla. Next in July 2015, APRA announced that the big four banks and Macquarie Bank must hold more capital to provide a buffer against defaults by investors.
In May 2015, then federal treasurer Joe Hockey announced that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) was being handed full control over all property acquisitions in Australia. This then led to the ATO announcing that every property transaction dating back to 1985 would be recorded and placed on their property register. Foreign investor participation in Australia’s property markets had spiked to $34.7 billion in 2013/14 up from $17.6 billion the previous year, so suspicions were on the rise. I might add that some market commentators (like myself) had been raising concerns well before this.
Who could forget the piece I filed back on 5 March 2015 – Treasurer Joe’s Villa del Nightmare when the ATO announced the first divestiture notice for a $39 million Point Piper mansion that was bought by a foreign buyer without Australian residency. The subject property was then flipped to a friend who just so happened to have an Australian residency and the case was closed – or so we were led to believe.
Last week (a premature announcement broke) –<a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/Forms/Foreign-resident-capital-gains-withholding-clearance-certificate-application-instructions/"> Foreign resident capital gains withholding clearance certificate applications</a> would be required for every property in Australia selling above $2 million from 1 July 2016. I was reliably informed that the grand plan is that clearance certificates will apply for every Australian property down the track. Here is the official<a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Content/LB_I/downloads/FRCGW%20-%20clearance%20certificate%20application.pdf"> ATO clearance certificate</a>application from the ATO website.
So does this then take our attention (well mine anyway) to the fact that quite possibly in the very near future the ATO, who have been very quiet of late on all matters pertaining to divestiture notices, may soon have some big announcements? Assuming all those who purchased illegally will not be able to receive a clearance certificate – so the ATO pockets 10 per cent of the selling price from every sale?
The big problem here is that most in the industry knows that the Asian buyers have dropped off significantly, as too the Asian developers. Sydney has approximately 30,000 new apartments nearing completion and how many of those properties will have defaulting buyers? We know what the first market sale price was and nobody can intelligently predict what the second sale price may be. Guesstimates range from a 10 to 50 per cent correction depending on the volume of property coming on to the market, and rest assured you can no longer apply the Barangaroo square metre rate set back in mid – 2013.
If these defaults do happen and the second sales prices are well below the initial selling price this will then throw all the thousands and thousands of off – the – plan sales into complete chaos. Then all the future developments are shelved given these once strong markets have disappeared. Councils have been merged so what then happens to that grand plan of high density future developments?
Sydney for a few years now has been showing clear signs of investor growing pains. Although this time around the vast majority of these new developments are still a way off completion. If we go by past markets the banks are about to become reluctant property owners – so what’s the plan?
Sadly, there is no plan – just cross your fingers and hope that level heads prevail. Quite fascinating that with all these massive high – density developments that in this day and age we still don’t have a governing body regulating Australian property markets.
I get that feeling that we will need more than an umbrella.
<h5>MOSMAN – 2088</h5>
Number of houses on the market this time last year – 68
Number of houses on the market last week – 55
Number of houses on the market this week – 51
Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 46
Number of apartments on the market last week – 50
Number of apartments on the market this week – 42
<h5>CREMORNE – 2090</h5>
Number of houses on the market this time last year – 8
Number of houses on the market last week – 11
Number of houses on the market this week – 10
Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 13
Number of apartments on the market last week – 22
Number of apartments on the market this week – 18
<h5>NEUTRAL BAY – 2089</h5>
Number of houses on the market this time last year – 7
Number of houses on the market last week – 8
Number of houses on the market this week – 8
Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 26
Number of apartments on the market last week – 22
Number of apartments on the market this week – 20
ROBERT SIMEON is a director of <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/" target="_blank" title="RWM" rel="nofollow">Richardson Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay</a> and has been selling residential real estate in Sydney since 1985.  He has also been writing real estate blog <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/news/" target="_blank" title="Virtual Realty News" rel="nofollow">Virtual Realty News</a> since 2000.
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The property storm Sydney had to have: Robert Simeon

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Yes, I know everyone hates elections but the more I look at this election the more I like it simply because real estate is front and centre.
History will judge whether the government and opposition erred by allowing negative gearing into the debate, although what they have done is to finally open that can of worms which previously had been removed from all discussions.
When you take the time to contemplate the direction that property prices are headed (thanks mainly to all these new developments) there are plenty of dark clouds building. For mine; the smartest solution is to simply limit the number of investment properties to a single tax file number. Opinions vary that negative gearing is driving the values of property although investors account for just one third (approximately) of purchases, so that in itself can’t be the major contributor.
The problem why Australia’s property prices are so high sees the blame at failed political policies where prices have increased two to three times than that when the Baby Boomers were buying property – which by the way were single income families. Governments have failed miserably when it comes to infrastructure where we only ever hear of Very Fast Trains in an election year – come July 2, we in all probability won’t hear it mentioned for another three years.
Opinions when it comes to real estate are always interesting where today we see many property markets starting to ease and nobody comes out and states that this is actually a good thing. Many of Australia’s property markets are actually self-medicating and correcting which is great news given the damage a crash can cause. Naturally we should not also forget that property markets historically slow when an election is announced although many parts of Australia had already started to re-calibrate their prices downwards – we have passed the peak.
This week we saw that for the first time in seven years Australia was now recording deflation – which immediately called for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to cut the cash rate when they meet next week. Even if it were to cut the cash rate say – 0.25 you can rest assured that the banks won’t be passing this on.
I’ve been on the public record as being opposed to federal government policy in December 2008 when off – the – plan – purchases by foreigners were raised from 50 to 100 per cent – the governments have not addressed nor even discussed this. With interest I have noted that this month the ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and this week Westpac are no longer lending money to foreign buyers wanting to buy residential property in Australia.
The major lenders have already implemented black – spot areas where they will no longer finance new apartment developments. Interestingly nobody has even bothered to raise this with any politicians given this is a significant stance by the major lenders that relates directly to government policy. Now we can expect this to remain the case for quite a few years to come with Sydney and Melbourne embarking on massive new development construction – the major lenders have massive exposure here.
Now should the ALP be elected what does this do to their new policy regarding negative gearing? I can tell you what it will do to off – the – plan acquisitions (new property) – it will shut it down almost immediately. Investors are not permitted to buy existing properties, only new – despite 93 per cent of investors preferring to buy existing.
One would think that there should be much more debate about the repercussions to the economy with the major lenders now not lending to foreign buyers. Then of course one can’t rule out a significant price correction given these new developments are massively over valued due mainly to foreign buyers driving these prices. Investors aren’t going to be buying into these new developments for negative gearing purposes when they know full well that these properties are facing a significant value correction.
One only has to look at the body language of the major banks to see quite clearly they have already commenced direct action to minimise their exposure to this newly created property market.
The problem as I see it is that politicians are making some huge mistakes in judgement when it comes to our property markets but sadly nobody is asking them the right questions. A classic example of this the banks deciding to restrict all loans to foreign buyers which is in direct contradiction to the federal governments policy – which we all know is dumb. Even funnier is that the government did not bat an eyelid when the major lenders announced this policy review.
<h5>MOSMAN – 2088</h5>
Number of houses on the market this time last year – 61
Number of houses on the market last week – 43
Number of houses on the market this week – 45
Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 52
Number of apartments on the market last week – 50
Number of apartments on the market this week – 55
<h5>CREMORNE – 2090</h5>
Number of houses on the market this time last year – 1
Number of houses on the market last week – 7
Number of houses on the market this week – 9
Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 15
Number of apartments on the market last week – 26
Number of apartments on the market this week – 26
<h5>NEUTRAL BAY – 2089</h5>
Number of houses on the market this time last year – 2
Number of houses on the market last week – 11
Number of houses on the market this week – 11
Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 30
Number of apartments on the market last week – 27
Number of apartments on the market this week – 23
ROBERT SIMEON is a director of <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/" target="_blank" title="RWM" rel="nofollow">Richardson Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay</a> and has been selling residential real estate in Sydney since 1985.  He has also been writing real estate blog <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/news/" target="_blank" title="Virtual Realty News" rel="nofollow">Virtual Realty News</a> since 2000.
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Why I am liking this election: Robert Simeon

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As many predicted some time ago, the newly created investment market, where we have seen approvals for high-rise apartments hit levels never seen before, will now see a massive correction.
In December 2008, the rules for off-the-plan apartments had a significant change when the ratio for foreign investors was moved from 50 per cent to 100 per cent. Developers could not believe their luck, as this decision created new rivers of gold, albeit an eight year run.
The governments then got involved by increasing stamp duty for foreign buyers, the Chinese government shut down the facilities permitting vast amounts of monies to be withdrawn from China and the major Australian banks stopped lending to foreign buyers. When combined, this has created the perfect property storm although the gamble of relying on foreign buyers acquiring the majority of these new apartments was always fraught with danger.
What we will see in 2017 is thousands and thousands of apartments off-the-plan coming back onto the market and the big question that remains unanswered is; what will be the percentage drop from the original contract prices? It has already been mentioned that analysis of every new development in Australia that settlement defaults will be between $1 billion and $1.5 billion every month over the next twelve month window.
 
A saving grace will be that the existing housing market will continue to go on-wards and upwards simply because fewer and fewer households are selling due to the exorbitant selling costs – namely stamp duty. If you look at the approximate 700 hundred suburbs that make up Sydney – it would be fair to suggest that at least 70 per cent of these suburbs are not creating any new houses for consumption.
The NSW government has gone down the track of high density with next to no new infrastructure to absorb this construction so in many areas our roads will become gridlocked.
At some stage an independent body will commission a report to look at all the bushland within Sydney to then ascertain how many tens of thousands of residential building blocks can be created to ease the demand of all those wanting to live in Sydney.
We need to bear in mind that the population within Sydney will hit 5 million in a matter of months and our population growth is years ahead of initial projections. Building tens of thousands of apartments does not in any way, shape or form ease the demand for established houses.
Of course, there is always a few who throw in that recession word and don’t forget that a few some years ago suggested that 2016 would see Australia fall into a long overdue recession. They would have been somewhat aggrieved when last quarter Australia posted 25 years of economic growth.
Many property forecasters were quick to say, at or about this time last year, that the Sydney property market was easing (which it did) and that this was the start of a price correction. As a few of us pointed out this was more the case of buyer fatigue (which it was) with 2016 posting greater price growth than 2015. Whichever way you want to look at this the heart of the problem is that demand for established housing far exceeds supply.
A significant correction in the new apartment market will have next to no effect on the established housing markets because they are two different buyers. Secondly, the vast majority of the new apartment investor markets are foreign buyers so if they default there is absolutely no knock on effect into the established housing markets.
If anything, we will see the Australian buyers cherry-pick this market, given the cash rate will go lower and then, in turn, will chase returns. The family home is at record highs so via negative gearing households will be mopping up the newly created apartment markets at much lower entry levels with so many apartments expected to default.
Some will be saying what could possibly go wrong following Australia’s unprecedented 25 years of economic growth? Wages have fallen from 3.5 per cent growth in 2012 to 2 per cent in 2016. A positive sign is that population growth in 2012 was 1.8 per cent and in 2016 it dropped to 1.3 per cent. Household income growth and consumer spending are in decline so those economy drivers will be closely monitored in the September quarter of 2016.
Whilst some are saying retirees are doing it tough, we need to keep in mind that their homes are at presently at the highest value ever so many are taking advantage of that by taking out reverse mortgages – otherwise known as spending the kid’s inheritance (SKI).
The major problem with Sydney house prices is that planning by state governments, at best, has been appalling. Even today there is no plan – rather, approve thousands and thousands of new apartments, sell them offshore and bank the stamp duty and land taxes.
So next time you are caught in traffic, just think, how is Sydney going to cope with all these thousands of new apartments under construction?
<h4>MOSMAN – 2088</h4>
<ul><ul>
<li>Number of houses on the market this time last year – 52</li>
<li>Number of houses on the market last week – 52</li>
<li>Number of houses on the market this week – 47</li>
<li>Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 51</li>
<li>Number of apartments on the market last week – 34</li>
<li>Number of apartments on the market this week – 32</li>
</ul></ul>
<h4>CREMORNE – 2090</h4>
<ul><ul>
<li>Number of houses on the market this time last year – 7</li>
<li>Number of houses on the market last week – 9</li>
<li>Number of houses on the market this week – 9</li>
<li>Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 22</li>
<li>Number of apartments on the market last week – 12</li>
<li>Number of apartments on the market this week – 14</li>
</ul></ul>
<h4>NEUTRAL BAY – 2089</h4>
<ul><ul>
<li>Number of houses on the market this time last year – 3</li>
<li>Number of houses on the market last week – 11</li>
<li>Number of houses on the market this week – 4</li>
<li>Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 29</li>
<li>Number of apartments on the market last week – 21</li>
<li>Number of apartments on the market this week – 19</li>
</ul></ul>
ROBERT SIMEON is a director of <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/" target="_blank" title="RWM" rel="nofollow">Richardson Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay</a> and has been selling residential real estate in Sydney since 1985. 
He has also been writing real estate blog <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/news/" target="_blank" title="Virtual Realty News" rel="nofollow">Virtual Realty News</a> since 2000.
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Some property markets are correcting – other markets booming: Robert Simeon

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It was only a matter of time before some property punters would cash in simply because property data is now pointing to a significant price correction.
The latest Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) data has inflation adjusted wage growth sitting most uncomfortably around zero which spells disaster for households carrying excessively large mortgages. Time to cool the heels-cash in, and lock oneself into a lease for twenty-four months or so and watch what happens as there are some worrying signs out there, although some areas will see minimal change and others massive.
The RBA also announced this week that it was concerned how the financial system would handle a significant price correction in the apartment investment sector. Between now and June 30 there are a staggering 15,000 apartments settling so we are approximately 90 days away from knowing if the investment apartment sector is about to collapse.
With the clear majority of these sales to Chinese investors we will soon find out if they can raise the funds to settle without the assistance of the major banks who have walked away from overseas investors.
Li Ming, a co-director of Aussiehome, recently announced that “the off-the-plan apartment markets is now the worst I have seen in the last 10 years.” He then went on to say that almost 80 percent of Chinese buyers can’t settle on the Australian apartments they have purchased and now would prefer to walk away. In the clear majority of cases, these properties are now worth considerably less than when they were an artist’s impression on a glossy brochure.
Property is a confidence game so when we start reading negativity we also start seeing an immediate response in consumer sentiment. This would almost certainly explain why the RBA is now sounding clear warnings directed at the investment apartment markets. This usually only happens when their internal research is discovering anomalies in the markets so immediately they start sounding the fog-horns.
I well remember remarking back in December 2008 when Wayne “The World’s Best Treasurer” Swan strangely increased the off-the-plan ratio from 50 percent to 100 percent that this would not have a happy ending. Who knows I may well be wrong although I still stand by my predictions where nearly nine years on we are now starting to see the result.
This also coincides with Sydney house prices presently posting the highest annual growth in 14 years. We all know (well most anyway) that for property markets to change direction you need a trigger. Should Li Ming be correct about the apartment investment market this will have a significant impact on this newly created apartment investment market right across the eastern seaboard.
If this does happen our governments and banks need to play this intelligently by riding the storm out by becoming landlords. In the past, they have panicked (especially the banks) by engaging in massive sell offs which cause more problems. What should be happening now is the intelligent preparation of worst case scenarios where lenders should be looking at first home buyers to create lease and buy back packages.
Having said that the first problem with housing affordability is the rental markets despite governments going down the wrong track of building more homes. If rents are flat and even decreasing as was the case 15 years ago, then the pressure on tenants is removed as it then becomes cheaper to rent over owning. What we forget are the many solid arguments back then that clearly showed renting was a smarter option than buying – how quickly we forget.
Obviously with so many brand-new apartments set to hit the rental markets rents will fall – just imagine what would happen if the NSW government forced the 200,000 plus permanently vacant Sydney apartments onto the market?
The Victorian government has acted on this with the introduction of the Vacant Residential Property Tax (VRPT) which will address the permanently vacant properties across inner and middle suburbs of Melbourne. The VRPT will be levied at 1 percent, multiplied by the capital improved value of the taxable property. A property worth $650,000 would then be charged a VRPT of $6,500 which in my opinion is too low because the clear majority are wealthy which is why they are not interested in renting the property out in the first place.
The VRPT should be between 3 and 5 percent although the Victorian government knows only too well that a 1 percent VRPT won’t have a significant impact on overseas buyers which is why they introduced it.
On the flip side, the NSW government is looking to further increase stamp duty for foreign buyers which would be an absolute disaster – just ask the Canadian government who did precisely this and then managed to collapse their investment markets by upwards of 30 percent.
I don’t worry too much about the property markets, I worry more about how our elected politicians will respond to these challenges. Generation Rent should be watching these markets very closely.
ROBERT SIMEON is a director of <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/">Richardson Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay</a> and has been selling residential real estate in Sydney since 1985. 
He has also been writing real estate blog <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/news/">Virtual Realty News</a> since 2000.
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The big property shift is fast heading to a sell recommendation: Robert Simeon

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Like most people, Australians are past sick and tired of their elected politicians, simply because they do very little and collectively can’t solve problems – in fact, they now make them worse. 
Speaking at the 2017 Committee for Economic Development of Australia summit Henry was scathing. “Australia had become so paralysed by political inaction that it had gone from an optimistic nation which pioneered world’s best policy and nurtured world’s best institutions to a place that nobody looked to anymore to see how it should be done.”
“Have you heard a political leader addressing that question? Do you think anybody has a clue? At the very least, we are going to have to find radical new approaches for infrastructure planning, funding and construction.”
“Based on current estimates, Australia needs to build a city for two million people every two years or a city the size of Melbourne or Sydney every decade yet the only plan seems to be stuffing more people into Sydney and Melbourne.”
 
He went on to say that four priorities could be met by adopting, as a minimum, eight reform proposals. These are:
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1">Apolitical infrastructure planning and pricing, including the widespread use of road user charging;</li>
<li class="li1">A much lower company tax rate, or some other mechanism that reduces substantially the cost to Australian businesses of equity capital sourced from abroad, achieved much more quickly than is presently under consideration by our Parliament;</li>
<li class="li1">The removal of stamp duties on residential property;</li>
<li class="li1">Symmetrical tax treatment of interest and capital gains;</li>
<li class="li1">An overhaul of state-based royalties;</li>
<li class="li1">Market-based price signals to guide climate change mitigation and long term investment in the energy sector;</li>
<li class="li1">A broader base and higher rate of GST;</li>
<li class="li1">A substantial adjustment to roles and responsibilities between the Commonwealth and the states.</li>
</ul>
Stamp duty on residential property was supposed to be removed when the GST came in on July 1, 2000. How can you justify a duty that has increased by over 800 per cent over since 2000, when it was agreed that it would be removed? It is a no brainer that the GST has to be increased although this time around stamp duty has to be abolished.
This week, the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced that the tunnel from Manly Vale to the Warringah Freeway was still going to happen although she could not say when? We all know that this won’t be happening given the Liberal Party has now been promising this tunnel since 2002. So, thousands and thousands of new apartments are approved and the NSW government does nothing for transport infrastructure. Then, of course, the NSW government announced late last year the Ingleside development with 3,400 new homes – this is just ludicrous.
No politician responded to the announcement from a new global report which found Sydney the tenth most expensive city in the world for residential tenants. How are young Australians supposed to be getting into our property markets when they are forced to pay some of the highest rents on the planet, then factor in stamp duty plus add another 10 per cent to their previous 10 per cent deposit to qualify for a bank loan? Superannuation is not the answer that is just a dumb solution. Malcolm Turnbull needs to be talking to Ken Henry and urgently implementing his solutions.
If you want to see the impact of stamp duty on property markets look at the graphs that we have compiled – look at the dramatic reduction in people selling.
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Mosman-House-Sales-2016.png" target="_blank">Mosman House Sales</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Mosman-House-Sales-2016.png" alt=""> 
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Mosman-Apartment-Sales-2016.png" target="_blank">Mosman Apartment Sales</a>
 <img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Mosman-Apartment-Sales-2016.png" alt="">
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Cremorne-House-Sales-2016.png" target="_blank">Cremorne House Sales</a>
 <img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Cremorne-House-Sales-2016.png" alt="">
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Cremorne-Apartment-Sales-2016.png" target="_blank">Cremorne Apartment Sales</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Cremorne-Apartment-Sales-2016.png" alt=""> 
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Neutral-Bay-House-Sales-2016.png" target="_blank">Neutral Bay House Sales</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Neutral-Bay-House-Sales-2016.png" alt=""> 
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Neutral-Bay-Apartment-Sales-2016.png" target="_blank">Neutral Bay Apartment Sales</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/02/24/Neutral-Bay-Apartment-Sales-2016.png" alt=""> 
Why do politicians keep crucial infrastructure a secret? Well, that would be as Ken Henry correctly pointed out, “Australia has become so paralysed by political inaction”. To fix the problem you first need a model, and we now have one – courtesy of Ken Henry.
You can watch with interest how our elected politicians respond to Henry and his critiquing of the Australian economy. My money is on nothing happening as today we have political paralysis.
ROBERT SIMEON is a director of <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/">Richardson Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay</a> and has been selling residential real estate in Sydney since 1985. 
He has also been writing real estate blog <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/news/">Virtual Realty News</a> since 2000.
 
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To fix Australia’s housing affordability listen to Ken Henry

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One does not need to be Albert Einstein to see that for decades and decades the Australian real estate industry has been running blind – so it's very interesting to observe that now a cavalcade of seeing eye-dogs have been brought in to add some vision and clarity.
Having said that, there is plenty of work to do, and the Federal and State Governments will have to do plenty of the heavy lifting for a change. Again, the spotlight keeps shining away from the main accelerants that have seen investors not just entering the market but dominating it, coupled with overseas investors lunging at every off-the-plan sale that hits the market.
Australia simply does not have enough property to meet demand given our population keeps increasing at a growth rate of 1.7%. In the year to March 2014 the Australian population increased by 388,400 to reach 23.4 million.
Instead of continually slugging the taxpayers, overseas investors should be hit with a surcharge and the investors who prefer to keep their properties vacant should be hit with a Vacancy Tax.
The Senate Inquiry into overseas investors has shown glaring holes in how the Foreign Investment Review Board operates (or attempts to) with a staff of under 10 people. Again, this highlights that Australia does not even have a Housing Minister – so who then is taking responsibility and managing this?
Yes – it's reasonable to suggest that Australia is fast becoming a country of landlords and renters, although one needs to ask, had the Rudd Government implemented the recommendations from the Henry Tax Review, how would the Australian property landscape look today? We will never know – however, isn't it time we had this conversation again?
We have the David Murray Financial System Inquiry deadline now just over two months away and there is much speculation about how much they will recommend the banks keep in their piggy banks. How much capital should the banks hold in the event of a property market downturn to avoid the domino effect?
This week the worst kept secret was all but confirmed, where the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority have almost certainly agreed to introduce macro-prudential policies in an attempt to ease property prices.
It's a start. However; the measures will hardly put a dent in prices.
This article continues on the next page. Please click below.
 
<hr class="system-pagebreak">
 
To really have a closer examination; look no further than the report filed last year by Saul Eslake: 50 Years of Housing Policy Failure.
In a nutshell, he writes that cynical politics had kept policies in place that made it harder for people to buy their first home.
"While political parties and governments profess to care about first home buyers, the reality is that in a typical year fewer than 100,000 people succeed in attaining home ownership for the first time; whereas there are some 5.8 million households (and over eight million people) who already own at least one property."
This week RP Data revealed that the number of properties listed for sale in all capital cities, excluding Perth, is 11.6% lower than in September 2013. So introducing macro-prudential policies will hardly affect investors who are borrowing against their existing property portfolios.
<img src="/images/2014/09/30/24-09-2014-9-34-41-AM.jpg" alt="">
Property investors have entered the market with "eyes-wide-open" given that just a few years ago they witnessed firsthand what happens to property prices when we inherited the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) – this is a long term investment. Many are taking a safer punt on property and have walked away from the share market (which has had a shocking run of late) to lock and load into bricks and mortar.
There will be major changes ahead for Australia's tax system where many of the changes will be made to the property taxation benefits that investors are currently taking full advantage of. It's a win-win for the property investors given with all new taxes they are generally retrospective so the investors will be working from a 100 base – history shows this very clearly.
 <img src="/images/2014/09/30/24-09-2014-1-30-26-PM.jpg" alt="">
On the assumption that eventually the GST will be increased to 15%. construction will slow down further, which is exactly what happened in Australia previously following the introduction of the GST.
The developers wear the GST so that it then comes off their respective bottom lines by significantly reducing their profit margins – GST on construction has been a dismal failure which clearly explains why construction is in decline.
So there is a lot of method to the present investor madness – where for those looking at this from a different perspective the vast majority are on a win-win property formula.
No doubt they will be smiling even more when the read a recent article in The Economist, Birth Right – Where to be born in 2013, where Australia was ranked second from the top.
 
 
 
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A broken system: investors are laughing all the way

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When the Head Teller at the Reserve Bank of Australia dropped the cash rate to a record low of 2.00% this week the Head Cashier AKA Joe Hockey immediately started bellowing "Australians – spend – spend – spend."
So let me let you in on a secret Joe – Australians are spending up big, it’s just that they are using the online loophole where they don’t have to pay you GST. The other problem is that following the Global Financial Crisis many Australians (to save money) reverted back to paying cash for services simply because that way they get a significant discount.
Naturally those who have negatively geared their properties don’t engage in the cash for services given they need the receipts in order to gain their much required tax reduction. I guess that given nearly all developed countries have a tax structure where you do pay a tax when you sell the family home, however all monies spent – mortgage, maintenance and improvements – are a tax deduction. So I hope now that you can understand why GST receipts are in decline.
When the GST was introduced nearly 15 years ago a comparative analysis was undertaken to see what the online shopping receipts were likely to be for purchases under $1,000. The analysis which in all probability was done using a Commodore 64 with a flashy floppy disc drive found that it would cost as much to collect the GST on these purchases so the plan was shelved.
Today Australians are all over <a href="https://www.ozsale.com.au/default.aspx?cid=10" target="_blank">OZSALE</a> and <a href="https://www.dealsdirect.com.au/" target="_blank">DealsDirect</a> to name just two who just happen today to be hugely successful online businesses that turn over hundreds and hundreds of millions each year. According to the National Australia Bank’s (NAB) latest Online Retail Sales Index – Australians spent a record (yes record) $16.6 billion online in the year to January 2015. Given that the vast majority would be sales with no GST payable that’s at least $1.500 billion in missing revenue each year – now that’s embarrassing.
Deloitte has just readjusted the budget projections to take into account the latest economic news where last year’s budget deficit was $48.5 billion. Deloitte is predicting this year’s deficit will be $5.5 billion worse than predicted a year ago, and will be close to $45.9 billion. All will be revealed next week but rest assured it will be a shocker – although it’s difficult to agree with increasing the GST when we have all those ‘rivers of gold’ that the federal government is missing simply because they won’t reform.
Just as embarrassing was the announcement last week by Prime Minister Tony Abbott that foreign investors who have purchased illegally in Australia have until the end of November to come forward to avoid criminal charges and severe fines. Now I have no doubt that illegal property acquisitions will be huge in number but how about upgrading from Windows 2003 and start a proper National Property Register which has been promised for years.
The illegal buying debate does get amusing at times given some are saying that the best method is when buyers attend an auction to bid they must provide identity and that data is recorded – that then will stop illegal buyers. Well, sorry no it won’t. That legislation was brought in 2003/2004 in an effort to stop dummy bidding where records of identification are recorded should the Office of Fair Trading require an investigation. If a party attends an auction and they want somebody to bid on their behalf it is that person bidding who provides the identification not the eventual buyer who is not required to provide any identification – even though they may successfully buy the property.
Any buyers who have purchased illegally would now be contacting their respective legal representatives and immediately transferring ownership into the name of an Australian resident – the federal government has given them a six month window to conform and that’s based on the illegal owners coming forward. Brilliant plan that one!
With the Head Cashier now dutifully accepting the pseudo role of Housing Minister the forensic search for illegal purchasers across Australia has begun in earnest. Maybe Joe should spend a week of work experience at the NSW government who just collected more than $5.000 million from those naughty first home buyers who illegally applied for grants. Going back three years and with nearly 1,400 investigations they found 478 first home buyers who were forced to repay their illegal grants. A spokesman for the NSW Office of State Revenue said it routinely conducted ‘’random and targeted audits matching and data mining.”
All that Joe Hockey needs to do is find a way to get hold of that data and do a targeted audit through his Australian Taxation Office audits plus some additional data mining using stamp duty records.
Why is it that Canberra just doesn’t see the billions they lose each year from GST online sales and why it’s so easy to set up a National Property Register?
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Chaos in Canberra but that’s not unusual: Robert Simeon

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Get ready Australia. The Prime Minister announced this week his road map for tax reforms that he proposes to take to the next election.
No need to guess what the centrepiece will be – look no further than a 5% increase to the GST. This will be very hard to achieve given when the GST was introduced in 2000 the states and territories immediately reneged on their agreement to abolish duty taxes, so we can rightly expect that they will never renege again.
The problem facing Malcolm Turnbull is that the states and territories want more money and the federal government can’t fund this through their tax receipts. For years I have argued that (in the case of NSW for example) the state government is the biggest dead weight on the NSW economy.
Stamp duties, insurance duties, pay roll tax... the list goes on. For well over the past decade we have read tax paper after tax paper recommending the removal of these taxes although (until now) this has been ignored by federal politicians.
A report released this week by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling identified that the current 10% GST consumes 13.4% of disposable income for those in the bottom fifth of households, so a further rise in the GST would see this figure jump to 20%. Households in the top 20% would experience a much softer impact where this currently sits at 5.9% and after an increase the new figure would come in at around 8.8%.
For obvious reasons this analysis is going to make the sales pitch for an increase in GST all the much harder when Australians go to the polls around this time next year. Banking economist Saul Eslake announced this week that “Australia’s home ownership rate is actually the lowest it’s been since 1954.” So to fix this, negative gearing will come under much greater scrutiny as established home prices continue to rise. Let’s face it – Australia’s entire tax system is a mess, broken and in urgent need of major surgery.
The Turnbull government will need to also look at the benefits of allowing 100% of new developments to be sold off shore – up until December 2008, the previous restriction was 50%. Two of the big ticket items in the “rivers of gold” are Stamp Duty on residential housing and payroll tax – where we are now seeing clear evidence of what impact these duty/taxes are having on the economy.
If you look at the Mosman house market in 2011/12/13 there were on a weekly basis 75 occasions where there were more than 100 houses on the market. In 2014 the 100 barrier was broken on 14 occasions and in 2015 the market is yet to break 100 where we can all but guarantee Mosman will not break 100 in 2015.
NSW is currently drowning in wage stagnation which highlights why voters will be hard pressed to approve a 5 per cent increase to the GST. Pay roll tax for decades has been referred to as the most insidious tax – so by abolishing pay roll tax employers can then pay their respective staff more which then improves wage stagnation.
No doubt there will be many other opinions as to what is required to finally correct Australia’s taxing imbalances. We can rest assured that over the next twelve months we will be thrown many fascinating and troublesome alternatives for deliberation.
The Turnbull government should also be looking at the overall effect of simply removing the middle – tier of government given the duplication of departments that exist in both state and territories and Canberra. Maybe the time has arrived to simply remove the state and territory governments and thus broaden the responsibilities of the local governments.
Maybe the NSW government has identified that it’s vulnerable so it is moving quickly to amalgamate the councils and then alleviate any such scrutiny?
Whatever happens the next twelve months will unveil debates that we Australians have never before witnessed given the magnitude of this long overdue assignment.
Australia’s Prime Minister is more than capable of handling the task ahead – the people aren’t the problem it’s the politicians who have created this. The time has arrived to set an example once and for all – Australia’s road map for tax reforms has finally been given a new engine and a set of wheels.
Just don’t crash it PM.
<h5>MOSMAN – 2088</h5>
• Number of houses on the market this time last year – 105
• Number of houses on the market last week – 64
• Number of houses on the market this week – 75
• Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 76
• Number of apartments on the market last week – 63
• Number of apartments on the market this week – 60
<h5>CREMORNE – 2090</h5>
• Number of houses on the market this time last year – 17
• Number of houses on the market last week – 14
• Number of houses on the market this week – 12
• Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 41
• Number of apartments on the market last week – 16
• Number of apartments on the market this week – 17
<h5>NEUTRAL BAY – 2089</h5>
• Number of houses on the market this time last year – 10
• Number of houses on the market last week – 8
•Number of houses on the market this week – 6
• Number of apartments on the market this time last year– 42
• Number of apartments on the market last week – 31
*Number of apartments on the market this week – 30
 ROBERT SIMEON is a director of <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/" target="_blank" title="RWM" rel="nofollow">Richardson Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay</a> and has been selling residential real estate in Sydney since 1985.  He has also been writing real estate blog <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/news/" target="_blank" title="Virtual Realty News" rel="nofollow">Virtual Realty News</a> since 2000. 
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Australia’s greatest ever sales pitch? Robert Simeon

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I’ve always liked the saying “It isn’t difficult to make a mountain out of a molehill – just add dirt.”
The focus on clearance rates by some commentators is plain ridiculous especially when they insert the word “Sydney” into the clearance rate debate.
As we all know Sydney is made up of some 700 suburbs – where some are still performing above expectations and some are caught in a downward spiral. This is not an historic first as we have seen this pattern on many occasions previously with the areas of western Sydney, north – west Sydney, Canterbury Bankstown and surrounding areas the hardest hit.
These areas coincidentally have been the engine room for the Sydney property boom so they were always going to break – down. This is not a collapse rather a correction.
If you take the areas within a 5 to 10 kilometre radius of the Sydney CBD they are still performing with gusto<a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/news/" target="_blank">.</a> Although it should also be noted that quite a few properties are withdrawn from public auction which go unreported. Properties that are passed in and sold an hour or two later are reported as sold – at – auction.
When I do a Domain search for properties in Greater Sydney that are on the market I see all up there are presently 12,922 properties, which isn’t a lot on the grand scale of things. The estimated Sydney population in 2015 is 4,840,000. What is interesting is that approximately one – third of these properties would be set down for public auction. So why the focus on clearance rates?
What I find even more interesting is why all the properties are bundled together? Well that’s easy to explain as most of the commentators are connected to some media organisations in some shape or form. If they were to list areas where clearance rates are identifying a nose – dive then nobody would advertise in those local newspapers, so it’s commentary by self-preservation.
Yes the call for concern is well justified with Sydney posting an annual growth of 12.8% and Melbourne even higher at 15.6%. To put this into some sort of perspective Auckland is presently running away at 27% annual capital growth – which is scary.
There are two game – breakers in property markets; interest rates and unemployment. The Australian Bureau of Statistics have just released its labour force survey for October which recorded that the seasonally – adjusted unemployment rate fell to 5.9%, down 0.3 points from September. We live in a funny society where some sections were desperately hoping that the unemployment figure would rise.
Now the interest rate scenario is even more interesting as we need to take into account that the Sydney property market has experienced a massive change to its normal landscape. We need to factor in the new significant buyer – investors. They have been driving the markets to levels never seen before, so we need to pay particular attention to yields.
Sydney 12 months ago was recording 3.7 per cent, today it has dropped back to 3.3%. Melbourne 12 months ago was 3.3%, today it is 3.0%. Brisbane 12 months ago was 4.5%, today it’s 4.4%. Adelaide has seen no change and sits at 4.2% and Perth has gone from 4.1% to 4.0%. (Source: Core Logic RP Data)
From these figures the two biggest investor markets, Sydney and Melbourne, are not surprisingly recording the highest downward corrections. Yields in 2016 will command special interest especially in the Sydney and Melbourne property markets. The cash rate debate is anyone’s guess where if the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to cut the cash rate there are absolutely no guarantees that the banks will pass that cut on after their last decision to increase interest rates.
Yes I have no doubt that we will see some interesting corrections in 2016 where I predict the areas that have experienced massive infrastructure expenditure to suffer the most. This is not anything new as it’s happened plenty of times previously, although some areas of Sydney have not seen any infrastructure expenditure in over fifty years. Take the northern beaches for example where their last significant expenditure was that dumb Spit Bridge in 1959.
If one was to sit back and collate all the stamp duty paid from Palm Beach to Seaforth over the last 56 years you would come up with a near nil return for infrastructure expenditure. Still the state government insists on thousands and thousands more high density housing developments with no proposals to build new transport plans aside from double – decker buses.
Maybe stamp duty rates should be determined by infrastructure expenditure within a particular region?
<h4>MOSMAN – 2088</h4>
• Number of houses on the market this time last year – 114
• Number of houses on the market last week – 75
• Number of houses on the market this week – 74
• Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 76
• Number of apartments on the market last week – 60
• Number of apartments on the market this week – 61
<h4>CREMORNE – 2090</h4>
• Number of houses on the market this time last year – 13
• Number of houses on the market last week – 12
• Number of houses on the market this week – 13
• Number of apartments on the market this time last year – 36
• Number of apartments on the market last week – 17
• Number of apartments on the market this week – 16
<h4>NEUTRAL BAY – 2089</h4>
• Number of houses on the market this time last year – 10
• Number of houses on the market last week – 6
•Number of houses on the market this week – 5
• Number of apartments on the market this time last year– 34
• Number of apartments on the market last week – 30
*Number of apartments on the market this week – 36
 
 ROBERT SIMEON is a director of <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/" target="_blank" title="RWM" rel="nofollow">Richardson Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay</a> and has been selling residential real estate in Sydney since 1985.  He has also been writing real estate blog <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/news/" target="_blank" title="Virtual Realty News" rel="nofollow">Virtual Realty News</a> since 2000. 
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Why clearance rates aren’t clear: Robert Simeon

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Yes, those two words that keep trending every day on the 24-hour news cycle for 365 days each year – housing affordability.
So why can’t anyone come up with a logical explanation on how to fix this ever-growing Australian curse? Well first, nobody is really drilling down to find the precise definition and what will lead to the likely cure and allow me to tell you that massive new high density construction in the major cities is not going to fix the problem.
Sydney is a prime example although first we need to pin point a year when housing affordability really started to change for the worse and for me that year would be 1990 which is when the Australian economy embarked on its unprecedented 25 years of economic growth.
Yes house prices boomed in 1987 to 1989 which really was Sydney’s last massive housing boom which then was brought crashing down with the recession of the early 1990’s. In the late 1980’s our population was not really going anywhere, for example in Mosman in 1987 Cremorne Girls’ High School closed its doors to then see it acquired by SCEGGS Redlands.
In 1989, Balmoral Beach Infants’ School was closed and mysteriously sold to Queenwood Girls’ School the night before the site was due to go to public tender. Beauty Point Public School, Middle Harbour Primary School, Mosman Primary School and Mosman High School all were facing closure as attendance records were well below the Department of Education acceptable levels for operation requirements.
Today, all these schools are at maximum attendance levels. The closure of schools over this period was happening all over NSW – it was not an isolated event.
Back then property prices in Mosman were ten to fifteen times lower than where they find themselves today. The cash rate was sitting at 17.00 to 17.50 per cent on 23 January 1990 where today it sits at 1.50 per cent.
 
The “Baby Boomers” born the decade after World War II (now roughly aged 47 – 65) were all jumping into that family tradition of buying real estate. The problem here is that the strong concentration of the boomers all wanted to live in the Sydney CBD – which remains the same patterns that we see today. The missing link here in this housing affordability discussion is that transport infrastructure was frozen to the extent that 25 years later despite a massive upswing in our population we are still using the same archaic transport infrastructure.
For the past 25 years, our elected politicians have all been caught up in a transport infrastructure brain freeze where sadly today there is no big picture for Sydney, although we could name an abundance of other major cities around the world who have successfully addressed growing populations with transport infrastructure.
This explains exactly why we now have raging property prices today, which certainly would not be the case if we had a transport infrastructure where a 200-kilometre radius around Sydney was inter connected with state of the art fast train services. It really should not be that difficult to pinpoint the problem. Although it is very clear why so many have extreme difficulties when attempting to define housing affordability and what needs to be done to correct these huge problems facing so many Australians.
Exorbitant stamp duties payable on the purchases of properties have played a major role in seeing record low stock levels across Sydney, although there is another part of this mystery puzzle that keeps sailing under our property radars. Look again at the baby boomers who would be Australia’s largest property owners in the home ownership and investment portfolios. They are astute businesspeople who know that they will not get any returns with cash sitting in the bank where we now have the lowest cash rate on record. In recent years, they have been enjoying huge capital gains on their principle place of residence, so they have held – off selling for most obvious reasons.
This in turn has significantly impacted the supply side of the equation where such collaborative actions have driven prices higher, and in all probability this will continue in 2017. Although having said that all eyes will be on Trump, Brexit and how Europe reacts together with the goings – on in China and Russia. Of course, we can’t ignore this week’s unemployment rate which hit 5.8 per cent being the worst calendar year result since 2013.
It is hard to see the Reserve Bank of Australia lowering the cash rate further from the present 1.50 per cent so it would be fair to suggest that we are at the lowest possible rates.
So, in 2017, I will be closely watching the baby boomers simply because at the first sight of severe head – winds they will be first to cash – up which in turn would see stock levels increase significantly. In the meantime, we just sit back and observe the property market machinations with great interest.
Next week, NSW will appoint its seventh premier in 12 years – what does that tell you? No doubt the allergy to economic reform will remain in isolation.
ROBERT SIMEON is a director of <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/" target="_blank" title="RWM" rel="nofollow">Richardson Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay</a> and has been selling residential real estate in Sydney since 1985. 
He has also been writing real estate blog <a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/news/" target="_blank" title="Virtual Realty News" rel="nofollow">Virtual Realty News</a> since 2000.
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Housing affordability and the ever-growing Australian curse: Robert Simeon

Perth’s new apartment market recorded its strongest quarter of sales since Q4 2021, with 412 apartments sold in Q1 2026 and a record quarterly sold value of $537 million, according to Urbis’ latest Apartment Essentials results.

Urbis said the March quarter result reflects strong, highly product‑specific demand across both ends of the market, from more attainable projects delivering at scale, through to premium stock being absorbed by equity‑rich downsizers.&nbsp;

David Cresp, Partner at Urbis, said the key story in Perth is not demand, it is the market’s ability to convert demand into delivered housing.&nbsp;

“This is the strongest sales quarter since Q4 2021, and it reinforces that demand in Perth is real and it’s local,” David Cresp said. “But the task now is delivery, turning that demand into projects that can actually be built and completed.”&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=110291 project_image_fid=302785]

<h2>Affordable product leads, premium demand remains resilient</h2>

Sales in Q1 were led by more affordable projects, with The Boulevard (SKS Group) recording 115 sales in the quarter, the presentation noting this is only the second time a single project has surpassed 100 quarterly sales. The project was able to offer more affordable housing product right next to a train station.&nbsp;

Palmyra West (Finbar) also delivered strong results with 28 sales in Q1, following 84 sales in Q4, with an average price of under $800,000, underscoring depth of demand for well‑located, attainable new stock.&nbsp;

At the premium end, Urbis said downsizer demand is continuing, with the results highlighting Romeo (Applecross, Finbar) recording 75 sales and reaching almost 50% sold in one quarter.

Jual (Shenton Park, Celsius Property) also posted a strong quarter with 28 sales, reaching 39% sold in one quarter.

Urbis noted that Perth apartment demand is not speculative, not investor‑led, and not uniform, describing it as localised, often equity‑driven and highly product‑specific, a pattern reflected in the polarisation between strong “attainable” performers and premium downsizer product.&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=148957 project_image_fid=364102]

<h2>Prices underpinned by costs, and the delivery risk is growing</h2>

Urbis said pricing pressure is cost not demand‑driven: construction costs and delivery risk are now a central constraint, with the results noting build costs remain elevated and volatile, and that energy, fuel and labour uncertainty weigh on feasibility.

David Cresp said a growing challenge for private Build‑to‑Sell developers is simply securing a builder in the current environment.

“Developers are really feeling the pressure from a building market that was operating at capacity and securing a builder is challenging,” David Cresp said, adding that even where a builder can be secured, “trying to get to the price that makes the development financially viable is incredibly challenging in the current market.”&nbsp;

Urbis’ broader WA commentary also notes that industry remains at or above capacity with lot and housing creation, and that many builders are limiting new sales to manage stretched workforces and fixed‑price contract pressures, conditions that flow directly into apartment feasibility and delivery timing.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=108869 project_image_fid=317905]

<h2>Supply: improving later, but still constrained, and Perth lags eastern benchmarks</h2>

While near‑term supply remains constrained, Urbis’ forecast shows completions lifting “Supply is forecast to be back above 1,500 apartments per annum for the first time since 2019”, with 1,775 completions forecast for 2026, and volumes remaining above that level over the following years.&nbsp;

Looking further ahead, completions are forecast to reach 2,500 in 2028, with the report noting 32% of that total is social/affordable, reflecting the role of government‑supported delivery in rebuilding the pipeline.&nbsp;

However, Urbis said Perth remains behind comparable markets on pipeline scale. In a national comparison of projects under construction, the report shows under construction Perth Build‑to‑Sell (BTS) at 3,446 apartments versus the Gold Coast at 7,922. Mr Cresp said “The challenge for Perth is how to we grow the delivery pipeline”.

Urbis’ conclusion is that Perth’s market is increasingly defined by product discipline and delivery certainty, with the research identifying “delivery certainty is key” and calling out builder risk and procurement models as core success factors, alongside “timing and staging”.&nbsp;

Joel Robinson

Perth apartment sales hit strongest pace since late 2021 as builder capacity tightens

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/sammut-developments">Sammut Group</a> has secured development approval for its latest Brisbane apartment project, marking the Sydney developer’s next step in expanding its Queensland pipeline following the success of its debut Gold Coast development, Coast.

The approved project at <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/44-glen-road-toowong-qld-4066">44 Glen Road, </a><a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/toowong-qld-4066">Toowong</a> will deliver a 15-storey riverfront apartment building with 42 residences, significantly increasing the scale of the site’s previous approval for a smaller luxury scheme. Designed by Bureau^proberts, the development will comprise a mix of predominantly four-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments positioned to maximise Brisbane River and city views.

Sammut Director Julian Sammut said the group had been actively searching Brisbane for several years before identifying Toowong as the right fit.

“Brisbane was the right step for Sammut,” Sammut said.

“With the success of Coast we thought we should definitely look to do more in Queensland alone. We then pushed up to look at Brisbane. We've been looking for I'd say two to three years actually and it was hard to find the right location.”

<img alt="Sammut makes Brisbane apartment play" data-entity-type="" data-entity-uuid="" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/f_auto,c_limit,w_1440,q_75/https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/field/image/Screenshot%202025-12-23%20at%203.27.14%E2%80%AFPM.png?VersionId=dYAVIL7qdcGA8ojvkslSrLjczXFejSSx" />

Sammut said suburbs including New Farm and Teneriffe were considered before the group ultimately focused on Toowong due to its strong downsizer demographic and limited supply of developable riverfront land.

The site was acquired off-market after what Sammut described as a lengthy negotiation and planning process, with the developer pursuing an uplift to the original approval.

“We are DA approved now which is very exciting,” Sammut said.

“We've had our change approval come through and we've obviously doubled the height, 15 storeys plus rooftop. We've got 42 amazing apartments that are going to be coming to market soon.”

<img alt="Sammut makes Brisbane apartment play" data-entity-type="" data-entity-uuid="" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,dpr_2.0,q_auto:good/https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-12-23%20at%203.27.26%E2%80%AFPM.png?VersionId=ohkRkY0dIZlqdfME2EZePsCQavRiBadE" />

Bureau^proberts said the design responds to Toowong’s evolving urban character, balancing contemporary apartment living with the area’s established residential identity.

“A place where traditional Queensland living has taken place for centuries; Toowong is seeing a shift of contemporary influence, commercial and retail hubs mixed with well-considered residential offerings – all the while maintaining its character and charm,” the architect noted in planning documents submitted to Brisbane City Council.

The architecture practice said the project’s form was shaped by its riverfront setting, flood considerations, neighbouring building scales, and view corridors.

“They said the mix of four and two-bedroom apartments capture the ‘fundamental qualities of Queenslander living,’ translated into the context of a contemporary subtropical building.”

The development sits just off Coronation Drive within walking distance of Toowong’s retail precinct and the upgraded Regatta ferry terminal, while also benefiting from proximity to the incoming green bridge connection to West End. Sammut said the accessibility and amenity offering were central to the site’s appeal.

The approval adds to growing residential activity along the Toowong riverfront, joining nearby projects including Consolidated Properties’ Monarch Residences and Spyre Group’s ARC Residences.

Sammut secures approval for debut Brisbane apartment development in Toowong

Developer Lanevick is heading back into Sydney’s apartment market after focusing more heavily on the luxury townhouse and terrace sector in recent years.

Lanevick, founded and directed by Steve Maroun, is expecting to receive approval in the coming months for a new apartment development in Gladesville, with the aim to launch it to the market later this year.

The 51-apartment project, designed by Studio Johnston, will comprise a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments positioned toward the Hunters Hill downsizer market.

“Traditionally it’s been difficult for people in that market to downsize because there just hasn’t been the right product available,” Maroun said.

“We’re targeting buyers who might have 30 to 40 per cent of their house value sitting in the bank after downsizing.

“They still want good spacious entertaining areas, they still want quality design, but they also want flexibility and the ability to enjoy life a bit more after working hard for a long time.”

The project sits near Boronia Park and within close proximity to the Parramatta River foreshore, an area Maroun says offers more of a Hunters Hill lifestyle than a traditional apartment precinct.

“From a lifestyle perspective, it’s really more Hunters Hill than Gladesville,” Maroun said. “You’re close to the foreshore, close to parklands, and still connected back into the village precinct.”

From level four and above, apartments will capture water views&nbsp;toward Sydney Harbour. Communal amenity will include rooftop entertaining areas, wellness spaces, and a gym tailored toward owner-occupier buyers.

“We’ve really designed these apartments around that buyer coming from the Hunters Hill LGA and what they’re actually looking for in their next chapter.”

The proposed development has also been designed to respond to the changing character of the broader Gladesville town centre, where a growing number of mixed-use and residential proposals are expected to emerge over the coming years.

“Gladesville presented a rare opportunity to deliver a genuinely design-led residential project within an evolving lifestyle precinct, just moments from the growing Gladesville town centre, and we’ve approached the project with a strong focus on architecture, liveability and long-term community value,” Maroun said.

Maroun said Lanevick saw a first-mover advantage within the precinct as planning controls continue to evolve to accommodate greater housing density.

“We think there’s a real opportunity there that hasn’t really been serviced properly yet,” he said.

“There’s going to be a broader evolution of the whole Gladesville village precinct over time, particularly with more activation and mixed-use outcomes.”

The Venus Street proposal will include a commercial and retail component at ground level designed to contribute to that evolving streetscape activation.

“A big part of the thinking was how do you activate that area properly and create more vibrancy and amenity, which is what Hunters Hill has been looking for,” Maroun said.

Lanevick’s focus since 2020 has largely been on smaller-scale luxury townhouse and terrace developments. The developer recently completed Royale Randwick, also designed by Studio Johnston, where prices reached $3.65 million. The project was featured in the UDIA NSW 2026 Professional Development Prospectus and was also named a finalist for Development of the Year.

&nbsp;

Lanevick to cater for Hunters Hill downsizers with new Gladesville apartment development

Property developer One Living, backed by former Macquarie banker turned investment manager Chris Green’s investment firm, has unveiled plans to bring more institutional capital into housing to help address the national supply crisis.

The New York-based investor has focused his firm, GreenPoint Partners, on addressing the supply shortage hitting middle market housing in Australia.

It is backing the new One Living business to develop more than 1000 units along the eastern seaboard. The new firm is starting with a development on Mona Vale Road, on the border of Mona Vale and Pymble, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, with around 140 apartments planned. They are eyeing off more sites across the city.

With cost pressures rising in the industry, One Living’s model is to be a vertically integrated developer-builder, so it can respond directly to the housing gap by removing the cost inefficiencies embedded in traditional residential delivery.

“We are building a platform designed to operate at scale and starting in a market where there’s a clear need for quality, attainable housing,” One Living joint managing director Joseph Scuderi said.

“It’s that missing middle – it’s that attainable end of housing… that’s what most Australians invest into and what Australians can actually afford.”

<img alt="Mona Vale" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="798dfa93-4941-4db6-a696-31e9dc18e81c" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-05-28%20at%202.31.50%E2%80%AFPM.png?VersionId=mKBqi5C_DmeiXS.AtJkcR8LQIxqCqmFi" />

GreenPoint Partners brings years of experience assembling and scaling real estate operating businesses across major markets. And Green sees a big opportunity in Australia.

“For its size, sophistication and importance to the community, Australia’s living sector has remained largely under-institutionalised, which represents significant opportunity,” Green said. “GreenPoint identified that gap, assembled the right team, and is backing One Living to build a platform that is aligned to market needs.”

Green said being a builder-developer would give the company the capacity and flexibility it required to deliver reasonably-priced homes.

“We want it to be at that attainable level; not super high end luxury but at that attainable level,” he said.

<img alt="Mona Vale" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="74a5344a-4b26-4d4a-ada3-056b1220be77" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-05-28%20at%202.32.15%E2%80%AFPM.png?VersionId=vY8hXHO4reBMdO8ZXMWCNtGZJofUPQ3j" />

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One Living will undertake a component of affordable housing in its schemes, which it will own and operate, and it could also run build-to-rent on some sites.

Green praised local policy settings.

“The NSW government is being very supportive, strategic and pragmatic in terms of how do we generate more supply of housing,” he said. “We think it’s actually positive for development and the bit that’s been lacking at that attainable level is that it’s lots of relatively small private developers, whereas we want to create an institutional platform.”

One Living is also&nbsp;looking at high-density projects and could take on more institutional funding in the future.

“The way we will be able to achieve economies of scale is through size,” Green added.

One Living enters Sydney's new apartment market with Northern Beaches site acquisition

It's been several years since there's been an opportunity to buy a brand new townhome in Melbourne's coastal suburb of Mordialloc. Even apartment developments in recent times have been few and far between in the area.

Local developer LDS Property identified the gap in new housing, securing a site on White Street, directly opposite&nbsp;Woodlands Golf Club Mordialloc. They've recently launched&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-townhouses/wm-residences-mordialloc-102-white-street-mordialloc-vic-3195">WM Residences</a>, just 13 townhouses which they have already started building.

Projects by Buxton Director Heath Thompson, who is selling WM Residences, says the townhouses x that perfect middle ground be

"Mordialloc residents have had limited options to downsize within the suburb, often forcing them to look elsewhere despite long-standing ties to the area," Thompson says.

"With very little comparable new supply coming to market, projects like WM Residences are well placed, particularly as buyers look to capitalise on current conditions amid constrained supply."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=134646 project_image_fid=6109]

The development, designed by regarded architecture firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/ewert-leaf">Ewert Leaf</a>,&nbsp;adopts a deliberately restrained architectural approach, focusing on simplicity, durability and liveability rather than overt design gestures.

The boutique scale is central to the offering. With only 13 three-bedroom residences, each home is configured to prioritise functional layouts and everyday use, supported by private terraces and secure two-car garages.

Ewert Leaf’s design response leans into a calm, neutral material palette. Interiors are defined by oak flooring, white walls and soft finishes, creating a consistent and understated backdrop. The approach avoids trend-driven detailing in favour of longevity, with an emphasis on natural light and spatial clarity.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=134646 project_image_fid=6110]

Beyond aesthetics, the homes are designed to meet contemporary performance expectations. Each residence targets a minimum 6-star energy rating, incorporating double glazing, comprehensive insulation and all-electric Bosch appliances.

The project’s location supports a walkable coastal lifestyle, sitting within close proximity to Mordialloc’s foreshore, Main Street retail strip and the train station. Local cafés and dining venues, including Suburbia Deli and Hendriks Café, are within a short walk, reinforcing the area’s established neighbourhood character.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=134646 project_image_fid=6116]

While <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/mordialloc-vic-3195">Mordialloc</a> is often defined by its beach and pier, the project taps into other areas of day to day living, offering easy access to local food, casual dining and transport, rather than positioning itself purely as a lifestyle retreat.

WM Residences reflects a continued trend across Melbourne’s coastal suburbs towards smaller-scale, design-led townhouse developments, particularly on infill sites where proximity to amenity is already established.

With construction commenced prior to its market entry, the project aligns with a growing preference among buyers for developments with visible progress and defined delivery timeframes.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=134646]

Robert Simeon

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