Collier Homes, a household name in Western Australia and one of the state’s largest residential builders, has folded. The 65-year-old company revealed Tuesday (23 April) that the business would be wound up. Company representatives and liquidators have yet to reveal the scale of the company’s debts or the number of customers affected by their demise. In a recent note on its website, the firm said it tried hard to please customers during these challenging times. “The post-Covid stimuli were well-intentioned, however, they created massive supply chain shortages, delays and labour constraints ..read more

Understanding statistics can be a tricky business, especially when they’re related to emotional topics like house prices or the economy.   Here are seven rules to help make sense of statistical claims: Emotional reaction: Notice how you feel about a claim before accepting or rejecting it. Viewpoint: Combine the big picture view with personal experiences to get a more balanced understanding. This is what I call the ‘bird’s eye versus worm’s eye’ view. What’s actually said: Take time to understand the details in charts and tables, including labels, footnotes and data sources. What’s missin ..read more

Property investors are increasingly wary of investing in Victoria due to the recent Government policy changes towards short-stay accommodation as well as changes to the land tax thresholds impacting investors profitability and cashflow. After being overtaken by Brisbane, Melbourne is now the third most expensive city when it comes to real estate in Australia. Victoria has a diverse property market in addition to Melbourne, which has a median property value of $1.15 million to the beautiful regional areas like the Mornington Peninsula with a median house price of almost $2 million (median house ..read more

With both a Federal and Western Australian state election looming in early 2025, the housing supply crisis that is gripping the nation is taking centre stage as a key election issue. It is not often that housing takes the spotlight in an election campaign. It tends to be a side issue or an afterthought as part of wider election commitments from both sides of the Parliament. Perhaps that is why we find ourselves in such a dire situation as population continues to rise and the delivery of quality housing across the continuum falls short. The current housing supply crisis is impacting markets acr ..read more

Perth’s capital growth outpaced all capital cities in the past year and is 11 per cent above national average, achieving a record dwelling median of $703,502, with no sign of a slowdown. Since the onset of Covid, property prices in Perth have increased 56 per cent, or by a median $253,624, with the ongoing upward trend buoyed by high immigration, low supply, and despite growth, ongoing affordability. CoreLogic’s March Home Value Index recorded a monthly, quarterly and annual dwelling value rise nationally of 0.6, 1.6 and 8.8 per cent, but for the same periods, fast-paced Perth values grew more ..read more

More Australian companies are failing and the construction industry is faring the worst of all. During the nine-month period from 1 July 2023 to 31 March 2024, more than 7,700 companies entered external administration, a 36.2 per cent increase on the previous corresponding nine-month period ending 31 March 2023. According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) data released Thursday (18 April), of these external administrations, construction (2,142), constructed represented the greatest number of company failures, accounting for 27.7 per cent of all insolvencies. Accomm ..read more

Investors looking for quick returns in the Victorian property market have, of late, been largely disappointed. There is no question Victoria, and particularly Melbourne, has faced challenges from an investor standpoint over the past few years. Extended lockdowns through Covid, rising interest rates, supply chain shortages and consumer confidence, among many other factors, played a role in limiting property value growth through 2023 and early 2024. There are, however, some assets that are outperforming the wider market for those willing to invest outside the box. Rob Bird, Executive General Man ..read more

We often tell clients that bigger metropolitan centres record stronger growth, and this means the best places for Australians to invest are in Sydney and Melbourne. But looking through CoreLogic’s recent data, the annual performance numbers tell a different story. Perth has had a runaway year leading the pack, followed by Brisbane and Adelaide. Melbourne, on the other hand, looks like it’s dawdling. It’s not a great annual performance number and what it doesn’t show us is that for the March quarter, Melbourne property prices actually fell 0.2 per cent. This marks quite a break from the decade ..read more

Property prices driven upwards by a lack of supply appear unlikely to change trajectory, with PIPA Chair Nicola McDougall declaring “I have a better chance of winning Lotto next week” than the government has of constructing 1.2 million new dwellings over the next five years. The upshot of the federal government’s ambitious housing targets falling further behind by the month, while migration levels and population growth remain high, is that property prices around the country continue to climb. Market conditions in Brisbane and Adelaide remain robust, with Sydney resilient and Melbourne mostly s ..read more

Watching her mother get injured by a stray bullet that grazed her forehead during a Kenyan coup, having the family home ransacked by soldiers, and enduring hardships to which no child should be subjected, were among the catalysts for Anna Correia to dream of a new life in far-away Australia. Growing up in the bustling streets of Nairobi in a family unable to afford a good school was far from easy but it instilled the resilience and ambition that would eventually come to fruition in the form of a 46-property portfolio spread across two continents and financial security beyond her most lucid you ..read more