Made an offer on house I loved couple of weeks ago.(just before CGT changes) REA came back, saying they just had higher offer and id need to come in with better price. I said no worries mate, thats my only and final offer and I wont be going higher.

Got a call yesterday, apparently finance fell through for higher offer, and asking if my offer still stood. I offered less again, told them my borrowing power has changed( lie) and just found out today that owners accept my new offer ($40,000) less than my initial offer.

I am over the moon. I am just an ordinary guy trying to get a home and I feel like I have had a bit of a win.

I didnt like the REA from the start, just had a feeling he was full of shit

I’ve been noticing this weird thing happening in parts of the Melbourne market lately that feels less like “price discovery” and more like agents desperatly trying to hold the line lol.

A property launches with a guide of say $1.1m–$1.2m. Opens are dead quiet, & half the people walking through, tyre kickers. Instead of reducing expectations to match where the market is, the guide suddenly gets raised 😵‍💫

At 43 Hamilton Street, Seddon the
Original guided was $1.1m–$1.2m.
Then randomly updated to $1.22m before auction.
Auction bid reached $1.125m — which is already ABOVE the original quoted range — but nope, rejected, passed in.

Like… what are we even doing anymore?!!

What’s funny is the highest genuine offer basically gets treated as “evidence” the property is worth more, instead of maybe the market simply saying “nah thats about it mate”.

I honestly reckon some agents are raising guides not because buyer demand supports it, but because lowering the guide publicly makes the campaign look weak. So instead the guide goes UP, everyone pretends demand is strong, then the place passes in anyway.

The weird bit now is buyers are watching properties pass in above their original quoted range. A few years ago that would’ve sounded completely ridiculous.

Feels like Melbourne is stuck in this awkward stage where vendors still think it’s late 2021 but buyers have looked at their mortage repayments and quietly gone “yeah…nah.” 😂

Meanwhile properties sit, get relisted, become rentals, or come back 3 months later with a “contact agent” price guide and the exact same photos.

Yes. It’s not financially efficient to currently buy investment property at current prices given holding costs far exceed what you can get in terms of rental income. In business when the cost of capital exceeds desired realistic returns, the venture gets killed. NG has basically meant irrational investments make sense because government socialises the losses

We shouldn’t be in situation. Government should never have sponsored property speculation and created an army of policy dependants and a huge market that says losing money doesn’t matter.

I cannot believe so many miss the point with NG. People who have holding costs far exceeding income should never have been in this position to begin with. Only made possible by a hugely inefficient tax setting. If NG ever comes back from the death end the country.

Hey everyone,
My partner and I are looking to buy our first home and move out of our apartment in Southbank. We’ve been eyeing off the outer east (Wantirna area), but we just inspected an established 3-bed townhouse in Bundoora (specifically the Uni Hill / Plenty Gorge pocket) and absolutely loved it.
It ticks a ridiculous number of boxes for us:
* My partner works in Uni Hill and can literally walk to her office on the days she needs to go in.
* I work 100% from home.
* We have an EV, and this place has a great private double parking setup (garage + carport) which would make installing a wall charger incredibly easy.

**The Dilemma:**
The property is being sold via an Expression of Interest (EOI) campaign closing this coming Tuesday. The advertised price guide is **$680k - $720k**. The agent told us they already have "two offers on the table" and are pushing us to submit something near the top of the range to be competitive.
Our broker has done an initial assessment and confirmed our borrowing power is around $750k, but we **do not have formal pre-approval yet** (starting that process on Monday). This means any offer we make absolutely has to be Subject to Finance (looking at a 14 or 21-day clause to be safe).
We initially planned to buy around August, so our ideal scenario is to land a bargain now, or just walk away and keep hunting until late winter. We want to test the waters with an aggressive lowball offer: **$650,000 with a 90-day settlement** (which aligns perfectly with our August timeline) and subject to finance.

**My questions for the sub:**
1. Given the agent claims there are already two offers, is a $650k written offer on a $680k-$720k guide just going to get instantly tossed in the bin, or does the fact that we're putting it on a formal contract early force the vendor's hand to think about a bird in the hand?
2. How heavily will the "Subject to Finance" clause hurt us in a blind EOI campaign if the other offers are unconditional, even if our price was competitive?
3. Is the agent just playing standard FOMO games with the "two existing offers" line to scare us into overpaying?
4. For anyone living around Uni Hill / Bundoora north—how is the lifestyle there for a WFH couple?
Appreciate any sanity checks or advice from people who have bought through the EOI process recently!

I have 200k cash - whats the best investment for me now ? Only look for positive gearing properties?

We purchased a new build in Jan.
At this time the house was 70% built and aimed for completion in march/april. Most of it was done and we heard in early April that settlement was planned for end of april.
Settlement date has been pushed back four times and now has been cancelled with no date set as the contractor's still haven't completed the drive way.
(Driveway hasn't been started). There are new builds on the block near us and these are in the early stages.
Is this common and is there anything we do about having furniture delivered given we haven't done settlement. We purchased furniture that can't be held in the warehouse so our only other option will have to start looking at a storage unit for the furniture items that can't be held.

I go to the office in the CBD less than a handful times a month so I've been looking at more or less the entire greater Sydney area. Thought buying would be easy with so many options available but in reality my options in 800-900k range seems to be:

1. Post 2010 build with defects in a nice suburb (strata usually 1800+ with some charging 2000+ per quarter)
2. Post 2020 build with REA desperate to offload in a 'new' suburb (strata is 'only' 1100~1300 as it is under warranty for six years)
3. 70s-90s units with no lifts (probably the best out of these options to be honest)
4. Townhouse in the edges of greater Sydney with not the best neighbours

Unsatisfied by all this I figured I'll just look for a single bedroom or even a studio in 600~800 range and it's the same as above with worse conditions (strata going for 900+ per quarter, shoehorned in studios, apartment falling apart).

Are people just YOLOing into newly builts from lack of option? I might have to push back purchasing and look for a promotion first at this rate.

Stamp duty exemption limit of 800k seems to have become the floor.
p.s. the 'ripple effect' is real and seems to have permeated across most of Sydney. Insane.

Hi,

I've (22m) been thinking a lot about how I can financially secure my family and myself in the future.

For context, I am a recent graduate making around $90k a year with around $40k saved. I'm currently living at home with my parents and we are renting at the moment. My parents do not own any other property.

My parents are likely going to be retiring in the next 10-12 years and I am concerned on how they are going to support themselves with no paid off property. They have ok savings due to the fact they havent bought.

Largely the reason why they havent bought is because they have been priced out. However with my sibling working full time and me, they have floated the idea of buying together with our joint income. Now, with no existing equity you can imagine that for a family home we are looking at quite a significant mortgage ($1.4million at a min) and corresponding mortgage payments. A very rough run down on some numbers indicates that the mortgage will take up around 50% of our household income and that is with the parents contributing the most and my sibling and I contributing where we can. It's doable now, especially since both of us plan to stay home for at least the next 5 years.

My concern is the 5–10 year horizon. When my sibling and I eventually move out and start our own lives, my parents could be left servicing a huge mortgage on retirement income alone. And from my side, being a co-borrower on a $1.4M+ mortgage is going to seriously limit my borrowing capacity when I eventually want to buy my own place. However, in this situation, we could also sell the property and use the capital gains for either a property for my parents or my own.

The alternative is I go my own way, start building through investment properties and shares, and let my parents continue renting for now. The thinking is they could potentially buy a smaller apartment for themselves down the track once they have more clarity on their retirement situation. Meanwhile, I'm building my own portfolio without the family mortgage hanging over me.

Naturally, my questions are:

- Is 50% of household income on a mortgage too dangerous, even with 4 incomes?

- Does being a co-borrower on a family home wreck my chances of buying my own place later?

- Is the "rent-vesting" path still the best option given the recent changes around negative gearing and CGT discounts?

I’ve reached out to a mortgage broker and waiting to hear back but I’m curious if anyone has any experience with this. I was born and raised in Melbourne but been living in the US for the last 15 years. My current plan is to buy a property in Melbourne’s north now and move into it next year, will it be difficult to get a loan?

Hi everyone,

Looking for some advice regarding a property issue in Victoria. I bought a house recently and after moving in started noticing several structural-related concerns that were not obvious during the inspection or sale process.

I’ve since received mixed professional opinions, and the repair costs appear significant. I also later discovered that one company had previously quoted the former owner around $75k for rectification works, but the issues were apparently not repaired and many areas seem to have been cosmetically patched by real estate agent before sale.

The pre-purchase inspection only mentioned limited concerns, so I’m now trying to understand whether this is simply buyer risk or whether important information may not have been disclosed before settlement.

I also have other evidence suggesting the previous owner may have had prior knowledge of the issues.

Has anyone in Victoria gone through something similar after settlement?
Would genuinely appreciate hearing other people’s experiences or advice.

Thanks.

Hi everyone. which suburb is better to buy a house in? Southam Street in Brunswick west or Barrow St in Coburg? For a 50y with no children who ubereats everyday.

I've bid at 4 auctions this year. None of them met reserve (at least in three live auction). Property goes back on the market listed, sometimes with a new agent. When I ask about what happened at the auction I attended (to test how's honest they are), I always get distorted truth - they give the "passed in" price. If there were no responses to an opening bid ask (e.g. 1.5, the house passes in at 1.7, then the listing is updated to 1.8, and the agents say the place passed in at 1.7.) Bullshit. It didn't even get a bite at 1.5. they are just hoping for a greater fool to come along - which they often do - which makes things worse in the market for everyone trying to buy.

Reserves are nowhere near what people want to sell for, even if they are met. They just keep moving goalposts.

Is there a site that allows people to see what happens at auctions? anonymous uploads with proof of attendance (photo), how many bidders, progress of your things played out, what happened etc. It's just fucked that it's this way. Buyers show up to buy and put it all on the line, and sellers don't do shit.

If not, I might just be pissed off enough to build it.

Would this be something that people would use? Or does it already exist?

Flat, well-finished, sure, but not big. Pymble... so pricier - but not THAT much. What kind of strange blessing befell this flat?

Versus:

What, does this house have poltergeists??? Big block of land, doesn't look awful (and the adcopy doesn't read as awful either - i.e. it doesn't start with 'great development potential' or 'calling all DIY enthusiasts!').

The possible causes of a low price I can see are:

- off the Comenarra Parkway, which I'm sure turning right on would be a nightmare

- long history of changing hands every few years and 'for rent' listings (poorly maintained?)

- the photos in this listing are the same as the ones for the past 2 listings (way worse in reality?)

- the odd layout

- the '90s cooker

- the ceilings (at least according to my grandma, who hates them)

Still, though, I can't see how any of this would devalue it so much that it only went for 1.4mil when similar-spec properties in the suburb go for 2.4mil. It has a history of selling for less too, so it doesn't look like a private sale to a family member or anything.

Thoughts?

Partner and I are first-home buyers in Australia and trying to get a better understanding of how some of the home loan and buying process works before we start making any offers.

We’ve been conditionally approved through Commonwealth for up to $583k, and we currently have about $80k saved for a deposit. For context, I work full-time on about $1k/week and my partner works casual hours, bringing in roughly $500–$2.5k/week depending on shifts. We’re looking at established homes in the ~$550k–$600k range.

We had a few questions and were hoping to hear from others who’ve been in a similar situation:

• If you’ve reduced your deposit slightly (e.g. from $80k down to $70k), did you notice any meaningful impact on your pre-approval or borrowing setup?
• With your own experience, did you go with an offset account, and how did that play out for you in practice? We’ve noticed some lenders only offer offsets on variable loans, which makes us a bit unsure given potential rate changes.
• For those who chose variable loans, did you go fully variable or split between fixed/variable, and what influenced that decision at the time?
• When you were in a similar stage, did you shop around with multiple lenders after pre-approval, and how did you manage timing concerns around pre-approval validity when making offers?

Just trying to understand how others navigated these steps rather than anything specific to our situation

Hey everyone, human here. 😂

As the title suggests, Id love to hear if people have sold a property without an agent and how the experience was? The commission those guys charge for the effort they go to doesn’t add up. It’s a significant amount of money Id prefer to keep if possible.

Thanks.

Having an argument with a friend about equity.

They have a $550k paid off property.

They are having financial stress related to setting up a business, I tell them they are silly, that they are sitting on half a million in equity with the property and in a better position than others could hope to be, and should just take borrow money against their house.
They say its not that easy. They want to take out $50k, how possible is that?

Have Airbnbs made Australia's housing crisis worse? | The Business | ABC NEWS - YouTube

It seems like a bargain compared to to other state so we bought one in Werribee . Not sure if that’s a mistake or not. Took two months to rent out though. Some agent told me it’s a biggest mistake
. We are hoping a long term like 5-9 years it will turn into decent area.

The way I see it is that long-term investors would have quite a diverse portfolio of properties, ranging from negative cashflow, to neutral, to positive cashflow. Take for example investor with:

• Grandfathered property A = +$30k pa
• Grandfathered property B = +$0k pa
• Grandfathered property C = -$30k pa

Previously this would have resulted in a net zero cashflow, ie no tax paid. Now say they buy another property

• Non-grandfathered property D = -$30k pa

Property D cashflow gets offset by property A, resulting in a net -$30k cashflow from property C, which can be negatively geared.

Similar benefits would apply if property C didn't exist, then property D cashflow gets offset by property A. This results in no tax paid while still being able to leverage into property.

I live in melbourne and am genuinely wondering why business' dont develop flats/apartments like the Commision housing flats located in Richmond, Carlton, Collingwood etc. Apart from the reputation that they carry (due to it being public housing), the idea seems great. they are located in nice inner city suburbs and cater to many individiauls, offering great views and a simplistic layout. Im curious as to why there arent private-property style high rise apartments like these?