There are around 9 million Australians (which accounts for 35% of the population) living in suburbs classified as ‘childcare deserts’, where children outnumber childcare spaces by more than 3-to-1. A new report, published by the Mitchell Institute and Victoria University, maps out the shortage of childcare services across every neighbourhood in the country and compares…
Articles by Kate Forbes

Kate Forbes is a National Director Property Strategy at Metropole. She has 15 years of investment experience in financial markets in two continents, is qualified in multiple disciplines and is also a chartered financial analyst (CFA).
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Everyone likes cash, don’t they? While most of us don’t have much of it in our wallets anymore because it’s been replaced by a bank card, that doesn’t mean that we don’t spend much of our lives wanting more of the stuff. Whether it’s through a salary or starting a business, most Australians would like…
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for housing across the country has swelled to new highs, and Victoria’s capital isn’t immune. So far this year the Melbourne housing market has languished with little overall growth in the first quarter of the year, however, there are still plenty of transactions occurring. In fact, Melbourne dwelling values…
For the first time in 11 years, the RBA increased rates and we’re still expecting them to increase sharply over the rest of 2022. We already know that there’s a slowdown in-home price growth in part due to affordability issues, concerns with overseas geopolitical tensions, an upcoming election, and rising inflation, but no doubt exacerbated…
While Australia’s property market started strongly in 2022, concern about an increasing cash rate, rising inflation, overseas geopolitical issues and an ongoing federal election campaign saw property price growth stall across our capital cities over the last few months. In April, prices across the country increased at their slowest monthly pace since May 2020, the…
If you’re thinking you can invest in cash flow to grow your wealth, I have news for you. It never has been the case, but especially in 2022 in the current investment environment, chasing cash flow might not be the most financially rewarding decision. Here’s why – and what you should do instead. What are…
While the property pessimists out there will give many incorrect reasons why we can expect an impending property market crash, there is one thing that continues to underpin and strengthen property values – the number of first home buyers entering the market. Thanks to the latest government initiative to help first home buyers step on…
Inflation expectations are simply the rate at which people—consumers, businesses, investors—expect prices to rise in the future. They matter because actual inflation depends, in part, on what we expect it to be. If everyone expects prices to rise, say, 5 percent over the next year, businesses will want to raise prices by (at least) 5…
We know the once in a generation of property boom Australia experienced last year is now over. But what’s really happening to property values now? The new PropTrack Home Price Index, released this month, reveals trends in price growth across the country. In a recent article Proptrack economist, Paul Ryan explained what’s happening on the…
What’s ahead for the Melbourne apartment market? Despite more than 260 days of lockdown, the Melbourne property market performed strongly in 2020 and 2021 underpinned by low-interest rates, various Government incentives, and support measures as well as high household savings accumulated during the lockdowns. But this strong performance was largely limited to the detached housing…