Rob says it’s an opportunity for Bees Nees clients to have a say. The REIA provides research and well-informed advice to the Federal Government, Opposition, the real estate profession, media and the public on a range of issues affecting the property market.

“There’s plenty of hot topics coming up as we inevitably move to a more national approach to property. The REIA is lobbying for a raft of changes including improvements to the supply chain for housing, and giving first home buyers access to their super. Scrapping state stamp duties might seem like a pie-in-the-sky concept but plenty of positive changes start that way.”

And luckily there’s a great new alternative. The Real Estate Institute of Queensland has launched our own search portal REIQ.com Our members own the site and we don’t need big, data-heavy ads from banks or mortgage brokers. So tenants and home buyers get a clean, fast-loading portal. The site already has more than 75,000 listings on it, making it the largest Queensland-based real estate portal.

Bees Nees principal Rob Honeycombe is a Director of the REIQ so we’re naturally big supporters of the site. Rob says the real benefit for buyers and tenants is the site’s industry ownership. “REIQ member agents are talking to them daily and we hear the feedback on what they want from a real estate portal. REIQ.com is the result of that and with agents owning and controlling the site we can make sure it stays relevant and fresh.”

REIQ.com are running a competition to celebrate the launch and you could win $20,000 by visiting the site and entering before 5pm this Friday. Here’s the link!

What can the REIQ do to improve the site? We’d love to take your comments back to them.

Westpac's Bill Evans

A really interesting seminar today with the Real Estate Institute of Queensland and guest speaker Bill Evans, Chief Economist with Westpac.

Bill says 95% of Queenslanders believe that interest rates are on the way up. We’re amongst the nation’s most pessimistic on this topic and a big number of us expect rate rises to exceed a full percentage point. But his forecasts point to just a 0.25% rise over the next 12 months. He says there’s “no way” we can expect a full 1%. Bill’s an economist and they do make mistakes in their forecasts – but he’s been in the same job for 20 years so you have to give him a bit of a hearing.

Interestingly when they survey on whether it’s a good time now to buy real estate, most of us say “absolutely yes”. But many of us don’t want to do it ourselves! Bill says memories of GFC job insecurities still linger and even with the mining boom happening under our noses here in Queensland many of us think it won’t benefit us personally.

He says underlying demand for housing is still very strong and any comparison to the US housing market is “fundamentally flawed”.

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland has just completed a fairly comprehensive study of consumer behaviour in our industry and our team has spent long hours digesting it to ensure we’re marketing our clients’ properties to the best of our ability!

So where do buyers come from and what attracts them to an area?  Aside from investors, buyers are more influenced to an area these days because they are able to achieve the lifestyle they desire over the potential for future growth. Interestingly they also tend to purchase within their local area.   They’re inspecting a greater number of properties in their search for the property they finally purchase.

Not surprisingly today’s buyers are time poor and real estate websites are overwhelmingly the preferred method of searching for a property. We know buyers are more likely to contact your agent and view your property if your advertising campaign contains the information and detail they expect to see. We also now know that in 30% of cases buyers report having paid more than they had originally budgeted.

So a great agent can make a big difference to your sale’s bottom line!

It’s equally important for landlords to have some insight on the impact their property manager has on tenant experience. A little over half of tenants are satisfied with the real estate agent or property manager they are dealing with. The main reason is the level of communication. Those that aren’t satisfied give a lack of professionalism as the main reason. Interestingly landlords tell a very similar story.

So chances are if you, the landlord, are confident in the professionalism and level of communication of your property manager, then so is your tenant.

The Queensland Government has legislated to make pool fence inspections mandatory. Eventually it’ll be for all pools but for now the rules apply when you sell or lease your property – and yes this includes apartments and all buildings with shared pools. From December 1^st you’ll need a government licensed inspector to issue a government prescribed certificate. This certificate will be valid for 2 years for a non-shared pool (usually in a house) and 1 year for a shared pool.

You cannot rent your property if you don’t have a certificate – you can’t even renew a current tenant’s lease. You can’t sell your property without a certificate – unless your buyer’s prepared to wear an obligation to get it done within 90 days and cop any costs for compliance. Remember the first part of this legislation increased the minimum standards for fences so if your pool’s more than 5 or 6 years old there’s a good chance it might not comply. Those self-closing doors off livings rooms are now non-compliant for example.

Please talk to your property manager urgently about this one. For example if your tenant’s lease is renewed by November 30^th you should be okay.

The good news is shared pools have a 2 year phase-in period. Bad news for those of you who own a house with a pool is that, according to the REIQ last week, the government has yet to issue one single license to a pool fence inspector. There’s going to be a mad scramble to get certificates issued and all as the holiday shutdown approaches.

This is the same government department that gave us the Sustainability Declaration on January 1^st this year, in a colossal mismanagement of timings and public communication. Now they’re achieving the same sort of confusion and concern on a grand scale. Happy Christmas Minister.

Bees Nees' Annie von Rudzinski

Manager Annie von Rudzinski elected to the Property Management Chapter Committee for the Real Estate Institute of Queensland.  Annie has worked in this part of the industry since the early 1990’s and her appointment recognises her experience, and ability to help direct REIQ’s position on legislation and other tenancy issues. Annie’s keen to hear input on how things could be improved on all sides of the rental marketplace.

Principal Rob Honeycombe has also been asked to join the Residential Tenancies Authority’s Industry Development Forum. Rob was recently elected to the board of the REIQ and will represent the Institute at this Forum. After a new full Act’s introduction in 2009 this is a quieter year for the RTA, but the industry’s still adapting to the changes.

The REIQ represents more than 15,000 property professionals across the state and has led the industry for over 90 years. Rob’s personal ambitions for his time on the board are to assist with the work on simplifying the paperwork involved in real estate transactions, and to see an increase in training levels for all agents – experienced and new.

So you see, we do breed the industry’s “bees knees” at Bees Nees!

The ABS has just released population data for the year to June and Queensland added 98,000 residents. QIC’s Doug McTaggart says this will grow as Sydney house prices recover and New South Welshpersons creep over the border. Valuers Herron Todd White report the inner city’s market is holding up relatively well and “staying near the CBD will certainly help keep property blues at bay.” The Reserve Bank yesterday dropped official interest rates by another full point to 4.25%, some commentators are tipping it’ll go to the 2’s, and analyst Michael Matusik comments that “every 0.25% fall translates into a household being able to push up the price of housing by 2% for the same level of repayments”.