Sunday Blog - Expert property investment insights

RECHARGE & RELOAD YOUR PROPERTY GAME.

Bandaid

Five conscious decisions that can undermine a positive property investment outcome

By Cate Bakos | March 14, 2021

I was reflecting on a few of my recent and memorable prospect meetings yesterday while I drove down to Geelong. I started thinking about the key things that so many investors get wrong, and when I categorised the conscious-decision based mistakes, I recognised five clear variants. That is, five critical errors that investors consciously decide…

Small Map

Why are rental yields lower?

By Cate Bakos | March 7, 2021

Once upon a time, a median house in Ballarat delivered around a five per cent gross rental yield. In fact, prior to 2010 rental yields even eclipsed this figure. Ballarat has been a popular location for investors for many reasons but of late, it hasn’t been investors that are driving this market. Interestingly, gross rental…

Hand Shake

Why do agents do what they do with offers?

By Cate Bakos | February 28, 2021

A fortnight ago, a good friend of mine contacted me in a moment of upset. Twenty-four hours prior, his daughter and her husband had found a property they loved. They’d liaised with the agent, formulated the right offer and they’d documented their offer on a contract of sale. The agent contacted the vendor, (who verbally…

Passport

How hard to stretch for the Great Australian Dream?

By Cate Bakos | February 21, 2021

This time, it’s not just Melbourne and Sydney that are experiencing heady growth. In fact, many more regions than capital cities have been outperforming typical market growth rates, and even in the face of COVID-19 lockdown headwinds, our markets have surprised many of our economists. House price growth in a large portion of our national…

Square Coburg

What makes Coburg so popular?

By Cate Bakos | February 14, 2021

Coburg has been a popular choice for investors and owner-occupiers alike for some time now, but since our floorplan preferences were altered by COVID-19, Coburg’s appeal has been stimulated even more so. Coburg is just 9km north of our CBD and is home to over 26,000 inhabitants. Postcode 3058 is is often pictured on bustling…

Melbourne Square

Why are Melbourne’s 3BR houses so hot?

By Cate Bakos | February 7, 2021

Our preferences have changed dramatically as a direct result of COVID-19, hardly surprising given we’ve experienced a significant, global event. Like all historical events of significance, our attitudes and generational values will be reshaped. In future years, people will hark back to the COVID-19 era and it will be easy to reflect on the changes…

Keys

Settlement day

By Cate Bakos | January 31, 2021

Settlement day… often much anticipated, yet so underwhelming as a process step. First time buyers almost always ask us about settlement day, and often in a bit of a frenzied state. For the uninitiated, this looming ‘big day’ can fray nerves for many. Converse to expectations though, it’s usually a short, sharp event that is…

Cirus

Do incentives skew market segments?

By Cate Bakos | January 24, 2021

In response to COVID-19 dampening buyer sentiment, domestic spending and confidence in the Victorian property market, our state government announced an incentive for all residential property buyers, (in addition to already-existing concessions and opportunities). Quickly formulated and declared in early December, this special offering took effect immediately and created a flurry of questions and actions,…

Fire

Buying safely in a hot market

By Cate Bakos | January 17, 2021

January 2021 is like no other January in the world of Australian real estate, and in particular, Victorian real estate. After thirteen long weeks of a second lockdown for our nation’s second largest city, Melburnian agents, vendors and buyers alike aren’t bothering with the typical January holiday downtime. With state border closures posing a threat…

Monopoly

Why 2021 will spell the return of investors

By Cate Bakos | January 10, 2021

Back in 2014 our prudential regulator initiated some directives to our banks after concerns about the rising potential for a property bubble in Australia. Household debt had increased and investor numbers were troubling our reserve bank and regulator. The banks were given a new set of targets, including a cap on new investor lending and…

Pool

Over-capitalisation risk?

By Cate Bakos | January 3, 2021

We often hear the word “over-capitalise”, yet so many investors and home owners don’t consider the risk of over-capitalisation. “Over capitalisation – what is it? The term over capitalisation means to improve a property beyond its resale value, in other words it means that you spend too much money on the renovations of your property and are not able to recoup this…

Team Pic

Our five most-read blogs of 2020

By Cate Bakos | December 27, 2020

From a crazy run following our 2019 Federal Election result to our market being plunged into mask-wearing, COVID-fearing purchase activity, this year has been one out of the box. It was interesting to climb into Google Analytics to see what our data said about our readers, and even more intriguing to challenge some of the…

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