Queensland builder-developer MAYD has revealed the first look at its major North Kirra beachfront development, lodging amended plans that reduce the number of apartments and increase the proportion of larger residences.

The project is planned across a substantial 4,742 sqm amalgamated site spanning seven lots at <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/2-6-pacific-parade-bilinga-qld-4225">2-6 Pacific Parade</a> and 27-33 Golden Four Drive in Bilin​ga, directly opposite Nor​th Kirra Beach.

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/mayd-group">MAYD</a> secured the site for $32.5 million in 2025, in what was one of the Gold Coast's largest property transactions of the year.

The development will be delivered across two stages, with the first stage carrying an estimated gross realisation value of around $360 million.

The latest amendments seek to reduce the overall apartment count and shift the project further toward the owner-occupier market, with larger residences designed for buyers wanting considerably more space than traditionally offered in a beachfront apartment.

The residential mix will include townhomes, oversized two-bedroom apartments, substantial three-bedroom residences and four-bedroom homes.

MAYD has appointed Cera Stribley to lead the architecture and interiors, with the Melbourne-based design practice drawing on the beachfront setting through a series of ocean-facing terraces and heavily landscaped balconies.

Strong horizontal forms and curved balconies will define the exterior, with subtropical landscaping integrated throughout the building to soften the built form and increase the connection between the residences and the beachfront.

The project will also include an extensive collection of resident wellness and lifestyle facilities, continuing the broader shift across the Gold Coast's luxury apartment market toward larger homes supported by resort-style amenity.

<img alt="MAYD" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="d1bcbb05-e659-4b47-8bd4-1e595315e2ad" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-08-27%20at%202.05.03%E2%80%AFPM.png?VersionId=jj0XEud1X1DuLt7_KyElhjMdZGOXmLHP" />

MAYD Founder Todd Mould said North Kirra was increasingly appealing to buyers attracted to the more established, lower-density character of the southern Gold Coast.

"North Kirra presents one of the most compelling luxury residential opportunities currently emerging in Australia, combining absolute beachfront with the character and authenticity that buyers are increasingly seeking, and the same sense of tight-knit community that defined Burleigh and Currumbin perhaps 10 or 15 years ago," Mould said.

"With Gold Coast Airport on its doorstep, it also offers a level of accessibility that broadens its appeal across almost every market demographic."

The project comes as the southern Gold Coast continues to attract an increasing share of high-end apartment development and buyer activity.

Kirra in particular has emerged as one of the region's more tightly held beachfront markets, with its relatively low-density character, established surf and hospitality scene and proximity to Gold Coast Airport differentiating it from the higher-density markets further north.

Mould said those characteristics had informed the approach MAYD and Cera Stribley had taken to the project.

"We've worked closely with Cera Stribley to create a vision that is deeply connected to its surroundings," he said.

"Inspired by the coastline itself, the architecture has been shaped around space, privacy and resort-style living, creating a collection of homes that reflects the next generation of luxury on the southern Gold Coast."

MOTIV Managing Director Carly Cottam, who has been appointed to market the project, said buyer attention had continued to move south along the Gold Coast.

"Purchasers who may once have defaulted to Broadbeach, Main Beach or Surfers Paradise are increasingly recognising the value of a genuine beachfront location that offers lower density, strong amenity and a more established sense of community," Cottam said.

"Kirra has a powerful combination of growing demand and genuine scarcity. Beachfront supply is inherently constrained, the area remains relatively low density, and buyers are increasingly placing a premium on locations that feel established, uncrowded and authentic rather than heavily developed."

Cottam said the proximity to Gold Coast Airport was also proving increasingly important for interstate and second-home buyers.

"Being minutes from Gold Coast Airport makes it particularly compelling for interstate buyers, frequent travellers and second-home purchasers who can access an authentic coastal lifestyle almost immediately after stepping off a flight."

The acquisition takes MAYD's active development portfolio to more than $500 million, with the North Kirra project representing one of its largest undertakings to date.

MAYD is targeting an early 2027 launch.

Joel Robinson

First look at MAYD's North Kirra mixed-use precinct

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Castle Hill, the longtime hub of the Hills District, has been one of the major beneficiaries of Sydney's Metro expansion, with improved connectivity helping drive continued population growth, development and buyer demand across the Hills District.

But despite that growth, the suburb has seen relatively few major new apartment projects brought to market over the past 18 months.

Hills District developer Reve Group is looking to fill that gap with <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/nova-r-ve-castle-hill-2-garthowen-crescent-castle-hill-nsw-2154">Nova Rêve</a>, a major new mixed-use precinct on the corner of Garthowen Crescent and Old Castle Hill Road, a short walk from Castle Hill Metro Station and Castle Towers.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=152737 project_image_fid=377679]

The project will comprise three residential towers alongside a hotel, restaurants, cafes and a skybar, more than 1,600 sqm of ground-floor retail and almost an acre of landscaped gardens.

It represents the largest project undertaken by Reve Group, the development arm of the Kassis family, which has been building across the Hills District for more than 30 years through Kassis Homes.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=152737 project_image_fid=377675]

Nova Rêve also represents a significant step up from the family's first apartment development, Grand Rêve, which was delivered nearby on Garthowen Crescent.

Grand Rêve introduced larger, house-like apartment layouts and premium inclusions including Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances to the Castle Hill market.

Nova Rêve takes that approach to a precinct scale, combining the residential component with hospitality, retail and substantial public and resident landscaping.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=152737 project_image_fid=377685]

Reve Group Managing Director Sam Kassis said the project reflected the family's three decades of building in the Hills, which has evolved from trophy homes on quarter-acre blocks to larger-scale apartment development.

"Grand Rêve was our first apartment project here and it showed us what this pocket of Castle Hill could be. Nova Rêve is the refinement of that idea: not just apartments, but a place the whole suburb can use," Kassis said.

A key part of that approach is the hotel, which has been designed to operate as an amenity for the wider Castle Hill community rather than solely hotel guests.

It will include restaurants, cafes, skybars and all-day dining, alongside conference and event facilities catering to business functions, community groups and private events.

At ground level, more than 1,600 sqm of shops and cafes will open onto the surrounding streets and landscaped areas.

Almost an acre of gardens designed by Land and Form Studios will run through the precinct, incorporating pathways, seating, barbecue areas and children's play spaces.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=152737 project_image_fid=377680]

Reve Group's Romio Georges said creating an active ground plane had been central to the planning of Nova Rêve.

"There are gardens with pathways, barbecues, seating and play areas, shops and cafes opening onto the street, and a hotel with restaurants and a skybar that anyone in Castle Hill can walk into," Georges said.

The project's elevated position on one of Sydney's highest ridgelines will also provide apartments with outlooks toward the Sydney skyline, surrounding parkland and the Blue Mountains.

More than 80 per cent of the apartments will occupy corner positions, with Turner responsible for both the architecture and interiors.

&nbsp;

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=152737]

<h3 data-end="3697" data-section-id="q3n5ak" data-start="3672">&nbsp;</h3>
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Nova Rêve arrives as Reve Group bets on Castle Hill's next growth phase

A collection of just 25 large-format apartments and penthouses overlooking Goodwin Park is entering the Coolangatta market, with <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/marea-residences-coolangatta-27-27a-dixon-street-coolangatta-qld-4225">Maréa Residences</a> combining a low-density, residential-only approach with uninterrupted park and Pacific Ocean outlooks.

Located at 27 Dixon Street, Maréa comprises three and four-bedroom residences alongside a limited number of dual-level penthouses, with the project positioned between Goodwin Park and <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/coolangatta-qld-4225">Coolangatta</a>’s coastal precinct.

Construction has commenced, with completion currently estimated for late 2027. Three-bedroom residences are priced from $1.8 million.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150999 project_image_fid=374005]

The project has been designed around its northern outlook across the park, with the building’s architecture, landscaping and material palette intended to establish a connection with the neighbouring green space. The residences have been configured to maximise natural light and views across Goodwin Park towards the ocean.

Inside, the material palette incorporates timber, stone and brushed brass, complemented by curved detailing and ambient lighting. Kitchens and bathrooms carry the same natural material approach, while residences also include basement parking, storage and lift access.

Maréa’s penthouses are arranged over two levels and include private pools, adding another layer to the project’s focus on larger-format apartment living. Across the development, residences are configured with three or four bedrooms rather than the broader mix of smaller apartment types commonly found in larger projects.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150999 project_image_fid=374010]

Resident amenity is concentrated at rooftop level, where landscaped entertaining terraces and pools take advantage of elevated views across Coolangatta and the Pacific Ocean.

The project has so far been particularly well received by local owner-occupiers and downsizers, according to Urban Activation Property Sales and Marketing Director Matt George, with the residential-only format, construction quality and northern park outlook among the features resonating with purchasers.

“The uninterrupted northern aspect overlooking Goodwin Park has been a key point of difference, with buyers attracted to the sense of serenity and open space the park provides, while still enjoying easy access to the ocean and being within walking distance of the lifestyle and amenities Coolangatta has to offer,” George said.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150999 project_image_fid=374002]

“The combination of high-quality construction, a residential-only building, park outlook and proximity to the beach has resonated strongly with the local downsizer market.”

The Dixon Street address is within walking distance of Coolangatta Beach and the broader southern Gold Coast coastline, including the surf breaks at Snapper Rocks and Kirra. Coolangatta’s cafés, restaurants and retail are nearby, while Gold Coast Airport is also within close proximity.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=150999]

Maréa Residences brings parkside apartments to Coolangatta

Melbourne developer PDG has secured Victorian Government approval for its $1.5 billion Southbank development <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/the-one-1-queens-bridge-street-southbank-vic-3006">The One</a>, clearing the way for the long-dormant riverfront site opposite Crown to finally be developed.

The Minister for Planning has approved the project at 1-29 Queens Bridge Street, with the Department of Transport and Planning issuing the planning permit following its assessment.

The approval will allow PDG to develop the prominent 5,059 sqm site with a major mixed-use tower comprising premium apartments, including branded residences, a luxury hotel and boutique office space.

PDG acquired the site in late 2024, with its position directly opposite Crown's main entrance and near Melbourne's Arts Precinct making it one of Southbank's most significant remaining development opportunities.

<img alt="PDG" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="3933013e-6332-4386-b9be-089df05caf17" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-08-27%20at%209.29.22%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=sITIgBqDL0N3VNSMwWEmF5UA.uvcsRyu" />

Designed by COX in collaboration with ODO and PDG, the tower's architecture draws on the movement of the Yarra River, with six vertical pleats running the height of the sculpted facade.

The project will also see the heritage-listed Queens Bridge Hotel restored and incorporated into the development&nbsp;with new hospitality and public uses, including a rooftop venue.

A significant component of The One will be its residential amenity.

More than 5,000 sqm of resident facilities will be delivered across a single level, making it one of the largest consolidated residential amenity offerings proposed in an Australian apartment development.

The planning approval also incorporates a major upgrade of Queensbridge Square, which PDG will deliver in partnership with the City of Melbourne.

<img alt="PDG" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="73167fcd-1031-4b6f-a408-a064cfe45ed1" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-08-27%20at%209.29.17%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=Pf1AEWxw6SNmBqR0zQW5lyEze.MtxgFp" />

The existing square will be revitalised as a new civic and pedestrian space along the Yarra River, strengthening the connection between the project, Southbank and the riverfront.

PDG Founder and Managing Director Vince Giuliano said the approval represented a major milestone for a site which has remained largely underutilised for more than 15 years.

“This is the most significant Planning Permit approval Melbourne has seen in recent years,” Giuliano said.

“For more than 15 years, this site has remained underutilised. This approval enables us to deliver a project that will contribute meaningfully to the revitalisation of Southbank, restore and reactivate an important heritage building, and create a new civic and hospitality destination for Melbourne.”

The latest approval follows an earlier planning permit issued by the City of Melbourne covering demolition works across part of the site at 9-29 Queens Bridge Street. Those demolition and early works are already underway.

PDG has also started generating early interest in the residential component from owner-occupiers ahead of a planned public launch in early 2027.

PDG secures approval for $1.5bn Southbank apartment development, The One

Local developer Harridan is seeking to turn its Woolloongabba apartment project into the first stage of a broader transformation of Burke Street, using a new 16-storey mixed-use building to establish a greener pedestrian connection toward the rapidly evolving Boggo Road transport and knowledge precinct.

The South East Queensland developer has filed plans for 154 apartments on the <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/4-burke-street-woolloongabba-qld-4102">southern side of Burke Street</a>, where its proposal has been designed alongside a wider vision by LatStudios for the street.

That vision positions the southern side of Burke Street for buildings of 15 storeys and above, while envisaging lower-rise development of up to five storeys on the northern side to transition into Woolloongabba's existing character housing. It also proposes wider pedestrian verges, deep planting, new street trees and upgrades to the pedestrian approach to Boggo Road Station.

The Harridan development itself has been designed by Brisbane-based Arqus Design and will comprise 154 apartments across 16 storeys. The mix is weighted heavily toward two-bedroom apartments, with 121 proposed alongside 10 one-bedroom and 23 three-bedroom residences. There will typically be around 14 units per floor.

A lower-ground car park and three podium levels will accommodate 156 resident parking spaces, along with visitor and commercial parking. There will also be 154 resident bicycle spaces and 40 visitor bicycle parks.

&nbsp;

Harridan is a family-owned developer and part of the Holmwood Highgate Group, with more than three decades of development activity across South East Queensland. Its portfolio spans residential, commercial and industrial property, with current residential projects including Riverbank on Byron in Bulimba, Esperance Residences in Carina and The Precinct at Kinross Road in Thornlands.

Wooloongabba has been popular for apartment developers, particularly since the announcement of the 2032 Summer Olympics games in Brisbane.

While there have been a lot of development applications, it has failed to materialize into real supply.&nbsp;

Sarazin has been the major player in the area. They are under construction at Murcia Residences, on the fringe of East Brisbane and Woolloongabba. They have just launched <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/the-stanley-residences-woolloongabba-8-trafalgar-street-woolloongabba-qld-4102">The Stanley Residences</a>, in Woolloongabba on Trafalagar Street. They also have Nuage coming soon on the nearby <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/nuage-woolloongabba-14-wellington-road-woolloongabba-qld-4102">Wellington Road</a>.

First look: Harridan plans Burke Street transformation beside Boggo Road transport hub

Terry Ryder

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For the past three years, dwelling construction nationwide has been rising at an unprecedented rate.
New home construction was up 11% in FY2013, up a further 12% in FY2014 and is on track for another 8% rise in the current financial year.
The Housing Industry Association expects almost 200,000 new homes to be built this financial year or be under construction by June. This is a national record.
Across the nation, residential building approvals have risen 12% in the past 12 months, including a 19% rise in Victoria, a 14% rise in Western Australia and a 34% rise in Tasmania.
We’re at the point where we’re building too many new homes in some locations – and in particular far too many inner city apartments.
But, rather incredibly, the developer lobby is still crying shortage.
Last week the Daily Telegraph, never one to let the facts get in the way of a cheap headline, claimed Sydney is facing “a housing crisis with a staggering 190,000 shortfall in homes needed to house the growing population”.
The newspaper claimed it had obtained “an exclusive report” which revealed the breathtaking news that “Sydney councils have failed to approve new dwellings fast enough to meet demand, and were now partly responsible for the sharp rise in home prices in Sydney”.
Where did this priceless document come from? Yes, you guessed it, it was another press release from the developer lobby, represented in this case by the Property Council of Australia, singing its usual mantra.
In case you’ve forgotten how the manta goes, here it is: We have a chronic housing shortage crisis, despite all the contradictory evidence. And there’s only one way to fix it: give us our wish list and we can make the crisis go away. It’s purely coincidence that all the measures we’re recommending are highly advantageous to developers and builders. No, really, we’re serious.
Here’s the Sydney newspaper’s take on these stunning “research” findings: “More alarming was the finding that over the next decade, families would struggle to find anywhere to live, with an estimated shortfall of almost 20,000 homes a year being approved at current rates.”
So the “staggering” shortfall isn’t a fact, but a forecast concocted by people with a vested interest in having the claims believed.
“Sydney councils need to turbocharge housing supply because right now home buyers and our economy are paying the price,” NSW Property Council executive director Glenn Byres said, if you can believe the Daily Telegraph.
But the Newcastle Herald stretched the truth even further with the ludicrous claim that the Hunter region had a serious shortage of housing.
This region’s property market has been in rapid reverse for the past two years for the opposite reason: an alarming oversupply.
So how did the Newcastle Herald come to this stunning conclusion in the face of all the evidence? It was, once again, the Property Council, which has obviously been pumping out press releases all over the country as part of its relentless, remorseless and baseless campaign to pressure governments into concessions.
The newspaper wrote: “The supply of new housing in the Lower Hunter has fallen short of government targets by more than 23,000 homes in the past decade, with the deficit set to worsen to nearly 30,000 by 2024, a report done for the Property Council says.”
It would be hilarious were it not so serious. The reality is that developers, seeking to exploit the coal mining boom, flooded the Hunter region with far too many new homes – and, with that unerring ability of developers to get their timing wrong, this coincided with a collapse of resources-related demand.
In Singleton, residential vacancies rose from around 1% in early 2012 to about 8% in mid-2013, and remain high at close to 6%. Prices have dropped 15% and it takes six months on average to sell a house in Singleton.
In Muswellbrook, vacancies went as high as 15% and are currently close to 10%. It takes six months on average to sell a house, but only if you’re willing to knock 12% or so off your asking price. Prices are down 7% in the past year.
Cessnock got off relatively lightly, with vacancies going only as high as 6%, but in Greta they were close to 10% and remain above 5%. According to Domain, the average time on market to sell a Greta house is about eight months.
And in Branxton, vacancies hit 15% in 2013, were still 12% in mid-2014 and are currently 6%.
But, hey, don’t be fooled. There really is a shortage. The Property Council wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.
Indeed, it made the same sinister warning as the Sydney-based crowd. “Home buyers will pay the price if changes aren’t made to ensure the provision of more housing, the industry group has warned,” intoned the faithful Newcastle Herald, not one to rock the local boat by asking a tough question or two.
One possible question might have been: “Are you out of your freaking minds?”
The Newcastle Herald report, similar to the Daily Telegraph one, talked about the need to “turbo-charge” housing supply in the Hunter region. So clearly the Property Council has spewed forth the same basic press release everywhere, regardless of the local situation.
Hence the farcical outcome in Newcastle, with the local rag claiming that a grossly oversupplied market has a shortage.
TERRY RYDER is the founder of <a href="https://hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank">hotspotting.com.au</a>. You can <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email him</a> or follow him on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
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terryryder-YECXbqmri2

The development lobby is still crying shortage: Terry Ryder

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The Prime Minister’s clampdown on foreign investors in Australian real estate has been revealed as little more than a revenue raising exercise.
After all the posturing, this is what it comes down to: a cash grab. Politicians doing to real estate what they always do to real estate: using it as a cash cow.
Overseas buyers will be charged hefty fees for the privilege of buying Australian real estate and Australian developers will be charged the same hefty fees for the right to sell to them.
Otherwise nothing will change in the national property landscape. Not a single sale price will be reduced or not one first home buyer will be better off.
As well as a cash grab, the Tony Abbott move on foreign investment is also a push for popularity by appearing to be doing something for the ordinary bloke. But the thinking is so fuzzy and the policy delivery so confused that it won’t achieve even that shallow objective.
I listened to Abbott announcing and justifying the proposed policy and it was clear he had not sorted out his thinking. The arguments simply didn’t stack up.
He was still trying to infer that somehow this will help battlers achieve the 'Great Australian Dream' but couldn’t explain how this policy will achieve that.
He maintained that foreign investment was important to Australia and that foreign buying increased supply and therefore made dwellings more affordable for the ordinary bloke, but couldn’t explain how these new punitive measures would help to achieve that, when they appear set up to discourage and curtail foreign investment.
It’s all rather bizarre.
There are measures to clampdown on developers who focus their marketing overseas without trying to sell their high-rise apartments locally. But foreign investors are the sole reason most of these highrise buildings are being planned. This is particularly true in over-supplied markets like inner city Melbourne and downtown Brisbane.
They’re not designed for local consumption. Without most, if not all, of the units being sold offshore, these projects will not be built.
That will reduce supply, which theoretically places upward pressure on prices. And it will reduce construction activity, which is deemed the economic savior of the nation at a time when resources investment is declining.
The bottom line is that restraining foreign investment won’t make Australian dwellings more affordable. It will do nothing to change the situation for first time buyers.
Foreign investors are a very small component of the Australian buying market. Their activity is primarily focused on Top End properties in the prestige suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, and on highrise apartments in the inner city areas of our major cities.
They are not competing with local first time buyers. Restricting foreign buyers won’t change the price on a single house anywhere in Australia. It won’t stop people of Asian appearance (dubbed foreign buyers by disgruntled under-bidders) from winning bidding wars at Sydney and Melbourne auctions of prestige property.
It’s a Yes Minister scenario, designed by Sir Humphrey Appleby and delivered by a befuddled Jim Hacker, who somehow got the pages of the script mixed up - again.
TERRY RYDER is the founder of <a href="https://hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank">hotspotting.com.au</a>. You can <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email him</a> or follow him on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
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Abbott's foreign investor cash grab built on bizarre logic: Terry Ryder

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Most investors never make it past one investment property. The research indicates most Australians who buy an investment property no longer own that property - or any investment properties - within five years.
Sadly, many investors have bad experiences. They start from a base of little knowledge, compound it by failing to conduct (or pay for) quality research and ultimately make poor decisions.
I recently hosted a webinar which featured David McMillan, director of Performance Property Advisory, who said many investors fall victim to a series of myths and pitfalls.
They include:
<ul>
<li>Believing that property doubles every seven to 10 years on average. 
</li>
<li>Listening to mainstream media. 
</li>
<li>Failing to carry out proper research or being unwilling to pay for research. 
</li>
<li>Preferring, instead, to access free advice, which ultimately can be costly. 
</li>
<li>Failing to realise that the goal is not to buy property, but to build wealth. 
</li>
<li>Buying negatively-geared property in areas where values are not rising. 
</li>
<li>The “location location location” mantra, “an excuse for people to be complacent”. 
</li>
<li>Wanting to own local property so they can drive past to check on it. 
</li>
<li>Believing extreme bull or bear predictions.</li>
</ul>
“The property market does not double every seven to 10 years on average,” McMillan said. “This is one of the biggest myths in real estate. The agents have been very good at persuading the market that this is what happens. But doubling cycles are between 10 and 15 years.”
I agree with him. A 10% annual growth rate average was required for property to double every seven years, but the national capital city average for the past decade is 5.4% per year.
McMillan also shares my views about the real estate content of metropolitan newspapers. “A lot of what appears in mainstream media is what I call ‘noise’, which can distract investors and cause them to make mistakes by making decisions based on misinformation,” he said.
McMillan said people should never buy property unless it had a good chance of achieving at least 25% capital growth in the first three to four years of ownership.
“The only way to grow your portfolio is by owning property which gives you short-term growth,” he said. “As one example, investors should avoid Melbourne’s inner-city apartment market. The chances of any growth in the next three to  years are minimal. If an investor is spending $500,000 in this market, in three years it will still be worth $500,000 or possibly $480,000 or less.”
McMillan said Performance Property Advisory considered Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide to be the primary markets for investors, while Newcastle, Canberra, Sunshine Coast, Wollongong, Hobart, Geelong, Townsville, Cairns, Ballarat and Bendigo were good secondary markets.
He said land content was a significant driver of capital growth, while dwellings on the land were drivers of cash flow. “Buy property that has at least 65% land value,” he said.
McMillan advised investors to avoid small towns, mining towns, markets with poor capital growth records, and areas with an abundance of land able to be developed. “I would avoid mining towns altogether, especially if you are a first time investor,” he said. “The returns may be there in some years, but mining towns will always be boom and bust markets.”
Factors to avoid with individual properties include locations on main roads, being next to commercial uses including offices and service stations, and being close to train lines. “Buy close to train stations, certainly, but not abutting train lines,” he said.
McMillan urged buyers to avoid properties with noise issues, safety concerns and privacy issues. He also opposed “generic property” which lacked a scarcity element, such as modern highrise apartments.
He said investors should shun apartment buildings with more than 20 units and lots of common amenities such as pools, gyms and lifts - which increase liability and strata fees.
He said new developments often had low ceiling heights, small bedrooms, poor natural light, limited car parking and poor storage. “Owner occupiers will never want to live in them long-term. They will always be traded investor to investor.”
He preferred smaller boutique unit blocks, preferably with only half a dozen units, with individual character and good features. “Unit blocks built before the 1980s tend to have the best features,” he said. “In addition, you should aim for body corporate fees to be about 0.5% of property value.”
Generally, he recommended investors buy established property rather than new. “Established property is better value from a land content viewpoint and from a scarcity viewpoint. Units have land content but the land content with new high-rise units is very low, whereas with the older-style boutique buildings it’s high.”
This is reinforced by individual research showing that units in boutique blocks show much higher capital growth than units in generic highrise buildings.
TERRY RYDER is the founder of <a href="https://hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank">hotspotting.com.au</a>. You can <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email him</a> or follow him on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
If you missed our free webinar with Terry Ryder, 'The Best and Worst for 2015: Top 5 Hotspots and 5 Places to Avoid', you can <a href="https://propertyobserver.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=24bd0766a834290948593f5aa&amp;id=2e37cb3570&amp;e=035e81ff9a" target="_blank">watch the video or download the slides here</a>. 
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The greatest property investment myths and pitfalls: Terry Ryder

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Tony Abbott is on a yellow card and is one major mistake away from being red-carded.
Another display of the bad judgment for which he has become infamous and he’ll be kicked out of the game by his own team.
Un-phased, the Prime Minister is already working on his next own goal.
He’s made it known that he’s going to clamp down on foreign investors. Someone has managed to convince him that somehow this will bring down the price of houses and first home buyers across Australia will rejoice.
He’s getting seriously bad advice from somewhere. He could eliminate every foreign investor from the Australian residential landscape and it wouldn’t reduce a single home price.
Of all the buying sectors in residential property – first time buyers, next time buyers, local investors and foreign investors – overseas buyers are the smallest and least influential. The recent NAB survey confirmed this.
In the established homes market, where first home buyers are most active, overseas buyers are a negligible component.
Foreign investors are active primarily in the new homes market. They buy highrise apartments off the plan in the major inner city markets. This is not a market for first home buyers.
These two sectors – first home buyers and foreign investors – are not competing in the same space.
Abbott’s stance is an outcome of the federal parliamentary inquiry into the “affordability crisis”. This has been a farce from the beginning because it was based on the notion that first home buyer numbers had dropped alarmingly – which is now revealed as a miscount by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
So the initial premise arose from a mistake and Abbott proposes to compound the error with another, by blaming an innocent party for a non-existent problem.
The inquiry received evidence that foreign investors assist first home buyers because they’re the motivation for the construction of multiple highrise apartment buildings. The increase in supply is deemed likely to bring down prices, thereby assisting first time buyers.
I would suggest that’s a flimsy argument, but that’s what the pointless inquiry was told.
The strangest thing in all this is that the Prime Minister imagines Australians will thank him if he succeeds in reducing the value of homes across the nation. Given that seven out of 10 households own their homes, he’s on a confirmed loser with this one.
But whatever he does with foreign investors won’t affect the pricing levels created by market forces.
Once again, politicians are tinkering at the edges of the affordability issue. A leader serious about making new homes more affordable for first time buyers would address the single biggest issue – the taxation component in the cost of a new home.
New homes are a lot more expensive that established ones (which is a primary reason why first timers target established homes). The research indicates that as much as 40% of the price of a new house and land package is government fees and charges.
Dealing with that is simply not palatable for your average politician. Abbott is doing what politicians always do with the affordability issue – they talk about it a lot, but in essence they do nothing meaningful. A solution is within their power but they refuse to go there.
So the chosen course of action is once again taken from the scripts of Yes Minister. Find an unpopular minority and vilify them in speeches and press conferences, but at the end of the day do nothing that changes the status quo.
It won’t take long for people to realise that waving a stick at foreign investors hasn’t changed anything for first home buyers.
Poor Tony. When he needs to be riding a winner, he’s flogging a dead horse.
Or is it a case of dead man walking.
TERRY RYDER is the founder of <a href="https://hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank">hotspotting.com.au</a>. You can <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email him</a> or follow him on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
If you missed our free webinar with Terry Ryder, 'The Best and Worst for 2015: Top 5 Hotspots and 5 Places to Avoid', you can <a href="https://propertyobserver.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=24bd0766a834290948593f5aa&amp;id=2e37cb3570&amp;e=035e81ff9a" target="_blank">watch the video or download the slides here</a>. 
 
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Dear Tony, waving a stick at foreigners won't help first home buyers: Terry Ryder

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Stark reminders keep occurring of just how bad markets have become in mining towns and regional centres with a big reliance on the resources sector.
During our daily research routine, the Hotspotting team came across a local newspaper article which recorded homes for sale as low as $49,000 in Blackwater, a coal-impacted town west of Rockhampton, with an average sale price around $150,000.
Early in 2012 Blackwater had a median house price of $360,000, following a 17% rise in the previous 12 months. The median weekly rent was $675 and typical yields around 10%.
Fast forward three years: the median house price has dropped 28% in the past 12 months and the median weekly rent is now $300, less than half those peak levels, with typical yields about 4.5%. Vacancies have been as high as 8% and are currently 5%.
A few hundred kilometres to the north is Moranbah, the quintessential boom-bust coalmining town. I’ve written about Moranbah’s demise in considerable detail over the past couple of years. Suffice to say that the median house price, once $750,000, is now $285,000 – and the median rental yield, once above 10%, is now 3.65. Ouch.
Towns like this will recover in time, but the current state of the coal industry means a lot of pain for investors who bought in at the peak.
Experienced property analyst Louis Christopher wrote recently about similar agonies for markets in Western Australia. He noted that a house in the resources regional centre of Port Hedland had passed in at auction for $360,000, having been bought four years ago for a reported $1.3 million.
“It's a very sobering result and it could be a sign of worse to come in the Pilbara region if the iron ore price keeps dropping given burgeoning global supply,” he said.
“The modest 1960s fibro home on a 600 sqaure metres block failed to attract buyers, with the Port Hedland market especially vulnerable to the commodities downturn as it is one of the world’s biggest iron ore loading ports. The plunge in the iron ore price and slowing Chinese economy have stifled mining activity and stymied demand for property in Port Headland and other mining towns around the nation.”
Christopher said prices for three-bedroom houses in Port Hedland shot up in 2012 to $1.3 million, but the median is now just over $800,000. That’s a value reduction of half a million dollars for the average Hedland house.
Given that recent auction result, house prices could fall a lot further before they stabilise, Christopher said. This is a warning I have made in this column and elsewhere several times in the past year or so – not just in Port Hedland but also in Karratha and Newman.
It’s important these warnings are heard because spruikers who make their living peddling over-priced dwellings in places like Port Hedland would have us believe that these are growth markets, with double-digit yields available.
The reality is that these markets are still falling and, as Christopher warns, are likely to get worse before they get better.
“The drop in house prices (in Port Hedland) follows plunging demand for rental properties as fly-in workers fly out and stay out,” he said.
He said that asking rents in Port Headland had recorded a “staggering drop”, from a peak of $3,000 per week in early 2012 to $1,250 in February 2015. He predicts they will fall further, as do I.
Christopher says it’s a similar story in Karratha. “While house prices never soared to the extent that they did in Port Headland, three-bedroom houses have plunged 40% over the past three years, down to around $457,000,” he said. “Asking rents for houses have fallen from a peak of $2,000 per week in 2011 to around $900 now. 
“For the property investors who got caught up in the mining boom, the sting will be very painful. It’s a reminder that if you are buying property, the risks of falling prices are very real if the economic cycle turns - especially in boom and bust mining towns where what goes up, invariably comes down.”
The decline in these markets is not just about hard times in the iron ore and coal sectors. It’s also about over-building by developers and a failure to appreciate the full impact of the growing use of FIFO workforces accommodated in temporary workers villages.
Towns in Queensland’s Surat Basin are stark examples. Hotspotting research shows that about a quarter of the population of this region last year comprised FIFO workers – close to 15,000 extra people in the area.
But 94% of them have been accommodated in workers accommodation villages, usually located outside the established towns like Dalby, Chinchilla, Roma and Miles.
Developers built a lot of new dwellings in these towns expecting big demand from the coal seam gas boom. But few of the workers on the gas projects have rented houses in the region’s towns.
The outcome has been vacancies as high as 21% in Chinchilla and 30% in Miles, with rents inevitably heading south. Values are starting to follow.
This phenomenon means that even when commodity prices improve and industries like coal and iron ore start to expand again, it may not fill up all those empty dwellings in Port Hedland and Moranbah.
TERRY RYDER is the founder of <a href="https://hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank">hotspotting.com.au</a>. You can <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email him</a> or follow him on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
If you missed our free webinar with Terry Ryder, 'The Best and Worst for 2015: Top 5 Hotspots and 5 Places to Avoid', you can <a href="https://propertyobserver.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=24bd0766a834290948593f5aa&amp;id=2e37cb3570&amp;e=035e81ff9a" target="_blank">watch the video or download the slides here</a>.
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Mining town markets going from bad to worse: Terry Ryder

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Is there, anywhere in Australia, an economist who understands residential real estate?
I’m currently conducting a search. I’d like to meet her or him, if they exist. To date I have encountered in my travels myriad economists who don't have even the thinnest veneer of knowledge about residential property or what drives it. Let me know if you can identify one who knows how this industry works.
I met several last week at an event in Sydney. They all held impressive titles in major companies and institutions. None of them had the first clue about residential real estate. It was almost embarrassing to listen to them.
Here is the world of Australian real estate, through the eyes of your (very) average economist:
<ul>
<li>There is one market in the nation. It’s called “the Australian property market”.</li>
<li>The biggest single factor driving this one market is the level of interest rates.</li>
<li>Currently there is a national property boom.</li>
<li>The boom is driven by investor buying.</li>
</ul>
It’s easy to demonstrate that they are wrong on every one of those counts, which tends to render obsolete any other views they express about residential property.
The latest price data published this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics this week shows that there are many different markets in Australia and there is certainly no national property boom. The ABS data confirms earlier figures from Domain and CoreLogic RP Data.
Sydney’s median price rose 12% last year. Brisbane was up 5%. Every other city was 4% or less, including Perth, Canberra and Darwin which all grew less than 2%.  Even the weighted average for the eight cities is only 6.8%, a moderate growth figure inflated by Sydney’s high number.
It’s hard to construct a national property boom from those figures. But every day in major media you will read someone described as “chief economist” for a bank or other institution talking about “the national property boom”.
Every economist I meet or observe in media defines property in terms of the level of interest rates. Most see it as the sole determinant. They clearly haven’t spent any time studying residential property over the past 30 years. There are periods when sharply rising interest rates have failed to extinguish rising prices and other periods, like right now, when very low interest rates have failed to generate a widespread boom.
If interest rates were the core factor, Australia would be awash with booming markets after a  sustained period of record low interest rates. We clearly don’t have that situation – we have a boom in Sydney and a small number of regional cities.
The other big mistake made by the nation’s gaggle of chattering economists is that they think investors are driving their mythical boom.
In the simplistic mind of your average economist, if two events coincide then one must have caused the other.  There’s a property boom (they think) and the level of investor buying has risen, therefore they must be the cause. The Queensland election result coincided with a rainy period, therefore bad weather caused the demise of Campbell Newman.
The reality is that investors never drive anything in real estate. They never lead, they follow. They’re herd animals.
Owner-occupiers continue to dominate the market, despite what you read. The most recent breakdown of proeprty finance data I saw showed that owner-occupiers account for 61% of loans and investors just 39%.
Sydney’s boom, like most instances of elevated markets in recent Australian history, has been driven by the section of the market that no one ever talks about when looking for culprits for rising prices. They’re not local investors pumped up negative gearing, nor are they foreign investors, nor are they first-home buyers boosted by grants. All those buyer categories are minority parties, with muted influence.
The greatest chunk of the market - now as always – are the next-time buyers (home buyers other than first home buyers) and they are people with the critical mass, financial capacity and motivation to influence markets and drive up prices.
The latest “chief economist” to muddy the waters with misinformation, based more on navel-gazing than knowledge or research, is someone called Paul Bloxham from HSBC. It’s a bank, I think.
Even by the low standards of Australian economists, this was a particularly flimsy effort. It was headlined “Australia’s property boom may get bubbly.” Yes, there we have it again, that strange notion of a natonal property boom in a coutnry where only one city had growth above 5% last year.
<a href="/expert-insights/buying/sydney-prices-to-fall-hsbcs-bubble-warning">According to his report</a>, Sydney prices will fall because interest rates will rise to 2.75% … Sydney prices are over-inflated because there’s a high level of investor activity ... There’s a risk of a bubble … yadda yadda yadda. Not an original thought in the whole piece. Just the same shallow mantra sung by every economist in the land.
The notion that interest rates at 2.75% (still very low by historic standards) would precipitate a downturn is bizarre indeed. But, then, if you think it’s all about interest rates, you really have no one else to go in making a prediction.
If we could somehow prevent economists from speaking about residential property, life for real estate consumers would improve immeasurably. The national level of misinformation, the biggest single problem in the property industry, would collapse.
TERRY RYDER is the founder of <a href="https://hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank">hotspotting.com.au</a>. You can <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email him</a> or follow him on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
If you missed our free webinar with Terry Ryder, 'The Best and Worst for 2015: Top 5 Hotspots and 5 Places to Avoid', you can <a href="https://propertyobserver.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=24bd0766a834290948593f5aa&amp;id=2e37cb3570&amp;e=035e81ff9a" target="_blank">watch the video or download the slides here</a>.
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Seeking an economist who understands residential real estate: Terry Ryder

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Domain’s most recent price data had Brisbane as the number two capital city on median price growth in 2014 (behind, obviously, Sydney).
It found Brisbane’s price growth has risen to 6.1%, providing another piece of evidence that Brisbane and South East Queensland is the nation’s major rising market.
That in itself is not startling news, as many property analysts and commentators, including me, have been advocating Brisbane as a nation-leading growth centre for 2015.
On 1 December <a href="/expert-insights/buying/the-baton-is-passing-from-sydney-to-south-east-queensland">I wrote on Property Observer</a>:
“There’s a pretty good argument that the hottest property precinct in Australia right now is South East Queensland.
“Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast ... All three have hot markets. The research conducted by Hotspotting for the latest edition of the Price Predictor Index revealed 254 suburbs across South East Queensland with rising sales activity. To put that in perspective, the Sydney metropolitan area has 106 growth suburbs.”
So that’s a good starting point. But South East Queensland is a big chunk of territory. As I pointed out on 1 December: “Together they comprise a vast metropolitan area - ongoing urban growth means these three big centres have merged into one big conurbation which starts at the NSW border and extends 250 kilometres north to Noosa.”
So where to place a more focused span of attention? There are myriad options but one that I particularly fancy is the unheralded (indeed often maligned) municipality of Logan City.
The local council sees it as a strategic “city between two cities” because Logan bridges the gap between Brisbane City and Gold Coast City.
It’s a municipality of 60 mostly affordable suburbs and collectively they are a nice fit for <a href="/expert-insights/investing/my-basic-formula-for-identifying-hotspots-terry-ryder">my core formula of affordability + infrastructure + jobs = price growth</a>.
It certainly qualifies on the affordability score. It has numerous suburbs with median house prices below $300,000 and many others in the low-to-mid $300,000s. That affordability attracts a lot of people and its population is tipped to grow from 300,000 to 500,000 over the next 20 years.
An area needs to offer more than cheap housing to qualify as a hotspot and some have unkindly renamed the area Bogan City.
But Logan offers plenty in the way of infrastructure, services and amenities. Logan City is a 35 minute drive from the Brisbane CBD and the Gold coast via the Pacific Motorway - and is also well serviced by buses and trains on the Gold Coast and Beenleigh lines.
The area is especially strong on retail facilities. The Logan Hyperdome is among the largest shopping centres in Australia while furniture and homewares giant Ikea has a large outlet in Springwood. The Logan Mega Centre has 28 retail stores which mostly offer household and furniture outlets, but also camping and sporting goods.
There are plenty of schools throughout the region and there are also an unusually high number of golf courses.
Jobs nodes include Teys Australia, the second largest meat processor and exporter in Australia, based in Beenleigh. Teys, which employs 800 people, was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in December 2014. Another landmark is the Beenleigh Rum Distillery which began operations in 1884.
Logan is also not far to the Gold Coast theme park precinct, which includes Dreamworld and Movieworld.
Investors like Logan City because, in addition to cheap prices and solid growth prospects, it has strong rental yields. Most suburbs have median house yields of 5.5% and above, with several between 6% and 6.5%. The median yield for units in Beenleigh, according to Domain, is 7.1%.
Most of the Logan City postcodes have vacancy rates below 2%, according to SQM Research.
In the past 12 months, a number of the suburbs of Logan City have recorded growth in median house prices between 8% and 12%.
Developers are increasingly targeting this area with large-scale projects, including a $600 million retirement village, a $550 million tourism village, a $200 million residential estate and the new Alma Park Zoo, which is being relocated from the north of Brisbane.
A number of the area’s icons – including the Logan Hyperdome shopping centre, the Beenleigh Rum Distillery and McNevin’s Motel Loganholme – are undertaking expansions.
TERRY RYDER is the founder of <a href="https://hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank">hotspotting.com.au</a>. You can <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email him</a> or follow him on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
If you missed our free webinar with Terry Ryder, 'The Best and Worst for 2015: Top 5 Hotspots and 5 Places to Avoid', you can <a href="https://propertyobserver.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=24bd0766a834290948593f5aa&amp;id=2e37cb3570&amp;e=035e81ff9a" target="_blank">watch the video or download the slides here</a>.
Picture: Wikimedia Commons.
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A new South East Queensland hotspot? It's time to look at Logan City: Terry Ryder

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I talk a lot about infrastructure in connection with areas we rate as future hotspots. I often refer to infrastructure as the ultimate driver of values in residential property.
Over many years of researching outperforming areas, the Hotspotting team has found that the common denominators of most good growth areas are affordable real estate, good infrastructure (with a bonus of spending on new infrastructure) and proximity to major jobs nodes.
Many hotspots fit this basic formula: affordability + infrastructure + jobs = price growth.
Nothing in real estate is ever quite that simple, but that basic recipe is a pretty good starting point for property investors.
The term “infrastructure” covers all manner of things, but the key elements are transport infrastructure and education-medical infrastructure.
The core impacts of these types of infrastructure is that they create tremendous economic activity and jobs (leading to real estate demand) while under construction and they improve the amenity and appeal of locations once completed.
Transport infrastructure covers roads, tunnels, bridges and rail links which improve the accessibility of areas. Nothing revolutionises the appeal of a location like the creation of new train links.
Last week Channel 7’s Today Tonight interviewed me about my high rating of the suburb of Forrestfield in Perth.
There were two key factors. Apart from the inherently good qualities about this suburb (location, amenities, etc), it stood out in the short-term because of recent rises in sales volumes, leading inevitably to price growth. But, taking a longer-term view, the central factor was the state government decision to create a new rail line linking central Perth to Forrestfield via the airport.
In some ways, education-medical infrastructure is even more influential. I link hospitals and universities together because often they are clustered in the same location in our major cities.
One of the characteristics of this type of infrastructure is that it creates employment while under construction, but even more jobs once completed. Any suburb or precinct with a cluster of major medical and education facilities in its midst has a extraordinary source of accommodation demand. So much activity, including real estate demand, is generated around these types of facilities.
Infrastructure is the chief reason we rate the Sunshine precinct in Melbourne’s west so highly. The area already has a major hospital and two university campuses, but new spending will take this precinct to a new level. Another hospital is planned and an $800 million transport hub is being built as part of the $5 billion Regional Rail Link.
Events like this are game changers for property markets.
Big ticket infrastructure is influential in its own right, but one of the bonus benefits is the new activity it generates. If a major new hospital is built, other development will sprout around it.
Queensland’s Sunshine Coast is a transition economy, one that is evolving from a weak economy reliant on unreliable tourism to one with other strong factors. The game changer there is the $2 billion University Hospital. It’s a significant event by itself but it’s causing all manner of new ventures to spring up in its shadow.
There’s the Oceanside Kawana Health Hub, the $60 million Health and Social Wellbeing Learning Precinct and the $40 million IRT Woodlands retirement community.
These projects are all consequences of the creation of that massive new hospital. A whole new industry is being created and is helping to make the Sunshine Coast one of the most compelling regional economies in Australia.
Investment in infrastructure and property developments in the Sunshine Coast Region totals around $15 billion. No other regional city in Australia comes close to that level of investment (other than Gladstone, where those three huge gas facilities are under construction).
Terry Ryder is the founder of <a href="https://hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank">hotspotting.com.au</a>. You can <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email him</a> or follow him on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
If you missed our free webinar with Terry Ryder, 'The Best and Worst for 2015: Top 5 Hotspots and 5 Places to Avoid', you can <a href="https://propertyobserver.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=24bd0766a834290948593f5aa&amp;id=2e37cb3570&amp;e=035e81ff9a" target="_blank">watch the video or download the slides here</a>.
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My basic formula for identifying hotspots: Terry Ryder

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One of the specialist property magazines, for lack of an original idea, is featuring what it calls “the age-old stoush” of capital growth v cash flow.
This recurring theme in property media – whether you should buy for good capital growth or for good cashflow prospects – shows a fundamental lack of understanding.
Investors do not have to make that choice. A good property investment will provide both.
There are myriad opportunities around Australia to secure properties that pay their own way and are located in areas with the core drivers to deliver good capital growth as well.
Currently, the best income yields in the nation are found in Cairns. The days of double-digit yields in mining towns and resources-driven regional centres are over, for now at least. Cairns, meanwhile, can readily provide investment properties with gross yields in the 7-8% range.
Cairns is also a strong prospect for ongoing capital growth. The North Queensland centre has a poor record but in hotspotting the recent past is irrelevant. The future is another country.
Cairns’ future will be different from its past because there is fundamental change taking place in the city’s economy. Like others including the Sunshine Coast and Port Macquarie, Cairns is re-inventing itself, so that it is no longer just a tourism town.
Tourism-based economies are fragile and habitually bad real estate performers. It’s only when economies diversify through infrastructure spending and creation of new industries that their real estate performance improves.
Cairns is undergoing that process. There is major spending on infrastructure, city leaders are working hard to encourage economic diversity and, as a bonus, tourism is thriving again.
In New South Wales, Dubbo is one of the strongest regional economies. It offers an attractive package for investors: affordable property with good rental returns, underpinned by a growing population, a strong economy with diversity and plenty of jobs generation.
It’s not too hard to find houses with returns above 6% and the median house price has increased 10% in the past year. In other words, good cashflow and good capital growth is on offer.
At the Victoria-NSW border, Albury-Wodonga is one of the nation’s most important regional economies, underpinned by a strategic location with strong road, rail and air links. Houses are typically priced in the $200,000s and rental yields in the 6-7% range are common.
In the past 12 months, many suburbs including <a href="/news">Lavington</a>, <a href="/news">North Albury</a>, <a href="/news">West Albury</a>, <a href="/news">Wodonga </a>and <a href="/news">West Wodonga</a> recorded median price growth of 8% and above.
There are myriad examples in regional Australia. Toowoomba and Rockhampton in Queensland, Tamworth and Goulburn in NSW, and Bendigo and Ballarat in Victoria, are all strong growing cities that offer the desired combination of good cashflow and superior growth.
It’s a formula that can also be found in capital cities. Brisbane and Adelaide will be among the growth leaders in 2015 and both present options for investors seeking the best of both worlds.
In affordable Logan City, the municipality the bridges the urban gap between Brisbane City and Gold Coast City, eight suburbs have recorded median price growth between 8% and 13% in the past 12 months.
There are also a dozen suburbs with median rental yields in the 5.7% to 6.7% range.
The most compelling location in Adelaide, in terms of 2015 growth prospects, is the municipality of Salisbury in the city’s north. This is an area with good infrastructure and lots of major job nodes. Most of the LGA’s suburbs have median prices below $300,000, with typical yields in the 5.7% to 6.5% range.
Virtually every suburb in this precinct has shown some sort of capital growth in the past year, with more to come in 2015.
The question occupying the minds of property investors is not whether they should chase capital growth or cashflow, but which of many available options should they choose to achieve both.
Terry Ryder is the founder of <a href="https://hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank">hotspotting.com.au</a>. You can<a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email him</a> or follow him on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
Terry will be participating in a webinar on 'The Best and Worst for 2015: Top 5 Hotspots and 5 Places to Avoid' on 3 February.
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Best of both worlds - the cities where you can find capital growth and cash flow: Terry Ryder

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A NAB survey of residential property markets provides further evidence that media reporting of first home buyer activity is bunkum.
The NAB survey finds that 25% of established homes sold are being bought by first time buyers and that 24% of new homes are bought by first timers.
Some media outlets reported those figures rather nonchalantly last week, without realising the great significance of them. They make nonsense of the data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which suggests that first home buyers (FHBs) are as low as 10% of properties sold.
That ABS figure is held up repeatedly by commentators and journalists as justification for the claim that the 'Great Australian Dream' is dead, that we have an affordability crisis and that everyone from local investors to Chinese buyers are to blame for pricing FHBs out of the market.
It has also helped to generate a lengthy, expensive and totally pointless federal government inquiry into the so-called housing affordability crisis. That inquiry, which has been exploited by some politicians as a vehicle for grandstanding and career advancement, is based on a lie: that FHB activity is at an all-time low and it’s all because they can’t afford to buy.
The NAB is right and the ABS is wrong. First time buyers are out there as busy as they ever were. The ABS has been publishing a miscount – and, what’s more, it knows it. It has <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/5609.0" target="_blank">admitted that its data on first home buyers is suspect</a>.
I’ve explained why a number of times in this column and so too have other writers on Property Observer. The elimination, by most state and territory governments, of FHB grants for established housing (they now provide grants only for new dwellings) means most FHBs are not being counted any more because they’re not applying for grants.
They’re out there buying but are no longer identified as first timers in the ABS statistics.
Now the NAB survey has put some realistic numbers on first time buyer activity. Its survey suggests that, for established housing, 16% of buyers are first home owner occupiers and 8% are first home investors. For new housing, 16% are first home owner occupiers and 9% are first home investors.
First home investors are those who opt to buy an investment property, rather than a home, as a first purchase. Commonly, these are people who prefer to rent in their suburb of choice and buy an investment property in a cheaper area.
This really is a top story for an alert journalist. All the clamour about an affordability crisis and first time buyers disappearing is a furphy, based on a miscount. But most newspapers won’t write the real story because they’re addicted to the “Great Australian Dream is dead” storyline. Sad.
For the record, the NAB survey also finds that overseas buyers are 9% of buyers of established housing and 15% of buyers of new dwellings (mostly inner city apartments).
This puts into perspective those hysterical claims that foreign investors are somehow dominating our markets and pricing poor young Aussies out of the market.
TERRY RYDER is the founder of <a href="https://hotspotting.com.au/">hotspotting.com.au</a>. You can <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email him</a> or contact him on <a href="https://twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
Terry will be participating in a webinar on 'The Best and Worst for 2015: Top 5 Hotspots and 5 Places to Avoid' on 3 February.
Click here to <a href="/news">register now</a>.
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