Michael has been once again voted Australia’s leading property investment advisor by the readers of ‘Your Investment Property Magazine’, but he’s not a theorist… He has been successfully investing in property since 1971 and is a leading property commentator and Australia’s most widely read property investment blogger. Join over 115,000 others who get their updates from Michael and his group of expert guest bloggers and benefit from their perspective.
By almost every traditional measure, Australians should be happier than previous generations. We are wealthier. We live longer. Our homes are larger and more comfortable, and we have access to healthcare, technology, entertainment, education and travel that our grandparents could barely have imagined. We carry devices in our pockets that give us instant access to…
For most property investors, Capital Gains Tax is something they usually think about when they’re preparing to sell. But the coming changes to Australia’s CGT regime mean there is an important date investors should be thinking about well before their property ever goes on the market. From 1 July 2027, the current 50% CGT discount for…
Australia’s rental crisis has been building for years, but new figures suggest the pressure could become even worse. We already know Australia doesn’t have enough homes. Vacancy rates remain tight, rents have risen substantially and population growth continues to create new households requiring somewhere to live. Yet at precisely the time we need more rental…
Freshly baked cookies on the kitchen bench, a bowl of lemons and limes carefully positioned on the dining table, or even a bottle of champagne on the balcony to suggest a more luxurious lifestyle. These are just some of the techniques sellers and their agents use to present a property in its best possible light….
Australia’s migration boom is losing momentum, and that raises some important questions for our property markets. Migration has been a major driver of housing demand in recent years, particularly in our capital cities, where most new arrivals initially settle. However, the latest ABS figures confirm that the extraordinary post-pandemic surge is continuing to ease. At…
Most Australians know they need to save for retirement, but very few have worked out what their retirement will actually cost. They may have a superannuation target in mind, yet that figure often bears little relationship to the lifestyle they hope to enjoy once they stop working. After all, there is a big difference between…
The slingshot effect is about to occur and that it has the potential to deliver strong price growth in many areas where prices are falling right now. This is how it works. We all know that housing demand increases in line with population growth, but doesn’t translate into price growth during times of uncertainty or…
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In this episode I speak with Scott Chapman, Managing Director of Opteon, about the signals shaping Australia’s property markets. We examine how the current downturn compares with previous cycles and why Sydney and Melbourne are experiencing different conditions from other markets. We explore how interest rates, lending restrictions, buyer sentiment, open-home attendance and auction results…
Australia’s property market continues to adjust, and the latest data reinforces something I’ve been saying for some time: there is no single Australian property market. One of the key developments this week was confirmation that the post-pandemic migration surge continues to ease. Net overseas migration fell to 292,100 in the year to March 2026, although…
For years, auctions have been the preferred selling method in Australia’s largest property markets, particularly in Melbourne and Sydney. When buyer demand is strong, an auction can create urgency, competition and fear of missing out, encouraging emotional buyers to push the price beyond where a private negotiation may have ended. However, auctions rely on one…
