One of my children’s favourite stories was the Very Hungry Caterpillar. No matter how many times they heard the ending; there were always gasps of amazement when the caterpillar changed into a beautiful butterfly. What seemed like a miracle to them is actually a normal part of the life cycle of many insects, but it…
Eight interest rate rises this year have created some big winners and losers. So let’s look at the different effects these rate hikes have on investors, homeowners and renters. This year, the Reserve Bank has made home loan repayments far more costly for households with mortgages than expected. That’s around 3.3 million households impacted, but…
Experts who are claiming that the property market will crash over the next year will soon be caught with their pants down. Why? Because they’re looking at the wrong numbers. They point the finger at interest rate rises, but even a rate rise of two per cent will still leave rates lower than they were…
Many investors are wary of buying properties in areas with a high percentage of rentals, perceiving them as being low-income, socially disadvantaged areas with high levels of unemployment and public safety issues. But, is there really any logic to this anti-rental stigma? Such negative thinking could even lead some of us to miss out on…
Predicting the future of housing is a science many experts get wrong, probably because they are looking in the wrong direction. Virtually all of the common housing market forecasting methods we use rely on the past to predict the future. These include: the property market cycle of endlessly recurring booms and busts, the long-term growth…
Buyer demand is falling in all our property markets, yet the cause of this hesitancy is not solely due to interest rate rises, but the fear and even panic that rate hikes create about possible housing price falls or even crashes. This fear of the unknown explains why potential property buyers are holding back, even…
As each spring approaches, so do those blogs and click baits assuring us that spring is the best time to sell a property. John Lindeman busts this urban myth wide open, explaining that it’s actually the best time to buy. Potential sellers are often told that spring is the best time to sell their property…
Rising interest rates, strong population growth, and a worsening housing shortage are pushing rental demand well ahead of rental vacancies. While the outlook for renters is bleak, with asking rents about to surge strongly in many areas, this also means that property investors seeking positive cash flow properties will be the winners. There are two…
The last Census was conducted in August 2021, when our international borders had been closed for over eighteen months, State borders were firmly shut and the southern capital cities were in lockdown. Much of the data illustrates the abnormalities that these restrictions on movement caused, but the stats also reveal how some people simply avoided…
We all know that all property booms eventually come to an end, so what will happen to property prices when the current boom is over? Property booms don’t all finish in the same way. Booms, where investors have been heavily involved, can become superheated bubbles, and then they bust, with prices crashing. In fact, as…