Hi all! Just got home from work, looked out the back yard and noticed the new neighbour has boxed in his pergola, pretty shitty job at that, screws punching through, cracked plaster, took down the privacy screen as well. Didn’t hear a word about this before he started even though I chatted to him about the weather for 10 minutes on the weekend.

The kicker? From the screws that have appeared on our side going back to his it appears he trespassed in our backyard to get the job done.

Before and after attached. Where do we stand legally? What would you do?

Are these indicative pricings good ? Melbourne based ? Let me know.

According to the data there is a significant price decline acceleration in Perth,Adelaide and Brisbane.

'Cotality has revised its daily dwelling values index downward, making the current housing correction worse than previously thought.

The quarterly rate of decline at the 5-city aggregate level is now 3.8%, up from 3.0%, with all major markets recording significant declines.

The decline from the most recent peak is also now far worse than thought, with values down by 4.8% at the 5-city aggregate level, with Sydney’s cumulative losses now greater than 7%.

Cotality noted that 93% of capital city suburbs have recorded falls, suggesting the correction is synchronised across almost every market and price tier.

The sheer pace of the decline has led more analysts to proclaim that the market is facing its largest declines in more than 40 years – something I have been predicting for months.

“I would argue that we are headed for the largest correction in Sydney for at least the last 40 years and that view is not breaking from the pack”, Cotality’s head of research Tim Lawless remarked following the August results.

Lawless said the downturn was “entrenched” and another rate rise would only make that fall more likely.

“There is a multiplier effect from this too, which is that people feel less wealthy and they stop spending”, he said.

“There is a clear risk that we end up with the largest correction in recent history”, HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham said. “Given the pace of decline is so significant, that usually needs a circuit break in the form of a rate cut. But there is no rate cut any time soon”.

The reality is that the housing market is facing a severe combination of factors that will continue to drive values and sales volume lower, including:

Overvaluation – This correction started with valuations at record highs. The highest mortgage rates in 15 years, which are likely to rise even further amid stubbornly high inflation. The federal budget’s changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax have put the brakes on investor demand. Likely lower immigration, with all three major parties promising cuts. Money laundering crackdown – real estate gatekeepers (i.e., agents, lawyers, and accountants) became AUSTRAC-regulated entities for the first time on 1 July 2026. Budget austerity – soaring state and federal debt, along with rising interest payments, will force spending cuts, effectively a ‘reverse stimulus’. Based on the current pace of decline, Cotality’s daily index would reach its largest decline on record (40 years) by around the end of this year.

While the falls to date have been driven by Sydney (-7.2%) and Melbourne (-6.6%), there is good reason to believe that the pace of decline across the mid-sized capitals will accelerate.'

Hi everyone

We’re considering pulling the trigger and buying a new apartment and selling the one we live in.

We’re planning on buying first (it’s a new build so no stamp duty is part of the incentive to do it now).

If it all goes to plan, we’ll end up with a small 200-280k mortgage.

Buuuut. That requires selling our existing apartment and around 30k of costs. And the market is really low now and predicted to fall further.

I know there is wisdom in buying when the market is low and accepting a low sale price… but this dip feels different this time around.

The other half of this is we have a great financial position now and love where we live…and this place would be an upgrade in location and ammenities… but same size apartment.

Ultimately we could do it mortgage free, but that would me exiting some shares and reducing that position (and associated tax burdens)

So, I’m after redditors wisdom - Is this just a little dip/correction or does it have further to go (as predicted in the press… another 5/6% drop coming at least!

Thnx for any and all advice.

My property management recently changed to LJ Hooker however as part of the process I got sent this email to download this app. Does anyone have an experience with this? As I don’t love the idea of downloading an app just to lodge issues with my apartment.

Anyone that has experienced a water leak…

Do you also live in near-constant anxiety that it’s going to leak again anytime it rains? 😭

Why would albo collapse the housing market after letting everyone get the first home buyers grant? Which the government used to pay their own taxes anyway.

Just to clarify: Not asking for opinions or advice

Purchasing a new property, have had mine on the market yet it just has not sold. I have an unconditional approval for new purchase when the plan was to sell. The only mention is in the "instructions for solicitor" to ensure existing loans are paid out. At the time of approval the existing loan was with the same bank for my current property.

Since that, I have got a refinance that settled today, to take over that current mortgage and give me the cash required for new purchase. I also have an unconditional with a small non-bank lender for the new purchase - that is aware of my new refinance as it was structured together.

The question is, can I get away with using the first unconditional loan offer? It is still valid and not cancelled as I asked it to be left, if my property sold I would still want to use it. It is more favourable for the new purchase than the non-bank lender. Their assessment is that I didn't have the serviceability to keep both, however my repayment would actually be less than with non-bank, before anyone comes along with opinions on that.

Obviously there is the instructions for solicitor to check that existing loans have been paid in full, (which they have, technically) curious if on PEXA the bank or the solicitor will just check the PEXA ID and see that loan has been paid, and not dive much deeper than that. Also easy for this bank to see its been paid, as there is no longer a loan account with them.

Any kind of insight from preferably a solicitor/conveyancer who has experience with PEXA or someone who has been in the same situation would be great.

Thanks

Curious what people think because I keep going back and forth on this.

Say you could afford around $400-450k on your own, but a decent 2 bed apartment where you actually want to live is more like $800-900k.

Would you consider buying 50/50 with someone else in basically the same position?

Like bedroom each, ideally bathroom each, both own half.

Obviously you'd need a proper agreement around what happens if someone wants to sell, moves out, gets a partner etc. and I'm sure there are complications I haven't even thought of.

But I keep coming back to whether I'd rather own 50% of somewhere I actually want to live, or keep paying rent while trying to eventually afford 100% on my own.

I feel like I'd choose the 50%.

So they’re predicting it’s cheaper to buy existing homes than building a new home? Wouldn’t be smarter to buy old homes and rent them out at ridiculously high rent while the vacancy rate is all time low. When first home buyers read this type of media coverage, they pull back and not buy because of FEAR MONGERING. When I am in the open homes only investors are moving like a venomous snake there’s no pussycat dolls lining up and having a go at buying. When it turns back up, FOMO BEGINS. HOLY FK IT NEVER ENDS.

Why build and wait for 2 years to finish? When you can get a big discounted house price and rent the fk out of it straight away. You avoid builders insolvency, fk ups and delays.

Old properties are most likely closer to CBD than new estates. Who gives a shiet if you take a loss without Negative gearing, you get the loss
back when you sell up in 5-10-15-20 years time. Yea no one is building.

This is all smokes and mirrors. They tried to change the MONOPOLY GAME but it’s firing back to the renters. You’re a Kent ALBO and CHALMERS ,
You’re full of shiet.

Hi I just found a good house with balcony in Surry hills (where you can see narrow houses in a row) but I need your opinion because of:

1. Air

problem

It is 3 floor house, 2 rooms on 2nd floor and 1 room on 3rd floor.

I’m going to take one of rooms on 2nd floor, but the thing is two rooms have totally different air condition.

One room has a really good sunlight, but when I went in I felt something is in the air. Maybe the balcony and windows are not opened to the street side, but houses

The other room had fresh air and winds a lot, and it didn’t have sunlight. The balcony is on the street side.

I do love the first one but I don’t know how much the air is gonna be bad, especially in this kind of historical house. I’ve lived only in apartments so far.

1. Noise
   On the first room(with sunlight), there is 3rd floor room. Idk how much the noise would be, and also from houses beside.

If there’s anyone who’s lived in Surry hills or this kind of old historical building, can u lmk how it is like to live in terms of air and noise? Thanks

This is only really applicable to investors or home owners that are refinancing;

But ask your broker for multiple valuations before deciding which lender to go with when you're refinancing or buying another property (assuming you have one already).

Or if you're not using a broker approach more than one bank with what you're trying to do.

This is especially important at the moment, the swings in valuations that I'm seeing are massive (more than normal because of the falling market?), but if a valuation comes in 100k higher than a different one that could mean 20k less you need to contribute to a new purchase, or 80k more you can refinance out of your property. And if you're like me and like having as much of your equity refinanced as cash incase of an extended downturn this is really significant.

Viewed a non-auction place back in December, asked for a price guide and the agent rather brashly said that it was the first week and they're letting the market decide the price. Eventually managed to coax an expected price out of him of $1.5-1.8m. We said it was outside of our price range, to which he said why not submit an offer and you never know.

Left it for a bit as we didn't want to insult them (our max was $1.3m) but after a month it was still on the market, which barring auctions was unheard of 9 months ago as places were going in days. Figured, why not, offered 1.3m and didn't hear back. After a week, moreso out of curiosity I sent a chaser and got a call back essentially saying try harder and offer more.

It wasn't even a serious offer, you told me to do it. Ended up finding a place for a better price, but have kept an eye on this place because of the rude treatment.

Over the past 8 months I've slowly watched this trickle down 'offers over 1.5' , then 1.5, the 1.4 and finally to 1.3. They started texting me, even called me at one point, to tell me the latest price and ask if I was interested.

It's still on the market and recently the owner appears to have thrown in the towel and listed it for rent again but is open to offers for sale.

Opened up the listing today to see this piece of golden estate agent-speak. Apparently we're being misled guys, nothing to see here.

I am having my first house inspection since moving to Victoria- previously I had lived in rentals through private landlords who never did inspections and a rental in QLD through agent but the house was for sale so they were there every week to show it.

I’m trying to work out how clean the property needs to be, the inspection is scheduled for while I’m travelling so I don’t have the most amount of time to clean it. There is some mould in one of the showers grout I won’t have time to scrub it and do a general clean of all the rooms and bathrooms will this be an issue? I was planning on wiping down the walls but I also need to clean the windows?

Any advice would be welcomed thankyou :)

*I have pretty extreme OCD and get really anxious about people coming into my house and touching things so I’m a bit on edge for the whole thing*

Has anyone had any experience with Total Homes? I believe they also trade under Getaway homes and Cedar Homes. We looking to engage them but are just trying to do a background check and hear others experience working with them

I'm buying an apartment and during my first inspection the place was filthy. Spills on walls, build up on tiles behind sinks, cigarette butts laying in the guttering of drains, urine stains on the outside of the toilets and the worst - watching their cat urinate on the carpet..

Because of this we had added into our contract "professional cleaning required on settlement" which has been signed by the vendor and myself.

The vendor is now trying to claim it was for carpets only.

My conveyancer has been trying to get a response from the vendors conveyancer without luck. With settlement due tomorrow and still no confirmation from the vendor they are having it cleaned, what are my options?

Obviously I have emailed and called my conveyancer however given now its after 5pm I don't want to keep hassling them with my anxieties.

If they haven't cleaned the place and its literally written into the contract - what can i do?

I don't want to delay settlement as I have organised, booked and paid for everything like movers, furniture delivery etc and i also now have nowhere to live if settlement is delayed.

Me and my brother hold a townhouse in Melbourne Shi*t box, want to sell it and we want to buy a nice big block in Seymour, outright just to live in and never work. We are of ethics background. Will it be safe for us? Are there crime, racist attacks, how’s it overall?