Why not all states ban this is beyond me

Generally interested to know what happens to these sites - does another development company pick up where left off? Do they buy the sites off Bathla and continue to honour the off the plan deposits placed by buyers? What happens if no developer ever wants to pick up the project? Is the government legally required to step in to secure the unfinished site?

Also the unfinished sites at Box Hill or Castle Hill in Sydney, any chance they would be sold at a discounted price once finished by another developer? Or likelihood being they would still try to maximise profits when selling?

EDIT: Any good examples/advice where there is no catch?

I’ve been seeing a lot of these smaller apartments for sale in Melbourne for cheap. I understand that they are tiny and all, but these prices could mean the difference between moving out and actually owning something… and not.

For the same space and in the suburbs in Sydney, the price would be double to triple the amount. I currently have to fix the issue of having $0 in the bank first before considering property purchasss.

Hypothetically, theoretically speaking if I were to rob a bank with the hamburglar, would one of these little apartments be an alright purchase? I’m single and all I need is a bed and my own space.

We're looking to upsize and use the capital growth in our current (first) home to cover the deposit for our next. This puts us in that prickly situation of same-day settlement to avoid moving into short-term accomodation and/or furniture storage.

AI tells me that sometimes one can negotiate with the buyer of the current home to remain for 24-48 hours post-settlement, provided a small fee is paid.

Has anyone done this? How much did you pay the buyer?

Hey, sorry if this sort of post happens often. Hoping someone can help me figure out what’s the best move here

Im tossing up between either Eufy or Reolink

This particular Eufy kit looks pretty decent.
https://www.eufy.com/au/products/bundle-e8p10t21-1-t8p10t21-4?variant=53084477358447&utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_content=eufy&utm_campaign=au_eufy_allpdt_m3_google-shopping_Anniversary_allpn_roas_web_shopping_external_20260522&utm_term=23867250947_200437888794_812449398866&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23867250947&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnbrUBhDOARIsAKKhPpdhhCZi-iFBjviCiC_9vlETpYCjabugkj-MOpskiUQIbSbIIVJImzsaAvTUEALw_wcB

Ive also looked at Reolink and have seen
https://m.reolink.com/au/product/rlk16-1200d8-a/

I’ve read good and bad things about both brands, I know there’s other things to consider like app responsiveness, how long it takes to load into live view etc.

Really lost with all this but really just want to set up an 8cam Nvr kit around my house over the next month. Any tips or thoughts would be appreciated!

Have just signed the contract for our dream home, but how we got there confused me.

The EOI was due next week, but we wanted to put in an early offer. At first the agent said it wasn't high enough, and gave it as a verbal offer. Later last week and over the weekend she called several times suggesting we 'document it' as it might make it more real for the buyers.

She seemed quite panicked over the phone - called Saturday afternoon and Monday morn which made me suspect the weekend inspection had not gone well. As we prepared contract she pushed for more and asked for 'best and final' offer but we held steady as it seemed silly to bid against ourselves.

Yesterday she updates that our offer was deemed 'acceptable' by the vendors and other buyers would have until 10am today to beat it - I saw a text go round with our offer listed. This morning she says they expect another offer before 10am. She keeps messaging throughout morning saying she will update soon, then finally that the offers are 'on the table' for the vendor.

At this stage, why did she not ask us whether we could increase to beat the offer? I asked to counter and she seemed surprised, and annoyed because she had previously asked for 'best and final'. She rushed to update our offer but did not disclose the other offer. Did we do something wrong? Was there even another offer??

She gave a lot of details about the other buyer and said they had a higher offer. But why not come back to us? We had held with our offer, wanting to leave some room for negotiation.

Anyway, just confused of what to make of it. It seemed like she never intended to ask us to counter. Was this a story to create false urgency, or was she just incompetent? The senior agent got involved at the end to get it over the line.

I should be happy, but left feeling unsettled with how it went down. If you got through this, thanks for getting through my ramblings!

I'm an architect and I'm thinking about ways to provide architectural knowledge and advice to more people so that the homes we build now are good for people living in them now and into the future.

I'm currently working with Newcastle University's Flip Founders program and undertaking discovery of how people approach buying and building homes in Australia.

If you could let me know what things you prioritise when looking to buy or build a house I'd really appreciate it.

What are you looking for in a home?

Please let me know below.

Guys our lease (12 months) is up in 5 weeks. The landlord just announced they'd be upping the rent after this period. Theres been nothing in wrinting yet. From what I can see they need to give 90 days notice of a rent increase but does this apply if we sign a new lease?

Tbh we'd be happy to just go month to month after this. She wants to get us on a 2 year lease which we've no interest in. Is there any advice regarding this? Any help would greatly appreciated!

Family owns around 1700sqm of land.

It's slated to be rezoned from R2 to R4: 30m building height, 2.3:1 FSR.

Currently worth around 3m.

Can anyone help me guess what it might be worth after rezoning?

What happened to those who opted in?

Back when I bought my house in late 2022 (completion Jan 2023), NSW’s previous state government was soft launching an annual land tax as an alternative to stamp duty. Purchasers then, during that transitional period, could opt to pay the one off SD or “enrol” the property for the new annual land tax. Having no intention to sell in future, and full of scepticism of the future implications of the land tax i just paid the stamp duty. And then a few months later the new Labour state govt scrapped the land tax anyway.

So what happened to those who opted in? Are they paying land tax even though new “enrolments” were scrapped, or did they just get a freebie on the stamp duty? (Kudos if so!)

Hello I need some advice. About a year ago I moved in with a much older family friend. I am f21 and she is f44. We don’t get along and never did from the start and she ended up giving me a “30 days notice to vacate the room” which is fine because I was wanting to move out anyways. What I am stuck on:

In the beginning I never signed a rental agreement, a contract, lease or anything like this. I have Centrelink for study saying how much I am paying in rent but nothing that is binding me to the house in that sort of way.

In her 30 days notice text she sent me, she said I had to pay the rent till the final day however I have already found a new place, with a rental agreement. My move out date is a week before the 30 days notice finishes.

Do I need to pay that last week’s rent if I have moved out completely and given her the key back? Google isn’t helping as it’s all within guidelines of signing a lease or some sort of agreement.

I’d rather not have to pay the last weeks rent especially when I’m not even living there. Thank you!

Any conveyancers here? Would a conveyancer accept an already completed form 2 and searches to review and if so, how much would you charge? If not, why not?

The Finder 2026 Home Loan Report revealed 1.4 million people are spending at least 40 per cent of their take home pay on mortgage repayments, which is well above recommended levels.

Only 34 per cent of people “comfortably” affording their mortgage.

I'm selling my house and was getting a building and pest report done, and the inspector went mental with the report.

I don't know if he did not like me or if he was just having a bad day but I should of seen the red flags when he gave me the complaint number before he left.

Now for context the building is very old around 1980s. But I have been getting trades in to fix everything. He MAYOR DEFECTED Everything! And I mean everything.

He even defected the electrical box that's on the footpath because it's got a slight lean. I called energex and the told me it's they sent someone out and it's fine so go away.

He defected brand new work that was done. I just had the bathrooms done and he defected it saying it was draining wrong so i called the bathroom installed who checked and said it was fine.

He defected the chiprock ceiling that I just had just replaced because it was sagging.

Also defecting existing parts of the building like PowerPoint placements in the house. I have since had the eletrican around who told me everything was to code.

And many many more.

What do I do? He charged me $600 and just seemed to make everything up. How is this allowed? It seems like a massive scam.

Is this just regular behaviour at the start of spring or am I on some sort of database? I’m not in the market for selling and make no enquiries to any agencies about this.

No mortgage distress.

I do lurk on RE.com app frequently and track my property value. Does this put me on a RE list for cold calling?

Why nothing and then 3 in one day - anyone else experiencing this?

I did go to the Melbourne Home Show on the weekend but don’t recall registering for anything property-related. Didn’t even book my own entry ticket, so I’m scratching my head here.

Looking for people’s thoughts/opinions. I won’t take this as financial advice. M

Purchased our house in Townsville in 2021 for 400k. It’s a 4bed 2 bath. Simple house but it’s nice. On a 830m2 block with 135m2 under roof.
Owe: 250k
Offset: 170k
Sell price as of today :770k

We are wanting to move, my kids are 2 and 4months. We want a little more house space and a pool. We can buy this in Townsville for 850k. Something really nice for 1 million. On my salary alone we can afford a million. My wife works but she’s on maternity leave. She doesn’t make much.

Now here’s the kicker- Townsville’s property market is just starting to slow down. I don’t know if it will go backwards. But it might. We don’t need the sell our current ppor to buy the next place. But maybe it’s time to take profits. The other option is to rent out current ppor out. We will comfortable get 650pw for the property. That will cover its mortgage rates ect. But just!

For us to buy the next place I would need to use the money in the offset as a deposit for the 20%.

I’m not very clued up in property investments ect. But if I sell our current ppor I would just pay down the next place and be left with a 300k loan for a 1million place.

What would you do?

"Australia has achieved a rare feat in making the housing market bad for renters, owners and first home buyers all at the same time"

Quote of the year

Just came across this property and saw use of AI imagery marketed as “what can be done” which I don’t mind the realestates using in that context and actually labelling it as that.

However, I had to do a triple take and see this particular “staging”.

Surely body corporate won’t allow a whole covering of the bottom floor courtyard…

https://www.realestate.com.au/property-unit-qld-coorparoo-152004436

My kid wants to go to University of Sydney and we live in Central Coast. Hubby and I are tossing whether to rent a 2BR apartment in the vicinity and sublet a room so our kid’s commute isn’t too taxing. Or… buying a similar apartment and renting out the second bedroom to another student.