The Gold Coast economy has grown by 25 per cent since 2020/21 to surpass $55 billion, but perhaps the more significant story is what sits behind the headline number.

For decades, the Gold Coast has been viewed through the lens of tourism, lifestyle and population growth. The latest State of the City Report suggests that perception is increasingly out of step with reality.

Released by Invest Gold Coast, the report ranks the Gold Coast as Australia's largest non-capital city economy and, perhaps more notably, second nationally behind Sydney for Economic Complexity, a measure that assesses the diversity and sophistication of an economy.

It's a result that places the Gold Coast ahead of Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, highlighting the extent to which the city's economic base has broadened beyond its traditional industries.

Today, the Gold Coast supports more than 350,000 jobs, is home to over 83,000 businesses and generates $19 billion in annual exports. Manufacturing now accounts for 62 per cent of international export growth, while sectors including health, education, advanced manufacturing, technology and professional services are becoming increasingly important contributors to the local economy.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150017 project_image_fid=372547]

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said the report confirmed the city's evolution into one of Australia's most significant economies.

"The Gold Coast economy continues to grow at an incredible pace. This is no surprise to those of us who have watched the evolution up close," Mayor Tate said.

"As one of the most entrepreneurial, investment driven and opportunity focused economies in the country our ambition has been realised and possibilities are endless.

"The Gold Coast has built a reputation as the city that says yes. We say yes to investment, yes to opportunity and yes to people who want to build something.

"It's this mindset helping us drive major growth across health, advanced manufacturing, screen production, marine, technology and the knowledge economy."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=149670 project_image_fid=360975]

While population growth has been one of the defining stories of the past decade, the report points to a broader economic transformation taking place.

The city's knowledge economy now contributes $7.9 billion annually and supports around 31,000 jobs, while the health and wellbeing sector contributes $5.2 billion and employs more than 42,000 people. Together, the six priority sectors identified in the report account for almost $24 billion in economic output and more than 145,000 jobs.

One of the strongest examples is the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct at Southport. The 200-hectare precinct now contains more than $5 billion worth of health, education, research and innovation infrastructure and supports over 16,000 jobs.

The report also highlights the growing role of advanced manufacturing, particularly in aerospace, defence and modular construction.

Gold Coast-based Gilmour Space Technologies recently became the first Australian commercial company to attempt an orbital launch, while companies including Modscape and ModnPods are helping establish the Yatala-Stapylton corridor as one of Australia's fastest-growing advanced manufacturing hubs.

The city's entrepreneurial culture is also translating into business growth.

Since 2019/20, the number of businesses operating on the Gold Coast has increased by 22 per cent, while firms employing more than 200 people have grown by 80 per cent. The report suggests the next challenge is converting more local start-ups and medium-sized businesses into nationally significant companies.

Development activity remains another key indicator of confidence.

There are currently more than $23 billion worth of major projects underway across the Gold Coast, supported by a record 75 active cranes, a figure that now exceeds Brisbane and represents a 150 per cent increase since 2016.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112024 project_image_fid=343235]

Importantly, the report notes the next phase of investment will need to extend beyond residential development.

While 93 per cent of crane activity is currently tied to housing, Invest Gold Coast argues future investment will increasingly need to focus on cultural, civic, infrastructure and industry-enabling projects that strengthen the city's long-term economic resilience.

Invest Gold Coast Chair Will Hodgman said the city was now benefiting from years of economic diversification.

"What is happening on the Gold Coast is the result of the city's economic base broadening, fuelled by industries with long-term, high-growth potential," Mr Hodgman said.

"This is no longer a secondary Australian economy, the Gold Coast is becoming a globally connected city with deeper capability across health, knowledge and creative industries, advanced manufacturing, technology and exports."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=108274 project_image_fid=365786]

Looking ahead, the Gold Coast's population is projected to exceed one million residents by 2046.

For a city that was once largely defined by tourism and lifestyle, the latest figures suggest the Gold Coast is becoming something more significant, one of Australia's most diverse and economically sophisticated urban economies, and increasingly one that national and international investors can no longer afford to overlook.

Joel Robinson

75 cranes, $23 billion pipeline and a $55 billion economy: Inside the Gold Coast economic boom

Ron Bakir's Homecorp has sold more than 75 per cent of the apartments in its wellness-driven Florence Residences in Surfers Paradise following its first weekend release.

The <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/florence-residences-24-monte-carlo-avenue-surfers-paradise-qld-4217">26-storey project on Monte Carlo Avenue</a>, which commenced construction earlier this year, has seen a flurry of buyers secure their slice of the Gold Coast's latest wellbeing-focused offering in one of the nation's most competitive property markets.

Since the pandemic, the Gold Coast's population has grown by more than 11 per cent, a rate approximately four times faster than Sydney's, driven largely by lifestyle changes and interstate migration. While buyer activity has moderated in some markets nationally, demand for newly built dwellings on the Gold Coast continues to gain momentum as purchasers increasingly prioritise lifestyle, amenity, wellbeing, liveability and long-term investment potential.

&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150414 project_image_fid=372743]

Homecorp CEO Ron Bakir says buyers today are looking for more than just a home.

"What we are seeing is a shift in how people define value in property," Bakir says.

"What attracts residents to new developments is a desire for more than just a residence. They are looking for a place that complements their lifestyle, supports their wellbeing and reflects the way they want to live into the future.

"Lifestyle, longevity, proactive health, wellbeing, connection and a sense of community are increasingly shaping purchasing decisions, particularly on the Gold Coast, where these factors continue to be a major drawcard."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150414 project_image_fid=372744]

Bakir says Homecorp is responding to this shift through an approach that places greater emphasis on design, amenity and experience working together to create places that feel considered, connected and enduring in value.

Inspired by Eastern European design, Florence Residences will comprise 120 apartments alongside a private residents-only wellness club featuring a resort-style rooftop pool, hot and cold plunge pools, a spa retreat, contemporary gymnasium, and a spacious yoga and Pilates studio.

The development will also feature a residents-only lounge with private dining facilities and a rooftop bar, premium outdoor entertaining areas, a hotel-style lobby lounge, generous bike parking, and pet-friendly amenities including a heated dog wash.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150414 project_image_fid=372742]

A limited number of apartments remain available, with an exclusive collection of four-bedroom sub-penthouses set to be released in the coming months.

Florence is one of the latest additions to Homecorp's expanding multi-billion-dollar property portfolio, which also includes plans for a <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/news/qld/homecorp-lodges-plans-for-260-million-moroccan-bathhouse-inspired-tower-in-budds-beach">$260 million development in Budds Beach</a> tailored to the growing wellness market.

A development application has been lodged for a 27-storey, 156-residence tower at 8–10 Acacia Avenue and 25–27 Oak Avenue, featuring a residents-only Moroccan spa-inspired sanctuary.

Apartments at Florence Residences are priced from $1,249,000, with construction expected to be completed by late 2027.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=150414]

Buyers rush to Homecorp's Florence Residences as Gold Coast wellness trend gains momentum

The NSW Government has expanded its $1 billion Pre-sale Finance Guarantee program, broadening access for affordable housing providers and smaller residential developments as it seeks to accelerate housing delivery across the state.

The Minns Government says the program has already helped bring forward more than 600 homes across Sydney and regional NSW since launching in September 2025, with similar models now adopted in South Australia and Western Australia.

The latest changes, announced by Treasurer Daniel Mookhey and Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully, are designed to improve access to finance for projects that have planning approval but are struggling to secure funding.

Among the key changes is an expansion of support for community housing providers. The program will now support up to 100 per cent affordable housing projects valued at up to $30 million when delivered by not-for-profit providers, while support for larger affordable housing developments will increase for projects worth up to $80 million.

The government says the changes will help accelerate the delivery of housing for low-income workers, older people, people living with disability, and those at risk of homelessness, while reducing reliance on direct grants or subsidised loans to bridge funding gaps.

The eligibility criteria for smaller residential developments have also been broadened. The previous $5 million minimum project value threshold has been removed and replaced with a requirement that projects deliver at least four homes.

Support has also increased for projects delivering fewer than 20 homes, with the guarantee now able to cover up to 75 per cent of dwellings in a development, capped at $30 million per project.

The changes are expected to particularly benefit smaller-scale and regional developments, which often face greater challenges meeting pre-sale requirements imposed by lenders.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said the scheme demonstrates how government can use its balance sheet to stimulate housing supply without relying solely on taxpayer-funded grants.

"The Pre-sale Finance Guarantee shows how this Government is using its balance sheet to reduce risk and unlock private investment, enabling new homes to move from design to construction faster," Mookhey said.

"This landmark reform allows us to deliver homes for working families at a lower cost to taxpayers, while also maintaining strong financial discipline."

Planning Minister Paul Scully said the program had already proven effective in bringing stalled projects to market.

"The Pre-sale Finance Guarantee has already proven it can unlock stalled projects and accelerate housing delivery by giving lenders the confidence they need to back good developments," Scully said.

"These changes will allow more affordable housing and smaller developments to access support so more homes can be built faster where communities need them most."

Housing Minister Rose Jackson said the expansion would help community housing providers overcome financing barriers that often delay projects.

"We know community housing providers are ready to build more homes, too often they're held back by barriers to finance," Jackson said.

"Expanding the Pre-sale Finance Guarantee helps remove those barriers so more affordable homes can get off the ground sooner."

The announcement was welcomed by the Property Council of Australia, which has long advocated for measures aimed at improving project feasibility and access to finance.

Property Council NSW Executive Director Katie Stevenson described the expansion as a practical intervention that addresses one of the most immediate constraints on housing delivery.

"This is exactly the kind of practical intervention we need right now, focused on getting projects out of the ground, not just approved," Stevenson said.

"It builds on a model the Property Council has worked closely with government to develop following calls for such a scheme ahead of last year's NSW Budget, so it's great to see it being expanded."

Stevenson said the reforms would help unlock projects that are ready to proceed but have been delayed by financing challenges. However, she noted that broader feasibility issues remain a significant barrier to increasing housing supply.

"The biggest challenge in NSW housing today is delivery. Too many projects have planning approval but are simply not financially viable to proceed under current settings," she said.

Speaking at the Property Council's NSW Housing Summit, Housing Minister Rose Jackson acknowledged that feasibility and financing pressures continue to constrain housing delivery, while reaffirming the government's commitment to work with industry on solutions.

Stevenson said the government's recognition of those challenges was encouraging ahead of next week's state budget.

"It's positive to see the government clearly recognising that feasibility pressures are now a binding constraint on supply," she said.

"With the Budget just days away, the focus must be on backing delivery, making sure projects stack up, finance can flow, and more homes can move from approval to construction."

The expanded Pre-sale Finance Guarantee forms part of the NSW Government's broader housing agenda, which also includes planning reforms, the NSW Housing Pattern Book, and a series of rezonings intended to increase housing capacity across the state.

NSW expands Pre-sale Finance Guarantee to unlock more affordable and regional housing

Design-led developer-builder Lowe Living has unveiled its latest residential development, Jardin House, marking its first foray into Melbourne's blue-chip City of Boroondara.

Located a short walk from Camberwell Junction, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/jardin-house-by-lowe-living-camberwell-335-camberwell-road-camberwell-vic-3124">Jardin House</a> has been designed to appeal to affluent local downsizers and established families seeking a low-maintenance alternative to the large homes that have long defined Camberwell and surrounding suburbs.

The project will comprise a collection of two and three-bedroom apartments ranging from 92 sqm to 280 sqm, alongside a limited number of penthouse residences featuring rooftop terraces spanning more than 100 sqm, with optional private pools.

&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=146717 project_image_fid=372212]

Lowe Living Co-Founder and Managing Director Tim Lowe said Camberwell represented a natural next step for the developer as it expands into some of Melbourne's most tightly held residential markets.

"Jardin House is an important project for our team as it marks the next evolution of our portfolio into different well-established blue-chip pockets of Melbourne," Lowe said.

"Camberwell, with its incredible walkability, family-led neighbourhood feel and superb access to education and transport, makes it a natural choice for us."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=146717 project_image_fid=372227]

Designed by Tristan Wong Architects, with interiors by Hecker Guthrie and landscaping by Acre, the development takes inspiration from the Art Deco architecture that remains a defining feature of many of Camberwell's established streets.

A curved facade, arched openings, textured brickwork and sculpted forms reference the suburb's architectural heritage, while extensive landscaping softens the building's presence and creates a strong connection to the surrounding tree-lined streetscape.

The project will be set behind a secure gated entrance, with residents arriving through landscaped gardens designed to create a transition between the public realm and private residences.

Inside, the residences feature natural stone and timber finishes, full-height glazing, Miele appliances and generous open-plan living areas designed for long-term owner occupation.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=146717 project_image_fid=372225]

While the apartments themselves have been designed to attract discerning owner-occupiers, it is the amenity offering that sets Jardin House apart from many other boutique projects currently launching across Melbourne.

The centrepiece is a 350 sqm private bathhouse curated in partnership with Aurora Spa &amp; Bathhouse founder Lyndall Mitchell.

The wellness precinct includes mineral pools, hydrotherapy experiences, a Himalayan salt room, sauna, steam room, cold plunge pools and dedicated relaxation spaces, creating what Lowe Living describes as a private wellness retreat exclusively for residents.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=146717 project_image_fid=372222]

The collaboration follows Lowe Living's recent partnership with Aurora at Maison Savoy in Brighton, although Jardin House is the first project to incorporate both indoor and outdoor wellness experiences.

Emma Lowe, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Lowe Living, said wellness was becoming an increasingly important consideration for apartment buyers.

"Collaborating with Lyndall Mitchell from Aurora Spa &amp; Bathhouse for a second time is an intentional nod to creating residences that are more than just homes, but a way to enrich the lives of our residents through wellness and longevity," Lowe said.

The amenity offering is complemented by a Technogym fitness studio, residents' lounge, private dining spaces and concierge services.

The launch comes as developers increasingly target Melbourne's established eastern suburbs, where rising land values, ageing housing stock and growing downsizer demand are creating opportunities for boutique apartment projects.

Lowe said the company expects significant generational wealth transfer across suburbs such as Camberwell in coming years, creating further demand for luxury apartment living.

"Camberwell is a blue-chip suburb where homes regularly transact for multiple millions of dollars," he said.

"The generational change of wealth in these locations expected in the coming years is significant, so we see an opportunity to create exclusive residences that appeal to older families and downsizers in order to meet this demand."

Apartments at Jardin house start from $1,195,000. The project forms part of Lowe Living's near-$1 billion portfolio of new developments across Melbourne.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=146717]

Lowe Living launches Jardin House in Camberwell

As <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/north-sydney-nsw-2060">North Sydney</a> continues its transition from a commercial centre into a more layered residential and lifestyle precinct, a new generation of apartment developments is reshaping expectations around scale, amenity, and long-term liveability.

Improved transport connections through the Victoria Cross Metro, continued investment in dining and public spaces, and a constrained supply of new luxury apartments have sharpened demand for homes that combine proximity to the CBD with the privacy and outlook traditionally associated with harbourside houses.

At 177 Walker Street, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/aland">ALAND</a>’s new apartment development <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/the-walden-north-sydney-177-walker-street-north-sydney-nsw-2060">The Walden</a> enters the market with a distinctly residential approach to high-rise living. The 30-level tower will deliver 161 residences, ranging from one-bedroom apartments through to sub-penthouses and a full-floor penthouse, all oriented to capture uninterrupted views across Sydney Harbour, the Opera House, and out toward the Pacific Ocean.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=134323 project_image_fid=6395]

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/rothelowman">Rothelowman</a>, the project takes advantage of the site’s natural topography and elevated position above the harbour. Rather than relying on density alone, the architecture focuses on outlook, orientation, and spatial flow, with every apartment occupying a corner position to maximise natural light and cross ventilation.

Rothelowman says the site itself shaped much of the architectural response.

“The site has a long history in terms of its inevitable transformation and when we came in, we took inspiration from the idea of reestablishing a sense of the site’s natural terrain and fall. Our scheme aims to integrate with the terrain and the landscape, using the undulating site to slowly reveal glimpses and views of the harbour. The rotation of the tower off grid means every apartment has a view and is naturally cross ventilated. The building's colour palette is quintessentially Sydney, with bronze and sandstone and a luminescent green colour in the glass, making it very earthy and grounded in its location.”

[smartcode_project:default project_id=134323 project_image_fid=6399]

Inside the residences, the emphasis moves toward larger-format living typically associated with standalone homes. Kitchens sit at the centre of the apartments, connecting directly to open-plan dining and living areas before extending outward into expansive winter gardens and balconies. Calacatta marble, bespoke joinery, integrated appliances, and custom metal detailing are used throughout, while three distinct interior palettes, Terrace, Opera, and Harbour, allow buyers to personalise the spaces without compromising the architectural consistency of the project.

The larger residences place particular attention on separation between entertaining and private zones. In many apartments, master suites occupy the outer corners of the floorplates, allowing bedrooms to benefit from floor-to-ceiling glazing and harbour outlooks independent of the living spaces. Dressing rooms and ensuites continue the material palette through fluted detailing, freestanding baths, and layered stone finishes.

Rothelowman says the design intent centred on creating homes that feel enduring rather than transient.

“Our philosophy is all about the way people live in these spaces, and we wanted to create homes that reflect the quality of life in this unique Sydney location. The apartments showcase expansive living spaces that are generous, sophisticated, and bold, with the ability to connect with views throughout each apartment.”

[smartcode_project:default project_id=134323 project_image_fid=353235]

A separate four-storey amenity building known as The Pavilion expands the residential offering beyond the apartments themselves. Positioned alongside the tower, the building consolidates wellness, recreation, and social spaces into a dedicated resident retreat. Facilities include a 20-metre rooftop pool and sundeck, sauna, spa, ice bath, wellness studio, gymnasium, concierge service, wine cellar, residents’ lounge, private dining spaces, and dedicated co-working areas with meeting rooms and boardroom facilities.

The amenity mix reflects the buyer profile emerging in North Sydney, where owner-occupiers and downsizers are increasingly prioritising convenience, apartment scale, and long-term usability over purely investment-driven decisions.

The Walden also represents a significant milestone for ALAND, marking the company’s first major move into Sydney’s inner-city luxury apartment market after more than two decades delivering large-scale residential communities across Greater Sydney. Founder Andrew Hrsto says the Walker Street site stood apart because of both its positioning and its rarity.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=134323 project_image_fid=6390]

“As a company, we had been searching for a site in one of Sydney’s blue-chip locations, spanning the Eastern Suburbs, the Sydney CBD and the North Shore, and when we had the opportunity to purchase this site, we immediately recognised that it could be something iconic.”

At launch, The Walden recorded more than $103 million in sales, with buyers drawn to the project’s harbour positioning, apartment scale, and proximity to the Metro, which now connects North Sydney to Barangaroo in three minutes and Martin Place in five.

ALAND has commenced construction, and is expecting a completion date in 2028.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=134323]

The Walden pairs house-scale living with North Sydney connectivity

Sydney’s property market is known for high prices, competitive bidding, and mounting pressure on first home buyers. But change is on the horizon.

From late 2025, eligible first home buyers in New South Wales will have access to a new federal government initiative aimed at addressing affordability: the Help to Buy Scheme.&nbsp;

<h2>What is the Help to Buy Scheme?</h2>

The program introduces a shared equity model intended to reduce the upfront cost of entering the property market, particularly in high-demand urban areas such as Sydney.

The scheme operates under a shared ownership structure in which the federal government takes an equity stake of up to 40 per cent for new homes, or 30 per cent for existing dwellings. This arrangement allows eligible buyers to significantly reduce their loan size and avoid the added cost of Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI).

Under this model, purchasers can enter the property market with as little as a two per cent deposit, well below the traditional 10 to 20 per cent usually required. The government’s contribution is not a loan but a co-ownership stake in the property. As such, there is no interest or rent charged on its portion.

Because the government’s equity combined with the buyer’s deposit typically meets or exceeds the 20 per cent threshold, LMI does not apply. The remaining balance, generally between 60 and 70 per cent of the property’s value, is financed through a standard home loan with a participating lender.

The government's equity in the property remains in place until the buyer chooses to repay it voluntarily or until the property is sold. Buyers can buy back the government’s share over time, in increments of at least five per cent, depending on their financial situation.

There is no fixed repayment timeline, but the amount to be repaid will be based on the property's market value at the time of repayment, not the original purchase price.

<h2>How do you qualify for the&nbsp;Help to Buy Scheme?</h2>

To qualify for the Help to Buy Scheme, applicants must meet the following conditions:

<ul>
	<li>Be an Australian citizen at least 18 years of age.</li>
	<li>Be a first-home buyer who does not currently own property.</li>
	<li>Intend to live in the property as their primary residence.</li>
	<li>Earn less than $100,000 per year for individuals, or $160,000 for couples.</li>
	<li>Purchase a property within the regional price caps, currently $950,000 in Sydney, though this is expected to rise to approximately $1.3 million ahead of the program’s launch.</li>
</ul>

While the Help to Buy Scheme does not solve affordability challenges across the board, it does offer a more accessible pathway for a defined segment of the market, particularly younger buyers with moderate incomes who have been priced out of traditional lending routes.

The scheme is expected to commence in NSW in late 2025, as part of a national rollout.

Under the new model, purchasers can enter the property market with as little as a two per cent deposit, well below the traditional 10 to 20 per cent usually required

Help to Buy Scheme: What first home buyers in NSW need to know

The First Home Owners Grant (FHOG) is a government initiative designed to help eligible first-time home buyers by offering financial assistance towards the purchase or construction of a new home.

While the FHOG is a nationwide program, it is administered separately by each state and territory, meaning the eligibility criteria, grant amounts, and property requirements can vary depending on your location. This means that the amount available and the conditions attached to the grant will differ, so it is important to check the specific guidelines for your state or territory.

It’s important to note that the FHOG is just one of several incentives available to first home buyers. In most states and territories, the grant is not linked to stamp duty exemptions or concessions, with the exception of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The FHOG is typically a one-off payment, reducing the overall cost of purchasing or building a new home before any stamp duty concessions are applied.

Below, we provide a breakdown of the First Home Owner Grants available across Australia, outlining the specific details for each state and territory.

<h2>New South Wales First Home Owner Grant</h2>

First Home Owner Grant: Offers a $10,000 grant for new homes valued up to $600,000. For land purchases and owner-builders, the threshold extends to $750,000.

Stamp Duty Benefits: Provides full stamp duty exemption for homes valued up to $800,000, with concessions available for properties up to $1 million.

<h2>Victoria South Wales First Home Owner Grant</h2>

First Home Owner Grant: Provides a $10,000 grant for first-home buyers purchasing or building new homes valued up to $750,000.

Stamp Duty Benefits: Offers full stamp duty exemption for properties up to $600,000, with concessions available up to $750,000.

<h2>Queensland First Home Owner Grant</h2>

First Home Owner Grant: Offers $30,000 for contracts signed between 20 November 2023 and 30 June 2025. The FHOG applies to new homes valued up to $750,000.

Stamp Duty Concessions: Provides additional concessions for properties valued up to $800,000.

<h2>Western Australia First Home Owner Grant</h2>

&nbsp;

First Home Owner Grant: Offers a $10,000 grant for new homes valued up to $750,000 in the southern regions and up to $1 million in the northern regions.

Stamp Duty Concessions: Available for homes valued up to $600,000 for transactions entered into on or after 9 May 2024.

<h2>Australian Capital Territory First Home Owner Grant</h2>

First Home Owner Grant: Replaced by the Home Buyer Concession Scheme, offering full stamp duty concessions for eligible buyers.

<h2>South Australia First Home Owner Grant</h2>

First Home Owner Grant: Provides up to $15,000 for new homes, including houses, apartments, and townhouses. As of 6 June 2024, there is no property value cap for eligibility.

Stamp Duty Relief: Available for new homes and vacant land purchases.

<h2>Tasmania First Home Owner Grant</h2>

First Home Owner Grant: Offers a $10,000 grant for new homes and off the plan purchases.

Stamp Duty Exemption: Between 18 February 2024 and 30 June 2026, first home buyers of established homes valued up to $750,000 receive a full exemption on property transfer duty.

<h2>Northern Territory First Home Owner Grant</h2>

First Home Owner Grant: The Northern Territory provides a $10,000 grant for new homes only. Additional government grants and concessions are available for first home buyers.

Stamp Duty Exemption: The only stamp duty exemption available to property buyers is the House and Land Package Exemption (HLPE).

Eligibility criteria and application processes differ across states. Prospective buyers should refer to their respective state revenue offices for full details on grant availability, conditions, and additional concessions.

Every First Home Owner Grant for new property by state

In the ever-evolving landscape of sustainable architecture and environmentally conscious design, systems and ratings in place can help determine the energy efficiency of residential buildings in Australia.

Australia has multiple building rating systems that evaluate energy efficiency and sustainability in existing and new building designs.

Some systems assess individual building components, while others provide an overall rating for the entire structure.

A rating system ensures that homes are comfortable and energy-efficient, whether you are buying, renovating, or building.

NatHERS (Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme) is a common way for new homes to meet energy efficiency requirements.

As new developments continue to shape the urban environment, understanding NatHERS ratings becomes essential for developers and homeowners. This article delves into the concept of NatHERS ratings, their significance, and how they contribute to creating energy-efficient homes.

<h2>What is NatHERS?</h2>

NatHERS is a national initiative implemented by the Australian government to promote energy efficiency in residential buildings. The scheme aims to provide a standardised method for assessing the thermal performance of homes, considering factors such as insulation, orientation, ventilation, and building materials.&nbsp;

NatHERS ratings are the most common way new homes meet the National Construction Code's (NCC's) minimum energy efficiency requirements.&nbsp;

NatHERS assessments provide thermal and whole-home ratings for new homes, townhouses, and apartments.

The rating helps evaluate the energy performance of buildings, guides homeowners and developers to make informed decisions about the energy efficiency of their properties, and encourages the construction of more sustainable, comfortable, and cost-effective homes.

<h2>How NatHERS Ratings Work</h2>

NatHERS ratings are determined through four accredited software tools (AccuRate, BERS Pro, FirstRate5, HERO) using a calculation engine CSIRO developed to predict building temperature based on various factors.

The tools can model complex effects of building mass, insulation, window size, and other elements.

The outcome is a star rating that reflects the building's overall thermal efficiency, indicating how well it can maintain a comfortable indoor temperature without excessive reliance on heating or cooling systems.

The star rating scale ranges from 0 to 10, with a 6-star rating being the minimum requirement for compliance with the National Construction Code (NCC).&nbsp;

Achieving a higher star rating demonstrates a commitment to energy efficiency and sustainability, as the building is better equipped to minimise its environmental impact and reduce long-term energy costs.

Anyone can use NatHERS tools, but accredited assessors can provide certified ratings and professional advice.

<h2>Benefits of Higher NatHERS Ratings</h2>

Energy Efficiency: Buildings with higher NatHERS ratings are more energy-efficient, requiring less heating and cooling energy. This reduces the structure's carbon footprint and lowers occupants' energy bills.

Cost Savings: Homes with higher NatHERS ratings are generally more energy-efficient, resulting in reduced energy consumption for heating and cooling. This translates to lower energy bills for homeowners, making sustainable living environmentally friendly and economically viable in the long run.

Environmental Impact: Lower energy consumption directly translates to a reduced environmental impact. Buildings with higher NatHERS ratings contribute to the overall goal of mitigating climate change by lowering greenhouse gas emissions associated with heating and cooling systems.

Improved Comfort: Buildings with high NatHERS ratings offer better thermal comfort to occupants. Proper insulation, well-designed ventilation, and optimal orientation maintain a consistent and comfortable indoor temperature, providing occupants with a more enjoyable and healthier space.

Market Value and Desirability: Higher NatHERS ratings can enhance the market value of a property. As energy efficiency becomes a more significant consideration for homebuyers, a well-rated building may attract a premium price and stand out in the real estate market.

Compliance with Building Codes: NatHERS ratings are a vital component of the National Construction Code (NCC), and compliance with these ratings is often a mandatory requirement for new developments. Local councils and planning authorities may set minimum energy efficiency standards that must be met to obtain development approval.

The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) is a crucial initiative shaping the future of energy-efficient, resilient, and cost-effective homes. With its recent upgrades, NatHERS has evolved into a world-leading tool for the building sector, supporting the global commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Staff Writer

What is a NatHERS rating in new off the plan apartment developments?

Mixed-use developments have gained significant popularity across Australia in recent years due to their unique blend of residential, commercial, and recreational spaces.

Unlike traditional single-purpose developments, mixed-use projects offer a harmonious integration of various functions within a single locale.

Residential units seamlessly coexist with commercial establishments, retail outlets, dining venues, entertainment hubs, and recreational facilities, with the combination not only enhances convenience but also fosters a vibrant lifestyle and a sense of community.

<h3>Convenience and accessibility</h3>

Mixed-use developments are designed with convenience in mind. They often integrate residential units with commercial spaces, retail outlets, restaurants, and recreational facilities, creating a self-contained community.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=114215 project_image_fid=204874]

The proximity allows residents to enjoy the convenience of having essential amenities and services within walking distance. Whether it's grabbing a cup of coffee, going grocery shopping, or accessing healthcare services, everything is conveniently located, saving residents time and effort.

<h3>Vibrant lifestyle and community</h3>

One of the major advantages of mixed-use developments is the vibrant lifestyle they offer. With a diverse range of amenities and communal spaces, residents have ample opportunities to interact, socialise, and build a sense of community.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=107714 project_image_fid=214122]

The presence of parks, community centres, and shared spaces fosters a lively atmosphere, encouraging residents to engage in various activities and events. The vibrant lifestyle within these developments creates a unique sense of belonging and camaraderie among the residents.

<h3>Potential for higher rental yields and property value appreciation</h3>

Mixed-use developments tend to attract a broad range of tenants and buyers due to their versatile nature. This high demand can result in higher rental yields for investors and potentially lead to property value appreciation over time.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=139989 project_image_fid=212887]

The integration of commercial and retail spaces attracts businesses, which can provide a stable rental income stream. Additionally, the popularity of mixed-use developments often drives up property values, making them a potentially lucrative investment in the long term.

<h3>Enhanced security and maintenance</h3>

Mixed-use developments typically have comprehensive security measures in place. With controlled access points, CCTV surveillance, and professional security staff, residents can enjoy enhanced safety and peace of mind.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=108019 project_image_fid=212658]

Additionally, these developments often have dedicated maintenance teams responsible for the upkeep of common areas, landscaping, and infrastructure. This ensures that the overall appearance and functionality of the development are well-maintained, creating a pleasant living environment for residents.

<h3>Live-work-play balance</h3>

One of the key attractions of mixed-use developments is the ability to achieve a desirable live-work-play balance. The integration of residential and commercial spaces allows residents to live closer to their workplaces, reducing commuting time and improving work-life balance.

The proximity to various amenities and recreational facilities encourages an active and healthy lifestyle. Residents can easily access fitness centres, parks, restaurants, and entertainment options, all within the same development, leading to a more fulfilling and convenient way of life.

alisonwarters@gmail.com

The top five reasons to buy in a mixed-use development

When buying a property, everyone needs to be aware of the additional costs that come as part of the buying process.

Often the largest outlay, after the deposit which goes to the bank, is stamp duty.

<h2 style="line-height: 1.38;">What is Stamp Duty?</h2>

Stamp duty is an extra tax to pay the government when you buy land, a property, and other certain assets.

It happens when the legal ownership is transferred. It can also be known as property transfer duty or transfer duty.

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="415" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C32BWkB5--c" title="YouTube video player" width="660"></iframe>

<h2>Who pays Stamp Duty?</h2>

In some circumstances, you may get an exemption. For some states, you won’t have to pay for stamp duty if you are a first home buyer or a pensioner for houses under a particular price. There are also stamp duty concessions, where you may be entitled to a discount.

<h2>How much does Stamp Duty cost?</h2>

Each state has different rules which affect how much you need to pay. These rules can affect the rate you pay, and the timeframe you will need to pay in. Before you buy land or a property, make sure you check the up-to-date information for your state’s stamp duty.

You can use a free stamp duty calculator online to see approximately how much you’ll need to pay. Find out if you’re eligible for an exemption by enquiring on a project via Urban!

Overall, the stamp duty you need to pay will depend on:

<ul>
	<li aria-level="1">How much your land/property is worth</li>
	<li aria-level="1">Where your land/property is located</li>
	<li aria-level="1">What type of land/property it is</li>
</ul>

Want to find out more? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@UrbanAustralia?utm_source=YouTube&amp;utm_medium=Video&amp;utm_campaign=Subscribe&amp;utm_id=Subscribe">Subscribe to our YouTube channel</a> for more property videos.

Ellen Walker

Off-the-plan property explained: What is stamp duty?

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

<html><body>
For as long as auctions have existed in Australia, agents have been rorting the system.
For the past 15 years, state and territory governments have been passing laws to curtail auction excesses like dummy bidding and underquoting on price guides. But agencies keep sidestepping the rules and so governments keep passing new laws that cause agents to scream from the rooftops.
We’re seeing that playing out now with Queensland plans to ban price guides on auction properties. Agents and their representative bodies are squealing loudly and urging consumers to lobby politicians to stop it. The level of angst from real estate “professionals” is amazing to observe.
I have several messages for those protesting the changes.
One, you have only yourselves to blame. If you were competent and honest in their dealings around auctions, law changes would not be needed.
Two, you’re distorting reality when you claim your protest is motivated by concern for consumers. The motivation is self-interest, pure and simple. Nobody does self-interest like a real estate agent.
Three, real estate consumers are unlikely to protest about a ban on price guides because there’s no downside for buyers and sellers. The average buyer in particular will benefit from the ban.
The bottom line is that price guides are worthless. Agents commonly under-quote in their price guides to try to attract interest in the sale property. This means potential buyers waste their time and money on pursuing properties that were never in their price range.
It’s hugely frustrating for people who think they have a chance on a home, but discover on auction day that the reserve price was always higher than the top of the price range advertised. Buyers would be better off doing their own research than relying on the rubbery figures in price guides.
Whenever media or consumer affairs personnel have surveyed price guides and eventual sale prices, they have found that most price guides are fictitious. It’s a form of advertising fraud and governments are right to take action on it.
Strangely, the loudest noise is coming from interstate agents. The Real Estate Institute of New South Wales, for example, claims the ban will harm consumers. It says the move will reduce “transparency” at auctions. John McGrath, a Sydney-based agent, has claimed that “Queensland is facing a dire situation” and that the move is “insanity”.
Transparency at auctions? The typical auction is the antithesis of transparency.
A dire situation? Because agents will be prevented from misleading consumers with their “price guides”?  Someone needs to take a cold shower and some valium and have a wee lie down.
In one of his many media statements on this issue, McGrath says: “Every buyer I have ever met in 32 years wants price guides.”
No, they don’t. They want accurate and honest price guides. Given that the industry seems incapable of providing them, the best course is to ban them altogether.
Terry Ryder is the founder of <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank">hotspotting.com.au</a>.
You can contact Terry via <a target="_blank" href="https://mailto:%20ryder@hotspotting.com.au">email</a> or on <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hotspotting">Twitter</a>.
                           
</body></html>

terryryder-YECXbqmri2

Don't like the auction price guidance ban? You can only blame yourself

<html><body>
This week, a preliminary auction clearance rate of 72.8% was recorded across 1,494 auction results, with a total of 2,680 auctions held across the capital cities. Both auction clearance rates and auction volumes decreased last week, from 76.2% the previous week across 2,905 capital city auctions.
Currently, auction conditions are a lot stronger than they were at the same time last year. Over the corresponding week last year there were 1,983 properties taken to auction within the capital cities and RP Data recorded a clearance rate of 61.0%. It will be interesting to see if continuing high clearance rates encourage a further increase in the number of capital city properties taken to auction, given that current volumes are already so much higher than at the same time last year.
<a style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: #bf0000; text-decoration: none;" rel="wp-prettyPhoto[g2927]" href="https://blog.rpdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140302-Capital-city.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="margin: 0px; padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #e6e6e6; outline-width: 0px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961); max-width: 100%; height: auto; vertical-align: bottom;" height="347" width="470" src="https://blog.rpdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140302-Capital-city.jpg" alt="20140302 Capital city" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2930"></a>
Last week was Sydney’s second week this year where the number of auctions held in the city was more than 1,000. So far this year, Sydney’s auction clearance rate has been consistently recorded at or above 75%, which is much stronger than conditions seen at the start of last year. Last week, the preliminary auction clearance rate was recorded at 77.9%, with 1,019 properties taken to auction in the city. Over the previous week, there were 1,101 Sydney auctions and the final auction clearance rate was recorded at a strong 84.2%, the highest auction clearance rate seen in the city since September last year.
One year ago, there were only 751 Sydney auctions held over the week and the clearance rate was much lower, recorded at 61.1%. The increase in the number of properties taken to auction across the city demonstrates that vendors are becoming increasingly confident of a successful sale and are more willing to market their property under auction conditions.
<a style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: #bf0000; text-decoration: none;" rel="wp-prettyPhoto[g2927]" href="https://blog.rpdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140302-Sydney.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="margin: 0px; padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #e6e6e6; outline-width: 0px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961); max-width: 100%; height: auto; vertical-align: bottom;" height="310" width="470" src="https://blog.rpdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140302-Sydney.jpg" alt="20140302 Sydney" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2932"></a>
A preliminary auction clearance rate of 73.9% was reached from 1,319 auctions this week in Melbourne. This compares to 65.6% for the same time last year from fewer auctions.
This represents a substantial lift on the results a year ago and is a very strong result for the Melbourne market as it follows the highest volume of auctions for February on record.
Last month there were 2,623 auctions with a clearance rate of 71.5%. This was higher than the 2,571 recorded in 2010 although the clearance rate in February that year was 79.0%.
<a style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: #bf0000; text-decoration: none;" rel="wp-prettyPhoto[g2927]" href="https://blog.rpdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140302-Melbourne.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="margin: 0px; padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #e6e6e6; outline-width: 0px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961); max-width: 100%; height: auto; vertical-align: bottom;" height="311" width="470" src="https://blog.rpdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140302-Melbourne.jpg" alt="20140302 Melbourne" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2931"></a>
In Brisbane, less than half of all properties where RP Data recorded an auction result this week sold (42.4%), however, much like the other cities, there were more auctions held in the city this week (148) compared to the same week last year (111), when the clearance rate was recorded at a lower 37.7%. Over the previous week, Brisbane’s auction clearance rate was recorded at 63.6% with 161 properties taken to auction.
Although conditions across the Brisbane auction market are currently much weaker than across the larger auction markets of Sydney and Melbourne, it is important to remember than unlike Sydney and Melbourne, auctions account for a much smaller proportion of the overall Brisbane market.
<a style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: #bf0000; text-decoration: none;" rel="wp-prettyPhoto[g2927]" href="https://blog.rpdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140302-Brisbane.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="margin: 0px; padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #e6e6e6; outline-width: 0px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961); max-width: 100%; height: auto; vertical-align: bottom;" height="309" width="470" src="https://blog.rpdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140302-Brisbane.jpg" alt="20140302 Brisbane" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2929"></a>
Last week, Adelaide recorded a strong clearance rate of 75.0% with 97 auctions held in the city. Over the previous week, 118 Adelaide properties were taken to auction and RP Data recorded a final auction clearance rate of 59.8%. So far this year, Adelaide’s clearance rate has been recorded above the 70% mark, however prior to this, the clearance rate in Adelaide had not exceeded the 70% mark since back in September last year. The number of auctions held across the city over the same week last year was 70, with a clearance rate of 38.9%.
<a style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: #bf0000; text-decoration: none;" rel="wp-prettyPhoto[g2927]" href="https://blog.rpdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140302-Adelaide1.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="margin: 0px; padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #e6e6e6; outline-width: 0px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961); max-width: 100%; height: auto; vertical-align: bottom;" height="312" width="470" src="https://blog.rpdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140302-Adelaide1.jpg" alt="20140302 Adelaide" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2935"></a>
Auction volumes across the capital cities will be lower over the coming week due to multiple public holidays around the country. Currently, RP Data is expecting 1,402 auctions to be held across the capital city markets over the coming week.
Shana Miller is a research analyst at <a href="https://www.myrp.com.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">RP Data</a>.
Melbourne auction commentary provided by Robert Larocca, RP Data’s Victorian housing market specialist
                      
</body></html>

smiller-vwPjRHTkST

Capital city auction conditions a lot stronger than this time last year

<html><body>
By any comparative measure, the Australian economy has performed remarkably well over the last two decades.  
We’ve had strong gains in the labor force throughout the 1990s, rapid population growth and a surge in the value of key commodity exports through the 2000s.  
Resilient wage inflation duly capitalised into rising property prices, by way of a dramatic and accelerated run up of household debt in the lead up to the GFC.  All of which was buffered and prevented from any significant deleveraging, by the Rudd administration in 2008, when he threw sizeable cash handouts to families along with infrastructure investment to avoid plunging Australia into a technical ‘recession’.  
From this alone, our economic platform deserves the title “The world’s star performer”.  
However, whilst we may stand out in the wealth stakes, we’re not a happier nation for it.  
Last week <a target="_blank" href="https://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3938479.htm">Q&amp;A</a> featured a question from a young Australian and recent school leaver which touched on the sensitive subject of depression asking: “What can the government do to “fix it?”  
Like every other Western nation, Australia has experienced a sharp rise in the number of people suffering depressive illness over the last decade, with the average onset of the disease moving downwards in terms of age since the 1990s.  
Organisations such as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/">Beyond Blue</a> report that more than one in five Australian’s experienced depression, anxiety, or both, over last past year, and as the gentleman stressed, he was no exception.  
The comments that followed were sensitive in nature – focusing primarily on individual treatment and prevention within the health system. And whilst the cause of depression is both complex and varied, the first acknowledgement on what the government could do ‘collectively,’ came from Clive Palmer:  
“We need to have some sort of vision,” said Mr. Palmer “Create an environment that makes people realise the world is not as bad as we think it is… if you cut things, if you cut budgets, if you take things from people, you make them more worried about the future, and more uncertain.”  
This was reiterated by Ged Kearny, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions:  
“I get very concerned when I hear about cuts to public health… they're just another barrier to person, particularly a young person, getting help.”  
They are appropriate observations considering our rising population, skewed toward an aging demographic, which by its very nature will necessitate additional funding over the next decade into both health and education.  
So, it was somewhat unfortunate, at the same time panellists were discussing cuts, Prime Minister Tony Abbot was giving a speech to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-25/abbott-flags-spending-growth-cuts-health-education/5281606">Australian-Canada Economic Leadership Forum</a> in Melbourne, hinting at just this – as summarised bluntly by Christopher Pyne, Minister for Education:  
"[The Prime Minister] said that the current growth in education and health expenditure was unsustainable, and that is true.”  
What’s Tony Abbot’s vision for economic growth?  
“You can’t spend money until you’ve earned it! – Or until you have the means to pay it back!”  
Was the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-25/abbott-flags-spending-growth-cuts-health-education/5281606">cautionary opening statement</a> Mr Abbot posed.  
It’s a somewhat startling assertion considering it comes from the ‘issuers’ of our monetary supply, offset through taxing those who do have to earn dollars before they can spend it - whilst our government ‘earns’ nothing. Rather it is elected, and charged, to balance the budget in the best interests of its working population to promote economic growth – for which education and health are vital pillars.  
Abbot goes onto say - the best way to build a stronger economy is for Australia to once again to: “Enjoy a surplus.”  
Which may lead you (like me) to wonder how exactly the average private household will enjoy this surplus, considering we have the highest unemployment rate since 2003, along with an increase in those registering as “long-term” unemployed, up 13.5% since January 2013, and more part time jobs being created than full time?  
In Victoria, where manufacturing industries are concentrated, unemployment is at its worst level since 2002, whilst youth unemployment, which represents the demographic driving the future of our economy, has reached a <a target="_parent" href="https://www.theage.com.au/victoria/youth-unemployment-reaches-crisis-point-says-brotherhood-of-st-laurence-20140223-33aks">‘crisis’</a> point.  
Just over 12% of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are currently out of work.  
Regional localities reflect the worst - 20% in Cairns and Tasmania, 18% to 19% in north Adelaide, 17% in Western Sydney, the Illawarra, parts of Melbourne and regional Victoria – with the trade off being the increased cost of metropolitan accommodation for those “job seeking” in capital cities.  
Additionally, the latest “ABS labour price index” records wage growth at its lowest level on record – climbing just below the rate of inflation for the last calendar year - whilst the cost for ‘essentials’ such as health, childcare, utility services, and petrol, in some areas, has reached record highs.  
Considering our household debt to disposable income has barely deleveraged since property prices hit their peak in 2010 – the very talk of reaching a surplus within three years, particularly by way of cuts to essential services, or even the increased number relying on job seekers allowance - is foolhardy,  
When the government tightens its belt, the private sector picks up the slack. Therefore, “repairing the [government] budget” with the claim that it’s putting Australia “back on the right track”, is not putting the fate of Australians on the right track.  
Austerity, at a time of rising unemployment, does not lead to productive economic growth.  And from depression and unemployment statistics alone, it seems Australian’s are not enjoying a return to surplus.  
They’re are working longer, retiring later and in the face of rising unemployment, the only ‘vision’ the working population seemingly have to hold to is more of the same.  
So what are we left with?  
After 30 years of demise, the manufacturing industry is in the depths of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/02/the-extinction-of-australian-manufacturing/">recession</a>.  
Retail is losing the battle to the World Wide Web and residential construction is still struggling to pick up the cyclical slack created by the mining sector.  
Abbot’s “infrastructure promise" to speed up the flow of money from Canberra into the states, to upgrade road and rail projects, is positive news and sorely needed, however, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/02/one-auction-and-its-impact-on-the-welfare-state/">remember</a> where those gains will be most acutely felt.  
Without effective <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/11/land-tax-must-kill-negative-gearing-stamp-duty/">land value taxation</a>, the investment creates the ‘future speculative hotspots,’ where the improvements will be capitalised into rising land values, rather than fed back into servicing, maintaining, and further extending essential community facilities.  
Land is an absolute necessity to all commercial and personal needs, therefore as land values rise; it will affect a continued strain on business and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/02/its-housing-thats-killing-productivity/">productivity</a>, and once again, we’re stimulating the cost of irreplaceable fixed assets, rather than the employment sectors needed to underpin a longer trajectory of economic growth.  
But this is what Australia is remarkably good at – creating a booming land market.  We’re right up there with the world’s best performers.  
Article continues on next page. Please click below.
                                  
<hr class="system-pagebreak">
The housing bubble success story
Following a rapid 12-month cyclical upswing of housing inflation, residential real estate prices are once again reaching their 2010 peak.  
Outside of normal ‘corrective’ downturns, we’re continually lectured by an overcrowded mass of vested industry commentary that our housing market can ‘never fail’. Or at least not to the extent suggested by personalities such as Harry Dent or respected Australian economist Professor Steve Keen, who are quickly bundled into the same category and labelled as nothing more than irresponsible fear mongers for implying as such.  
Our commentators waste no time offering their own economic analysis of property cycles, which unfortunately missed any prediction of the subprime crisis.  
Albeit, housing affordability for both renters and home buyers, has rarely escaped headline news since before the last election and whilst to a limited extent we seemed to have progressed past the point in which rising prices are marketed as overwhelming positive news, it certainly hasn’t destroyed the myth that they’re somehow ‘good’ for the long-term health of our nation, as owners leverage off the so-called ‘wealth effect’ – relying on the unearned equity in their housing investments to fund both lifestyle and commercial activities.  
Australia’s biggest employer – aged related care (the health and social assistance industries) – derives a large percentage of its funding from people selling their housing, which their children additionally hope to inherit to assist their own journey onto the ladder and the perpetual fear of any downturn in established values has painted the government into a corner.  
Is the housing market on Rocky Roots?  
Yet, fear mongering or not, we know from the above statistics alone, the estimated $5 trillion worth of wealth contained in the house and land market is sitting on rocky roots.  
It’s no longer supported by the boom of productive activity and wage growth that assisted in generating the inflation during the 1990s and 2000s – producing the ‘strong’ monopolised banking sector which capitalised on the mortgage market as a population of buyers and speculative investors rapidly expanded.  
Outside of future prospected wage increases, significant gains are only achievable by manipulating demand side stimulants, tapping into foreign investment, (currently <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theage.com.au/victoria/everestlike-growth-in-melbournes-residential-towers-20140228-33r9x">driving</a> the inner city apartment and development market), whilst limiting effective and feasible <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/11/rethinking-urban-growth-boundaries/">‘cheap’</a> supply - which the government has successfully achieved to date, by way of policies such as negative gearing, first home buyer grants, and a truly diabolical record of supply side reform.  
As mentioned in one of the most recent <a target="_blank" href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Economics/Affordable_housing_2013/Submissions">submissions</a> to the Senate’s housing affordability enquiry, by Prosper Australia: “It took forty years from 1950 to 1990 for housing prices to double, but only fifteen years between 1996 and 2010 to double again.”  
Whilst most will agree growth may be more subdued as we continue, it’s imperative we highlight the destructive nature of this system, which isn’t assisting making us a happy nation, and for a moment, stand back and take stock.  
Ask yourself a question  
Just for the moment, forget the raft of industry commentary and the prospected dates for the next ‘crash’ predicted and ask yourself a question:  
What will the next decade bring?  
If through manipulation alone, Australia manages to achieve more of the same and keep the housing boat afloat:  
<ul>
<li>
What will the consequential effect be on small business and industry?
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
Who will benefit most?
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
Will it be your children who have to save even longer to get on the ladder?
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
Or their children who will need to save longer still?
</li>
</ul>
  Remember if we were to have a crash, it’s not the wealthy that will suffer and it’s ordinary working families who are then left in a position where they’re unable to borrow to take advantage of lower prices.
 
Is the future, long-term wealth inequality?
 
The boom/bust land cycle, which we’re told by industry advocates is the best way to build the individual wealth of its nation, is a system which derives its very existence from a long drawn out speculative process. This ultimately accentuates inequality, under utilises land, always marginalizing those at the bottom of the income stream, whilst advantaging those at the top – as I explained <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/02/housing-and-the-inequality-divide/">here</a>.  
Nowhere is the divide between rich and poor more evident than the land market which results in a slow process of social polarisation. In Australia, it has given us a segregated schooling system where social disadvantage in education is stronger here than <a target="_blank" href="https://crawford.anu.edu.au/public_policy_community/content/doc/Australia_Inequality-and-Prosperity_final-15-March-13.pdf">any other</a> comparable western nation.  
Whilst inequality in wages and business activity can be equalised through competitive activity, land – by its very nature – is fixed in supply and therefore the only cure to rising prices in a soft economic environment, is the produce of additional supply.  
Meeting that demand by extending upwards is a challenge. Land values in the inner suburbs are already high and although it can assist the needs of apartment dwellers, investors, student renters, and to a degree, downsizers, family buyers (our largest home buying demographic) have no option but to head to the fringe if it’s affordability they’re after.  
But, due to ineffective land tax and supply policy, the fringe suburbs, which capture the bulk of our city’s population growth, do not have the funding needed to facilitate urban sprawl, hence the process of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/02/housing-and-the-inequality-divide/">social polarisation</a>.  
They have the highest concentration of mental illness, such as obesity and depression, and prices are further manipulated by larger developers who drip feed their stock onto the market, of which the government currently has no control.  
Not politically sellable?  
From the time a child learns to enjoy a family game of Monopoly, Australians are nurtured on a system that teaches the key to building wealth that is through the leverage and speculation of capital growth in land values. Therefore, none of this is easy to change.  
To do so, requires complete structural reform of land value taxation and housing supply <a href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/11/urban-zoning-and-affordable-housing-are-opposites/">policy</a> - therefore we’re told it’s not politically sellable.  
The most solid prediction of the year  
The most most solid prediction of 2014 to date, is the one that will result from the Senate’s housing affordability enquiry.  
After the numerous submissions have been tabled and discussed. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/02/the-housing-question-that-the-senate-must-address/">question</a> I stressed in my own submission will remain unanswered;  
“Will the government allow land values to drop?”  
Assuming this is correct, then Prime Minister Tony Abbott has a care of duty to explain to the public directly how propping up the current status quo will continue to erode the opportunities of future generations.  
He must explain how the government’s failure to provide effective land value taxation and supply side reform to lower land prices, will lock them into longer mortgages, a life times worth of double income debt, push more into long-term tenancy and additionally point out how the current system <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/02/housing-and-the-inequality-divide/">enhances</a> poor education and health outcomes, social polarisation, and places a strain on core productivity.  
Your choice!  
Ultimately the choice lay with the voting population and in a country that holds to the motto of a fair go, I expect clearly evidencing the consequences of our current housing market will be a lot less ‘sellable’ than educating how we can establish a sustainable approach. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/11/land-tax-must-kill-negative-gearing-stamp-duty/">If handled correctly</a> reducing taxes on productivity will ultimately make each and every one of us better off.  
It’s time we allowed Australians to make an educated choice.
Catherine Cashmore is a market analyst with extensive experience in all aspects relating to property acquisition.
                                                     
</body></html>

catherinecashmore-6LXia3pPQj

Australia - an economic star performer, but are we any better off for it?

<html><body>
There has been a lot of talk of a property bubble over the past few weeks with US economist and commentator Harry Dent in Australia speaking at conferences and promoting his latest book, predicting a crash in housing markets around the country.
If Google searches are anything to go by, the media that Dent’s visit generated has fuelled concerns about the idea.
There has been a fivefold increase in searches on the phrase “property bubble” in Australia since the start of the year, according to Google Trends data. So far in February, there have been 35% more searches on that term than there were in November 2010, the previous peak in interest in that search from Australia.
Most of the searches conducted related to NSW, Victoria and Western Australia. Queenslanders also did some internet investigations the topic.
Before November 2009, Google recorded no searches on the term “property bubble” in Australia.
<a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com.au/trends/explore#q=property+bubble&amp;cmpt=q&amp;geo=AU"><img alt="bubble-searched-march-3" height="170" width="470" src="/images/stories/2014/03/03/bubble-searched-march-3.jpg"></a>
Source: Google Trends
Similar terms, “real estate bubble” and “housing bubble” have also been attracting more attention in Australia since late 2009 and early 2010. People in Victoria and NSW searched for real estate bubble with interest in that term growing since early 2013, although searches on that term peaked in April 2010.
Those living in Western Australia searched for “housing bubble” the most, with people in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and South Australia also searching on that term.
Even by global comparisons, Australians have been conducting a lot of housing bubble-related Google searches.
Since 2004, Singaporeans searched Google for news of a property bubble the most, conducting more than double the searches than people in the second most concerned country, Malaysia. Australia ranked third, slightly ahead of Ireland.
Since the start of the year, searches on the term property bubble world-wide have more than doubled to their highest level, according to the Google trends data.
Canadians and people in the United States searched most for real estate bubble and housing bubble. Again, Australians ranked third in using those terms over the past decade.
But if those search results show there’s widespread concern in Australia about a property bubble, other common property-related searches tell a different story.
On average over the past five years, there have been 73 searches on the term “investment property” for every three search on the term “property bubble”.
Even over the past 12 months there have been 82 searches for investment property for every five searches for property bubble.
The term “property for sale” has also been searched in Australia over forty times more often than the term property bubble.
Other indicators such as recent auction clearance rates and housing finance figures also suggest that any concerns are yet to translate into action.
<a target="_blank" href="mailto:news@propertyobserver.com.au">news@propertyobserver.com.au</a>
                
 
</body></html>

zfielding-GvX3Uq9KTa

Analysis - Property bubble chatter has gone through the roof since the start of 2014

<html><body>
With completion scheduled for March, only one full floor apartment and the penthouse at Sydney’s Eliza development remain unsold.
Three full floor apartments sold before Christmas, and another two in the complex sold this week, with two more pending exchange. The building’s developers, Ceerose, expect that the final full floor apartment will be sold by the end of next week.
This week’s sales were negotiated by Nigel Napoli of Savills, with prices expected to have ranged from $4 million to $6 million. Savills and McGrath have achieved five sales for Eliza since marketing began in December.
According to Napoli, Eliza’s luxury apartments have been the subject of international interest.
"We are confident of exchanging on a further two full-floor apartments within days," said Napoli. "Of all the sales at Eliza to date, four have been to overseas purchasers so the development is receiving international acclaim."
Eliza, located at 141-143 Elizabeth St, was designed by architect Tony Owen. The building contains 19 apartments in total, with 10 two bedroom, two bathroom half floor apartments on the lower five levels. There are eight four bedroom, four bathroom full floor apartments, each with their own private lobby. The remaining 200 square metre full floor apartment is on level seven of the building. Eliza’s penthouse will be marketed once completed and fully furnished, with expectations of $15 million.<img style="float: right;" alt="Eliza-nearing-completion" height="334" width="200" src="/images/stories/2014/02/28/Eliza-nearing-completion.jpg">
Napoli notes the prestige location of Eliza, which is situated among fine dining restaurants and fashion boutiques.
"The added bonus for Eliza purchasers is that capital growth of 'blue chip’'buildings in exclusive locations is more pronounced than for any other form of residential property," he said. Hamish Robertson, a director of McGrath, also commented on the development’s location.
"These apartments are in the heart of the Sydney CBD with Hyde Park acting as its front garden. There are not many major cities of the world that offer apartments with this outlook," he said.
Each apartment in Eliza includes a fireplace and full-height timber panelled walls, with limestone floors, calacatta marble benchtops and splashbacks and a walk in pantry in the kitchen.
<a target="_blank" href="mailto:jrichardson@propertyobserver.com.au">jrichardson@propertyobserver.com.au</a>
For the latest development listings, brought to you by Property Observer and partners, see our <a rel="nofollow" href="https://showcase.propertyobserver.com.au/">Investor Showcase</a>.
 
</body></html>

jrichardson-uRX5hFdKfN

One apartment remaining as Sydney’s Elizabeth Street Eliza nearing completion

<html><body>
Today I thought I’d share a little about my own personal property investing journey in the hope that it may be of interest or maybe if I’m lucky, encourage you to move forward on your own journey if you haven’t already.
As I cast my mind back 12 years, I remembered very clearly my own experience.  When I started thinking about property I was pregnant with my first son. I had an overwhelming urge to do something to start setting up my family’s financial future. I have no idea why I felt so responsible for this, but after reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki my world flipped upside down.
I think I’m pretty responsible by nature and his books explain that we all need to be responsible for our own futures. This really hit a chord with me; perhaps it was the pregnancy hormones or just that I’d never really had time to reflect on this in the past. Whatever the reason, I decided to make things happen.
Whilst I should have been shopping for baby clothes and decorating the baby’s bedroom, I was sitting in an auditorium hungrily soaking up information that I hadn’t come across before. As my ankles swelled and my back ached, I feverishly took notes on all the different strategies you can use to make money from property. My plan was to work whilst my baby slept, little did I know how little babies sometimes sleep! But that’s exactly what I did and what I missed out on in sleep, I gained in knowledge. With bleary eyes, my property investment journey began.
That baby son started high school this year and so he’s a reminder of when and why I wanted to invest for our futures.  Since his birth, I’ve built a decent investment portfolio and a thriving property development project management business.
I love following the property market and tracking the property cycles. Since I started investing in 2000, we’ve had what may be ‘once in a lifetime’ anomalies that have impacted on the cycle. Firstly, the very rapid growth in most capital cities between 2000 to 2003; then the global financial crisis in 2007 and the credit crises that followed.  A change in government coincided in the same year and a turbulent period for the Labor government followed until the Coalition was elected in 2013.
We’ve seen a resource boom, a mining slowdown and now the lowest ever cash rates in history. And between 2001 and 2011 we’ve seen major shifts in population growth patterns. Natural fertility reversed a long run decline and migration rose to record levels, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://home.id.com.au/">id</a>. You can’t really say this is a ‘typical’ property cycle.  But, is there ever one?
As part of our research process, we track the quarterly median value of the Hunter Region cities that Property Bloom develops in.  Back in March 2003 one city had a median value of $179,566 today it’s $363,500.  That’s an increase over the past 10 years of 203%.  There are strong indications that this growth will continue.
The Hunter Region offers an affordable entry point into property and history has shown that the capital growth is there too. Combine this with an adding value development strategy and your journey will be even more worthwhile.
Jo Chivers is director of <a title="Property Bloom" href="https://www.propertybloom.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-size: 14px;">Property Bloom</a>, which manages property development.
                           </body></html>

jochivers-wq5Bp59R5a

Starting your own property journey

<html><body>
1) Mentors and modelling
Who should you look to for mentoring guidance? The simplest way I know of to achieve a goal is to find someone who has achieved your targets and to find out what has worked for them.
If you want to start up a major airline, study Richard Branson's books until the ink falls off the page. If you want to build a large share portfolio through making regular contributions and a dividend reinvestment plan (DRP), find someone who has done exactly that. Ditto if your goal is create a dividend rich portfolio and live off fully franked dividends which exceed your expenses. If you want to achieve financial freedom through building a very large portfolio of properties, find someone who has done it.
Could you come to someone like me if your goal is own a factory in <a target="_blank" href="/news">Mount Druitt</a>? Well, you could, I suppose, and being a diligent kind of bloke I'd probably do an OK job, but I'd strongly suggest that you'd be better advised to find someone with 15 years of experience and expertise in Western Sydney commercial property acquisition.
Unfortunately, when it comes to personal finance and investment, too many folk take advice from people who never invest in anything ("it's too risky") or have shambolic personal finances themselves. The advice might be well-meaning enough, but ultimately it can be destructive. I'd say that there can be as much, if not significantly more risk, in inaction as in taking action.
2) Where are the customers' yachts?
Warren Buffett once said: "Wall Street is the only place that people drive to in a Rolls Royce to take advice from people who ride the subway." Like most Buffett quotes, this one is a ripper, but unfortunately it's not quite true.
In Australia, financial advice is governed under ASIC's RG 146, and advisers who wish to sell financial products must comply with the training and CPD requirements and hold an appropriate financial services licence.
Be wary, though, for licences are in no way a guarantee of good advice. Before accepting any stockbroker recommendation at face value, for example, make sure you check (a) their long-term track record from previous 'buy' recommendations, and (b) their level of independence from the recommended securities (e.g. do they underwrite capital raisings or are they otherwise involved in transactions for those companies etc.).
It's amazing some of the dross that can be shovelled your way, and this is particularly so if you qualify as a sophisticated investor for the purposes of Chapter 6D, whereby no product disclosure statement or prospectus is required.
As for real estate, although deep down we all know that property investment advice is also financial advice, properties are not treated as financial products in the same manner, and as such are not regulated in the same way.
Bizarre though it may seem, you can end up with a situation where a higher rate taxpayer seeking financial and property investment advice can take advice from someone who has never been a higher rate taxpayer, is not a financial advisor and has never invested in anything. Strange, but true.
So for once, it seems, Buffett's quote is not quite on the money.
3) Asset allocation
Portfolio asset allocation is the domain of the financial advisor and should remain as such.
If you go to a property pundit, rest assured that you will be told that property is the best and safest asset class, and that real estate is the only asset class you should turn to for building wealth. No matter that, if pressed, that property adviser would likely be unable to give you a coherent explanation of what preference shares or convertible bonds (or whatever) even are, instead falling back on bluster.
The regulatory loophole means that property advisers can continue to make outlandish claims unchecked - "nothing safer than bricks and mortar...it's a sure thing...the market is forever under-pinned...market set to boom!" - you've seen the kind of thing.
Of course, I'm not saying that hybrid instruments or even fixed interest investments are necessarily for you. I'm just saying that if is someone is financially illiterate then they aren't in a great position to advise you either way.
A good property adviser should be able to discuss what IRR might be expected from an investment, and how that might compared to the risk free rate, or returns from other asset classes.
Article continues on next page. Please click below.
                      
<hr class="system-pagebreak">
4) Property, shares or both?
Personally I believe that the best portfolios have a balance of assets and some level of diversification across asset classes and countries. Others prefer to concentrate on one asset class and become a specialist.
For all the talk of which the 'better' or 'best' asset class, there really is no answer to that. Different asset classes suit people at various stages of their lives and one must take into account age, risk profile, income requirements, living arrangements, tax and estate planning and a whole host of other factors.
Notably, the level of property market commentary on this subject is poor. Here's a tip: if you ever stumble across an article comparing returns from property and share markets (an income asset) which fails to mention the word 'dividends', click on the little red cross in the top right corner of the screen (the same sometimes goes for articles written by goldbugs).
As for when property punditry veers off towards commentary on the economy and monetary policy...oh dear. Let's be generous and say that it tends to be a trifle mixed. Another of the old favourite lines is that "with property you can use 80-90% leverage, but with shares only 50%" (really? Prove it). And so on...
5)  Experience counts
If I was looking to find a investment adviser I'd find one who had personally experienced investing with a substantial portfolio of assets through downturns. We've all confused bull markets for being smart, but it's when the market turns south that you find out who really has a solid investment portfolio and plan.
Why does experience matter in investing? Because successful investment is all about two things: the (1) the numbers, and (2) the psychology.
Property advisers frequently throw out a few platitudes about "tax benefits" but try to pin them down about how an investment might impact your marginal tax rate or how negative gearing and depreciation works in practice. You often find that, unless they are experienced investors themselves, their grasp of the figures is tenuous at best. If you want a really good chuckle, ask them to step you through how franking credits flow through to your tax schedule and the basics of the dividend imputation system. Hmm.
If you're looking for a mentoring program, find one where the mentor has decades of experience. Investing is not like our school days where people who make errors are put on report or on detention. Mistakes are how investors learn.
When it comes to personal finance and investing, if you've ever burned through $50,000 messing around with the 'penny dreadfuls', or lent pain-inducing sums of money to unscrupulous mates who never paid you back, or diverted funds towards a shonky business venture...you'll know how to avoid making those mistakes in the future. Trust me, as someone who has done all three of those things (twice in the case of lending money to mates), experience changes your outlook.
6) There is some risk in every course of action
We should all understand that there is some risk in every course of action - and that includes the inaction of doing nothing. Poor old Steven Keen has copped a lot of flak over the years for advising people that their homes in Sydney <a target="_blank" href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/economy/clarifying-my-40-drop-call-and-what-s-still-driving-housing-prices-up/2014021867863">would fall by 40% in a few years</a>...when the median price was around 40% lower than where it is today. Yet, if I'd taken his advice, I guess I'd be pretty annoyed too. He's hardly been Robinson Crusoe on that front, though.
As the internet chat forums forever take great delight in reminding us, there are property crash predictions in Australia every year. One day, Australia will get a sharper correction that we've had to date, but a belief in an ability to time the market accurately appears to be something of a fallacy.
<img width="470" height="348" src="https://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x308/LPShadow/Australian-Property-Bear-Chart-Of-Shame-1.png~original" alt="Posted Image">
Source: <a target="_blank" href="https://australianpropertyforum.com/topic/9994160/6/">Australian Property Forum</a>
I know this isn't what a lot of people want to hear, but as the chart above shows, with a few ups and downs, Australia's house price index has broadly tracked household income growth for a decade now, which is not typically bubble behaviour. Household incomes will continue to grow over the next decade too, and through the decades after that.
Of course, it's not quite as simple as that, as certain popular suburbs will continue to outperform incomes while others will lag and likely become more affordable cheaper in real terms. That's how markets work. My strategy has been simple enough over the years, and has seen my UK and Aussie portfolios invested through a couple of colossal property booms (UK 1990s-2008, Sydney 2008-2014) and another London/UK property boom is in the post right now.
In today's crowded modern capital cities, people are increasingly realising that the commuting rat race sucks, so I just keep acquiring properties that are no more than 10-15 minutes from the city employment hubs in mature and growing property markets like Sydney and London.
It's simple geography, really, for there is almost no more inner city land upon which to build, while the city population is exploding - as compared to far weaker demand and acres of space on the outer - so aim to own well-located properties with a reasonably high land value content and your longer term outcome should be a good one.
<a imageanchor="1" href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w347MwOKf9s/Uv6yX9_iSzI/AAAAAAAALg8/KNnP-MT4Pok/s1600/Outer+inner.jpg"><img width="400" border="0" height="368" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w347MwOKf9s/Uv6yX9_iSzI/AAAAAAAALg8/KNnP-MT4Pok/s1600/Outer+inner.jpg"></a>
Pete Wargent is the co-founder of <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://allenwargent.com/">AllenWargent</a> property buyers (London, Sydney) and a best-selling author and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://petewargent.blogspot.com/">blogger</a>.
His new book '<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.bigskypublishing.com.au/Books/General-Interest/Four-Green-Houses--and-a-Red-Hotel/1015/productview.aspx">Four Green Houses and a Red Hotel</a>' was released on 1 September 2013.
                   
</body></html>

pwargent-M4siyDbqQY

Six weekend things to consider about investment advice

<html><body>
There’s a history of heart disease among my ancestors and I tend towards high blood pressure, but no one’s pronounced me dead just yet.
I know someone with a condition that may require drastic surgery some time in the future, but no one’s pronounced him dead either.
I’m wondering why so many have declared Geelong a dead duck.
Major industries, notably Ford, Toyota and Alcoa, have announced shutdowns which affect Geelong. Toyota has said it will halt manufacturing in 2017 and Ford plans to shut down in 2016. The Alcoa shutdown is more immediate, expected to happen in August 2014.
None of this is good news for Geelong, but it’s not terminal either.
Newcastle was written off when BHP left town in the late 1990s with the loss of 2,000 jobs, but the city fought back strongly and quickly. Today Newcastle is a thriving city and, together with the Hunter region, runs a diverse economy which supports half a million people.
Some believe the BHP exit was the best thing to happen to Newcastle, because it forced the city to diversify and it has benefited from the process.
Another regional city to have the last rites performed prematurely is Wollongong. The city has been hit by a number of economic reversals, including job cuts by BlueScope Steel, which are estimated by the University of Wollongong to have cost the Illawarra 2,500 jobs, $208 million in household income and a loss of $740 million from the local economy.
But Wollongong continues to be a thriving city and its property markets, contrary to earlier predictions, are rising at the moment.
In 2011 when BlueScope announced its cutbacks, some of the more hysterical media coverage predicted property values would drop 20-30%. Nothing of the sort happened. I wrote in The Australian in 2011 that Wollongong would absorb the BlueScope Steel cutbacks and move on – and it’s done just that.
Indeed, the Illawarra region, encompassing the neighbouring Wollongong and Shellharbour municipalities, emerged in my research for the Price Predictor Index as the number one growth star for markets in regional New South Wales.
Cities can take significant blows and fight back, sometimes by reinventing themselves. The thing Geelong has in its favour is that the reinvention process has been going on for years.
Geelong’s economy and employment base these days is more about the education, medical and IT sectors than it is about manufacturing.
While the impending plant closures have made headlines, there have been several good news announcements for Geelong as well. In February alone, we’ve learnt that Geelong will host a major statewide tourism conference, that there are plans for a factory where cars are converted to LPG fuel, that the new suburb of Lara West has been approved to house about 10,000 residents, that the Shell refinery has been bought with Swiss oil company Vitol, that a new call centre for EnergyAustralia will be based in Geelong and that a high-rise building with student accommodation is planned by developers.
Geelong is, and will continue to be, a happening city.
A key factor is that the car plant closures are two to three years away. The city has time to respond ahead of the greatest impact. If Geelong community and business leaders sat around and did nothing in the interim, the impact would be considerable.
But they won’t. My visits to Geelong in recent years have shown me that this is a vibrant city with proactive leadership.
If you own property in Geelong, I wouldn’t be selling it just yet.
Terry Ryder is the founder of <a href="https://www.hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">hotspotting.com.au</a>.
You can contact Terry via <a href="https://mailto:%20ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email</a> or on <a href="https://twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a>.
 
                
</body></html>

I wouldn’t be selling in Geelong just yet

<html><body>
The economics textbooks will tell you that markets are self-correcting. Is that true?
When markets becomes overvalued buyers will become scarce and the the market will fall back into equilibrium, say the rule books. And when they are undervalued rational profiteers will buy them back up to their point of fair value.
The tech stock bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000s was a favourite case in point.
<img style="padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #ebebeb; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bc5xYfGMSII/R1S3vOTxt3I/AAAAAAAAEb8/Z5HAYSkDf_o/s400-R/Growth_Page_3.jpg" height="231">
A lot of technology stocks, some of which never even made a profit in their entire lifespan, had PE charts that looked something like this.
For a period of time, the market wanted to own anything which was remotely related to technology or the internet and valuations soared.
Even experienced heads said that the rules had changed and you had to be "in to win it".
Companies with no profits were instead valued on number of page views ("price per click") and other strange metrics.
When the bubble burst, the market returned more or less to where it was before the bubble - valuing companies on their earning potential.
Ultimately, an asset or company which has no cash-generating ability has no value. If a company cannot generate profits then eventually it will have to sell its assets to survive and will ultimately be worth zero.
Free markets?
The rule books say that loss-making companies will fail and markets will value companies and assets accordingly.
But do we live in a free market world? Not really. When you stop to consider the news of recent weeks, there are no end of market distortions.
For years, car companies have recent subsidies, Qantas is set to receive a bailout, in the US and the UK we saw banks being bailed out, and so on.
Markets are not free in the textbook sense. We have a minimum wage and wages awards, copyright laws and patents, trade unions, distorting taxes, state-supported monopolies, and, rather importantly for asset price valuations, an inflationary monetary policy.
The answer?
The answer, then is that markets are indeed self-correcting to a point. The economics textbooks are correct, but they are not really talking about the world which we live in. Markets are self-correcting, but only within the existing framework and market distortions.
Australia's big banks will never be allowed to fail, for example. A lot of people don't seem to like that, but the economy could not function without bank liquidity, so the banks receive an implicit guarantee. The cost of that should probably be tighter regulation.
In the traditional free market, struggling companies would be allowed to fail, with the idea that in the long run, the stronger companies will survive and make the economy more efficient.
That's not how the real world is.
Real estate
In a similar fashion, property markets are also distorted by tax incentives and policies such as stamp duty, negative gearing rules, and land taxes.
Markets are also distorted by first home owners grants, land zoning rules and supply constrictions, and a whole range of other factors.
But even within this distorted framework, markets are self-correcting to a point.
If prices become too low, rational profiteers appear and push them back up again.
Periodic corrections are welcomed by governing bodies, but prices which fall continually for years are considered poisonous to economies and intervention becomes likely, in the form of low interest rates or other incentives.
If prices rise too, high, on the other hand, buyers become cautious or even disillusioned, and gradually drift away.
Where is the evidence for this? The RBA has shown that repayments on new housing loans have tended to comprise between a fifth and a third of household incomes for decades.
At times, repayment levels have jumped to over 30% of household disposable income, but that appears to be about as far as Aussies are prepared to go.
<img style="padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #ebebeb; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="315" src="https://www.rba.gov.au/speeches/2013/images/sp-so-230413-graph11.gif" height="320">
Similarly, for all the debate and counter-debate, since home ownership became common after the war, ownership rates have barely shifted. Most people elect to own a home, and some never do, but the ratio hasn't changed a lot.
If anything, the chart is most remarkable for how consistent it has been in a country with a growing population.
<a style="text-decoration: none; color: #7f7f7f; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" imageanchor="1" href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nxM2TNavZwg/Uwu7YivdIVI/AAAAAAAALn0/r5DeJVfxbtc/s1600/Census.jpg"><img style="border: 1px solid #ebebeb; position: relative; padding: 5px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" height="189" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nxM2TNavZwg/Uwu7YivdIVI/AAAAAAAALn0/r5DeJVfxbtc/s1600/Census.jpg" border="0"></a>
The net result of this is home prices tend to rise with incomes over time. You could try to be clever and time the market, but over the past 15 years, there have been crash warnings every year, many of which never eventuated.
However, it remains true that markets are self-correcting to a point.
If the RBA's chart shows that repayments on new loans are starting to fall outside that 20-30% band, this may be a signal that the market may become due to self-correct.
Pete Wargent is the co-founder of <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://allenwargent.com/">AllenWargent</a> property buyers (London, Sydney) and a best-selling author and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://petewargent.blogspot.com/">blogger</a>.
His new book '<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.bigskypublishing.com.au/Books/General-Interest/Four-Green-Houses--and-a-Red-Hotel/1015/productview.aspx">Four Green Houses and a Red Hotel</a>' was released on 1 September 2013.
                  
</body></html>

Are property markets self-correcting?

<html><body>
When I started my career in property development marketing about a decade ago,over 50% of enquiries would come from on-site signage and having a website was optional. A lot has changed in the industry.
In fact, thinking back 10 years a lot was different in all aspects of life. I had a Nokia phone with a two-tone screen, I certainly couldn’t check out my own groceries at the supermarket and I watched normal TV.
When we launched projects a decade ago the aim was to target local markets, build urgency, hype and with quite a bit of secrecy get people to wait and wait for project launch day. On one such occasion we managed to get people to camp out overnight to secure the property they wanted (now I feel this is quite disrespectful to your customers). This ‘almost’ still happens in Sydney and certainly people still do physically queue for hours in stores to get their hands on the latest gadgets like iPhones, but these days there are a lot of changes in the way products of all kinds are bought and sold.
The birth of the internet and online shopping means consumers now have access to products from all around the globe from the comfort of their own homes and certainly without any interaction with salespeople. It also means that local Australian businesses can now market their products internationally without necessarily leaving their domestic office. We are certainly living and working in a global marketplace.
So what does the technology revolution offer the Australian property industry? We can’t ship property around the world like we do iPhones.  And what impact does it have on our domestic sales people and how we go about marketing projects these days?
The answer is that the technology revolution is transforming the property industry like it has many other industries and for the better!
Obviously salespeople are vital to executing sales. The property industry is a people’s business and that certainly isn’t changing any time soon. But technology now offers property developers, project marketers and salespeople, opportunities that they previously never had.
Today’s buyers are both national and international and developers and agents need to take projects to the international marketplace, particularly the booming Asian market. Currently, most marketers do this by hiring a meeting room in a five star hotel, shipping models and brochures half way around the world and running a traditional campaign. But this is slow, expensive and often the sales teams on the ground are not well briefed and don’t feel they have a strong relationship with the key personnel from the developer.
Today’s innovative technology means that the geographical constraints domestic sales people currently face can be alleviated considerably.  Internet speed is now making it possible to stream events live to international audiences and even facilitate online audience participation. Called hybrid events these online interactive experiences have been taking the business world by storm, but until now property has been pretty much left behind.
Launched late last year Investorist has already run three successful hybrid events with members attending in person and online nationally and internationally. The major benefit of a hybrid event is that the key people in a property development organization can actually communicate directly with the international audience and therefore the ability to foster relationships is much stronger. It also means that the team on the ground internationally can be better briefed and in turn more enthusiastic.
Hybrid events benefit developers, project marketers and sales people by opening up new sales channels and offering a way of building trust and rapport with prospective international clients.
Technology is adding to the power of the project launch by providing greater access to information and empowering sales people making them even more effective than before. I envisage a day where even the public are logging in, probably on their phone and watching project launches in real time.
The growth of international buyers in the domestic property market opens up many opportunities for developers and property marketers. Those who leverage new technology to expand their markets and networks will continue to thrive in this global marketplace. The others will undoubtedly become just as redundant as my old Nokia.
Jon Ellis is the founder of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.investorist.com/">Investorist</a>.
    
</body></html>

Latest Buying Insights

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

Editor's Picks

Developments

New apartments

New townhouses

News

Latest Buying Insights

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

Editor's Picks

Receive the latest news stories to your inbox

Developments

New apartments

New townhouses

News