National
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ABS data shows new lending has dropped to lowest levels in four years
The latest ABS housing figures show new lending has dropped to the lowest levels since August 2014 and lending to housing investors is at the lowest it’s been since 2013. The seasonally adjusted figures from September show an overall drop in lending of 3.8 per cent from the previous month. Owner-occupiers fell the most, down 4.2 per cent from last…
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Link Group to acquire econveyancing platform PEXA for $1.5 billion
Link Group and its partners, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, have announced their final bid for PEXA has been accepted. Link, which already owns 30 per cent of PEXA, initially made a bid earlier in the year which was knocked back due to PEXA’s plans to list on the Australian Stock Exchange. However, the company was…
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November 2018: Interest rates on hold, Industry reaction
Yesterday (6 November 2018) the RBA Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 1.50 per cent for its 24th consecutive meeting. “Conditions in the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets have continued to ease and nationwide measures of rent inflation remain low,” says RBA Governor Dr Philip Lowe. “Growth in credit extended to owner-occupiers has eased but remains robust, while…
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Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate recruits for Australian growth
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate is taking the next steps in its Australian journey with the recruitment of several experienced real estate professionals to the team. The announcement comes as the network gears up for its nationwide launch. Karmen Costigan joins the Queensland team with over twenty years’ experience in the real estate industry, both in the USA and…
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OBrien Real Estate Foundation announces first grant recipients
The OBrien Real Estate Foundation was first created in June this year with the purpose of supporting local charities. OBrien is a strong supporter of local communities and believes giving back is extremely important. The OBrien Foundation was created with a view to take this support to the next step, so the whole team could work together to improve the lives of…
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CBRE Group moves into co-working space with the launch of CBRE Hana
Commercial real estate services firm CBRE has declared a move into the flexible working spaces sector with the creation of CBRE Hana, a new division which the agency says will partner with property owners to provide workspaces. Hana will design, build and operate the co-working facilities and services, in partnership with institutional property investors. In a statement, CBRE president and…
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David Young Choi joins ActivePipe as Chief Commercial Officer
Melbourne-based automated communications platform ActivePipe has appointed former Domain Group Director of Corporate & Enterprise – Asia Pacific, David Young Choi, as its new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Mr Choi is a highly qualified and respected Senior Executive with over 15 years’ experience in Corporate and Business Development, Marketing and Strategy. His extensive executive background working with Australia’s largest real estate brands…
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Reapit appoints business development specialist
Reapit has confirmed the appointment of Sam Upleger as Business Development Manager for Reapit Australia. Mr Upleger will be focused on building new business and generating new customers for Reapit’s Property Management and Trust Accounts software. Mr Upleger brings eight years’ experience in real estate sales to Reapit, during which he has worked with companies including Buxton and Kay & Burton…
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Kiwi claims Australasia’s best auctioneer title for 2018
After a tight competition, the Australasian Real Estate Institutes’ Auctioneering Championship for 2018 has been awarded to Andrew North of New Zealand at a gala dinner at the Maritime Room in Auckland last night. Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) President Malcolm Gunning said the event, hosted this year by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ), who stage…
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CoreLogic appoints new Head of Real Estate
Fifth-generation real estate veteran Geoff White has taken over the reins as the CoreLogic National Head of Real Estate. A prominent member of the Victoria real estate industry with extensive expertise, Geoff has been CoreLogic’s Group Sales Director since 2017, and previously headed up the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV). Mr White says that his time with CoreLogic Victoria…
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Finalists battle it out for the Australasian Auctioneering Crown
Australia and New Zealand are battling it out again, but this time the two countries are going head to head at the 2018 Australasian Real Estate Institute’s Auctioneering Championships, with the winner to be crowned Australasia’s best auctioneer at a gala dinner tonight. The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) is playing host this year and the five finalists who…
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The Agency partners with MadeComfy
The Agency has partnered with short-term rental management company MadeComfy in a bid to give property investors and homeowners a short-term alternative. “MadeComfy has a unique market positioning; their company and customer values are in alignment with The Agency – our core focus being customer-centric,” Maria Carlino, The Agency’s National Director of Property Management, said. “We are both rapidly growing companies,…
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The Harcourts Foundation’s latest funding round sees over $65,000 donated to nine charities
The Harcourts Foundation, the charitable arm of Harcourts Group Australia, announced grants to nine Australian charities during its most recent quarterly funding round. A total of $66,268 was donated across Australia to benefit charities serving the communities where Harcourts employees live and work. “Over the past six months, a total of $100,128 has been granted by The Harcourts Foundation,” said…
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Banking Royal Commission releases interim report: What you need to know
The Royal Commission released their interim report last week from the investigation into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. The report has called into question how buyers are assessed for loans and is likely to mean serviceability will continue to tighten. The report also called ASIC into question for failing to police the banking sector and highlighted…
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Majority of NSW markets in decline as SA and QLD heat up in October 2018: Herron Todd White
The October 2018 issue of the Month In Review report from independent property valuation and advisory firm Herron Todd White shows that the majority of markets in New South Wales are either at their peak or declining, while Brisbane and Adelaide are still on the rise. Residential According to the firm’s Residential Property Clock, NSW’s North Coast region, including Coffs…
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October 2018: Interest rates on hold – industry reaction
Yesterday (2 October 2018) the RBA Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 1.50 per cent for its 24th consecutive meeting. “Conditions in the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets have continued to ease and nationwide measures of rent inflation remain low,” says RBA Governor Dr Philip Lowe. “Growth in credit extended to owner-occupiers remains robust, but demand by investors…
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Harcourts National Conference named a finalist in Australian Event Awards
Harcourts Australia National Conference has been confirmed as among the best events in the country with the announcement of National and State Finalists in the 2018 Australian Event Awards. Recognised as a world leader in real estate events, the Harcourts National Conference is a defining three-day experience both across the franchise network and throughout the real estate industry. The Conference…
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REA Group announces finalists for 2018 Annual REA Excellence Awards
REA Group has today announced the finalists for this year’s Annual REA Excellence Awards (AREAs), to be held in Sydney on Thursday 15 November 2018. The AREAs honour the most innovative, community-minded and highest-achieving individuals and businesses across the property and media industries. Twenty-one awards will be presented across the three categories of Innovation, Service and Marketing Excellence, and Community.…
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McGrath agents support local communities with over $1 Million in donations
McGrath Estate Agents have announced that its agents and offices throughout the eastern seaboard have collectively donated more than $1,000,000 to charities during the 2018 financial year. McGrath Chief Executive Officer Geoff Lucas affirmed the company’s commitment to supporting and giving back to its local communities. “Community is at the core of McGrath’s values and truly ingrained in our culture. We…
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Australia/NZ real estate tops GRESB global rankings for eighth consecutive year
For the eighth consecutive year, Australia and New Zealand’s real estate market has been ranked the world’s number one for sustainability in the internationally recognised 2018 GRESB real estate results. GRESB is the global benchmark for environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of real assets, defining and measuring standards for sustainability performance. In 2018, GRESB assessed 903 real estate companies,…
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Solar energy likely to drive up home values: HTW
Sustainable homes will see an increase in value as more and more householders take up solar rebates and reduce household energy consumption, according to independent valuer and advisory group Herron Todd White. HTW’s Managing Director in Melbourne, Tony Kelly, said as homeowners continued to take advantage of solar energy rebates and substantially reduced energy costs, the value of their homes…
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Barry Plant Group recognises talent in their network at 2018 Awards for Excellence
Last week, the Barry Plant Group hosted its 2018 Awards for Excellence at Melbourne’s Crown Palladium, with nearly 900 people attending the black-tie event. The Geelong office had an outstanding night as, apart from their star agent Chari Emirzade taking out so many major sales awards, they also won Franchisee of the Year and Property Management Department of the Year,…
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Purplebricks evolves Australian offering with new customer experience
Purplebricks has announced a new service offering and experience for customers in Australia. Purplebricks Global COO Neil Tavender said the network were ‘excited’ about the changes they were implementing and the way it would drive the network forward in Australia. “In recent weeks, Kenny Bruce (Co-founder) and our leadership team have travelled the country to speak with all of our agents…
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Harcourts International names new Board Members
Harcourts International has welcomed Susan Rix AM, Tim Keenan and Graham Mirabito to its board of directors, joining current board members Gilbert Enoka, Mike and Irene Green and Paul Wright. “We are very pleased to have Susan, Tim and Graham join our board and look forward to their contributions,” said Mike Green, Managing Director, Harcourts International. “Each is a leader in…
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RE/MAX rewards top performing regions at Asia Pacific Convention
RE/MAX has acknowledged its top regional performances at the fourth annual RE/MAX Asia Pacific Convention this month, with Australia and New Zealand claiming four awards. Australia and New Zealand join 16 other regions in RE/MAX’s Asia Pacific network – South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Guam, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Japan, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Malaysia and Myanmar. RE/MAX Australia…
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Ray White Group celebrates its 2018 winners in NSW and ACT
Up to 900 real estate agents and guests last night celebrated their achievements at the annual Ray White New South Wales and ACT awards at the International Convention Centre in Sydney. Ray White Double Bay had a successful night at the state awards, picking up number one Sydney Blue office for the highest settled commission for the seventh year in…
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Ray White launches first major brand campaign
Australasia’s largest real estate group, Ray White, and Sydney-based creative agency DO have partnered to launch a new brand campaign. The campaign explores the Great Australian Dream, with Ray White helping Aussies as they seek out their property dreams and bring them to life. The work is the epitome of Australiana, as it takes a light-hearted look at some of…
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Agents could bear the brunt of new anti-money laundering crackdown
Furthering the crackdown surrounding anti-money laundering rules in foreign investment, the government is considering relying on real estate agents to report suspicious purchases by foreign buyers. The joint public accounts and audit committee is reviewing the deficiencies in data around the foreign investment regime, with the ATO announcing on Wednesday they had conducted 4600 investigations into potential breaches since 2015.…
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National Director rejoins Colliers International
Colliers International have welcomed National Director Nick Greenwell to their Occupier Services team. Mr Greenwell has rejoined Colliers International, originally working for the company for five years between 2002 and 2006. With over 15 years’ industrial property experience, Mr Greenwell has a strong reputation as a well-rounded expert and has worked across all major sectors of commercial real estate. “We…
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Minimum rates of pay for real estate employees increase twice in one year
The need for real estate employers to adjust minimum rates of pay at the start of each financial year for employees covered by the Real Estate Industry Award or the Clerks – Private Sector Award is nothing new. But this year, because of the outcome of the four-year review of the Real Estate Industry Award, employers have had to make…
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REIV commercial and industrial awards celebrate magnificent marketing
The REIV have celebrated the best in commercial and industrial advertising, marketing and promotion across commercial sales and leasing campaigns at the annual Commercial and Industrial Marketing Awards. REIV President Richard Simpson said the awards are a great opportunity to recognise the increasingly innovative and tailored campaigns. “Congratulations to the winners and finalists in the 18 categories on their dynamic and…
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Domain launches in-house data and insights department
Domain has added a data and insights unit to its content division, Domain Research House. The unit will be led by Tobias Johnstone, content and data director for the department. It will provide Domain readers and clients with insights drawn from internal data. Trent Wiltshire of The Reserve Bank has been appointed as economist for the unit, Domain’s Dr Nicola…
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Elders launch largest ever marketing campaign to celebrate spring selling season
Elders Real Estate have launched their largest ever marketing campaign this week to kick off the 2018 spring selling season. The campaign, ‘Spin to Win’, is set to drive more leads to Elders’ agents and offices which are spread across over 300 locations nationally. With a highly targeted digital strategy, Elders is expecting to increase the number of appraisals in…
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Chinese buyers invested $23.9 billion in Australian real estate in 2017
Juwai.com’s 2018 Chinese Global Property Investment Report has revealed that Chinese buyers purchased $23.9 billion of Australian real estate in 2017. That consisted of $19.4 billion in residential and $4.5 billion in commercial acquisitions, and made Australia and New Zealand the biggest market for Chinese investment. That figure is a drop of 26.8 per cent from the estimated spending in…
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ANZ and CBA follow Westpac in home loan rate hike
Following last week’s announcement from Westpac that they would be raising their variable home loan rates by 14 basis points, ANZ and the Commonwealth Bank have announced they will raise rates by 16 and 15 basis points respectively. “The latest interest rate hike from ANZ and the Commonwealth Bank comes as no surprise after Westpac opened the floodgates earlier. The big…
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