Government Taxes Crushing Housing Costs
Hotspotting
New research has confirmed one of the greatest scandals in Australian real estate – the reality that taxes and charges from the three levels of governments comprise between 40% and 50% of the cost of creating new homes. At a time when Australia is experiencing its greatest ever housing crisis - marked by shortages of homes, poor affordability, escalating rents and increasingly high construction costs - it’s outrageous that anyone building a new house on a small block of land will be paying a huge percentage of the cost to government. Taxes, fees and charges make up almost 50% of the cost...
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Why Cheapies Can Deliver Big Growth
Hotspotting
One of the many ways media misinforms Australian consumers is their misunderstanding of the difference between building approvals and actual construction of new dwellings. Right now, at a time when we have major dwelling shortages and construction costs are so incredibly high, there is a very important distinction between the number of dwelling approvals and the number of homes actually being built. The difference between the two is quite stark and it speaks to the biggest single problem amid the housing crisis – approvals often are not translating into actual construction of homes, because...
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How Disasters Can't Stop Property Growth
Hotspotting
When Cyclone Alfred was bearing down on southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, the impact on the property market was probably not high on the list of considerations for citizens of these areas. But in the aftermath of this major weather event, there will be some thought given to how home values will be impacted by storm damage and floodwaters. The reality is that Australian property markets typically show remarkable resilience in the face of natural disasters, whether they be cyclones, storms, floods, bushfires or periods of drought. Locations with a history of...
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Approvals vs Reality The Housing Crisis Explained
Hotspotting
One of the many ways media misinforms Australian consumers is their misunderstanding of the difference between building approvals and actual construction of new dwellings. Right now, at a time when we have major dwelling shortages and construction costs are so incredibly high, there is a very important distinction between the number of dwelling approvals and the number of homes actually being built. The difference between the two is quite stark and it speaks to the biggest single problem amid the housing crisis – approvals often are not translating into actual construction of homes, because...
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Why Apartments Are Booming in 2025
Hotspotting
The Great Australian Dream still exists, it’s just that - for many - it now means owning an apartment, not a house with a white picket fence. As property prices continue to grow, the dream of owning a freestanding house has morphed into the dream of owning an apartment - for more and more Australians. Apartment living is no longer just a financial choice, but a conscious decision to seek out a different way of living - a more affordable and low-maintenance lifestyle. The percentage of Australians who live in a freestanding house has been declining since the beginning of the new...
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Brisbane: Australia’s Hottest Market
Hotspotting
Brisbane was one of the nation’s boom markets in 2024 and likely to do even better this year. The price data shows that Brisbane delivered a strong performance last year, both with house prices and in particular unit prices – but was third in the capital city growth rankings behind Adelaide and Perth. Figures from PropTrack and CoreLogic show Brisbane house prices overall were up 10% last year and unit prices around 15%. In 2025 we expect Brisbane to have another strong year and to overtake those other cities to be the national leader on price growth. ...
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Australia’s Housing Crisis – How Did We Get Here & How Do We Fix It? | The Property Playbook
Hotspotting
🏡 Australia's Housing Crisis: Causes & Solutions With housing affordability at record lows and supply failing to keep up with demand, how did Australia's property market reach this crisis point? More importantly—how do we fix it? In this special episode of The Property Playbook, Tim Graham is joined by an expert panel to tackle one of the most pressing issues facing Australian homeowners, investors, and renters: 🎙️ Panel Guests: ✅ Michael Sukkar – Federal Shadow Housing Minister ✅ Kelly Ryan – CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) ✅ Terry Ryder –...
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Mining Towns
Hotspotting
Some investors are attracted to the cheap house prices and very high rental yields in resources sector towns but recent events in two of the nation’s iconic locations demonstrate why this can be a strategy fraught with peril. Hotspotting methodology dictates that a diverse economy is a core factor in any location we are willing to recommend – which means locations dominated by one industry sector seldom make it to our hotspots reports. A country town solely reliant on agriculture, a coastal enclave where everything depends on tourism and mining towns are all places we shy...
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Shallow Analysis
Hotspotting
I sometimes despair for Australians trying to make sense of real estate markets, when the standard of analysis and commentary in news media is so poor. Knee-jerk responses to short-term data sets from economists, journalists and often from the big-name research houses create a mass of confusing, conflicting and contradictory commentary. The commentary around price data is the worst example of this. For a long time, the biggest problem for consumers trying to make sense of market events has been commentators putting too much importance on short-term results. ...
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Regional QLD: 2025’s Hottest Market?
Hotspotting
Regional Queensland had a pretty good year for price growth in 2024 but I’m predicting it will have an even better one in 2025. There’s mounting evidence that the combined weight of internal migrants moving to Queensland and investors increasingly pivoting from Western Australia to Queensland will drive significant price uplift this year. In 2024, according to PropTrack figures, the median house price for Regional Queensland increased 10%, which was well above the national average (4%), and better than our three biggest cities, but was slightly below the level of growth achieved in...
info_outlineProspects for strong buyer demand in 2025 look good, with the latest data released by the Reserve Bank indicating a significant rise in loans for home buyers, investors and businesses.
This challenges earlier predictions of a slowdown by economists, who continue to be obsessed with interest rates as the big factor that determines everything in real estate – despite all the mountains of evidence to the contrary.
Loans to residential property investors are the highest for two years, while loans to home buyers are the highest in 18 months.
The official data shows that, as at the end of December, annual business credit growth had reached 8.9%, marking the highest growth rate since May 2023.
Similarly, growth in investor loans for residential property reached 5.1% in December 2024, up from 4.7% in November, achieving its highest growth rate since December 2022.
Owner-occupied mortgage lending also grew, maintaining an annual growth rate of 5.7%, the highest since April 2023.
These increases have occurred despite stubbornly high interest rates and notwithstanding the forecasts from major economists that real estate demand and prices would fall because interest rates have remained unchanged at those high levels since November 2023.
Strong demand has continued because the national population has been rising strongly, boosted by high levels of migration from overseas; because the labour market has been quite strong and wages have risen; because most people got a tax cut in the middle of last year – and overall borrowing capacity has been pretty good.
In addition to those national factors, there have been myriad local factors which have caused individual property markets to boom.
Perhaps the biggest single factor is that there is an unprecedented level of infrastructure development – over $500 billion in projects under way in the past year and more in planning – and this creates high levels of economic activity and employment, which translates into demand for real estate.
It all bodes well for a solid year in residential real estate, with further impetus likely to come from reductions in interest rates – and possibly a change in federal government, which looks increasingly likely.
But keep in mind that real estate is local in nature – and there will be out-performers in 2025, as there were last year and indeed in every year in recent memory.