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Elite Agent
Australia starting to feel the HomeBuilder effect
The last two months of data suggests that HomeBuilder has been successful in bolstering new builds and protecting jobs in the short term. And although HIA are cautious of over interpreting data from only two months, they believe these two months are “a clear indication that HomeBuilder will help protect jobs in the sector in the second half of 2020…
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Real Estate News
NZ updates tenancy rights, as REINZ warn of consequences
New Zealand parliament has passed a bill that will modernise the 1986 Residential Tenancies Act. The Government says most of the reforms won’t come into play for another six months, allowing tenants and landlords time to adapt. Changes include the removal of no-cause termination, limiting rent increases to one a year, and allowing DV victims the ability to end a…
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Elite Agent
Melbourne topples Sydney as largest CBD office market
Three recent office completions have helped tip the scales, making Melbourne the largest CBD office market in the country. JLL Research notes that, with the completions of Victoria Police Centre, The Lendlease Two Melbourne Quarter, and Dexus 80 Collins Street, the Melbourne CBD now boasts 5,107,840sq m of office space, surpassing Sydney’s 5,024,240sq m. “The completion of these three projects…
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Elite Agent
REIQ: Rental market facing “tightest conditions since GFC”
Seventy per cent of Queensland’s rental market currently faces tight conditions, according to the latest quarterly rental vacancy rate report. Eighteen per cent of Queensland regions are experiencing less than 1 per cent vacancy at present, with areas like Maryborough (0.4 per cent), Mount Isa (0.5 per cent), Rockhampton (0.7 per cent), and Gympie (0.9 per cent) close to impossible…
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Elite Agent
Queenstown rents take a hit as tourism dries up
As average rent prices climb across New Zealand in spite of the pandemic, tourist town Queenstown has seen its rent prices plummet by 10 per cent since the same time last year. According to MBIE’s data, average rents for NZ rose by 4.8 per cent in the three months to June since the previous year. Surprisingly, rent prices in many…
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Elite Agent
Buy a private QLD island for less than $400K
If you’re the type to have your Desert Island Discs list ready and waiting in case the BBC call you up to appear on their show, then you’ve probably already considered the joys of living on a secluded island. For everyone else, Worthington Island is just a half hour boat trip from Gladstone Airport, just off the coast of the…
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Elite Agent
Survey: Aussie property investors buy an average of 300km from home
Gone are the days when property investors go and ‘kick the tyres’ themselves, so to speak. A new study by MCG Quantity Surveyors shows an abundance of Aussie-based property buyers are looking further afield for their investments, with 300km being the average distance between owners and their investment properties. Mike Mortlock, director of MCG Quantity Surveyors, analysed depreciation reports commissioned…
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Elite Agent
Billion-dollar buildings may become stranded assets
A new report released by the Australian and New Zealand Green Building Councils today warns that billions of dollars of industrial buildings face becoming ‘stranded assets’ if they cannot prove that are low or zero carbon. Green Star in focus: The case for sustainable industrial buildings finds Green Star certified buildings reduce emissions by two-thirds at a minimal 2 per cent…
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Elite Agent
Report: REA Group resilient against ‘unprecedented market conditions’
REA Group has announced its results for FY20, and considering the state of our economy, the figures are very pleasing.They report revenue of $820.3m, down only 6 per cent, with operating expenses of $328.2m, down…
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Elite Agent
Westfield malls fall 10% in just six months
Owner of the Westfield malls, Scentre Group, has seen the value of Australia’s largest shopping centre portfolio plummet in value by 10 per cent, over the past six months. The official report will be released on August 25, but they have stated the ‘expected fall’ was “principally due to the estimated impact of the COVID-19 pandemic”. Scentre released figures last…
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Real Estate News
The race is on: home loan rates drop to 1.95%
It was only a fortnight ago that Loans.com.au broke the 2 per cent floor, offering introductory home loan rates of 1.99 per cent. Then Homestar Finance shaved 0.01 per cent off their variable rates, with a one-year fixed rate of 1.98 per cent. Now it’s Easy Street Financial stepping up, with an ongoing variable rate of 1.95 per cent. The…
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Real Estate News
$10,000 grants available for Melbourne businesses forced to close
Under the tough new Stage 4 restrictions in place, many businesses in Melbourne and Mitchell Shire have been forced to shut down, or to operate under a severely reduced capacity. To soften the financial burden, the Victoria Premier has announced one-off grants available to eligible businesses. The Business Support Fund – Expansion program, will give: $10,000 to employing businesses in…
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Real Estate News
The Hemsworth brothers plan a Byron yoga centre
It’s modest, considering the mammoth mansion that Chris Hemsworth built in Byron, but plans have been submitted for a small yoga studio to be built on a 35 hectare block the Hemsworth family bought last year, for a cool $4.25 million. The cabana will be just 58sqm, and is situated by an artificial dam the family has also built on…
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Elite Agent
How Stage 4 lockdowns will impact auctions, inspections and real estate offices
Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) Chief Executive Gil King has confirmed that all real estate offices in Melbourne will be forced to close for at least six weeks. “We urge you to avoid assuming what will and won’t be allowed until the new directions are published,” Mr King wrote in a letter to REIV members. “We will advise you…
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Real Estate News
Melbourne property price recovery could take a while
This month’s Finder RBA Cash Rate Survey dealt a blow to Melbourne’s property owners, with the majority of experts surveyed expecting housing prices to continue to drop until at least April 2021, with a third predicting we won’t see recovery until 2022 or beyond. “Both Melbourne and Sydney experienced double-digit growth throughout most of 2019,” explains Graham Cooke, insights manager at…
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Real Estate News
Britney’s hideaway back on the market
The Beverly Hills home where Britney Spears went into hiding in 2007, after divorcing her husband and becoming the target of paparazzi, is back on the market, at a cool $6.8 million. Spears lived in the house from 2007 to 2012, when she sold it at a $2m loss. The house was listed for $9 million in 2018, but did…
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Elite Agent
Housing values drop for a third month in a row
Australian housing values have suffered a third consecutive month of declines. CoreLogic’s home value index dropped 0.6 per cent over July, an ever-so-slight improvement from June’s 0.7 per cent drop, but a drop all the same. CoreLogic’s head of research, Tim Lawless, explains: “The impact from COVID-19 on housing values has been orderly to-date, with CoreLogic’s national index falling only…
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Real Estate News
Queensland urged to “get moving on HomeBuilder”
HIA Queensland Executive Director Mike Roberts is calling for his state to get moving on HomeBuilder, in order to avoid a significant downturn in building activity during the fourth quarter of 2020. “As a proud Queenslander, I do wonder why we seem to be running last on this issue,” he said. Mr Roberts is frustrated that, while the Federal Government’s…
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Elite Agent
HomeBuilder yet to halt downturn in building approvals
Despite the many incentives in play to help potential home buyers, residential building approvals fell by an additional 4.9 per cent in June. As HIA Senior Economist, Geordan Murray explains, this trend existed long before COVID-19. “The COVID-19 shock has occurred on top of a well advanced cyclical downturn in home building activity that began back in 2018,” he said.…
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Real Estate News
Home loans rates drop even lower
After home loan rates dipped under 2% a week ago, with Loans.com.au offering introductory rates of 1.99%, Homestar Finance have pipped them as the lowest variable rate in Australia, with a one-year fixed rate of 1.98%. As Rate City reports, the loans do revert to an ongoing variable rate of 2.49 per cent, plus required a 20% deposit and upfront…
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Elite Agent
Government looks to extend First Home Loan Deposit Scheme
As the Federal Government readies to bring down its October budget, an expansion of the first-home buyer loan scheme could be on the cards, following a rush of demand. National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation figures show that over 40 per cent of the 10,000 available slots have been filled in less than a month. In comparison, the first 10,000…
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Elite Agent
REIWA: Emergency period tenancy legislation “needs to end”
As the ACT becomes the first state or territory to extend its emergency period tenancy legislation, Damian Collins, president of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA), has said there is no need for the legislation to be extended in Western Australia. Mr Collins believes the legislation should end as initially planned, on September 29, 2020. “The emergency legislation…
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Elite Agent
New Australian homes will soon be required to meet Green Star status
Double-glazed windows, air filtration systems and LED lighting are some of the elements new Australian homes will have to feature in order to achieve ‘Green Star certification’. A draft of the Green Star Homes Standard was released today, as part of the Building Council of Australia’s Future Homes Strategy. “The Standard is being developed collaboratively with rigorous consultation and input…
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Elite Agent
Almost 20% of new Victorian homes are sold to overseas buyers
Overseas buyers are snapping up new properties across Australia, according to findings from the National Australia Bank’s Q2 2020 Residential Property Survey. New development sales to foreign buyers rose from 6.6 per cent to 8.3 per cent in Q2, with figures for established housing increasing to 3.1 per cent from 2.4 in the first quarter. Victoria has seen the biggest…
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Real Estate News
Inside model Gigi Hadid’s colourful house
Model Gigi Hadid may be paid millions to wear the latest in fashion, but as the furnishings in her New York apartment show an eclectic taste in home furnishings. The model has posted photos of the interior of her apartment, and it’s colourful, to say the least. “Spent all of last year designing and curating my passion project/dream spot,” she…
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Elite Agent
Rent hikes ‘inevitable’ as vacancy rates soar
While the latest CoreLogic figures show that rental prices dropped by half a per cent nationally during the June quarter, projections suggest that a hike of rent prices is inevitable. The national vacancy rate fell to 2.2 per cent over June, according to SQM research, with Propertyology finding that only four of the 52 largest cities and towns in Australia…
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Elite Agent
New Zealand’s tallest building is officially open for business
New Zealand’s tallest office building, the PwC Tower, opens for business today (July 27) on the waterfront in downtown Auckland, after eight years in planning and construction. Standing about 180 metres tall, the 39-level steel…
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Elite Agent
Aussie tenants to share solar power in world-first trial
The Salvation Army is involved in a revolutionary trial in which excess power from rooftop solar panels will be shared and traded amongst numerous tenants living in the same building. Melbourne based start-up Allume Energy developed the SolShare platform, which allows power from one single panel to be metered out to different residents. Previously such projects have stalled due to…
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Real Estate News
Sydney’s top office towers to tumble in value
Sydney’s most expensive office towers are expected to fall in value by as much as 30 per cent, according to a new report from Goldman Sachs. The drop in values will be due to both the impact of the pandemic on the economy, and a “cyclical downturn” already well under way before COVID-19. “The first six months of the 2020…
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Elite Agent
Regional house prices rise despite pandemic
While home prices in every capital city aside from Hobart and Canberra fell during the last quarter due to the continuing COVID-19 crisis, homes are rising in value across much of regional Australia. The latest Domain House Price Report shows that ‘median dwelling values’, a combination of houses and units, rose over the last quarter, albeit by 0.1 per cent.…
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Elite Agent
NZ realtor offers no-commission sales
Mackenzie's Real Estate in Wellington are making the leap from commercial real estate into residential, and frankly, it couldn't have happened at a worse time. But owner Euan Mackenzie is hoping that a zero-commission offer…
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Real Estate News
Victorian homes selling faster now than 12 months ago
While all the news from Victoria at the moment seems to fall firmly into the ‘doom and gloom’ category, new data from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) paints a sunnier picture. REIV President Leah Calnan says that, despite the pandemic, residential property across the state is selling faster now than 12 months prior. The average home in Victoria…
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Real Estate News
Auction clearance rates keep falling in Melbourne
Towards the end of June and the start of July, clearance rates in Melbourne sat in the low 60 per cent range. By the week ending July 12, it sat at 51.2 per cent. The following week, the final clearance rate was 43.8 per cent. Not surprisingly, the Melbourne clearance rate during this second wave is similar to that of…
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Elite Agent
AFG teams with 86 400: Australia’s only digital mortgage offering
86 400, the first bank in Australia built for smartphones, has signed a partnership with Australian Finance Group Ltd (AFG), expanding its broker distribution network. AFG is one Australia’s largest aggregators, with over 3000 brokers, and a loan book exceeding $140 billion. 86 400 enables electronic signatures, digital ID verification, collection of expense and income information, plus is the only…
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Elite Agent
Canberra tenants given a break on break fees
Changes made to Canberra’s Residential Tenancies Act this week mean that residential tenants who have been financially impacted by the pandemic will not have to pay the usual ‘break fees’ for terminating a fixed-term lease. In addition, tenants across the territory can now give three weeks notice when breaking a fixed-term lease without needing to file an official application through…
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