Talking Apartments

Firstly I hope this finds you and your loved ones well and successfully working your way through all of the challenges Covid-19 is creating for all of us. Over the last 2 weeks there has been lots of announcements from the government and industry bodies about changes in response to our living, working and financial arrangements. The federal and state governments have been very active is getting financial support measures in place such as the Job Keeper and Job Seeker packages as well as concessions for business to help keep people in work. One area that has so far eluded government changes is the arrangement for residential tenants and landlords and how they should deal with the challenges being thrown up. Save for a statement that residential tenants can not be evicted for 6 months from issues resulting from Covid-19 they have postponed any decision on this but we understand they hope to announce some initiative soon. To find out what is going on right now I have gone to the front line and asked Property

Mr Leigh Warner leads JLL apartment market research in Australia and in addition to his recent paper on the state of the market in Melbourne and Sydney, he has identified 6 themes driving the apartment market in 2020 plus global economic issues like the Coronaviris. There are both immediate and longer term issues but all will directly impact how apartments perform from both a capital and rental value throughout the year and beyond. The 6 themes Leigh identified specifically are; Sydney and Melbourne's resurgence will slow Non Syd & Melb markets to steadily improve over the medium term. Under-supply calls to get louder and louder Off-the-plan sales to stay muted (except WA) More regulatory competition between the state. Global uncertainties to remain the wild card. Read the full paper here and I am very keen to hear your thoughts.

One of the greatest challenges for many sellers of real estate is what happens if we don't get our price or worse still... it doesn't sell at all. Adding to that stress is if you have already bought your next home committing yourself financially so you have double the exposure to the market. What about if you could get a guaranteed sale but were still able to go to market to see if you can do better? Well they do. It is called Brickfloor. Dean Fraser is the Founder and CEO of Brickfloor which is a really exciting new offer in real estate. Brickfloor agree a guaranteed sale price with you giving you confidence to step out into the market to sell your home with a sale already in your back pocket. Nice eh! This means you can buy your next home before selling your current home with comfort of your fall back position.

One of the keys to having a sucessful investment property is getting all the little things right. Some of them like landlord insurance don’t make for riveting dinner party conversation, but are very important to understand and have in place. Landlord insurace for apartments is a bit different from houses. For a start it is part of a larger building and has many other residents and owners all around it. What does it cover? How much does it cost? Am I paying for the tenants insurance? What happens if my tenant wrecks the place and takes off? Roy Garcia is the Executive relationship manager in Victoria for EBM RentCover has a very solid understanding of this topic and cuts to the chase on all these questions and  other things you need to know. Talking Apartments and its sponsor Wood Property Partners are not endorsing or specifically recommending EBM RentCover and you are encouraged to do your own research to find the insurance cover that is right for you, your circumstances and your property. RentCover p

For 10 years from the mid 80's Stephen Hodge was one of Australia's leading professional cyclists racing in Europe competing in 6 x Tour de France, 4 x Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) and 2 x Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain). Through the work he and others have done on and off the bike he has helped pave the way for male and female Australian cyclists to win not only the Tour de France but many other prestigious races around the world. Stephen continues to champion cycling - but this time it's for everyone, and he does this in his role as Director - National Advocacy with We Ride Australia. He is working for you even if you don't ride a bike. That's right... because even if you don't ride a bike, the case for safer cycling that Stephen espouses, means there will be less cars on the road, which means less congestion and money needed for new roads, plus a happier, healthier community which lightens the load on hospitals due to the health benefits cycling brings, plus many other benefits. And that is good for eve

With some apartment buildings now exceeding 1000 units and containing multiple uses such as retail, office and food plus many resident services, the role of the Owners Corporation Manager (OCM) (formerly Body Corporate Management) has had to step up dramatically. Add to this issues such as combustible cladding, greater community integration, high service standard expectations and long term maintenance plans and OCM is a critical component to ensuring the successful longevity of any building management. I sat down with Sam Atkins, Managing Director of Bluestone OCM who is one of Australia's leading OC Managers to discuss all things OCM. We chat about everything from the hot issue of combustible cladding to what sort of apartment he would buy.

I had to book a long way ahead to find a slot with Nerida Conisbee who is the Chief Economist at REA group (or for our purposes - realestate.com) and is a regular commentator on the property market for many TV and radio stations around Australia. As it turned out the timing of this interview could not have been better. With the  Federal Election swinging the tide of sentiment in the property market and the RBA cutting interest rates, Nerida's views on the market and its direction for the rest of 2019 are very insightful. Through the enormous data capture capability of realestate.com,  Nerida receives regular reports on what property is being searched, suburb by suburb, state by state and she can see almost instantly what the market is doing so her view is both current and well informed. We cover many topics from interest rate cuts, the impact of flammable cladding, the Federal election result and we go around the grounds in Australia to see what is hot and what's not.

Regardless of your political persuasion if you are a property investor you would have been pleased to see negative gearing and capital gains tax rules remain unchanged after the recent Federal Election. With those issues off the table it is back to business as usual when it comes to property tax. One important property investment tax deduction that is occasionally overlooked is depreciation. This is where the notional decline in the value of buildings, plant and equipment can be claimed as a tax deduction. With June 30 fast approaching this is one thing to get onto ASAP if you haven’t already. Mike Mortlock is the Managing Director of MCG Quality Surveyors and heads a team of highly qualified professions who can advise you on how much you are able to save off you tax bill by getting a depreciation schedule on your investment property. To find out if you can benefit from a depreciation schedule contact Mike on Phone : 1300 795 170 Email : mike@mcgqs.com.au As you will hear in my discussion with Mike it is

Just had a very enjoyable catch up with Jordy Catalano and Tim Fleming on the current market and future direction of apartments. Five years ago Jordy Catalano and Tom Hywood launched Apartment Developments to bring the disparate offering of off the plan apartments to one place. Both Jordy and Tom are the sons of media heavyweights and injected fresh energy into a burgeoning sector. Since then AD Group (as it is now known) has grown to cover three distinct markets being - Apartment Developments  - Off the plan Apartment Sales House & Land Developments - Land sales & house and land packages in new communities ID Development Business to business platform to manage development sales Tim Fleming is the General Manager of AD Group and apart from an illustrious football career with the the Richmond Tigers (amongst others) spent many years at REA group (realestate.com.au) through its formative years when real estate advertising on the internet was still a hard sell. It took me a while to get Tim and Jordy

How refreshing it is to hear Abbie Freestone talk about community living. Assemble Communities are very focused on ensuring apartment living does not mean a compromise to someones quality of life. It is easy to say and perhaps harder to deliver unless you turn the entire apartment development model upside down and consult closely with the future residents to provide what they want. With their print and subscriber partner Assemble Papers and developer Make Ventures Abbie explains how being dedicated to housing and shaping the culture of people living closer together plays out in the real world. Most of our discussions on Talking Apartments focus on the financial and capital market side of apartments to keep you on top of the market and help with decisions about owning, buying, selling, and managing your property investment so I have been so pleased to chat to Abbie and found just what I was looking for. Abbie has a background in Urbanism & Architectural communications and as you will hear she lives and brea

Six months ago when I caught up with Leigh Warner the big issue was the decline in foreign buyer due to extra taxes and the difficulty for them to obtain finance. Now in February 2019 we are talking about the challenges for pretty much everyone getting finance. The impact of the Royal Commission into the financial services sector and the resultant self imposed or regulated measure have had a significant impact on the apartment market. In some ways the tighter lending market has been the impetus to a correct a market that has enjoyed several decades of solid growth. Leigh Warner is the National Director for Residential Research at Jones Lang Lasalle and has just released his findings on the residential apartment market for the major capital cities in Australia. Listen in as Leigh reviews what is going on in each capital city market and what is in stall for 2019 and beyond. If you would like to read the full research papers for each state you can download them here. Brisbane Residential Market - Research P

The Residential Tenancies Act and several other pieces of legislation controlling the rules that govern how people lease property between each other is changing. This impacts peoples lives including a tenants home and an owners very large financial livelihood and it is complex to get it right. As societies expectations change and the way our cities and towns operate so must the rules that govern how we live. Technology changes also play a part. Hopefully your property manager is up to speed so you don't need to worry but we just want to help you out. Hayley Mitchell - Director of Mitchell Property Training is 100% focused on making sure everyone understand the forthcoming changes. Not just professionals managing rented accommodation every day but owners and renters the like. We were delighted when she agreed to speak to us and give us the goods on what the major changes are and what people need to know. To check on how the changes will play out in practice we asked Kelly Thomas - Team Leader at Wood Proper

Most property around Australia has enjoyed solid growth for about 20 years save for a few bumps along the way. We are now in a downturn and who knows for how long or how deep but most people are suggesting we are about 6 to 12 months into a 2 year slump. To find out how to sell your apartment in a tough market we need to speak to someone who has experience and worked in property cycles since the mid 1980's. Ray Wood (yes related.. my brother) worked as a real estate agent in Melbourne from 1982 and now coaches and supports agents across Australia and Canada. He has a unique expertise and can talk about selling in a tough market with a lot of authority. I hope you get great value from our chat. He is a blog pulled from our discussion... You want to sell your apartment but are worried it is perhaps not the right time given the market is weaker. Firstly if you are selling and buying in the same market conditions, then it is a net sum game as you may sell for less than you hoped, but you will also buy cheaper

For literally decades property commentators and the media have debated the development of apartments in Australia’s capital cities. One thing we do know for certain is that apartment development has created a very valuable supply of housing providing choice for owners and tenants and with out it we would have a serious housing crises. Apartment developments are constantly changing to meet the demand of the day or purchaser profile. In the last 1 or 2 years the buyers have moved from mostly foreign and domestic investors to mostly owner occupiers. The world of lending to develop and buy apartments has shifted dramatically as has the tax regime which may change further if there is a change of government in 2019. John Meagher has been immersed in the apartment market for over 20 years and is founder and managing director of three sixty property group who specialise in the sale of off the plan apartments on Australia’s Easter sea board. Chatting to John he explains what the current purchaser is looking for in a

With the recent Royal Commission into financial institutions being felt by all new lenders, the role of valuers is also in the spotlight to see how they are interpreting the market slow down. The valuation profession forms the bedrock of the property advisory profession and has done for ever. The discipline of valuations methodology and logic enables valuers to make sense of any market conditions, property type, and valuation purpose. Like all professions there are specialists and when I had the opportunity to talk to an apartment specialist valuer I had to jump at it. Damian Kininmonth has been a valuer for over 30 years and is a Director with Preston Rowe Patterson who span every state in the country with 23 offices. We sat down to chat about how valuers are navigating though the current apartment market and how he sees the outlook for apartments.

What you don't see when you look at an apartment development is the highly technical and legal world of structures, agreements, contracts, and financials that not only make it happen but ensures it continues to deliver on many metrics for many years. There is a lot at stake financially as well as a development's performance for the ongoing stakeholders including the apartment purchasers, occupiers / tenants, owners corporation, leasing agents and the surrounding community who feel the impact of a new apartment development. Brihony Boan is a Partner at Gadens Lawyers and is fully immersed in apartment developments from the very start to the very finish. She was super kind to carve our some of her very valuable time to tell us how it all happens and share some professional insights I wasn't expecting.

Get ready to come behind the curtain and into the world of off the plan sales. Here the Founder and CEO of Investorist Jon Ellis shares with me not only what he thinks is going on in the market but what his clients and customers think. As we know when markets prices rise or fall it is usually as a result of how people feel and not economic logic. In fact I recently heard an economist say "Economists are often looking back to make sense of why something happened". So there is no better insight to a market than a sentiment survey to find out how the market is feeling... and this one is about off the plan property. (ie apartments sold before they are constructed) Behind the consumer retail front of display suites and glossy advertising is a complex global network of property developers, agents and advisors who connect to promote, track and sell off the plan property. This network of industry heavyweights and major projects is brought together by an Australian company called Investorist who provide a business t

There has been an enormous amount of press recently about the Brisbane Apartment market and where it is at. It has been tough... no doubt about it... but if there is ever a sign of when it's a good time to buy, this just might be it. I am no expert on the Brisbane Apartment market but I know someone who is. Like his company name says, Rohan Banning sells Amazing Apartments and he is the authority on the Brisbane Apartment market. It is so refreshing to talk to someone who not only knows their market intimately, but is prepared to call it as it is without any agent spin or dressing it up. Rohan dissects the Brisbane apartment market by property and geography and shares his insights on what is going on in the Brisbane apartment market. Enjoy... Andrew  

Airbnb is the biggest thing to happen to accomodation around the world. And not just hotel accomodation (although that is a massive part of it) all accomodation including the long term rental market both directly and indirectly. There are some great stories and some hate stories from lots of perspectives. These range from people making easy cash, to cheap and great travel experiences, to tragic stories of homes being trashed and innocent next door neighbours who just what the simple quiet life. Outside the US Australia has the biggest short stay market in the world. We know Australia follows the US in many things so if you want to know what is going to happen here over the next few years just take a peak over the pond and see what is happening in the US. Andrew Keene lives in USA and while his day job trades the stock market -Alpha Shark Trading - he has invested in property for the sole purpose to cash in on the burgeoning airbnb market. He has studied it in intimate detail, experienced it first hand, lea