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NSW's Work-From-Home Shift

Hotspotting

Release Date: 02/11/2025

Factors Behind Rising Property Prices show art Factors Behind Rising Property Prices

Hotspotting

Is Australia really heading into the “grandaddy of all property booms” just because of a couple of interest rate cuts? If you believe the headlines, that’s exactly what’s happening. But here’s the problem: those headlines are mostly rubbish. In this episode, we cut through the media hype and take a hard look at what’s really driving property prices – and it’s not interest rates. From shallow journalism to economist echo chambers, we expose the flawed logic behind the property boom narrative and explain why it doesn’t stack up against real data or historical precedent. Join us...

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From Wall Street to Toorak: Luxury Real Estate with Nicholas Brooks | Marshall White Stonnington show art From Wall Street to Toorak: Luxury Real Estate with Nicholas Brooks | Marshall White Stonnington

Hotspotting

How does someone go from trading commodities in New York City to selling some of Melbourne’s most luxurious homes? In this episode of The Property Playbook, host Tim Graham sits down with Nicholas Brooks, Director of Marshall White Stonnington, to explore his unique journey into real estate and what it takes to thrive in the top end of Melbourne’s property market. 🔑 What you'll learn in this episode: Nick’s transition from finance in New York to high-end real estate in Melbourne What makes Stonnington one of Melbourne’s most desirable property regions  The current trends in...

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Australia’s Fastest Growing Cities and What It Means for Property show art Australia’s Fastest Growing Cities and What It Means for Property

Hotspotting

Australia is one of the most urbanised nations on earth, but how is its population growth reshaping the map? New data from .id reveals surprising trends across the country’s fifty largest cities and towns. Some regional centres are surging ahead while others are slipping behind. The Sunshine Coast has quietly become the fastest growing city in the nation, just ahead of Perth. Geelong, Ballarat and Hervey Bay are rising fast, while places like Whyalla tell a very different story. Melbourne has overtaken Sydney again, and a small but booming area in Lake Macquarie has broken into the top fifty...

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The High Yield Towns We DON’T Recommend - 20 No-Go Zones With The Allure of High Rental Returns show art The High Yield Towns We DON’T Recommend - 20 No-Go Zones With The Allure of High Rental Returns

Hotspotting

What do some of the highest rental yields in Australia have in common with some of the biggest property busts? In this episode, we explore the darker side of high yield towns and why some locations that promise strong returns can become financial traps. From Moranbah to Port Hedland, the history of boom and bust in resource-driven towns is littered with painful lessons. Why are some towns offering yields above 12 percent while their property values plummet? What really lies beneath the glossy headlines and impressive statistics? And why are so many of these markets cheap for a reason? This...

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The Hidden Costs Driving Up Australian House Prices show art The Hidden Costs Driving Up Australian House Prices

Hotspotting

Why does it now cost nearly a million dollars to build a basic home in Australia? The latest NAB Residential Property Survey reveals some uncomfortable truths. Construction costs are soaring, government taxes and delays are adding layers of expense, and productivity in the building sector has fallen dramatically over the past 30 years. Yet investors are still being blamed for rising prices, even though they make up just a quarter of buyers. So what is really driving the housing crisis? If you want to understand the forces shaping property prices, affordability and supply across the country,...

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The Election Is Over but Housing Policy Is Still a Mess show art The Election Is Over but Housing Policy Is Still a Mess

Hotspotting

🎙️ Why the Election Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis Australia has voted — but will the Federal Election result change anything for the housing crisis? For real estate consumers, the answer is... probably not. In this episode, we cut through the political noise and unpack what the election outcome really means for home buyers, investors, renters, and the property industry. While the re-election of the Albanese Government may provide short-term relief for homeowners, it offers little hope for renters or first-home buyers — because, quite simply, the government still doesn’t understand...

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🏅 Brisbane 2032 Olympics – What It Means for Property Investors - Webinar Replay show art 🏅 Brisbane 2032 Olympics – What It Means for Property Investors - Webinar Replay

Hotspotting

This was one of the most highly anticipated and highly attended webinars of the year — and for good reason. In this exclusive session, Hotspotting founder Terry Ryder and iBuyNew CEO Daniel Petersen explore the powerful impact the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games will have on property markets across South East Queensland. ✔ Learn from case studies of past Olympic host cities, including Sydney, Athens, London, and Tokyo ✔ Discover how infrastructure, population growth, and legacy planning have driven real estate booms ✔ Understand why Brisbane is poised to outperform every...

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What the Real Data Says About the State of the Perth Market show art What the Real Data Says About the State of the Perth Market

Hotspotting

🎙️ Perth Property: Boom or Bust? Cutting Through the Noise In the confusing world of real estate commentary, how do you know who to trust? In this episode, we unpack the conflicting headlines surrounding the Perth property market — with some claiming the boom is still raging, while others say it’s well and truly over. So, who’s telling the truth? We expose the dangerous influence of vested interests in property media and explain why so much of what gets published is little more than PR spin. You'll hear why independent analysts from CoreLogic (Cotality), PropTrack, and Domain are...

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Where to Find the Best Cashflow Deals According to Our Top 10 Report show art Where to Find the Best Cashflow Deals According to Our Top 10 Report

Hotspotting

🎙️ The Positive Cashflow Property Myth Busted Think high interest rates mean goodbye to positive cashflow? Think again. In this episode, we break down why smart investors are still finding strong cashflow opportunities right now across Australia. We explore the truth behind the long-held myth that you can’t have high rental yields and capital growth — and reveal why this old idea no longer holds water. From booming regions like South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland, to overlooked gems like Darwin (the nation’s most affordable capital), there are markets offering: ✅...

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Debunking the Link Between First-Home Buyer Support and Price Surges show art Debunking the Link Between First-Home Buyer Support and Price Surges

Hotspotting

Government support for first-home buyers always seems to spark the same criticism: that it drives up prices and does more harm than good. But where’s the evidence? In this episode, we unpack the recurring claims that FHB schemes like deposit guarantees and grants inflate property values — and ask why these arguments persist despite a lack of supporting data. We explore how media narratives often miss the mark, focusing blame on young buyers instead of tackling the real issues: supply constraints, high construction costs, and planning bottlenecks. If helping first-home buyers is always the...

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More Episodes

The trend we have dubbed the Exodus to Affordable Lifestyle is one the key reasons we expect Regional NSW to deliver strong residential property markets in 2025.

 

The trend, of course, is not new – with big cities like Sydney losing population to internal migration for the past 10 years.

 

But the trend remains strong and has not slowed down or reversed, despite forecasts by some economists that there would be a movement of people back to the cities - with big businesses demanding that workers return to the office rather than work remotely.

 

The latest vacancy rate data for office space around Australia shows that the “return to the office” movement is not happening in a major way.

 

The Property Council of Australia, which represents the big end of town including major developers and owners of office buildings, is trying to put a positive spin on it, but the reality is that office vacancies overall are not improving in Australia as the work remotely trend continues to impact the top end office market.

 

The new Property Council report show than more offices were empty across the country in January than six months ago as the work from home trend continues to create headaches for Australia’s big-city landlords.

 

Australia’s office vacancy rate nudged up from 14.6% to 14.7% over the six months to January, the latest figures from the Property Council show. That’s a very small rise – but the expectation was that vacancies would be falling significantly by now, as people move back to the cities and return to the CBD office buildings.

 

In Sydney, home to many finance, insurance and tech workers, the vacancy rate jumped from 11.6% to 12.8%, while the number of empty floors in Melbourne remained unchanged, at a historic high of 18%.

 

Indeed, office vacancy rates are between 9% and 18% in seven of the eight state and territory capital cities. The highest at 18% is Melbourne which is the basket case among the nation’s economies and property markets of all kinds.

 

The Property Council called for “Active leadership” from the Victorian State Government to turn around the fortunes for Melbourne, which has Australia’s second largest CBD, the Property Council says.

 

The AFR reported that major companies last year issued mandates for their staff to return to the office, but these figures show it’s not happening in any major way – and both Melbourne and Sydney continue to have huge vacancies.

 

The movement of people from the biggest cities to regional areas is all about affordability and lifestyle, but enabled by technology which allows more people to work remotely – which is why office vacancies are so high.

 

Sydney, with a median house price around $1.2 million, has been steadily losing population and a proportion of that has been relocating to regional NSW, where the median house price is about $750,000 and plenty of regional cities and towns have houses on offer for less than $500,000.

 

This is a key reason why Regional NSW outperformed Sydney on price growth recently. In the past 12 months Sydney’s median prices have risen 1.9% for houses and 1.1% for units, while Regional NSW has managed 3% for both houses and units – with a number of individual regional markets doing considerably better than those averages.

 

Many suburbs of Wollongong have increased 7-9%, and a number of Newcastle suburbs have recorded double-digit growth in their median house prices, as have some of the Albury locations and several of the suburbs of Tamworth.

 

A recent analysis conducted by Hotspotting ranked the eight capital cities and six state regional markets – a total of 14 major jurisdictions – from 1 to 14 based on a series of different metrics and Regional NSW ranked 6th out of 14 for price growth prospects in 2025.

 

At Hotspotting, we expect 2025 to be a solid year overall in Regional NSW markets – but you need to see our Top 5 Regional NSW Hotspots report to find out which locations will perform the best and out-perform market norms – this year and beyond.