Trendwatch Depending on your point of view the USA are ahead of us in many industries. In housing, and certainly in real estate service, we keep an eye out for their genuine innovations. Two of our team has just returned from Florida where, along with 21,000 American realtors, they attended their Association's annual conference. So here's some of the latest from the land of the Big Mac:

Money in the bank - no thanks!
Open the paper today and you're flooded with offers of 8.1% this and 8.25% that - just lock your pennies up for a year or more. It's tempting many investors who've sold out of other assets, and especially those that want simple security. Meantime though there's a very bright spot for investors who've kept their money in property - rents are rocketing up.

Something old, something new...
If you've noticed your neighbours pacing up and down their yard lately there mightn't be any need for concern! There's a relatively new and growing trend for home owners who love their address but not their house: push it over and build another! Many of inner Brisbane's houses were built prior to 1946 and they usually carry the Council's character protection limitations.

Apartment owners and tenants brace for new cost
City Council rates for median density housing are set to leap from January 1st when a rather odd new rating system kicks in.  Last week's BCC budget outlined a new loading on units, townhouses and apartments, with the Lord Mayor arguing these properties aren't yet paying their fair share.

Option to Buy
The term's been used so much lately you could be forgiven for switching off when you hear it - "housing affordability crisis". But for those feeling like a home purchase is slipping from their grasp, all news on the topic is welcome. And buying that first home might now be a little easier for some, with the Federal Budget's fine-tuning of the new First Home Saver accounts, now due to kick off in October

Government duty to help housing supply
With the Treasurer warming up for his Queensland state budget on June 3rd it's timely to ‘blue-sky' how our pollies could actually be helping with housing affordability.

Rental market calm as the storm brews
The latest rental stats are out and they paint a picture of a tense market for Brisbane's inner city landlords and tenants. The March quarter saw some new benchmarks set with record rents - in the CBD and Spring Hill the median 2 bedroom apartment has now hit a landmark $500 per week.

Going under the E-hammer
A Yeronga home overlooking the Brisbane River is set to become the first house in Brisbane auctioned exclusively online. A new service to Australian home-sellers, www.2bid2.com doesn't simply broadcast the action from an onsite auction, but is a fully online bidding process.

Follow your instincts....
The announcement of a further 0.25% interest rate rise has predictably drawn comment that recent strong property sales volumes will slow. And we agree. There's no doubt buyer confidence in the market will ease because this is exactly what the Reserve Bank needs. To rein in inflation the RBA needs you and I to put our wallets away.

Follow the yellow brick road?
Finding the next real estate "hot spot" is a sport some investors follow with a passion. Various magazines and websites devote pages to crystal balling and it wouldn't be a good Australian bbq without someone claiming inside knowledge on the next suburb to experience double-digit price growth.

Rental supply shrinks...
The new year is off to a flying start with enquiry to our office from new tenants at extraordinary levels over this first 3 weeks. And the final rental stats for 2007 give us a clue why - the number of rental homes within Brisbane's inner city has experienced a significant drop, creating new pressure for tenants and forcing rents to further record highs.

Residential investment property in Australia is largely owned by individuals, with Mum and Dad landlords owning the lion's share. But with so many of us recently injecting funds into superannuation there's an ‘unnatural' limit being placed on the supply of rental homes. Why? AMP and the other big super funds don't own a bunch of residential property and generally self-managed super funds can't borrow from a bank, so they rarely own rental homes

Best apartment, worst block?
Many buyers go in search of the "worst home, best street" believing the value of those around them will pull their own home's price up. A relatively new problem is the apartment owner who renovates but finds their fellow body corporate members reluctant to shell out for any external works. Around Brisbane's inner suburbs this is a common problem: a 1970's or 80's vintage home unit gutted by a keen new owner and given a new lease of life, only to have its value and appeal limited by the very original lobbies, gardens and common areas.

Shuffling the deck chairs of housing affordability
Great to see both contenders for this Saturday's election have released policies aimed at giving first home buyers a ‘leg up' into the market. Neither party though seems to be proposing any ‘watershed' solution for the major hurdle to affordability - supply. The Real Estate Institute of Australia estimates our national undersupply this year alone is 20,000 homes. And household numbers are growing much faster than the population (with divorces, later marriages, oldies living longer etc) so in the major growth areas like inner-Brisbane a shortage of properties means buyers and tenants alike are really feeling the pinch.

Rents defy population pressures
Brisbane's rental market seems to be shrugging off pressure from increased demand, with rents rising only steadily across the inner city. Latest stats from the Residential Tenancies Authority show rents are still growing, but at a slower rate than last year. The RTA tracks rents for the 21 suburbs around the CBD and shows median rents for a 2 bedroom apartment grew just $5 per week over the past quarter to $385. That's up 7% for the past 12 months, but with an increase of 16% recorded in the previous year it appears our market's now flattening slightly, defying predictions of continued record growth.

Rub a dub dub... how much for that tub?! 
Many apartment buyers insist on finding a place with an ensuite, convinced that it's a key to both "liveability" and that holy grail of real estate, maximum capital gain. There are plenty of advantages in having a second bathroom and in a 3 bedroom apartment we'd suggest it's pretty much a requirement. In shared 2 bedroom households the idea of a bedroom and adjacent bathroom for each occupant is popular, and makes living with a cookie-thieving, loud music playing flatmate that bit more tolerable. But with so many couple and lone person households we wonder whether the extra cost of that second bathroom really ever pays for itself?

Beyond the hype.... is this another boom market?
They're just not great headlines: "Market good, some prices up strongly, other prices up a bit". And of course it serves some peoples' interests to talk a market up, especially if they have a bunch of new properties to sell. So amongst the repeated stories of a return to boom days, here's a quick look at the stats and some thoughts from on the ground in Brisbane's inner suburbs.

Where's the !#^@*% price?!
If you're like most real estate buyers the first (or at least second) thing you want to know about a property will be the price. For years we've heard frustrations with not knowing whether the home is anywhere near their budget and the feeling that some agents take you for a fool. As far back as the mid-1990's we saw a USAhome buyer survey that reported more than 2-thirds would not respond to an ad that didn't have a price.

Onsite managers not always so 'super'
As apartment projects get bigger it's become more common for a resident manager to be appointed and, for better or worse, this person becomes the human face of the building. There are a number of exceptionally good operators, some in larger buildings where they take a professional team approach, and often in smaller schemes where those with great people skills really shine. But across the board we hear a lot of comment from apartment owners that their resident managers are grumpy, cost a fortune and aren't up to the job.

A glimpse into the real estate future
Imagine you’re out house hunting and want to know about everything that’s for sale nearby. Simply turn on your GPS enabled mobile phone and every listing in that neighbourhood is displayed in detail – and it changes as you move. Already underway through one major real estate portal in the USA this is just one of the new ‘toys’ buyers and sellers have to look forward to here in the next couple of years.

A lesson in home prices
This last weekend saw yet another scurry of buyers attempting to secure a newly listed house that’s close to a well-respected public school. This inner-south family home is walking distance to a local state primary school that’s recognised for its quality of education, and the house sold at its first open. Public schools have a catchment area across surrounding suburbs so your choice of address affects your choice of free education options.

Who’s the body corporate?
Last year’s Census highlighted the growing appeal of apartments in Brisbane’s inner city suburbs. Some 69% of our housing is now attached, but despite this there’s still plenty of confusion over how apartment buildings operate and who the body corporate actually is. As inner city agents we’ve made it our business to know – so here’s a quick overview:

Landlords, tenants, sellers and buyers: the new laws affect you
Would the smell of smoke wake you from a deep sleep? Are you confident you could escape a burning home in less than 3 minutes? Latest research suggests fires in modern homes are burning a lot faster, leaving a much shorter escape window. And there’s a good chance the home’s occupants will be asleep, with almost half of our fatal home fires occurring between midnight and 8am. So the government’s smoke alarms that came in on July 1st are well warranted, despite the extra work and costs.

Animal Attraction
With more domestic animals in Queensland than humans it was only a matter of time til we heard the patter of little paws throughout the inner city. While landlords may not be as open to the idea, owner-residents are bringing their 4-leggers with them in big numbers. Across Australia almost two-thirds of households have a pet - there’s 819,000 dogs and 443,000 cats in this state alone! So rather than designing near city apartments, townhouses and small lot homes to be child-friendly, architects need to be thinking about the moggies and rat-sized dogs that provide company (and security) for so many Brisbanites.

The rental tightrope
In Australia some 80% of residential rentals are provided by private landlords, so any changes in property’s appeal as an investment can have a quick and dramatic effect on rental prices. According to Macquarie Bank the UK government provides more than half of London ’s rentals, and in the USA massive trusts own large tracts of residential apartment rentals. Despite having this more resilient supply source both of those countries are also witnessing strong rental growth.

Inner city living: a tall story
This week is the first birthday of Brisbane’s tallest building, the 69 storey Aurora Tower, and its completion marked the coming of ‘super-towers’ to our city. Until the late 1980's our tallest residential building was The Gardens in Alice Street at a neck-breaking 17 storeys! The past two decades saw apartments push through 20 storeys (Dockside), 30 (Quay West) and 40 (Admiralty Towers 2) but Aurora’s arrival has yet again changed residents’ expectations of inner city living.

One potato, Two potato...
Many apartment investors set a 2 bedroom minimum for their home hunt and in doing so bypass a large part of the inner city’s market. With our household size still shrinking due to divorce and lower fertility and death rates, we need to keep an eye on what demand there is for each type of home. Prominent researcher Michael Matusik this week claimed that people living alone would soon (probably within 15 years) represent Australia’s largest household type. In New Farm, Bowen Hills and the Valley lone person households already occupy more than 40% of dwellings.

Lies, damned lies & statistics….
Most of us know to use caution when reading statistics but more and more we’re witnessing headlines that claim to report definitive trends in markets – all based on facts and figures that are supposedly unquestionable. They mightn't be "damned lies" but many real estate stats should be read as a rough guide only.

Double or Nothing
A new and interesting trend to watch is apartment amalgamations, where two or more inner city apartments are combined into one, with walls and occasionally floors opened up to create “super apartments”. Often the completed apartments are larger than free-standing homes, the idea is now breathing life into some older buildings in Sydney , and we’d expect Brisbane to follow suit. Many inner city apartments were designed predominantly for the rental market, but with surging demand from empty-nesters and other owner-occupiers there’s a growing case for taking smaller apartments in prime locations, bringing in a clever architect and a patient builder, and creating a home that’s just as you’d like it.

So What's It Worth?
If it’s true that information is power, today’s buyers and tenants are becoming a force to be reckoned with! Traditionally the pricing of real estate, both for sale and for rent, was the domain of agents. We had the experience at the coalface, seeing through hundreds of homes each year, and recording their sale prices and rents.

A Routine Danger
Two real estate agents were discussing the Australian share market over coffee. “It’s going so well I’ve got to buy into it. There’s no sign of a slow-down and the returns are terrific.” Much like frogs croaking before the rain you can clearly predict a share market slump by the number of people from the property industry joining in! The above would be the start of a great joke if it hadn’t been us sitting at that table 10 days ago….
and with the All Ords down 6% in a week we’re reminded that with any boom in any market there's hidden dangers.

"Is it a Good time to Sell?"
This is the question we’re being asked most at the moment. Of course all good real estate agents know the way to answer this one... but here’s a few observations from the coalface. There are some encouraging prices being achieved and we believe the supply of possible buyers is actually quite large. There’s a big number “lying in wait”.

The Inside Story on the Rental Market
As is often the case there’s more to the story than sensationalist headlines would have us believe. Yes there are some large rental increases taking place across inner Brisbane homes: our biggest single jump for an apartment has been 13% or $50. That sudden jump can be hard to cope with and there’s no doubt tenants are feeling pressured by the rises. But the latest RTA stats paint a picture of a market that’s hot but not boiling.

“Home” a sacred place…
The January shooting and death of a property manager in Brisbane’s south has highlighted the tensions and complex human emotions that surround living in a home. Naturally the place we come back to each day becomes special and even sacred to us – it’s ours, more than just shelter, and for many it’s a refuge from the outside world. When the sanctity of that home is threatened people can respond aggressively.

Another Challenging Year for City Planners
“Tens of thousands of new homes will be forced upon traffic-choked suburbs under a State Government plan that councils have condemned as being unrealistic and shrouded in secrecy.” 

Wondered why it’s so hard to find a plumber?!
Latest stats out show Australian property owners are continuing to spend big on upgrading their homes. For the third time in a row major renovation spending (substantial work requiring licensed contractors) rose in the September quarter.

Inner City Doubles Growth Rate in the 'Burbs'
Brisbane's inner city property values have gone up twice as fast as homes in our subrubsm according to recent research.  Valuers Herron Todd White drew a 5km radius from the GPO and found the median price there had jumped almost 500% since 1991.

Apartments or Hotels?
With Brisbane’s demand for tourism and business accommodation bounding ahead we’re now seeing an interesting industry ‘takeover’. In a $7million deal Oaks Hotels and Resorts has bought the management rights to the new “ Charlotte Towers ” and its 416 apartments in the CBD.

Australia: The $6.9 Trillion Nation
If you’re feeling a little flush lately here’s why: recent stats from Ibisworld show at June 30th our nation had assets of almost $7 Trillion (that’s 7 million millions if you’re trying to get a handle on the number!).

Brisbane Rents Up by 11%
Investment owners will be relieved to know that while they fork out for recent interest rate rises and higher property prices, their rental incomes are well and truly on the move. New stats from the Residential Tenancies Authority show Brisbane’s median 2 bed apartment rents have risen 11.1% over the past year. Houses have jumped 8.3%.