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

Joel Robinson

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

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

WM Residences fills gap in Mordialloc townhouse market

&nbsp;

Developer GURNER™ Group has revealed $1.65 billion in residential sales nationally across the 12 months to December 2025, driven largely by the continued momentum of its Docklands wellness-focused precinct, Elysium Fields.

The sales result was generated across seven projects in Victoria and New South Wales, headlined by Elysium Fields, GURNER™’s $2.75 billion mixed-use precinct planned for Harbour Esplanade in Docklands.

The project has recorded more than $500 million in sales across the first three towers, equating to around 580 apartments sold.

The first tower, Helios, has now sold out of its 240 private residences, with GURNER™ preparing to release a premium penthouse collection comprising 15 three-bedroom penthouses in coming weeks.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=144441 project_image_fid=370975]

Elysium Fields is being developed on the long-held 20,000 sqm Docklands site at 208-226 Harbour Esplanade, which had remained undeveloped for more than two decades prior to GURNER™ taking over the project around four years ago.

Construction has now commenced across four towers ranging between 18 and 30 storeys, with Hamilton Marino and Maxcon appointed as builders.

Once complete, the precinct is expected to comprise around 1,100 residences, alongside retail, hospitality and public realm uses integrated throughout the site.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=144441 project_image_fid=370981]

Designed by Fraser &amp; Partners in collaboration with GURNER™ Design House, the project has been positioned around the developer’s broader focus on wellness-led residential living.

“We don’t sell apartments. We create a true luxury lifestyle that simply doesn’t exist elsewhere in the market today,” Founder and Executive Chairman Tim Gurner said.

“To deliver that requires an extraordinary level of detail, coordination and discipline across multiple verticals, from design and hospitality through to wellness and service.”

“We’ve always believed that living extends far beyond the physical residence. It’s about how you feel the moment you arrive, how you live day-to-day, and the ecosystem that supports that.” 
[smartcode_project:default project_id=144441 project_image_fid=370977]

The project’s design places a heavy focus on landscaping, wellness amenities and biophilic design principles.

Plans include around 3,700 sqm of landscaped gardens and open space throughout the precinct, alongside a retail and dining offering spanning approximately 5,000 sqm.

The broader public realm strategy centres around what GURNER™ describes as the “Path of Life”, an urban forest and landscaped pedestrian environment intended to connect the various buildings and wellness spaces across the precinct.

The apartments themselves will incorporate a range of wellness-focused inclusions, including purified air and water systems, circadian lighting, antimicrobial surfaces, and optional in-home wellness upgrades.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=144441 project_image_fid=370980]

Gurner said the company’s experience through its Saint Haven wellness clubs had directly informed the residential offering now being incorporated into Elysium Fields.

“We’re seeing a clear global shift toward longevity, performance and proactive health,” Gurner said.

“Our role is to deliver that in a way that feels seamless, highly private and beautifully resolved within the environments we create.”

A large component of the wellness offering is planned through the resident amenity and health facilities proposed within the precinct.

That includes plans for bathing and recovery facilities spread throughout the towers, incorporating mineral pools, saunas, steam rooms, flotation therapy, red light therapy and wellness lounges.

The developer is also seeking approvals for what it describes as a “reverse ageing medical clinic” within the precinct.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=144441 project_image_fid=370978]

According to project information released by the group, the proposed facility would include cryotherapy, IV infusion therapy, infrared and dry saunas, PEMF beds, MRIs, DEXA scans, brain scans and blood analysis services.

Within the first tower, Helios, residents will also have access to a dedicated amenity offering known as the Sky Private Club.

The upper 15 levels of the building will include private lounges, dining spaces, rooftop amenities and optional private wellness studios integrated within residences.

The Helios tower itself comprises 260 apartments ranging between 60 sqm and 300 sqm, including a collection of penthouses.

That includes a planned two-storey penthouse spanning around 600 sqm with uninterrupted bay views.

The Elysium Fields precinct is being delivered in partnership with Digital Harbour Holdings, a consortium that includes the Liberman family, which controls the development rights across the Docklands site.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=144441 project_image_fid=370979]

The sales result comes as GURNER™ continues expanding its national development pipeline beyond Victoria.

“We have a strong pipeline across Australia and are now focused on scaling into key markets including New South Wales and Queensland, while continuing to build on our Melbourne base,” Gurner said.

“We currently have more than $3 billion in the market, growing to over $5 billion by October, and expect to materially outperform last year in the 2026 calendar year.”

The result also reflects the continued strength of the upper-end apartment market in Melbourne, particularly for owner-occupier-focused product with large-scale amenity and lifestyle offerings.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=144441]

Record result anchored by the Group’s “utopian” Elysium Fields precinct – defying market headwinds in Docklands.

Elysium Fields drive Gurner to $1.65 billion in apartment sales over 2025

National Australia Bank (NAB) will fund <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/palmera-residences-gold-coast-18-garfield-terrace-surfers-paradise-qld-4217">Palmera</a>, a $1 billion, 52-level luxury residential tower being developed by Central Equity in one of the Gold Coast’s most tightly held coastal locations at Northcliffe.

The project, launched recently by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/central-equity">Central Equity</a>, one of Victoria’s largest private residential developers, comes at a time when construction funding for large residential developments has become increasingly competitive as lenders tighten exposure to the sector.

Multiplex has been appointed the builder, and construction is now underway.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=108274 project_image_fid=365784]

Since its first project, Central Equity has delivered more than 85 residential developments with a combined end value exceeding $8 billion.

Palmera reflects Central Equity’s growing focus on the Gold Coast luxury apartment market and continues a relationship between Central Equity and NAB that dates back to the late 1980s, when the bank funded one of Melbourne’s earliest inner-city residential towers at a time when high-rise apartment living in the CBD was largely unproven.

“NAB’s funding of Central Equity’s $36 million CBD development in the late 1980’s to the financing of the billion-dollar tower today highlights the long-term relationship between the two organisations in delivering major residential projects” said Central Equity Founder and Chairman Eddie Kutner.

He said NAB’s early support was instrumental in helping establish the company’s development model.

“When we commenced our first residential tower in the late 1980s the concept of funding off-the-plan apartments was still largely untested in Australia,” Kutner said.

“NAB recognised the opportunity early and supported the project when others were uncertain. That relationship has now continued for more than 37 years across many developments.”

[smartcode_project:default project_id=108274 project_image_fid=365771]

Central Equity was established in 1987 when Melbourne’s CBD and Southbank precinct were still dominated by warehouses and commercial buildings. Fewer than 100 residents lived in Southbank at the time, and large-scale residential development in the inner city was not widely considered.

Recognising changing demographics and lifestyle preferences, the company began developing high-rise residential projects designed to bring permanent residents into the city centre.

Central Equity has provided accommodation for approximately 40,000 residents across Melbourne’s CBD and Southbank, while also incorporating supporting infrastructure including essential lifestyle facilities like retail spaces, childcare facilities and neighbourhood activity centres.

Central Equity has spent many years assembling the Palmera development site on the corner of Garfield Terrace and Frederick Street in Northcliffe, creating a supersite of around 3,300 sqm.

The developer said the Palmera apartment tower reflects its long-term view of the Gold Coast as a growing and increasingly diversified economy.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=108274 project_image_fid=365768]

Supported by infrastructure including the light rail network, major road upgrades expanded education, hospital and medical facilities and continued expansion at the Gold Coast Airport with more international and domestic flights.

Positioned in the tightly held Northcliffe precinct, the 52-level tower will deliver 347 apartments, targeting buyers seeking a high-end coastal lifestyle, from downsizers to interstate investors.

Designed by Marchese Partners with interiors by DBI, Palmera has been conceived as a next-generation residential offering, featuring a collection of oversized apartments, with premium three-bedroom residences offering sweeping northern views stretching from Surfers Paradise through to Burleigh Heads.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=108274]

NAB funds $1 billion Surfers Paradise apartment development, Palmera

Two years after completing one of the newest developments in North Sydney, developer <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/aqualand-australia">Aqualand</a> is turning its attention to the rapidly evolving St Leonards apartment market.

The developer, which completed AURA by Aqualand on North Sydney's Walker Street, has lodged plans for a 5,918 sqm site at <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/33-37-herbert-street-st-leonards-nsw-2065">33-37 Herbert Street, St Leonards,</a> seeking approval for a pair of residential towers rising above a shared podium opposite Royal North Shore Hospital.

The proposal forms part of the broader transformation underway across the St Leonards-Crows Nest precinct, where former industrial and commercial sites are increasingly being redeveloped into high-density mixed-use projects tied to major transport infrastructure.

<img alt="Aqualand" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2cc428cf-fe70-4cac-9cd5-264ad53af62c" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-05-28%20at%209.51.56%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=otKSnHtbjAvAddOnovyXQMgcAwE6DMe1" />

According to the planning documents, the site sits “within the St Leonards–Crows Nest Strategic Centre, identified by the NSW Government as a key area for accommodating future jobs and housing across Sydney.”

The proposal has been designed by fjcstudio, formerly FJMT Studio, and is being progressed through the State Significant Development pathway due to its scale and affordable housing provision.

The scheme would comprise 413 apartments, including 46 affordable housing units, alongside retail and commercial uses fronting Herbert Street. The project would also include communal open space, landscaping, a swimming pool, gymnasium, children’s play areas and podium-level resident amenities.

Planning documents show the development would consist of a part-13, part-39 storey tower form positioned above a four-storey podium.

“The development comprises a unified podium that activates the street interface, and two setback towers to accommodate new housing supply while maintaining an appropriate human scale at ground level,” fjcstudio noted in its Design Report.

The northern and southern towers have been shaped to respond to the surrounding skyline while also limiting overshadowing impacts to nearby public open space, particularly Talus Reserve.

The design report said the differing tower heights were intended to “contribute to a varied skyline while responding to the surrounding built form context and solar access considerations.”

<img alt="Aqualand" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="36da62dc-ff9e-41f2-a7e3-7be38373751c" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-05-28%20at%209.51.45%E2%80%AFAM_0.png?VersionId=Mo6Rp2r.XRLTzIfg_PEEpw8NepDH8UBs" />

The site sits directly opposite Royal North Shore Hospital and within walking distance of both St Leonards Station and the new Crows Nest Metro station.

While the site itself sits just outside the formal Crows Nest Transport Oriented Development boundary, the planning documents repeatedly reference its alignment with the broader TOD objectives reshaping the Lower North Shore.

“The site is located adjacent to St Leonards Station and in close proximity to Crows Nest Metro which is within the Crows Nest Transit Orientated Development Accelerated Precinct which has been identified by the NSW Government to support housing delivery,” the Design Verification Statement noted.

According to fjcstudio, the project has been designed to respond to the broader transition occurring across St Leonards, where increasing residential density is being concentrated around transport infrastructure and employment hubs.

“The broader precinct is undergoing significant change, with a mix of existing mid-rise buildings and newer high-density developments,” the report stated.

“Recent and approved projects indicate a consistent shift toward taller built form, typically organised as tower-and-podium typologies with more active ground levels.”

The proposal includes close to 6,000 sqm of retail and commercial space across the ground floor and podium levels, designed to create a more activated street edge along Herbert Street.

Aqualand’s plans would also introduce a landscaped podium shared between the two towers, with communal open space in the form of a podium rooftop designed to support resident interaction and improve urban greening outcomes. The scheme would also introduce pocket parks at the northern and southern ends of the site, including a landscaped area at the corner of Herbert and Ella streets designed to improve pedestrian amenity and soften the streetscape.

&nbsp;

The proposal is being progressed through the NSW Government’s Housing Delivery Authority pathway, which was introduced to accelerate housing supply across the state. The application was declared State Significant Development in April 2025 following an expression of interest process.

<img alt="Aqualand" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="faf6d97d-2671-454f-b85a-fe1c6a7be608" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-05-28%20at%209.51.49%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=diVd28OBVr5.YV.7prrOz.uAanwwwm7a" />

St Leonards has been particularly active with new developments in recent weeks. Developer SP Setia’s <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/news/nsw/first-look-sp-setia-targets-st-leonards-skyline-with-40-storey-tod-tower">plans for a new 42-storey tower</a> recently went on exhibition through the same pathway, while <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/news/nsw/first-look-stockland-plans-52-storey-538-apartment-st-leonards-tower">Stockland’s 52-storey tower proposal</a> was also recently unveiled.

Aside from the St Leonards project, which is expected to take around nine months to move through the approvals process ahead of a potential 2027 launch, Aqualand is also preparing to launch Boronia, a new apartment project in Roseville comprising around 111 apartments on Larkin Street.

The developer also has approvals in place for the next stage of the Barangaroo precinct, which will feature new residential, retail, hospitality and community uses, alongside a new metro entry across the five-hectare site.

More than 50 new retail destinations are planned for Central Barangaroo, alongside a 270-metre-long boulevard connecting Hickson Park to Nawi Cove. Together with Harbour Park, more than 50 per cent of the precinct will comprise public open space and parkland.

First look: Aqualand joins St Leonards apartment party

Terry Ryder

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The great majority of consumers I meet are poorly informed about real estate.
They make bad choices on information sources – they read newspapers – and the misinformation they absorb leads them to bad choices on real estate.
Mainstream media is extraordinarily careless with its treatment of real estate information. Most articles are re-cycled press releases, which are essentially propaganda from vested interests, which means the information is suspect and ought to be rejected or at least challenged.
A current example is the credibility media is giving to the annual Demographia report, which is a work of fiction by a developer lobby group which opposes regulation of developer activity and has concocted “research” that appears to support its stance.
<a href="/expert-insights/investing/only-hong-kong-and-vancouver-dearer-than-sydneys-severely-unaffordable-housing-11th-demographia-2015-survey">Sydney is declared the third most unaffordable city in the world</a> in a report that compares Australia to only a handful of other nations and uses arbitrary, self-serving methodology to declare pretty much everywhere in Australia (and New Zealand) “severely unaffordable”, notwithstanding two years of very active markets in both countries.
I could write a book on the obvious flaws and suspect motives in this report but media regurgitates this nonsense without a single question to its authors.
But a more constant cause of real estate misinformation is the failure of economists, other analysts and journalists to appreciate this simple truth: a single month’s data is meaningless. There are always aberrations in monthly statistics. You need to ignore the hiccups and observe the long-term trends.
But few commentators and writers do that. The pursuit of a headline causes people who should know better to place undue emphasis on one month’s figures and create interpretations that are unwarranted - and often rendered obsolete by the next month’s figures.
We recently saw a sharp rise in the jobless rate, which created a great deal of media hot air, only to be negated by the latest monthly figure which has reversed the earlier rise.
In December, Westpac’s consumer sentiment index on real estate matters indicated a sharp decline in confidence, which was widely interpreted as evidence of the end of the mythical property boom. But the January index published this week reverses the earlier decline, making all that “analysis” a month ago a great waste of everyone’s time.
Every small monthly change in housing finance or building approvals – the market is raging one month, the boom is over the next and it’s all on again the one following – is given great significance.
The so-called property boom – the one that has been repeatedly described as national despite its absence to date in Canberra, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin, Adelaide, Hobart, the Gold Coast and most regional centres – has been declared dead at least four times since late 2013, all based on a single month’s data from a single careless source.
In each case, the declaration has been contradicted by the next month’s figures.
The outcome for consumers is confusion, misinformation and ultimately bad real estate decisions. I see the evidence of that every day. This nation is full of real estate consumers desperate for information they can trust.
Does anyone in media give a damn? There’s no evidence that anyone does. Today’s headline is the only issue under consideration.
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>.
</body></html>

terryryder-YECXbqmri2

A single month’s data is meaningless: Terry Ryder

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Residential rents around Australia stubbornly refuse to budge. Two sets of figures record the absence of meaningful rental growth in our capital cities in the past year.
One of the property magazines managed to concoct a “Rental growth at record levels” headline out of the figures from Domain Group and CoreLogic, but both sets of data show zero growth or falling rentals in most of the city markets.
The Domain figures for houses record no annual change for Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide and significant declines for Perth, Canberra and Darwin.
Hobart (up 3%) and Sydney (up 4%) are the only city housing markets to achieve minor growth.
Unit rents have been even more pallid. There have been annual decreases in Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Darwin, growth around 2% in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, and a 3.8% in Hobart as the best effort in capital city Australia.
There are similar results in the CoreLogic research. The combined capital city average is a 1.2% rise for houses and a 2.5% rise for apartments. Nationally, rents rose an average 2.6% for both houses and apartments, which suggests some of the regional cities have done slightly better than the state and territory capitals.
Rental markets are particularly poor in Canberra, Perth and Darwin, which mirror similarly mediocre performances on house prices in those cities in 2014.
CoreLogic suggests house rents in Canberra fell an average 5% in the past year, while unit rents are down 7%.  Perth has dropped 6% for houses and 4% for apartments.
The overall scenario is residential rents going nowhere or backwards in most of Australia’s major markets.
The rental research provides one of four data sets that show that “the chronic housing shortage” fabricated by the developer lobby is real estate’s biggest lie.
The second piece of evidence is the absence of major price growth in our major cities outside of Sydney (six of the eight capitals recorded growth below 5% in 2014), despite all the factors in favour of buyers, such as low interest rates, plentiful finance options and low unemployment.
The third factor is the high level of new home construction over the past two years (approvals recently reached record levels), eliminating any lingering notions that we weren’t building enough homes. And the fourth is vacancy rates in key markets, which suggest over-supply is the core issue, particularly in capital city apartment markets and boom-bust resources centres.
Here’s one illustration of how markets behave when there really is a housing shortage – and then what happens when developers go crazy and create the opposite problem.
Two years ago, when resources-driven demand was still high and accommodation was scarce, the median house price in Port Hedland was a whacky $1.2 million, having averaged above 20% per year growth over the previous decade. The median weekly rent was $2,500 per week and typical yields were above 10%. This is what happens when a shortage is real.
Then the iron ore industry went south, which coincided with an increase in accommodation supply. Developers have many skills, but timing is not among them.
Today the median house price in Port Hedland is $810,000, after decline averaging 7.5% per year for the past three years, including a 19% decrease in the past 12 months. The investor who bought at the average price two years would have lost $400,000 in value.
The median rent is now $1,500, still ridiculously high but down 40% on peak levels, and the median rental yield is 7% - if you can find a tenant at all, given that the vacancy rate has been stuck in the 6% to 8% range for the past two years, according to SQM Research figures.
Last week I had an email from an investor who bought in this market in 2012 and was initially getting $1,750 per week. The property is now empty and advertised at $750 per week.
Such is life in mining centres, where outrageous peaks and troughs are the norm.
Such, too, is the behaviour of markets in reaction to supply-demand factors. When rents are stagnant, or declining, you can be confident that the market is tending more towards surplus than shortage.
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>.
{mijopolls 76}
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Rental data shows "chronic housing shortage" is real estate's biggest lie: Terry Ryder

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There was a momentum switch in NSW real estate in 2014. The features in the second half of the year were
<ol>
<li>The biggest Sydney growth was in the middle and outer ring areas; and</li>
<li>A number of regional centres emerged with rising markets.</li>
</ol>
In the Sydney metropolitan area in 2015, growth is likely to be led by affordable fringe areas: Camden, Campbelltown, Liverpool and Penrith. The exception will be the inner-city unit market, where new projects will attract strong sales.
But the strongest growth may come in regional cities. The Central Coast north of Sydney and the Wollongong area south of the capital have already seen big increases. Places further afield will do well in 2015: Port Macquarie, Tamworth, Dubbo, Goulburn and Albury will be among them. 
I expect Brisbane to continue its rise. This was a year of recovery for Brisbane markets and that process should continue in 2015 (unless the city gets whacked by another New Year weather event).
The places with the strongest momentum are Brisbane Northside, the Moreton Bay Region and Logan City in the south.  We can expect inner-city units to make steady sales, but beware of oversupply.
As I suggested last week, South-East Queensland - Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast - is the nation’s No.1 market entering 2015. The Sunshine Coast has $15 billion in investment driving its transition from a tourist resort to a regional city. The genuine housing markets of the Gold Coast will do plenty of business, but I would avoid the coastal high-rise (permanently).
Toowoomba and Cairns will remain strong – both have considerable growth drivers. Townsville has been sluggish but should improve in 2015.
Investors should continue to avoid Gladstone for the time being, but we may see signs of recovery in centres hurt by the coal downturn – among them Emerald and Mackay.
Adelaide has undoubted momentum. There are suburbs with growing sales levels right across the city. The more affordable areas, like the Salisbury LGA in the north, stand out. I don’t expect boom-style growth, but Adelaide should have a solid year.
There are also several regional centres with growth markets in South Australia, including Mt Gambier, Murray Bridge and Port Augusta.
Melbourne hasn’t had a boom but it has delivered good growth in the past two years. Now the momentum has shifted from the centre to the outer areas. The Sunshine precinct is strong, as are middle-market areas like Monash City.
I expect good 2015 growth in the Whittlesea, Casey, Frankston and Mornington Peninsula LGAs. In the regions, Ballarat and Bendigo will gather strength as major infrastructure, like the $5 billion Regional Rail Link, nears completion.
After a couple of solid years, Perth tapered off in 2014, although growth markets remain. There will still be momentum in 2015 in the cheaper areas like Rockingham.
The regions south of Perth will be market leaders, including Mandurah, Bunbury and Busselton. The Real Estate Institute of WA says Busselton was No.1 for price growth in 2014 – and that concurs with my own research – but the regional centre with the greatest head of steam is Mandurah.
Darwin is always a difficult market to read. What I do know is that Darwin is one of the nation’s most consistent cities. It has the highest price growth rate among the capital cities, the highest rents and the highest capital city yields. Sales levels have been very consistent over the past two years.
There are two areas of concern: one is an oversupply of inner-city units and the other is the impact when construction of the $30 billion Ichthys gas project winds down. I would treat Darwin with some caution in 2015 until things become clearer.
Outside the Territory capital, Katherine is a market to watch. It will benefit from two significant events: expansion of the nearby RAAF Base and further stages of the Ord River scheme across the border in Western Australia.
Hobart is quietly picking up pace, although it’s unlikely to break any records on price growth next year.
Canberra continues to get left behind by the other capital cities. News about down-sizing the public service continues to hurt confidence. Steer clear of the Canberra unit market, which has been in steady decline for two years.
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://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.
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Here’s what I see coming up next year

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People keep lining up to win my coveted “misinformation of the year” award. New contenders have nominated themselves with the publication of a list that purports to name the 10 best places to buy for high yields.
This one is also in the running for “most humorous material masquerading as research”.
The funny thing about the <a href="/expert-insights/investing/australia-s-top-10-highest-yielding-house-suburbs-corelogic">10 best-yielding locations list</a>, published by CoreLogic RP Data, is that it’s almost identical to my “worst places to buy in Australia” list.
As part of the Price Predictor Index, which generally charts rising markets around the nation, I publish what I call The Dirty Dozen – the 12 worst places to buy. These are places where the market is in serious trouble, with sales activity falling, followed inevitably by price decline.
The Top 10 rental yields list from CoreLogic includes five of my Dirty Dozen. Four others listed as high yielding were serious Dirty Dozen contenders but narrowly missed the cut.
They’re all places with massive vacancies, falling rentals and declining markets. The only place on the Top 10 rental yields list worthy of consideration by investors is Broken Hill.
Number one on the Top 10 rental yields list was Miles in Queensland. This was a truly tragic choice because the property market in Miles is the biggest basket case in Australian real estate, bar none. One in three properties is vacant. Even Moranbah is doing better than this.
To suggest you can get a 9.8% rental yield in Miles is laughable. The rental yield for most landlords out there is zero. You can’t have a yield if you can’t find a tenant.
Here’s what I wrote in The Dirty Dozen: “The property market in Miles has been effectively destroyed (by developer oversupply). Vacancies are now 30% and the median house price has dropped 27% in the past 12 months. It now takes six months, and discounting around 20%, to sell a house. In the past five quarters, house sales in Miles have dropped from 24 to 15 to 12 to six to one.
“It’s little better in Chinchilla, where sales volumes have dropped from 78, to 51 to 40 to 27 to 19 in the past five consecutive quarters and the median house price is down 10%. The vacancy rate in Chinchilla is now 19%, according to SQM Research. Another market to vanish without trace is Wandoan, where there have been just two sales in 2014.”
Number two on the Top 10 high yields list was Newman in Western Australia. The vacancy rate in Newman is 11% and typical rents are now less than half their peak levels. Rental yields, previously in double digits, are now 5.3%, according to Australian Property Monitors – not the 9.8% quoted by CoreLogic.
Kambalda East came in at number three and Kambalda West was number eight. The two Kambaldas together have a vacancy rate a tick under 20%. Good luck achieving the 8.9% rental yield claimed by CoreLogic.
Queenstown in Tasmania was number four on the list. Here’s my report on Queenstown: “If there’s a more depressing town in Australia, or a more depressed property market, please tell me about it. This town in Tasmania’s wild west resembles the film set for a western movie, with tumbleweeds in the main street.
“The median house price ($90,000) says a lot. It’s been as low as $70,000 this year, which was lower than it was five years ago, having dropped an average of 3% per year since 2009. The typical house on the market takes seven months and discounting around 15% to sell. The vacancy rate is 17%, according to SQM Research. The mid-year closures of the Mt Lyell copper mine and the Henty gold mine, with the loss of hundreds of jobs, haven’t helped.
“Nearby towns Zeehan and Rosebery are equally depressed, with a vacancy rate around 25% in Zeehan. You can buy cottages for under $50,000, not that there’s a reason to.”
The Top 10 list also includes other seriously declining markets about which I have written recently, like South Hedland, Port Hedland and Karratha, which has recorded the biggest decline in prices in WA (down 40%), according to the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia.
The problem with this kind of sloppy “research” is that it’s picked up by media and repeated as credible information. Local media has reported these locations as being as among the nation’s leading hotspots.
Anyone silly enough to act on the interference that these are good places to invest will end up, in many cases, without any yield at all.
You can contact Terry via  <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email</a> or <a href="https://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. 
Photo: Michael Sigrist/<a class="mw-mmv-license" href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0" target="_blank" style="line-height: 1.3em;">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>.
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The 'highest yielding suburbs' are almost identical to my 'worst places to buy in Australia' list

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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: 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 kilometers north to Noosa.
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. If you add in the Central Coast, which has caught the growth wave from the capital city, there are 120 growth markets.
This shows that, while Sydney is the nation’s hottest big market in terms of price growth, it’s starting to fade (though not markedly, as yet), while South East Queensland is starting to rise.
So when you see headlines suggesting that the boom is fading and price growth is starting to dissipate, remember that it’s Sydney they’re talking about. There are markets elsewhere in Australia that are really just starting their run.
They include Adelaide and Hobart, as well as numerous regional cities in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.
But the headline event is the rise of South East Queensland. While there has been some price growth in 2014, to date it has been fairly moderate.
The big shift has been in sales volumes and that’s what I mean when I say there are 254 growth suburbs in the region – 254 suburbs throughout Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast with distinct patterns of rising sales activity.
The greatest price growth will come in 2015.
I remain hesitant about the Gold Coast. There’s no doubt that the oversupply that has dragged down this market for five years has now been absorbed – and that there is a significant real estate recovery under way.
The heartening thing is that most of the growth suburbs on the Gold Coast at the moment are what I would call genuine housing markets – inland suburbs where houses are being sold, rather than coastal locations where highrise apartments are flogged to investors and speculators.
Unfortunately, that will change. Now that the Gold Coast is back on a growth path, developers are flocking back, intent on creating the next oversupply. Driven more by ego and greed than common sense, developers are competing for the title of biggest project and tallest tower.
And, like their counterparts in Melbourne, it’s all designed for sale to Chinese investors. It won’t end well.
Beyond that cautionary note, the message about Brisbane and South East Queensland looks highly positive at the moment.
The opportunity for investors lies in understanding that the rise in sale volumes we have seen in 2014 is a forerunner to significant price growth.
South East Queensland has more momentum now than does Sydney, but it’s not yet reflected in price growth data.
That is yet to come.
You can contact Terry via <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email</a> or <a href="https://www.twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. 
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The baton is passing from Sydney to South East Queensland

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The most predictable thing to happen in Australian real estate this year is the decision not to proceed with an $8 billion resort in Cairns.
The alleged Hong Kong billionaire who was allegedly planning to spend billions building an extravaganza in North Queensland has reportedly decided to spit the dummy because he can’t get what he wants.
There was always an unreal quality about this scheme. I can’t imagine anyone spending that amount of money on a resort anywhere in the world, let alone in a small regional city in Australia.
Almost exactly a year ago, <a href="/news/qld/theres-many-reasons-to-invest-in-cairns-but-a-grandiose-resort-complex-is-not-one-of-them">I wrote this</a> on Property Observer: “There are many reasons to consider buying in Cairns. But a grandiose plan for a $4.2 billion (as it was then) resort complex should not be one of them.
“Earlier this year, Hong Kong businessman Tony Fung announced his plan for the biggest tourism property development Australia has seen. Aquis will have nine hotels with 3,750 rooms plus 1,200 apartments, a sports stadium, a convention centre, an 18-hole golf course and an aquarium clustered around an aquatic paradise. The artists impression looks like something you might expect to see in Dubai or Macau.
“Queensland Premier Campbell Newman got quite excited about it and promised to wave it through the approval processes as only a conservative Queensland government can.
“And, according to reports, many developers and investors are excited, too. Suddenly Cairns is on the radar screen, in a way that hasn't happened since the frothy days of Japanese mega investment in the 80s. There's been a surge in building applications which the council says is inspired by the Aquis proposal.
“Frankly, it's all rather ridiculous. A $4.2 billion resort development in a regional city of 150,000? I'll believe it when I see it.”
Well, it looks like I’ll never see it. And you’ll notice that, along the way, the $4.2 billion resort proposal has morphed into an $8 billion proposal.
So, here’s the core lesson. A lot of people got excited about this proposal and wanted to invest in Cairns. That was seriously not logical. Sadly, too many people make investment decisions based on the hype surrounding an extraordinary event.
<blockquote>
Sadly, too many people make investment decisions based on the hype surrounding an extraordinary event.
</blockquote>
Here’s the question every investor must ask when they get excited about a location on the basis of one major proposed event: If this major event does not go ahead, is this still a good place to invest?
If the answer is no, don’t buy there.
Fortunately, the answer in the case of Cairns is yes. For the past two years, I have been recommending Cairns a good place to consider for property investment. The Fung furphy was never part of the equation that led me to that recommendation. When I first put Cairns in my hotspots reports, the grandiose resort had not been announced.
Cairns stacks up for other reasons. It’s an example of a regional centre which has struggled in the past because its economy was fundamentally based on tourism – but which is now moving to a new level because (a) the economy is diversifying; (b) big money is being spent on infrastructure; and (c) as a bonus tourism has come back strongly, led by a big influx from China.
Cairns also has the best rental yields in Australia, including mining towns  (most of which are no longer providing high yields, because of high vacancies and sharply falling rentals).
And, in the past 12 months, most of the suburbs of Cairns have delivered double-digit price growth, with some growing above 20%.
You can contact Terry via <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. 
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Not all doom and gloom for Cairns, despite $8 billion resort falling through

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The emergence of markets in regional New South Wales ranks among the most noteworthy features of Australian real estate in 2014.
Partly for local reasons and partly through the ripple effect from Sydney’s buoyant market, there are growing numbers of regional NSW cities and towns with growth property markets.
This started earlier in the year in locations close to Sydney, including Gosford, Newcastle, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong.
The research conducted for the latest edition of The Price Predictor Index, which charts sales activity for every suburb and town across Australia, shows that more distant markets are now stirring to life. They include <a href="/news">Tamworth</a>, <a href="/news">Port Macquarie</a>, <a href="/news">Albury</a>, <a href="/news">Orange </a>and <a href="/news">Dubbo</a>.
Some are locations which have been dismal performers on capital growth over the past 10 years, but are now recording significant upturns in market activity, with prices starting to follow. Port Macquarie and Gosford are examples.
One of the strongest pockets of regional NSW growth is the Central Coast area focused on the Gosford and Wyong LGAs. They were among the first to rise and they continue to be strong precincts.
16 of the suburbs in the Gosford LGA are ranked markets - rated in the index as either ‘rising fast’, ‘rising steadily’ or ‘consistency’ markets. As one example, sales in <a href="/news">East Gosford</a> have risen from 29 to 36 to 55 in consecutive quarters this year.
The Wyong LGA has 15 ranked suburbs, including eight rated as ‘rising steadily’ and seven as ‘consistency’ markets.
The wider Newcastle area continues to deliver growth markets and others marked by admirable consistency. The LGAs of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and <a href="/news">Port Stephens</a> all have ranked suburbs, including 11 in the Newcastle municipality.
There are also glimmers of life in some of the nearby Hunter Valley areas, which have been suppressed over the past two years by developer oversupply and a reduction in coal-related demand. The Maitland LGA in particular appears to be mounting a revival.
Further north, the Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Ballina and Tweed municipalities all have emerging markets.
House sales in Port Macquarie have risen from 200-220 per quarter in 2012-13 to 300-plus in 2013-14. In <a href="/news">Ballina</a>, sales in the past six consecutive quarters have been 18, 36, 42, 45, 43 and 51 – this is the kind of pattern that delivers price growth.
The Blue Mountains area is demonstrating the resilience in the face of natural disasters which is a characteristic of Australia. Devastated by bushfires a year ago, the region has bounced back strongly. <a href="/news">Blackheath</a>, <a href="/news">Katoomba </a>and <a href="/news">Lithgow </a>are among the growth markets in that region.
South of Sydney, the Wollongong and Shoalhaven area have numerous strong markets.
Inland regional centres with growth prospects include <a href="/news">Dubbo</a>, Albury, <a href="/news">Bathurst</a>, Orange, <a href="/news">Tamworth </a>and <a href="/news">Goulburn</a>.
In Goulburn, near Canberra, quarterly sales have risen from 116 to 120 to 134 to 155 since late last year.
The key thing to note is that it takes time before this kind of upturn in sales activity translates into price escalation. The locations which were first to spring to life, such as the suburbs of the Gosford LGA, have already had strong prices growth. Many of these suburbs have recorded median price growth above 12% in the past 12 months.
But most of the regional centres I’ve mentioned, the ones that have only recently lifted sales activity, are yet to record major price growth.
Places like Goulburn, Port Macquarie, Bathurst and Orange have recorded growth below 5% to date. Given the pattern of sales activity, more price growth is likely to follow.
You can contact Terry via  <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. 
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Gosford, Newcastle and Port Macquarie among NSW's top emerging regional markets

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EXCLUSIVE: Negative gearing – what needs to change?

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While some commentators suggest a slowdown in city markets, there’s little evidence of that in Melbourne.
There are growth markets spread throughout the Melbourne metropolitan area. There isn’t a single market leader, but strong precincts north, south, east and west of the Melbourne CBD.
Local government areas that feature as places with forward momentum include Brimbank in Melbourne’s west; Monash in the mid south-east; Casey, Kingston and Greater Dandenong in the far south-east; Mornington Peninsula in the far south; Whitehorse in the east; Darebin in the mid north; and Whittlesea in the far north.
Upmarket areas such as the Boroondara LGA (including Balwyn, Ashburton, Hawthorn and Kew), and the Glen Eira LGA (Bentleigh, Elsternwick and Caulfield) feature, but most of the standout precincts are middle market and bottom end suburbs.
Melbourne’s up-cycle began in 2013 with the inner city and the prestige suburbs of the inner south-east. But in 2014 the momentum has spread increasingly to the middle ring and outer ring suburbs.
Whittlesea in the north of the metropolitan area is a strongly emerging precinct, where suburbs like Epping, Mill Park and Thomastown have rising sales volumes. In consecutive quarters this year Epping house sales have risen from 75 to 112 to 115, while Mill Park has jumped from 64 to 86 to 97 houses sales per quarter.
The key feature for the suburbs in this precinct is affordability (median house prices in the high $300,000s), coupled with good transport links and easy access to major jobs nodes.
The Darebin municipality in the mid north is another rising precinct, where Preston, Thornbury and Reservoir stand out. Sales in Preston, normally around 100 per quarter, were 170 to 180 in both the June and September Quarters.
The Brimbank LGA in the western suburbs continues to stand out, based around the suburb of Sunshine. Sales volumes in Sunshine North have been 36, 45, 48, 54 and 61 in consecutive quarters, a pattern that inevitably generates prices growth.
Again, it’s the power combination of affordability, good infrastructure (including a major hospital and two university campuses) and jobs nodes that drives this precinct, with the major boost of the Melbourne transport hub for the Regional Rail Link on the way.
Similar forces are pushing the market in the Casey LGA in the south-east, where there are eight growth markets. Nearby Greater Dandenong has five rising suburbs.
The Kingston LGA, which includes middle market suburbs such as Cheltenham and Parkdale, continues to emerge.
Other middle market areas to feature are the Monash and Whitehorse LGAs.
Monash City, another precinct boosted by the presence of major education and medial infrastructure, has multiple growth markets, while the Whitehorse LGA east of the Melbourne CBD has eight rising suburbs, including Box Hill, Blackburn, Forest Hill and Surrey Hills.
Market momentum in the Melbourne metropolitan area spreads down to the Mornington Peninsula in the far south, where suburbs like Dromana, Blairgowrie, Rosebud and Mount Martha are moving forward.
Dromana, which was making 40 to 45 sales per quarter last year, is now doing 60 to 70. Inevitably, price growth has followed, with the median house price up 11% in the past 12 months.
You can contact Terry via <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. 
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Momentum shifts to Melbourne's more affordable markets

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Most real estate articles published these days are nothing more than press releases with headlines. There is no journalistic content, other than (sometimes) a quick re-write for which the journalist claims a byline as if it’s an original piece of creative work.
The result, usually, is misinformation. It’s the inevitable outcome because a press release is a piece of propaganda written by someone with a vested interested in the claims being made. Often the content consists of lies disguised as research or sensational claims designed to generate cheap publicity for the authors or their companies.
If a media organisation publishes the propaganda without proper scrutiny and journalistic input (asking questions of the source, seeking alternative viewpoints, conducting other research, etc) then the media organisation is misinforming its customers.
Misinformation is a serious issue because real estate consumers base major decisions on what they absorb from media. A decision based on bad information is a bad decision, likely to lead to a poor investment outcome.
Often the content of a press release is designed for no purpose other than to generate media profile for the organisation writing it. The more sensational the material, the more likely it is to be published.
So it was this week, with what I see as worst example of this problem in 2014.
<blockquote>
Misinformation is a serious issue because a decision based on bad information is a bad decision, likely to lead to a poor investment outcome.
</blockquote>
A mortgage broking firm came up with what some of the nation’s largest newspapers called “analysis” to estimate house prices will be in our capital cities 10 years from now.
They made the attention-grabbing conclusion that all the capital cities except Hobart will have median house prices above $1 million within a decade. One Sydney newspaper printed it with this unbelievable headline: “House prices to soar as skyrocketing rises continue.”
And what was the “analysis” that arrived at this startling result? The mortgage brokers simply concocted a fictitious growth figure and applied it equally to all eight capital cities. This is the first clue that this is nonsense.
Somehow, we’re expected to believe that all eight cities will grow at exactly the same rate between now and 2024 – and that the magical figure is 8.12% per year.
Where this figure came from was not explained.
It should be already apparent that this has no credibility - but in case it’s not, let me illustrate by examining the past 10 years based on actual data.
Last month, data recorded the growth rates for median house prices in the eight capital cities since 2004 finding that the weighted average across the eight cities was recorded at 5.44% per year. You can <a href="/expert-insights/investing/which-capitals-did-not-double-in-value-over-the-last-10-years">see here which capital cities managed to perform</a>.
So my first question is: given that the past decade has included a couple of major growth periods, and the average growth rate was 5.44%, what drivers will push growth rates above and beyond that to 8.12%? Why will the next decade be so much more prolific than the last (particularly as most commentators, myself included, expect the opposite to be true)?
Looking again at the past 10 years, there were big differences in the growth rates from one city to the next. Hobart and Sydney grew around 3% per year on average. Canberra managed a tick under 4% a year. Brisbane’s growth rate was 4.4% a year and Melbourne’s was 4.8%.
The best performers, and this correlates with other research from other sources, were Perth (averaging almost 9%) and Darwin (averaging slightly less than 10%).
So here’s my next question: given that the growth rates in the individual cities ranged from 3% in Hobart to 5% in Melbourne to 10% in Darwin, why will all cities grow at exactly the same rate between now and 2024?
The answer is that they won’t. They never have and I dare say they never will.
And, as an offshoot to that question, how will the five cities which grew less than 5% a year over the past decade manage better than 8% a year over the one to come?
The mortgage broking firm which published this rubbish conducted no “analysis” – they threw together some rubbery figures and sat back smiling while major newspapers published it as credible information.
This wins my annual awards for the worst piece of misinformation for the year, the most shameless grab for publicity and the worst example of non-journalism.
It would be comical, were it not so serious.
You can contact Terry via  <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. 
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Terry Ryder

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