SUNDAY BLOG

It is peak auction season in Melbourne and despite some busy auction schedules for agency offices, we still have a relative undersupply of property for sale. When we overlay this with increased buyer sentiment, (ie. returning investors, cashed up baby-boomers, motivated first home buyers and upgraders), we still have a market imbalance. Our auction clearance…

Back in 1999, I bought my second property. It was no means my eventual dream home, in fact it was quite disgusting. We paid $97,000 for it, which at the time was an exciting achievement. It was the only remaining house on a generous block of land within 600m to the beach and near to…

We help clients buy residential property with all kinds of histories; from down-sizers selling family homes to subdivided lots, from renovated period houses to rugged blank canvases. There is one particular category of home that ensures any challenges and teething problems are minimised, and that is a home that has been loved and lived in.…

Our auction clearance rates in Melbourne have grown quickly since the Federal election and the reason for this has been the perfect combination, (or perfect storm, as buyers would see it) of a heightened positive buyer sentiment and tight stock shortage. Vendors seem to be the last to catch on to the fact that a…

When markets adjust abruptly, typical analytical routines can become very challenging. In the property industry, the reliability of relevant data such as comparable sales comes into question, and it’s not just agents who struggle to keep up. Buyers and vendors also experience confusion around price expectation because their data points are changing at a rapid…

Most buyers would approach an auction with trepidation and caution. Plenty don’t have a firm plan. And very few would be on first-name terms with the auctioneer, but they should be. In most cases, we make sure we meet and greet the auctioneer every time before we bid. Knowing the listing agent and being familiar…

Now that property values in Melbourne are back on the rise after a miserable downturn, one social observation is loud and clear. Buyers are getting upset about under-quoting. This increased upset has struck consistently over the cycles as our market has started to show green shoots and spell recovery. Buyers who sat back to adopt…

Over the last two decades in particular, many Melburnians have gravitated to a more inner urban lifestyle where they can enjoy cafe precincts and connectivity to their favourite places without the need for a car. Since the days of the ‘quarter acre block with the Hills-hoist in the yard’, our preferences have shifted to a…

Prospective clients ask us all the time, “Do you get access to properties that aren’t advertised?” We do. All the time. They are called Off-Market properties, and just over a quarter of our acquisitions are done off-market. But not all off-markets are good. The difference between a good off-market and a bad one comes down…

In 2014 our prudential regulator, APRA issued a recommendation to our banks to slow down the rate of new investment loans being approved. Not until two years later did our lenders fully adopt the recommendations, but when they did; things got serious. The methodology adopted included; a reduction of the maximum Loan to Value Ratio…