Other videos in this series
Bathla Group collapses into administration owing $3 billion
Western Sydney home builder Bathla Group has entered voluntary administration, leaving thousands of buyers, contractors and agents in limbo across its projects. The family-owned company, founded in 1997, cited falling sales, rising construction costs and a challenging market environment. With over $3 billion in debt and roughly 15,000 properties under construction, administrator Teneo is working to stabilise operations and maintain project continuity.
Council to give agencies over a year to fix lockbox habits
The City of Sydney has announced plans to remove unauthorised lockboxes from public infrastructure, giving real estate agents and short-term rental hosts until 1 April 2027 to comply. Lord Mayor Clover Moore cited safety hazards, property damage, and streetscape clutter as key concerns. Compliant alternatives include private property installations, smart lock systems, and concierge key management services.
REIACT honours more than 30 Canberra real estate professionals
The Real Estate Institute of the ACT celebrated its 32nd annual Awards for Excellence on 22 August at the National Convention Centre Canberra, recognising more than 30 professionals and agencies across residential, commercial, property management, sales and strata sectors. Key winners included Michael Ceacis and Jane Macken inducted into the Hall of Fame, with Grady Strata Facilities, Little Bird Properties and Hayman Partners among the night’s standout performers.
Ray White Core Group opens seventh Victorian office
Ray White Core Group has launched its seventh office, Ray White Beveridge, expanding its footprint across Melbourne’s north and west growth corridors. Led by partners Anil Malik, Mark Srivastava, Dhaval Mehta, and selling principal Sharath Rao, the new branch targets 100 residential sales and 100 rental managements in its first year, building on the group’s existing presence across Tarneit, Truganina, Rockbank, Point Cook, and Mickleham.
Housing Australia fast-tracks 1,000 shovel-ready affordable homes
Housing Australia has launched Stream 5 – Release 1 under Funding Round 3 of the Housing Australia Future Fund, targeting up to 1,000 low-density social and affordable homes. Fixed packages of 200 dwellings per submission are required, split evenly between social and affordable housing. Applications open September 14, with construction milestones set to deliver all homes by December 31, 2027.
The 25x mindset: How Alex Jordan turned a career-ending diagnosis into a 5-year reign as McGrath’s top agent
Diagnosed with two chronic conditions and financially broke in 2011, Brisbane agent Alex Jordan was told to quit real estate. Instead, he 25x’d his business, won McGrath’s Agent of the Year five consecutive years, and built a five-office partnership — driven by long-game detachment, daily gratitude, and a mindset shift sparked by a single conversation with John McGrath.
Sotheby’s Bayside adds senior sales hire in May Wang
Melbourne Sotheby’s International Realty has expanded its Bayside team with three new appointments. May Wang joins as senior sales hire, bringing over a decade of high-end residential and project marketing experience and fluency in Mandarin and Cantonese. Former Australian Boomers basketball player Damien Ryan joins as Senior Property Advisor, while Jade DeClase has been appointed Sales Associate, rounding out the Brighton-based team.
China: Evergrande founder jailed for life as fraud scale emerges
Hui Ka Yan, founder of China Evergrande Group, has been sentenced to life in prison after a Shenzhen court found he orchestrated large-scale financial fraud between 2016 and 2021, inflating revenues by roughly $US80 billion and concealing over $420 billion in liabilities. The collapse left millions of homebuyers with unfinished properties and continues to ripple through global commodity markets, including Australian iron ore exports.
Monika Doyle returns to Barry Plant as Chief of Staff
Barry Plant has created a new Chief of Staff role, with marketing leader Monika Doyle stepping into the position six months after returning from maternity
Transparency strategy delivers five offers in six days for Urrbrae fixer-upper
Brenton Milewski has sold a three-bedroom house at 18 Birksgate Drive, Urrbrae for $1,266,000 in six days, proving transparent pricing can turn property challenges into
Why this downturn is unlikely to become another GFC
Australia’s housing downturn is underway, but according to Ray White Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee, national house prices are unlikely to fall far during this
Why cheap and investable are not the same suburb
Property researcher Hotspotting has identified 10 affordable Australian suburbs it calls genuine investment prospects, spanning five metro and five regional locations across New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT. Managing Director Tim Graham says cheap alone is never enough, with true opportunity requiring population growth, infrastructure, employment and rising sales activity to separate value from mere affordability.
Ray White WA honours top performers
Ray White Western Australia recognised its top performers in sales, property management and administration at its annual awards night on Friday, even as the network’s
Real REMAX Group marks global milestone
The US$880 million merger between Real and REMAX Holdings has been finalised, forming Real REMAX Group. REMAX Australia managing director Joel Davoren reassures the local network that the brand, franchise model, and operational independence remain unchanged. The deal unites Real’s AI-powered platform with REMAX’s global presence across 120 countries and more than 145,000 agents, marking a significant milestone for the real estate industry.
How a homegrown AI platform won the crowd by taking the friction out of property management
Brisbane agency principal Russell Peter spent 25 years watching property management software promise efficiency while his team still fielded 47 identical tenant calls every week. Frustrated, he partnered with marketing operator Milo Holmes to build Crayons CRM, an AI leasing assistant that answers tenant inquiries instantly, analyses listing photos for accessibility details, and cancels uninspected open homes automatically. The platform recently won the REACH Australia Top of the Props People’s Choice Award.
The untapped engine of real estate – why property management is no longer the second cousin to sales
David Highland, CEO of Highland Property, argues that property management is undergoing a fundamental transformation from a back-office function into a high-yielding, independent asset class. By separating property management from sales into its own profit centre, leveraging AI to automate administrative tasks, and building specialised teams, Highland has doubled its portfolio to 5,000 properties, pointing to a smarter, more resilient agency model.
Marshall White promotes ten to partner and director roles
Marshall White has promoted ten senior staff across its sales and property management teams, naming one new partner, five directors and four associate directors across
Brett Reddell builds family succession plan at Area Specialist
Brett Reddell spent years moving between franchises and independent agencies before joining Area Specialist at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision he says
The suburbs where $1 million still buys a house
The seven-figure real estate price tag has long felt like an insurmountable wall for hopeful home buyers, but fresh property data reveals that budget-conscious Australians
Nearly a third of borrowers hand over half their pay
Nearly one-third of Australian mortgage holders are spending more than half their take-home pay on loan repayments, according to Finder’s 2026 Home Loan Report. With the average borrower dedicating 38 per cent of net income to their mortgage, millennials bearing the heaviest burden, and 36 per cent trapped in mortgage prison, new data exposes the deepening severity of Australia’s housing affordability crisis.
What a tax shake-up means for luxury rental demand
London’s prime property market is facing steep declines, with Westminster values dropping over 25 per cent in a year following the abolition of non-dom tax status and higher stamp duty for overseas buyers. Rather than absorb tax bills reaching millions, wealthy international buyers are increasingly choosing to rent, with some luxury properties now fetching £40,000 per week, reshaping demand across the capital’s prestige market.
The wisdom of Claudio Encina – 30 lessons from the coach who still has a coach
With 30 years in real estate and nearly half of those spent coaching, Claudio Encina has never considered himself finished learning. From mastering the mundane to closing the gap between sale price and buyer capacity, these 30 lessons distilled from his career cover prospecting, listing presentations, buyer psychology, and staying relevant across every kind of market – delivered in his own words.
Alexander Phillips launches Ray White Phillips & Co in Woollahra
Alexander Phillips, described by Ray White as Australia’s most successful real estate agent for the past decade, has joined the group to launch Ray White
The mental conditioning a former bull rider brings to his agency
Former professional bull rider Jesse Van Nek once survived on eight-second increments. Now the broker-owner of REMAX Property Group in Gympie, he applies the same psychological grit that kept him alive in the arena to building one of Queensland’s fastest-growing property businesses. After quitting real estate five times, a mentorship in relational selling transformed his career and earned him national recognition.