There’s been plenty of discussion in recent months about the increase of foreign buyers pushing up Australian real estate prices in established areas after the Federal Government relaxed the regulations last year.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that relaxing the FIRB laws was always going to increase demand and apply pressure on prices to rise for the limited stock that is available already. After realising the consequences of its decision the Federal Government has announced more changes – some reverting back to the previous policy position while others are new...

Just last week we bought a great property with magical views over middle harbour for $1.6million. The vendor bought it in 2003 for $1.55million. Ok, yes we bought about 100k below what we feel was fair money for the property (not easy to do in such a strong market). However the question that came to mind was how much did the vendor overpay by 7 years ago?

It’s not easy to work out however based on comparable sales in 2002 and 2003 and factoring in market growth since in the suburb we feel around the $1.3million mark would have been fair money in 2003. In short, after factoring in buying and selling costs the vendors have lost a substantial amount of money. So how does that happen?...

People probably get sick of hearing me say that prospective buyers must research the market. Well this time I will let independent property analysts Residex explain just how important it is to understand current market values.

An article in The Sunday Telegraph recently reported that “a quarter of Sydney homeowners who bought and sold their properties during the past five years lost money” and that these losses were attributed to a combination of factors namely “poorly informed buyers and over-the-top valuations”...

I read an interesting article the other day by property analysts, RP Data, which showed that Sydney properties located in the premium postcodes had a significant increase in values above and beyond less prestigious areas.

The report showed a significant variation in the growth of values across the different price points over the last five years...

Don’t go overboard with the current low interest rates. Whilst rates are at 49-year lows, remember that they won’t stay at these levels for the long term...

With our busy lifestyles it’s easy to take short cuts to speed up the process. In real estate I’m finding more and more buyers are relying heavily on internet searches to find their new home or investment property. While the real estate internet sites are a good starting point they cannot replace physical inspections...

It looks like the NSW state government is set to repeat the mistakes of the federal government with additional incentives for newly constructed property. We’ve already seen what the federal government’s enhanced first home buyers grant has done to the lower end of the market which has essentially increased the asking and eventual sale prices of properties...

The article in the SMH on May 24 called ‘Emotion runs high as an era ends’ shows just how easy it is for bidders to get carried away with the auction day hype. The article says the successful buyers bid $35,000 dollars above their pre-auction maximum bid price to purchase the property as a relative spurred them on to keep bidding...

It seems as though everyone wants to know where the next property ‘hot spot’ is going to be where prices are expected to jump giving buyers a financial windfall in the near future. Don't get caught up in the hot spot myth. There is no substitute for thorough research before you buy.