Sunday Blog - Expert property investment insights

RECHARGE & RELOAD YOUR PROPERTY GAME.

Square Pain Gain

Pain and gain; losses and profits

By Cate Bakos | June 30, 2024

Every quarter, Core Logic prepare a ‘Pain and Gain’ report on the Australian property market. The data breakdown is quite granular, capturing local government areas and segmenting houses and units. Sometimes the data is quite telling, and this first quarter of 2024 is interesting. The headline figures were reasonably encouraging. “ “The rate of profit-making…

RBA Michele Bullock

What is happening with interest rates?

By Cate Bakos | June 23, 2024

Sentiment counts for so much, and it’s interesting to see the correlation between buyer attitudes and interest rate chatter. As our Reserve Bank meetings approach, plenty of buyers momentarily put their plans on hold and ‘wait it out’ for the RBA interest rate decision. In 2022, real estate agents were cognisant of auction schedules and…

Square Capital Growth

Homebuyers: are we in a purple patch?

By Cate Bakos | June 16, 2024

Victoria’s property performance has been lacklustre for quite a while now. Since the market started to correct in May 2022 when interest rates started to rise, property prices haven’t quite returned to the highs of 2021. The chart below shows the quarterly change in values, with Melbourne in red. Unlike most capital cities, Melbourne’s performance…

Overlays

Overlays

By Cate Bakos | June 9, 2024

Overlays are often misunderstood, and sometimes the presence of an overlay is not even noted by purchasers. They feature for a reason, though, and sometimes an overlay can restrict the use of the land and/or add significant costs. Many of us are familiar with the concept of a heritage overlay.  This generally applies to period…

Calendar

If it’s taking more than six months for a buyer to find their home, something is probably wrong

By Cate Bakos | June 2, 2024

We sometimes meet buyers who have been looking for over a year, in fact some take years. Unless the brief is ultra-specific and the home is particularly scarce, anything over six months suggests that something is wrong. Three weeks to three months is how long almost all of our briefs take. There are quite a…

May St Square

High rental yield and capital growth? A retrospective

By Cate Bakos | May 26, 2024

Twenty years ago I took a fortnight’s leave from my corporate job to map out a property investment strategy for my husband and I. We had investments between us, but we hadn’t really devised a strategy. We’d each taken snippets of advice and information and when we got together, our investments were diverse and not…

!apartment

Units outperforming houses

By Cate Bakos | May 19, 2024

Over recent decades, Australian property investors have been accustomed to houses outperforming units. But recent data challenges this. Have the tables turned? Or is this merely a glitch? The gap between house and unit median prices widened around a decade ago, and for any investors who held apartments over this time, they will know all…

@disappointment

The three things that cause buyer heartbreak

By Cate Bakos | May 12, 2024

From first home buyers to upgraders, down-sizers to investors, I see these mistakes made all the time. And they can be really devastating at times for some buyers. The first relates to auction price quoting. Unfortunately our system in Victoria is based very much on quoting as low as possible, in an attempt to attract…

@stations Square

How will the rail metro tunnel impact property price growth?

By Cate Bakos | May 5, 2024

Having dealt with road closures, disruptive civil works, bus replacements on train services and a huge trade shortage since the project commenced in 2017, Melburnians can look forward to some positive changes next year. The Metro Tunnel consists of twin tunnels, 9km long, connecting South Kensington in Melbourne’s west with South Yarra, in Melbourne’s south…

Sydney Square Leigh

Sydneysiders buying in Melbourne

By Cate Bakos | April 28, 2024

Over the past two years, we have seen a marked increase in the number of Sydneysiders buying in Melbourne, but why? Some have chosen to move for sheer affordability reasons. Some have continued to rent and live in Sydney, but have circled in on Melbourne as their next home destination. While others have contacted us…

@pete And Cate

Behind the scenes of our new book

By Cate Bakos | April 21, 2024

Prior to COVID, Pete and I caught up regularly when he was down in Melbourne. Our catch up of choice is usually a late night pizza restaurant in the city and we’ve paved out plenty of budget night webinars, podcast chats, and other fun ideas. I asked Pete one evening, “why don’t we write a…

Thumb

Is there a rule of thumb?

By Cate Bakos | April 14, 2024

When it comes to predicting a likely selling price, is there a rule of thumb that should be applied to the agent’s quoted range? This question comes up so often, but applying a general rule of thumb can spell trouble for buyers if they don’t do their homework. The reality is that agents and agencies…

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