What’s the end game for the rental crisis?

Eventually we’re going to have to face we’re in a crisis. When is the rental market going to roll over? Rents have been growing at a blistering pace since Covid. Take a look at the chart. Australia has never seen anything like it: The hard news I have to deliver is that I can’t see […]

T-Bomb: How jobs stop you from growing up

Truth Bomb Tuesday: It’s hard to become completely free. Do you remember when you grew up? It must have happened at some point right? At some point you must have moved from the dependency of childhood into the independence of adulthood. But when was it? Was there a particular moment in time? Your eighteenth birthday? […]

T-Bomb: How debt saved his life

Truth Bomb Tuesday: I wouldn’t normally recommend this, but it works. Want to know a secret wealth hack you can do with debt? Use a heavy debt load to force change in your attitudes to money. Now, this isn’t for everyone. This isn’t even for most people. And generally, I would say that if debt […]

2000 homes approved, but no one will build them

Office conversions are stalling. Did they ever make sense. One of the most hyped ideas to come out of Covid was that we could turn all the empty office towers into residential apartments. I was always a little sceptical about this. I mean, it sounds like a good idea. There’s an empty building and a […]

WTF happened to Canada’s housing market?!?

It has Canadian flavours, but their boom is built with the same bones as ours. Someone flicked me a kind of mind-blowing report on the Canadian housing market. If you think the Aussie housing market is tight, have a look at what’s happening in Canada. And if you think that the Aussie property market has […]

Auctions point to an even bigger boom: the economy in pictures

See the world through the eyes of an economist: auctions, global house prices, wages and the gender pay gap. This is what caught my eye this week. First up, auctions continue to run hot, and auction clearance rates (how many resulted in a successful sale) continue to boom. When you map this against house price […]

Young buyers gearing up, but will it be enough?

Sales should pick up this year… but it won’t close the shortage. New home buyers are starting to get active in the market. That was the word from Stockland’s earning call last week. The CEO reckons sales inquiries are booming: Home buyers are returning to the market as expectations grow that the cycle of interest […]

T-Bomb: Why life is like Jenga

Truth Bomb Tuesday: It should be easy. This is why it’s not. Making changes in your life is hard for the same reason that Jenga is hard. You know the game Jenga right? You have a whole bunch of little blocks stacked one on top of the other in a tower, and you have to […]

Why this property came in $300K over reserve

This was a great result, built on a property’s ‘potential’. So the auction market is clearly pumping so far this year. It’s had a cracker of a start and suggests that price growth should remain strong through the year ahead. The data on clearance rates is positively bullish. Eager buyers are keeping pace with the […]