In the middle of last year CBA wrote a report suggesting house prices in Australia could fall by 32 percent in a worst case scenario due to COVID and the economic fallout thereafter. The media had an absolute field day, taking the report out of context and splashing headlines such as “Property prices to plummet […]
Read more "A 50 Percent Backflip on House Price Predictions"This week, while still mid-winter, marks the end of a calm and slow period of real estate with only a handful of auctions and sales taking place over the quiet winter school holiday period and even the weeks preceding. August, always a great month for above average clearance rates and competitive auction results, will be […]
Read more "Spring is Coming Early…"
Ascertaining value, or should I say, estimating value, is one of the hardest parts of our job. Valuing a property is an art, not a science. It would be far easier if it were more of a science. Zillow, the American online real estate marketplace, has based their business model on being able to accurately […]
Read more "How Do You Value a Property?"
The Victorian era ran from 1837 to 1901. The most relevant years when it comes to Stonnington’s architecture was the latter part of the ‘late Victorian’ period from roughly 1880 to 1900, when suburbs such as Prahran, Windsor, South Yarra, Armadale and Malvern were largely established. Fortunately, a great many of these beautiful homes still […]
Read more "Why Buyers Love Victorian Homes"
When you’re spending one, two, three, four million dollars for a roof over your head, is it worth investing $600 on a building inspection to make sure said roof doesn’t fall on said head? It’s a question we get asked frequently and like all good questions the answer is long and nuanced. It’s not unusual […]
Read more "Should You Get a Building Inspection?"
How did Victoria manage a 92% clearance rate on Saturday and a 97% clearance rate the weekend before, in the midst of a lockdown? Sure the market is strong at the moment, but 97% seems to good to be true… And it is. Clearance rates can be misleading at the best of times, let alone […]
Read more "Why Clearance Rates are Misleading"
I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about the lockdown at the moment so instead I thought it might be interesting to see what certain budgets buy you in Stonnington these days. Real estate has never been more expensive in Australia, in an absolute sense. Some of the sold prices in our market recently are eye-watering, […]
Read more "What Your Money Buys You in Stonnington These Days…"
The State Government feels it’s time to play Robin Hood by slapping “rich” people, land owners and developers with more property taxes. 59% of State revenue already comes from the property industry but I guess this isn’t enough. We already have more speeding and red light cameras than any other city in the world so […]
Read more "As If Stamp Duty Wasn’t High Enough Already…"
I tuned into a Zoom presentation this morning hosted by Domain’s Senior Research Analyst, Nicola Powell. Her insights were, well, insightful. Here’s a brief summary for you… Houses are flying. Units are doing OK. Rentals are still on life support. So why oh why is the market so strong? And what does this look like […]
Read more "Current Property Market Trends"
It felt more like early summer than late autumn on Saturday as I stood, uncomfortably warm in my suit and tie, in the middle of Gladstone Avenue, Armadale counting the bids as the flew rapidly at me. After a spirited battle covering a couple of hundred thousand dollars in 10’s and 5’s and eventually 1’s, […]
Read more "Investors Are Back"