INDUSTRY NEWS
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Girls in Property Week aims to foster pipeline of talent
Sydney schoolgirls will get a taste of what it’s like to work in the property industry during the second Girls in Property Week. Following a successful inaugural event in 2017, Girls in Property Week returns this year to challenge stereotypes and show high school-aged girls the career opportunities available within the property industry. Girls in Property is an initiative of…
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LPMA 2018 Annual Award Winners Announced
The annual Leading Property Managers Association Awards night was held on May 10th at The Star on the Gold Coast with over 400 industry guests in attendance. LPMA Australia National Manager, Jodie Stainton said, “It was an extraordinary night rewarding extraordinary efforts! All of our finalists worked so hard to get to this point so it was amazing putting on…
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Is a crunch in investor mortgage demand now starting to bite?
Dwelling values, particularly those in Sydney and Melbourne, have been falling now for a number of months. The latest ABS housing finance data indicates that the impact of these falls is now seemingly being felt in demand for new mortgages. While the value of lending fell over the month for owner occupiers and investors, the slowdown was much more substantial…
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Real Estate Bookings Announces Rebrand to Plezzel
Real Estate Bookings, a leading national provider of marketing automation software and digital marketing services, today announced the business’ rebrand to Plezzel, which will include a new logo and website. The comprehensive rebrand demonstrates the company’s ongoing focus to provide a completely digital platform for the real estate industry. Based on terminology used for Product Line Engineering (PLE), Plezzel is…
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HIA Industry Leader Shane Goodwin to Retire
After 22 years at HIA, the last nine as HIA’s Managing Director, Shane Goodwin, has announced he will retire in August. “It has been an extraordinary honour and a great pleasure to serve HIA and the building and construction industry in Australia. “ “It has been a demanding and challenging role, but also an extremely rewarding one. The residential housing…
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REA Group Appoints Nick Dowling as Non-Executive Director
REA Group has announced the appointment of Nick Dowling as Non-Executive Director of the company. Mr Dowling is the Melbourne based Chief Executive Office of Jellis Craig. He has a strong real estate background as well as financial and corporate services experience having served as the former Head of Real Estate, Business Banking at Macquarie Bank Limited. Chairman Hamish McLennan…
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Invigorated strategy sees rise in EAC members
A focus on the future and providing agents with tools to address a rapidly changing landscape have seen Estate Agents Co-operative (EAC) increase its membership by 24 per cent since the beginning of the current financial year. CEO David Crombie explained that the co-operative had a renewed strategy to best serve their members’ needs, and the momentum was clearly reaping…
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CoreLogic Quarterly Economic Report Update – April 2018
Value of Residential Property: $7.5 trillion Value of Australian Superannuation: $2.5 trillion Value of Listed Equities: $1.9 trillion Value of Commercial Real Estate: $0.972 trillion Nationally, dwelling value growth has stopped in its tracks, in fact, over the first quarter of this year, national dwelling values have fallen by -0.5%. Although the quarterly rate of decline has slowed compared to…
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Two Victorians to compete for Australasian Auctioneering Honours
Two Victorian auctioneers will bid for Australasian honours later this year with the REIV announcing Luke Banitsiotis of Woodards Blackburn and Michael Wood of Marshall White and Co will represent Victoria at the Australasian Auctioneering Championship in Auckland in mid-October. The two were declared the top performers in the 2018 Senior Auctioneer of the Year competition held at REIV headquarters over…
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CoreLogic launches video for agents
Real estate agents can now quickly and easily create compelling video and social posts to share with customers with the launch of HomePrezzo through CoreLogic. HomePrezzo is a digital real estate marketing platform that promises to revolutionise the way agents engage with vendors and buyers. It delivers engaging templates that draw upon CoreLogic data so agents can easily create their…
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Sam Bevan Tops the Leaderboard in Transform 2018
Transform 2018 has been described as the ‘tough mudder’ of real estate training challenges: over the past 30 days our participants have attended live classes, completed a challenge per day, and worked with the best in the business on improving their careers. Participating this year there were more than 20 industry coaches and trainers, delivering more than 30 webinars and…
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Budget 2018: The plan for a stronger economy
Last night Treasurer Scott Morrison handed down the 2018 budget, designed to focus on job creation, guarantee essential services and supporting older Australians. He also announced greater infrastructure initiatives including 24 Billion to be spent over roads and rail in the next decade while “bringing the budget back into balance”. Treasurer Scott Morrison’s Budget Speech Streamed live on Facebook Key…
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European model reducing the cost of Australian housing
Baugruppen is a housing model first established in Germany that sees like-minded home buyers come together to design and build multi-residential housing. Rather than buying off the plan, they buy land as a group and then commission designers and builders to construct projects to their specifications. The Conversation explains the name roughly translates to “building group” and “stands for a long tradition…
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Rental guarantor legislation sparks concern in the ACT
After months of negotiation, the ACT Government has this week enacted legislation that allows licensed commercial bond guarantors to operate within the Territory. The move enables renters to pay a fee to a commercial guarantor rather than forking out the cash required for a bond. While the initiative has been welcomed by commercial guarantors such as Snug, it’s being eyed…
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US’s National Association of Realtors® backs ActivePipe and is handpicked for NAR REach® 2018 Accelerator Class
ActivePipe, a Melbourne-based automated communications platform for the real estate industry, announced that the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) is taking a minor stake in the company and has been chosen as one of only eight companies into the exclusive National Association of Realtors®’ Second Century Ventures 2018 REach® accelerator program. The REach® program is focused on providing early-to-mid-stage companies…
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Victorian Budget 2018-19: An opportunity lost says REIV
The Real Estate Institute of Victoria is disappointed that the Andrews Labor Government has not provided any property tax relief in its Budget handed down this week. “While the Premier says his government is getting things done, it has failed to get one of the most important things done,” REIV President Richard Simpson said. “We believe that a reduction in…
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Budget needs to deliver a plan for Australia’s growing cities, says Property Council
Amid the debate about how Australia manages its growing population, tomorrow’s Federal Budget is a critical opportunity for the Turnbull Government to articulate its’ plan to shape Australia’s cities for a successful future. ‘The Government’s enthusiasm for ‘congestion-busting infrastructure’ is welcome, and no doubt we’ll see more of these projects supported in the last Budget before the next election,’ said…
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May 2018: Interest rates on hold, Industry reaction
At its meeting yesterday (1st May 2018), the RBA Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 1.50 per cent for it’s 19th consecutive meeting. REA GROUP “More indicators are pointing to improving economic conditions and given how fast the US is growing, this will support our economy,” said REA Group’s Chief Economist, Nerida Conisbee. “The main thing…
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CoreLogic April Home Value Index: values record their first annual decline since November 2012 while regional dwelling values continue to edge higher
CoreLogic released its April home value index results which, at a national level, revealed a fall of 0.1% for the month, the seventh consecutive month-on-month fall since values started retreating in October last year. Similar to previous months, CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless found that the declines were concentrated within the largest capitals, while regional dwelling values edged 0.4%…
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REA Group Limited to acquire Hometrack Australia
REA Group Limited (ASX:REA) has announced that realestate.com.au Pty Ltd has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of Hometrack Australia Pty Ltd (“Hometrack Australia”) subject to ACCC approval. Hometrack Australia is a residential property data company and subsidiary of Hometrack Data Systems, which is owned by UK listed ZPG Plc (LSE:ZPG). Hometrack Australia is a provider of property data…
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Negative Gearing Supports Renters and Housing Affordability: HIA
“Reports in The Australian on ATO data show that almost two thirds of investors are on an average income of less than $80,000,” said HIA’s Principal Economist, Tim Reardon. Independent research undertaken for HIA by The CIE concluded that increasing the tax on investing in residential homes will force up rental prices, worsen housing affordability and reduce economic activity. The…
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RE/MAX Revolution opens in New Zealand
Recently in New Zealand, RE/MAX Revolution showed its star calibre at its official opening, an event described by RE/MAX New Zealand and RE/MAX Australia Managing Director Michael Davoren as the ‘greatest attendance at any office opening in his real estate career of more than 35 years’. Around 250 attended, comprising clients and suppliers whom RE/MAX Revolution broker owner Don Ha…
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rent.com.au acquires RentPay from MYOB
Rental property website rent.com.au has announced that it is expanding its service offering to rental payments by acquiring RentPay, a rental payments system from a subsidiary of MYOB Group Limited. Rent.com.au has entered into an agreement with MYOB, leading provider of business solutions to 1.2m businesses across Australia and New Zealand, to acquire the RentPay system and customer base. RentPay…
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Vendors look to social media for faster results
New data shows vendors can potentially sell their home faster by choosing to list their home through @realty’s new Home Booster social media platform. Home Booster, which is used by @realty agents Australia-wide, has generated a total of more than 21,000 leads for the 50 vendors who have listed their home on the platform in recent months. @realty agents list…
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APRA throws property investors a lifeline with benchmark removal
An announcement from APRA to remove the investor loan growth benchmark will see some banks cut investor rates to lure back more investors into the lucrative sector. Banks introduced higher rates for investor loans following the introduction of the cap on investor lending, announced in December 2014. Today, RateCity.com.au data shows the gap between owner-occupiers paying principal and interest and…
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Firm brings property to life with AR technology
Australian firm Realar is breaking new ground in augmented reality with their property-viewing app Realar Places. The platform has been specifically built for real estate use to help buyers visualise off-the-plan properties. The app will project a 3D model of a property onto any flat surface, allowing a buyer to get a good look at the home and have a…
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AI partnership to help Juwai.com overcome language barriers
Chinese international property portal Juwai.com and Macau-based artificial intelligence and service robot pioneer Singou Technology Ltd. have signed a new partnership that will see Juwai.com deploy Singou’s AI engine to enhance the consumer service it provides to Chinese international property buyers. Juwai.com will also begin distributing to the property industry and to homeowners the robot Butler 1, Singou’s newest model.…
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Harcourts recognised for Excellence in Events
At the Meeting and Events Australia 2017 Industry Awards, Harcourts was honoured with the Corporate Event of the Year award. The awards recognise excellence in the meetings and events industry across Queensland. As a state winner, Harcourts is amongst the national finalists for the Meeting and Events Australia Gala Awards to be held on May 8 in Adelaide. “Winning the…
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Barangaroo South wins NSW’s top property honour
Sydney’s largest urban regeneration project, Barangaroo South, has picked up the state’s top property honour. Lendlease was presented with the Property Council of Australia’s RLB NSW Development of the Year award at a cocktail reception this evening. Barangaroo South will eventually accommodate 23,000 office workers, 2,000 residents, a six-star hotel and 80-plus cafés, bars, restaurants and retail outlets across 535,000…
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Affordability improving in most capital cities: HIA
“Affordability improved in most of Australia’s capital cities during the first three months of 2018 as house price pressures eased,” said Shane Garrett, HIA Senior Economist. HIA’s Affordability Index is calculated for each of the eight capital cities and regional areas on a quarterly basis and takes into account latest dwelling prices, mortgage interest rates and wage developments. The results…
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Government fails landlords and tenants following NCAT decision, says REINSW
In response to a grey area uncovered in 2017, the High Court ruling has meant NSW PMs and landlords have no course of action through NCAT if the landlord is in another state. Also if a tenant moves interstate then challenges a landlord claim over their rental bond, the matter cannot be heard through NCAT. REINSW President Leanne Pilkington said the NSW…
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Rental rates climb over seasonally strong first quarter: CoreLogic
CoreLogic has released its first Quarterly Rental Review for 2018, which tracks the median rental price of houses and units across Australian capital cities and regions. The quarterly report measures the percentage change in rental prices over the first quarter, which is typically the strongest for rental appreciation and growth, as well as over the past 12 months to March…
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PMs Embrace Bright Ideas at 2018 PPM Property Management Conference
The 2018 PPM Property Management Conference, as well as PPM Group’s ‘Best of the Best’ National Property Management Awards, are now open for registrations. The PPM conference event is 100% property management focused with a wide selection of principal/department manager/senior property management breakout sessions. The event is designed for principals, department managers, business development managers, leasing consultants, property managers and support staff…
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Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate enters the Australian market, backed by Charles Tarbey
After a master franchise agreement between Realogy Holdings Corporation and CT Investment Holdings Pty Ltd, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate has announced it will be expanding its global presence with offices in Australia and New Zealand. Mr Tarbey is chairman and owner of CT Investment Holdings Pty Ltd, and his company will be responsible for the growth, marketing and…
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Real estate industry wishlist for 2018-19 budget
The real estate industry have issued their hopes from the 2018-19 budget, which will be released at approximately 7.30pm AEST on Tuesday May 8. REIA Affordability is one of the key topics for the REIA going into the next budget. While they praise the previous budget’s recognition of the issues, they don’t think the fixes have gone far enough. REIA…
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