National
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REA Group appoints Tomas Varsavsky as company’s first Chief Engineer
REA Group has appointed Tomas Varsavsky to the role of Chief Engineer. Mr Varsavsky will report to the REA Group Chief Executive Officer, Tracey Fellows. Varsavsky will be responsible for setting the strategic technology direction for the group and leads centralised teams around data, security, enterprise technology, infrastructure and architecture. Mr Varsavsky has been with REA Group for seven years where he was…
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Everyone has a next level: RE/MAX top performers unite at industry forum in New Zealand
“Mission possible” was the theme of the RE/MAX high performers forum this year which was held in Queenstown, New Zealand. Seventy RE/MAX members from Australia and New Zealand gathered for three days of networking and learning at the invitation-only event for top performers. Michael Davoren, RE/MAX Australia and New Zealand Managing Director, said technology was a recurring theme at the…
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Urbane Property streaming auctions live
Dealing with crowds and sticky beaks is a thing of the past for buyers, who can now bid on Sydney property with ease from the comfort of their own home. Boutique inner west agency Urbane Property is offering buyers a technology platform to live stream auctions and participate in the bidding remotely. George Nikos, owner of Urbane Property, said the…
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realestate.com.au strengthens home loan offering with acquisition of majority stake in Smartline
realestate.com.au has announced it will enter the mortgage broking market with the acquisition of an 80.3% stake in one of the country’s premier mortgage broking franchise groups, Smartline. With an average monthly audience of 5.9 million, realestate.com.au will now have access to over 300 Smartline advisers nationally. This acquisition adds to the strategic partnership with NAB, announced in December 2016, to…
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realestate.com.au and NAB sign strategic mortgage broking partnership
realestate.com.au has announced it is building on its expansion into financial services by signing a new strategic mortgage broking partnership with NAB. realestate.com.au and NAB have also agreed to build a mortgage broking solution, which adds to the strategic partnership announced in December 2016 to create an Australian-first end-to-end digital property search and financing experience. To help achieve this, NAB…
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More People Renting and More Apartments: HIA
“The symptoms of an under-supplied housing market continue to show-up in today’s census figures,” stated Tim Reardon, HIA’s Principal Economist. “The number of people living in each dwelling has increased in Sydney and Melbourne to 2.7 people (2.6 nationally). Furthermore, the number of households with six or more people has increased by 20 per cent since 2011. “There has been…
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Clearance rates continue to trend below 70 percent across the combined capitals on similar volumes as last week.
There have been 1,840 capital city auction results reported to CoreLogic so far this week, resulting in a preliminary auction clearance rate of 69.1 percent across the combined capital cities. There were a total of 2,323 capital city auctions held this week, down from the 2,444 held last week. National auction clearance results for the week ending 25/06/2017 courtesy of CoreLogic This…
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Values Increasing Faster than Outstanding Debt: Tim Lawless
The number of properties mortgaged is climbing, however, values are increasing faster than outstanding debt, says CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless. Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released its residential property prices indexes for the March 2017 quarter. A valuable data set from the release relates to the value of dwelling stock and the number of residential dwellings. Both of…
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REA Group confirms Henry Ruiz as CEO, REA Group Asia
REA Group today confirmed the appointment of Mr Henry Ruiz as CEO, REA Group Asia effective immediately. Mr Ruiz, who has been acting in this position since March 2017, is responsible for the Group’s Asia business including iProperty Group across Southeast Asia and Chinese property site myfun.com. Commenting on Mr Ruiz’s appointment, Ms Fellows said: “Asia is a key region…
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Submissions closing soon for AREAs
Submissions are closing soon for the Annual REA Excellence Awards (AREAs), which recognise property industry players who go above and beyond. Now in their second year, the AREAs honour innovative, community-minded high achievers across the entire property industry – from residential and commercial agents, property developers and home builders to those providing home loans or working in the media. Residential…
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ABS: Residential property prices rise 2.2 pc in March 2017 quarter
Residential property prices rose 2.2 per cent in the March quarter 2017 according to figures released on Tuesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This was the fourth consecutive quarter of growth. Even though residential property prices increased in most capital cities, Sydney and Melbourne were the main drivers of the result. The price rises in Sydney (3 per…
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Auction volumes rise to 2,407 across the capital cities returning a preliminary weighted clearance rate of 69.6 percent
There were 2,407 auctions held across the combined capital cities this week, with a preliminary auction clearance rate of 69.6 percent. Last week, the final clearance rate fell to 67.8 percent, recording the lowest clearance rate year to date, across 1,279 capital city auctions. This is the 3rd week in a row now where the combined capital city clearance rate…
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The Weekly Wrap: Auctions up but investor activity is dropping
Investor interest in the housing market has started to drop off, according to CoreLogic research analyst Cameron Kusher. Housing finance and credit data released earlier this month by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Reserve Bank (RBA) show there has been a decline in investor activity, with mortgage lenders rationing credit to the investor segment and the lifting of mortgage…
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Entries open for Domain Rising Star Awards 2017
Domain is back on the hunt for real estate’s young guns as entries for Domain Rising Star Awards 2017 are now open. The Awards uncover and celebrate innovation, dedication and achievement among Australia’s emerging real estate leaders. Entries are open to residential real estate agents up to 30 years of age in NSW, Victoria and, for the first time, Queensland.…
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ARPM 2017 – Are you ready to reconstruct?
The Australasian Residential Property Management Conference (ARPM) is back this year with a revamped program, exciting speakers, new location and a new focus. This year’s theme is ‘reconstruct’, which focuses on pivoting and adapting the way property management is conducted to keep the customer at the forefront. The conference is organised by real estate coach and consultant Fiona Blayney, founder…
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India to have global listings under REA Group deal
Elara Technologies Pte Ltd., owner of Housing.com, PropTiger.com, and Makaan.com has joined REA Group’s Global Property Network to deliver global property listings in more countries than ever. As an industry first in India, this collaboration will bring together Elara Technologies’ group companies from India and REA Group owned and partner sites across China, USA, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong…
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New Home Loans Lifting Despite Softening Housing Finance: HIA
While housing figures released last week show that while overall lending slowed in April this year, the number of loans to households building new homes has reached it’s highest level since 2015. “(The) result is a positive sign for detached house builders and supports our view that demand in this part of the market is likely to remain robust throughout…
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Preliminary auction clearance rate holds above 70 percent on lowest volumes since Easter
The number of auctions held this week saw a significant decrease, with 1,265 properties taken to market across the combined capital cities, down from 2,578 over the week prior. The decrease in auction activity this week is attributable to the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, which has affected activity across most states, including Australia’s two largest auction markets. National auction clearance…
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How do Australian Home Sizes Really Compare?
How many times have you heard “it’s a bit small, isn’t it?” during an open for inspection? But our view of small in Australia is completely different to some places in the UK right now with developers taking advantage of the government’s relaxation of planning regulations, the tiny house trend, and ability to converting commercial office space into small apartments.…
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RE/MAX Australia continues to expand it’s presence
RE/MAX Australia continues to expand its national footprint with the addition of nine offices in the first half of 2017. This year, the network added Kingston in ACT, Lidcombe in NSW and three offices in Queensland: Wamuran, Indooroopilly and Sunnybank Hills. By the end of June, RE/MAX will also have added offices in Oxenford, Monterey Keys and Hendra in Queensland,…
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Core Logic weekly wrap – remember the good times with the bad
During the up cycle of any property market, it’s natural that people will tend only to focus on when values rise. However, it’s important to remember the times values have fallen dramatically but recovered, bearing in mind it’s more common for combined capital city dwelling values to increase rather than fall. “Although value rises have been more common, it doesn’t…
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Stamp duty concessions are reverse engineering supply and demand: Douglas Driscoll
Starr Partners CEO Douglas Driscoll is calling for more justification around the NSW Government’s solution for housing affordability after it revealed no concessions would be afforded to buyers making property purchases over $800,000. The measures, taken to cabinet last week, proposed stamp duty would be abolished on all homes up to $650,000 and relief to buyers of homes up to…
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LJ Hooker to list property with TradingPost
Australian online marketplace TradingPost and LJ Hooker have teamed up to bring property listings to the TradingPosts new property section. The site now has sales and property management listings from LJ Hooker’s national network of real estate professionals. The listings can now be seen by TradingPost’s audience of over 1 million every month1. Soft-launched in March, the property section of…
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Harcourts Group Australia Celebrates 20th Anniversary with Gala Awards, Lee Perry Inducted into Harcourts Hall of Fame
Major real estate franchise group Harcourts Group Australia marked its 20th-anniversary milestone during a three-day conference held 29-31 May at The Star Casino, on the Gold Coast. Kicking off the signature event was a performance by ARIA award winning artists The Veronicas. The annual conference was a mixture of learning, inspiration and ideas presentations from a variety of noted property…
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RBA leaves cash rate unchanged
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced they will leave the cash rate unchanged at 1.5 percent after its monthly meeting yesterday. RBA Governor Philip Lowe said the broad-based pick-up in the global economy is continuing, but while he had an optimistic tone on strength of the labour market, he said wage growth remains low and this was likely to…
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Demand for Property Surges in May according to REA
While demand for property seemed to subside somewhat in April according to the REA Group Property Demand Index, the month of May saw demand for housing reach a new record high. The latest figures from REA Group suggest more price growth in major cities, despite other reports, such as the CoreLogic Home Value indices for the same period showing small…
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Foreign resident capital gains withholding tax too low: REIA
The initiative outlined in the 2017 Budget for foreign resident capital gains withholding is too low says REIA President Malcolm Gunning. The Government propose to reduce the foreign resident capital gains tax withholding to $750,000 from the current $2 million from 1 July 2017. REIA President Malcolm Gunning said in REIA’s view the proposed threshold of $750,000 is unjustifiable. “If…
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Stamp Duty changes to affect buyer demand: Tim Lawless
The decision last week by the News South Wales Government Premier Gladys Berejiklian to provide first home buyers with a stamp duty exemption for properties with a price tag under $650,000 is likely to boost demand for this under-represented segment of the market, according to Tim Lawless. Based on recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, first home buyers comprised…
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Century 21 Launches Australasian Project Marketing Business
Century 21 has launched the group’s first overarching project marketing business that will have a presence across Australasia and in each Australian capital city. The business will work closely with both developers and the Century 21 franchise network to implement full-service project marketing strategies for residential projects from concept to completion. Century 21 Project Marketing will be led by Alex…
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Preliminary clearance rate holds above 70 percent as the number of auctions held slips lower
The first week of winter saw auction volumes fall, with 2,545 homes taken to auction, compared to 2,885 the previous week. The preliminary clearance rate across the combined capital cities was higher (73.9 percent) compared with last week’s finalised result, which was the third lowest clearance rate so far this year (71.3 percent). National auction clearance results for the week ending 04/06/2017 courtesy…
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Juwai.com Appoints Georg Chmiel to its Board of Directors
Juwai.com announced today the appointment of Georg Chmiel to its Board of Directors. Mr Chmiel has nearly 17 years of experience directly in the online real estate and property industry. Chmiel is currently Group CFO and Director International of iflix, the streaming entertainment service available to one billion consumers across 18 markets throughout Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.…
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Rex Software launches CRM app Pocket by Rex
Rex Software is proud to unveil a first full-featured mobile CRM app for real estate agents: Pocket by Rex. Now available for iOS on the App Store and for Android on Google Play. Conducting client surveys in 2016, the results indicated to REX that agents spend anywhere from 60-80% of their working lives out of the office. A year in the…
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REA Group moves into new Sydney home
REA Group has moved its Sydney headquarters into a new 950 sqm ‘home-styled’ office, mirroring what the company does best in connecting people and homes. Designed by leading interior and architectural design firm Futurespace, the new REA Group Sydney office is sectioned into the same kind of rooms you would find in a home. Managing Director of Futurespace, Angela Ferguson…
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APRA Data shows easing of LVR Lending, CoreLogic
CoreLogic research analyst Cameron Kusher comments on data released by APRA earlier the week showing LVR lending is easing up with a further slowdown expected. Data released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) earlier this week has shown that high loan to value ratio (LVR) lending continues to fall indicating new buyers are in many instances using larger deposits.…
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realestate.com.au joins forces with The Property Couch
realestate.com.au is teaming up with The Property Couch, one of the country’s best property podcasts, to bring Australians the property information, insights and advice they need to help with one of life’s biggest decisions. The Property Couch is made up of two of Australia’s most respected property experts, Bryce Holdaway and Ben Kingsley, who are passionate about helping people make smart…
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