The number of new properties listed for rent is 19.2% higher than at the same time last year nationally and 18.9% higher across the combined capital cities.

RP Data is currently tracking a total of 98,814 properties advertised for rent across the nation and 66,477.

There are currently 3,409 rental properties advertised for rent on the GOld Coast.  This is unchanged from the figure of 3,397 two months ago.

RP Data is currently tracking 300,994 properties for sale across the country and 143,254 properties across the capital cities. Throughout Australia, total listings are currently 27.7% higher than they were at the same time last year and 25.5% higher across the capital cities.

With fewer new listings being added to the market and some stock being absorbed, the total number of homes now advertised for sale is -7.5% below the record highs of last year nationally and -11.7% below their peaks across the capital cities.

Over the 2011 calendar year, home values fell by -3.6% across the combined capital cities and sales volumes also eased as market activity slowed. The slowdown in buyer activity has made achieving sales much harder and for property professionals it has made finding commissions much more challenging. Data also shows that the premium end of the housing market has experienced greater value falls than those recorded for more affordable property types.

In terms of sales activity across the combined capital cities, homes priced between $300,000 and $400,000 have recorded the greatest volume of activity with 23.5% of all sales occurring within this price band. Over the year, 58.4% of all home sales have occurred at prices between $300,000 and $600,000. Sales of properties priced in excess of $1 million accounted for just 7.8% of all sales over the year.

Across individual capital cities, sales activity at prices between $300,000 and $400,000 accounted for the largest portion of sales in Sydney (19.1%), Melbourne (24.7%), Brisbane (29.4%) and Adelaide (29.5%). Property sales between $400,000 and $500,000 accounted for the greatest proportion of all sales in Perth (24.2%), Darwin (25.5%) and Canberra (32.7%) while in Hobart most sales occurred between $200,000 and $300,000 (29.7%).

Property sales in excess of $1 million were most prevalent within Sydney (11.3%), Melbourne (8.3%) and Perth (6.9%) while in every other capital city sales in excess of $1 million accounted for less than 4% of all sales.

Although looking at the volume of sales provides a valuable insight of where demand is, from an agency perspective the value of the home is very important as it directly relates to commission payable. Across the capital cities, sales of homes priced between $400,000 and $500,000 had the greatest total value of sales, accounting for 16.6% of the total market. The $400,000 to $500,000 price point also accounted for 21.2% of the total volume of sales, suggesting that this is a market which is both attractive for purchasers and potentially most lucrative for sales agents. Properties priced between $1m and $2 million accounted for 14.9% of the total value of all sales making it the second largest price point in terms of value of sale.

Across individual capital cities, the $400,000 to $500,000 price band accounted for the greatest total value of sales in Melbourne (16.3%), Brisbane (22.2%), Perth (19.5%), Darwin (24.6%) and Canberra (27.1%). In Sydney, the $1 million to $2 million price point accounted for the greatest total value of sales (19.3%) and in Adelaide (23.7%) and Hobart (26.4%) it was the $300,000 to $400,000 price point.

The results highlight that with home values falling and sales volumes at below average levels, now more than ever property professionals need to understand where the strongest level of demand exists.

For vendors, this means that you need to understand the true value of the home and subsequently what level of demand there exists at that price point. Higher price points will typically experience a lower pool of potential buyers and in the current market are likely to prove harder to sell.

For agents, the results show that selling the higher priced stock is not necessarily the best way to make the greatest level of commission, a higher turnover at a lower price point may be more lucrative.

For property developers, the data provides a good insight into the price points at which demand is strongest. This gives an indication of the price points they should be targeting to maximise purchaser demand for their built form product. Source: RPData

Across the Capital cities, the clearance rate increased to 48.6% last week.  The week before the Auction clearance rate was slightly lower, at just 41.8% according to data from RPData.

Melbourne, often referred to as the Auction Capital of Australia recorded a clearance rate of 57.4% with a total of 300 auctions being held.  This was a big jump of around 35% on the previous week, when the clearance rate in Melbourne was at a low 42.5%.

Sydney’s auction clearance rate was 47.4% last week, down from 62.5% the previous week. However there were only 204 Auctions held throughout the week in Sydney. 

The Home Price Guide reports a different story for Queensland, where Auctions have never really been popular, with figures showing clearance rates of 22% for the Gold Coast and 24% for Queensland in the twelve months to November, 2011.

Sales volumes in general are at their lowest levels in decades in Queensland, sue to a range of factors including the natural disasters of early 2011, low confidence in the State & Federal Governments and the forthcoming State election which is likely to see a landslide against the Labour Party.

Our most recent Auctions on the Gold Coast netted no results whatsoever, with registered bidders preferring to wait and see what happens! 

Our next Auction will be held In-Rooms at our Canungra Office, 37 Christie Street, Canungra on Saturday 17^th March at 1:30pm.  On offer, a magnificent rural property at 31 Chantelle Place, Biddaddaba, which is being sold as part of a Deceased Estate.

Housing Finance Data for December 2011 was recently released by the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics).

The data indicates that finance commitments for owner occupier loans increased by 2.3% during the period 1^st December, 2011 to 31^st December, 2011.

This is the ninth month in a row whereby there has been an increase, providing us with a clear insight that the market is on the road to recovery.  Taking into account refinancing loans, there was still an increase of 2.2%.  Refinancing commitments also increased throughout December.

The volume of new mortgages being executed is now at its highest level since February 2010.  New mortgage volume increased by 4.4% throughout 2011.

Loans for First Home Buyers are at their highest level in two years and now account for 20.9% of all commitments by owner occupiers according to RPData’s latest report.

RPData stated that it is likely we will see a fall in first home buyer activity throughout 2012 because of Stamp Duty Exemptions expiring in New South Wales.  These exemptions are believed to have prompted the surge in first home buyer activity.

However in Queensland the First Home Buyers Boost Grant will not expire until the end of April 2012, so First Home Buyer activity should remain strong in Queensland throughout the first quarter.

RPData says “Housing finance commitments are improving from a low base, however based on the rising number of new loans we expect to see some modest improvements in the number of home sales as data flows through for 2012. During November we estimate that transaction volumes were running about 15% below the five year average nationally.”

Westpac and the Melbourne Institute released their monthly survey results of consumer sentiment last week. Based on these surveys, consumer sentiment rose by 4.2% to 101.1 points.  In what could be a positive sign for the property market, this indicates optimism may now be outweighing pessimism!

In almost every service industry there are good operators, average operators and there are bad operators.  Sadly, it’s the bad ones that generally need to discount their services in order to gain business.  Some will even go so far as to offer their services at such a low price that they could not possibly provide an acceptable level of service.

Real Estate is one industry where the dollar value of the item being serviced is extremely high (eg: your property).  Choosing a Property Management Company that provides the cheapest management fee is possibly the worst mistake any investor could make.

A fine example of why you should engage a professional Property Manager is what recently happened to one of our clients.  The client owned a property that they thought was too far away for us to want to manage.  So they gave it to two ‘discount’ property management companies.   After five weeks, neither agency had been able to find a tenant.  The cost of this exercise was $2,000 in lost rent.  Within two days of being advertised with our agency, two applications were received and the property is now leased. 

Have you done the sums?  An experienced, professional will provide a high level of service and ensure your investment is well looked after.  If your weekly rent is $400, the cost at 7.7% is $1,601 per annum.  For this you receive four inspections of your property each year, expert advice and the expense is tax deductable.  At 5.5% (which is what some companies may offer), you will pay $1,144 and possibly save $457.

But is it worth saving $457 a year to risk $2,000 in lost rent?  Or worse than that, your property could be managed by someone with little or no experience.  Has your property manager ever owned a property?  Has your property manager ever owned an investment property?  Do they know what it’s like to rely on the weekly rent to cover your mortgage payments?  Are they doing regular inspections and providing you with reports and photographs?

There’s an old saying, ‘Nothing good is cheap and Nothing Cheap is Good!’

Rising cost of living pressures on Australian families, the threat of job losses and an incompetent Government are all crippling the Real Estate Industry. Ask some property sellers who have been trying to sell their homes for more than a year and who have dropped their prices by hundreds of thousands of dollars how they feel!

Since the big four Australian banks announced increases to interest rates this week, enquiry from buyers has stopped, visits to properties on web sites have halved and real estate agencies are closing down at the rate of 100 per week.

Add to that the announcement of a State election in Queensland, increases to Stamp Duty by the Bligh Government and South-East Queensland property values are falling as fast as the number of sales.

Opponents to the Gillard Government are already asking the question, ‘do we have to start a civil war’ in this country?  We have suffered lies upon lies from a minority Government that was not voted in.  One in three properties on the Gold Coast is a mortgagee in possession.  Some agents are booked up until 2013 with Receiver and Mortgagee Auctions.  Buyers call up to ask if you have any mortgagee stock and then hang up when you say no.

Australia is following in the footsteps of America in what is and will be the greatest property crash in our history.  Spare a thought for those sellers who are unable to get a sale price within cooee of what they woe the banks.  Spare a thought for those hard working Australian families (47,000 of them) who have lost their homes.  And spare a thought for all the Australians under mortgage stress who try to talk to their banks and are completely ignored.  And for those with their head stuck firmly in the sand, don’t bother me with your begrudging of me telling the truth, just hit the unsubscribe button!

The email reads as follows:

Dear agents, please note the latest submissions to the website about the conduct of Ray White….. www.donttrustraywhite.com

1. I am an ex RW Qld corporate staff member who got fired after I expressed an opinion or 2 that with hindsight i shd have kept to myself- and can confirm that the problem is Brian White. And the whole place is so scared of him. Peter Camphin is weak, so he is backed up by Brian White’s new lap dog Tony Warland and both of these 2 are gutless to tell Brian the truth. It is so undignified How Peter clings to his job just for money without realising that his franchisees have lost respect for him as he clings on agreeing to job share with Tony Warland who is laughed at by most Qld franchisses but who force respect as he can shut yiu down without mercy so they pretend to respect him.

Brian is full of greed and to produce profit, his CEO’s relentlessly sack junior staff members just to show profit…some family man you are, brian… If the OFT were to place RW under investigation they would find new franchisees opened up with owners having no skill to be owners, yet Brian, Peter and Tony don’t care. These people call pleading for help yet their pleas fall on deaf ears! All they care is abiut their 10% franchise fee! Yet the larger franchisees pay only 4% or 5% yet they force the smaller ones to pay more. Funny as Peter and Tony force their franchisees to take risks and recruit more staff , they themselves are sacking people the same time. When they shut down a franchise they steal databases that belong to their franchisees and encourage nearby RW offices to steal business from the outgoing franchisee.

READ CAREFULLY ALL YOU CURRENT FRANCHISEES…! All the contacts, confidential landlord information you enter into the RWRE prescribed MYDESKTOP system is actually copied by senior RW Corporate staff secretly and without the business owners knowing about it, they can (and do) pass this information on to their favorite office owners. I have heard Tony Warland do this a number of times and I have seen him secretly order MyDeESKTOP company to download these sensitive details to him so that he can advise nearby franchises to spread false stories to scare landlords into shifting their business.

ALL Ray White businesses are at grave risk and the owners have no idea. The day you decide to leave this group, they will rape your business too and all your rental managements which is your lifeline! Don’t ever say you were not warned! RWRE has failed morals… Brian White has lost direction and cannot stop being greedy at expense of people’s livelihoods- his brother Paul White still exploits young women and cannot keep his zipper shut yet no one dare complain as these men are very powerful. The Whites lost many peoples fortunes through the failed RAY White Invest arm which young Dan White ran but rather than take responsibility, Dan sacked the very people that gave this young boy clear warnings that what he was doing with people’s money was careless! Because they are White’s , people are scared to complain and tell them what they want to hear. This has blinded them. Brian supports thugs like Gannon; they encourage poor ethics in their training. They supported Amber brought her fraud, Michael kolosche blindly through his. And they use people like Andrew Jamson to clear up their mess. Someone needs to get an investigation going in that company- how the franchisees stick by them is unbelievable. I guess they have not seen what I have seen….

Second submission from a current Ray White Principal.

2. I am a Principal and Licensee of a Ray White Franchised office. I preface my comments with the fact that I and my sales and property management staff act with the highest ethical and professional standards. We operate with transparency in all our dealings and adhere rigidly to the one maxim in real estate – to always act in the best interest of our principal – “the vendor”.

This stated, I make the three following points and observations: 1. I firmly believe that the hierarchy of Ray White has lost the plot and have far exceeded their “use by” date. I concur and sympathize with the many correspondents to this website who have expressed the same. An indication of this is the quality and integrity of the consultants and advisors they have employed to propagate their selling philosophy of “sell at any price and by whatever means – as long as it is by auction”.

One such “guru” is Mark McLeod who has been rampaging around Australia and bullying offices to take up the Auction Method of Sale irrespective of whether it is in the best interests of our vendors. His teaching of “park the good offers” and present the poor offers to condition the vendors, is not only unprofessional and unethical, it borders on fraudulent behaviour as it flies directly in the face of what we are employed to do – act in our vendor’s best interest. His gutter language, belligerent demeanour and diatribes on those who do not heed the message, do little to enhance the professionalism that we strive for.

As for Brian White, what can be said?? No action on the important issues and long, boring and incoherent ramblings about “his family”. Yes, I think it is time Brian. 2. If we have cancer, we do our best to cure it. It sometimes means an operation to cut it out. The same applies to Ray White. Have the guts to come out publicly and admit to our cancer and then excise it so the rest of the genuine and honourable agents can move forward.

3. This website has cited (and condemned) many incidences of deception and malpractice, most of which are undoubtable true and accurate, however seems to me there is a degree of deception and ulterior motives from within. If the agenda is to bring the Ray White hierarchy into the 21st century, maybe it would be better achieved by the many ethical franchised offices banding together to force the issue instead of hanging out the dirty washing to public scrutiny and ridicule.

This matter is becoming extremely serious, please have any person that knows of deceitful conduct about Ray White to post a comment on this site! We are building a case to put to the ACCC for a full investigation into the conduct and training practices of Ray White

Regards,

Rodwell Lambert

Mobile 0408 780 065

Email rlambert@onthenet.com.au

PO Box 350, Nobby Beach Q 4218

A slightly larger decrease applies to real estate agent commissions, due to the fact that agents are generally paid based on percentage of the sale price; falls in home values have compounded the pain already caused by slow market conditions.

Based on the total value of sales in 2011, which were down 18.3% compared with 2010; agent commissions are likely to be down about the same amount.

At the same time, according to the latest IBISWorld Real Estate Industry report, the number of people employed in the industry has fallen by around 1,800 over the past year after rising by 940 employees in 2010/11.

The reduced number of agents suggests the commission pie needs to be cut into fewer slices, which is likely to have eased the income fall on a per agent basis.  In fact, the report suggests that income per employee in the real estate industry hasn’t change a great deal over the past four years, remaining around $59,000 since 2008 after generally trending down since 2002.

For real estate agents or agencies looking for what are potentially the most lucrative markets around the country, the below table outlines the top 100 suburbs across the country based on the gross value of combined house and units sales.  Clearly the level of competition needs to be assessed in these markets, however the list makes a good start.

More than half of the list shows a median house value higher than $1 million dollars, highlighting the fact that prestige markets attract significant commissions; but keep in mind that sales volumes in many of these areas tend to be lower so competition for income is generally tight.

Another interesting observation is the change in rankings over the past five years (I’ve included rankings based on the total value of sales last year, in 2010 and five years ago).  Suburbs such as Kew (Melbourne),Castle Hill (Sydney) and Paddington (Sydney) have moved into the top ten; Paddington has seen the biggest shift, five years ago the suburb was ranked 27th based on the gross value of sales.

Areas of the Gold Coast have slipped down the rankings due to falls in both value and volumes, however Surfers Paradise remains in the top ten (slipping from the number two position five years ago).  Hope Island is the second Gold Coast suburb to make the list at number 70 (ranked 9th nationally five years ago), while Southport is now ranked 86th after previously being the 7th highest grossing suburb five years ago.

Outside of the capital cities and Gold Coast, Port Macquarie recorded the highest gross value of sales last year and is ranked 21st (no change over last year and five years ago).  The suburb of Orange has shown a surge upwards in the rankings, moving from 137th nationally five years ago to 54th last year.

Download pdf version of the Report

Any builder will tell you, the facade can be made to look however you would like it to look.  So, how can you make a decision as to whether a house or property will suit, without actually inspecting it.

A classic example of this is when a house blocks the view of the rear yard.  All you see when you drive past is the front of the house.  How can you get a feel for what’s inside by looking at a facade?

One day I was showing some properties to a potential buyer.  We pulled up at the front of a house and the lady said, ‘I’ve already seen this house, I don’t want to see it again!’  I asked her nicely, would she mind coming in for another look, because the owner was expecting us.  After spending some time in the house, she realized it was exactly what she wanted and she purchased it that day.  How many agents would have just driven off?

It’s actually funny if you think about it!  You don’t live on the outside of a house – so why make a judgement from the outside?  Would you buy a car without sitting in it? Probably not!

What are the factors that are really important to you when you buy?  Is it the flow of the rooms, the noise levels inside the home, the amount of yard space, the ceiling height, the size?  Not one of these factors can be measured from driving past the house.  And yet there are still real estate agents who say ‘here’s a brochure – just do a drive by and if you’re interested get back to me’  Hopefully these agents aren’t selling your home!