Hi guys first time poster here!

Me and my wife are in the position to buy our first house. Long story short: we gave up renting 2 years ago, moved in with her mum and dad and have been able to save a lot of our income. That along with me cashing out on some stock market investments has netted us about 160k to buy our first home.

But ever since being ready to buy (since about September) all we’ve heard from friends, economists, real estate gurus etc. is that everything’s going to shit for the next 12 months at least. This is being said with a high degree of certainty mind you.

We’re not sure what to do, do we wait? I mean we’re not in a huge rush to buy. Living with mum and dad is awkward at times but it’s not the worst and we’re saving so much.

I feel like I should just forget about the house, put the money into safer investments or even a high interest savings for the next 12 months and wait.

(Some extra context: We have a 700k borrowing power but we do not want to max that out because we value cash flow so we’re looking in the 600-700k range for purchase price. I realise that waiting will majorly affect our borrowing power but also we will have saved a lot of our income in that time)

((Some extra extra context: We were looking at 4 bedroom 2 bath houses in Pakenham, Victoria))

Hi I have rented out a property through a real estate agent. It is becoming a headache asking lots of simple things to fix using their contractors. How can I remove the exciting agent and replace it with a new one?

Found the most beautiful double brick walk up unit I have seen in my life. Built in the 60s, in an old rich suburb. Strata is 1,500 a quarter but you can tell that everything including the garden is taken care of professionally. Easily over a million dollars just a year ago. But it's on the market for 850,000 right now.

Apparently three units were found with magnesite concrete cancer. There are also two units listed on the market, which have not been identified to have concrete cancer. I am not sure if they have been checked at all.

Does anyone have experience with concrete cancer and can give me a ballpark figure on what it might cost to fix?

Full Article - Sydney houses under $1m to vanish in 2030s as $2m prices become norm - realestate.com.au

I have a freestanding 3/2/2 house in Melbourne Berwick suburbs.

It’s negatively geared around $20k a year. It’s held in a trust so Victoria’s ridiculous land tax alone is $4.4K a year.

LVR of around 75%, value of $730k.

Is it worth keeping around? I just feel it’s not going to go up by much each year to offset the holding costs and inflation.

If I want to make 5% profit a year after costs and interest, the property realistically needs to go up like 10% each year which doesn’t seem possible.

Only benefit is I’m grandfathered NG.

Should I just sell and invest the cash in some geared ETFs maybe?

was planning on buying a property couple days ago - then read AI doom n gloom and thought who will pay mortgages if AI takes jobs.

AI is causing people to loose jobs so wont it hurt the mortgage market ? but then people will always need a place to live regardless.

also, AI is causing inflation due to data centre build but eventually will it not drive inflation lower with machine work taking over ? - just like IT boom lowered interest rates over last few decades !

First time buyer dipping my toes into the market and the search. Have approx 180k as a deposit and can comfortably borrow 500k.

One of the first apartments I inspected was in a real good area (fringe hills district), and gave me a “too good to be true” feeling.

Upon inspection, the REA disclosed that there’s a special levy of 1.6m to raise (they’re currently halfway there) and would be an additional 1500 pq for 4 quarters (on top of existing 1k pq) to fund the rest of the works required. The required works is retrofitting fire safety stuff.

The unit itself is good, the area is nice, safe, etc. As someone with virtually no experience hunting in the market, why else is this a red flag? If I can cop the additional strata special levy, should I investigate the unit further? Or am I missing something?

Thanks for reading :)

Getting to a point of buyers fatigue… has anyone had any good results from buyers agent? Or should I jst suck it up and keep looking!

FHB from Brisbane, QLD

Mid 40s. Steady income. Restarting life. Child support. ACT based. Researching property. The market. Loan structures.

I don't want to just work the next 20 years JUST trying to pay off a mortgage before I retire. Though I don't think it's possible ATM, I want a home where the kids can run around in a safe, enclosed backyard. I feel like there may be a few potential strategies. I have a broker I like, but I don't think he's very "forward thinking." I'm seeing a lot of ads along the lines of "do what we say and you can build wealth, not just get stuck in the first place you buy." I expect it involves selective property choice, offset accounts and debt recycling, and I'm open to all that, but I want proper advice and to be confident I'm making good choices.

Who should I speak to? A mortgage broker? A financial advisor? Someone else?

Over the weekend, I attended an auction for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom, double-garage house in South Australia, and to my surprise, I was the only bidder there. No one else turned up, and no one else had even registered. Because of this, the agent spoke with me directly, and I put forward an offer below the asking price. The vendors refused to budge and wouldn't even come to the negotiating table, so I left the auction empty-handed. Is this a common experience?

Was hoping to negotiate but didnt happen

House prices are not included in CPI, real inflation is way above 4% as peoples wages and saving have not kept up with housing inflation why are people not aware of this?

I purchased my first home in 2022 in the Outer Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne for 730k. It was at an auction and I probably overpaid and have regretted it since. I was getting blasted out of the water on bids every time by 100k over reserve and was sick of it. It is a small house, 3 bed, 1 bath, but enough for one person. I have done alot of work to the house and garden myself over the last few years and it is much tidier.

My insurance has skyrocketed to 13k per year from 2-3k due to bushfire and landslide risk and I want to upgrade to a nicer forever home that will be better for me long term. I have since paid off my mortgage with the help of a small inheritance and sale of some investments and am thinking about upgrading my house. I had a few real estate agents appraise my house and they estimate 700-750k which means selling at a loss.

Do I upgrade to a forever home now which I can afford with a small loan or wait until property prices start increasing again, which will mean the forever house I am buying will be more expensive too. I am thinking at since we are in a decline, a forever home will be alot cheaper and offset the loss on my current home

Thoughts?

Repost to

We moved into our house about a month ago.

The kitchen sink’s silicone has worn out / turned black and there is no caulk between the where the splashback meets the kitchen counter, meaning the water splashing onto that area seeps in underneath (been meaning to get it fixed but as mentioned just moved in)

What can I do to fix the issue? I can try caulking myself but not sure how to re-silicone the areas around the sink. More importantly, has the wood underneath the sink rotted?

If so, how much will this cost to fix?

Hi All,

I live in a strata townhouse complex in NSW. Generally well maintained and the committee looks to be running the scheme well enough, so no real complaints from the organisational side. I haven’t applied to be on the committee as our next AGM is a few months away and i’ve just moved into the complex.

My issue lies with a couple of tenants in the complex, that allow their children to play in the complex driveway as their own personal playground. Skateboarding, riding bicycles, motorised scooters and drift karts, to name a few. This occurs at all hours of the day on weekends and generally most afternoons after school is finished.

Not only is this a major safety concern as cars are constantly driving up and down the driveway, but the sheer noise of the kids screaming, yelling and carrying on is annoying and disturbing the ‘reasonable peace a lot owner should enjoy’ as outlined in the bylaws.

I’ve raised my concerns many times with strata via email and lodging by law complaints, however, the strata manager has come back on my occasions stating that the committee won’t pursue this further as they view it as ‘community living’ which is a load of BS personally.

Not only are there a dozen amazing free playgrounds (trampolines, flying foxes, climbing walls) and some of the most beautiful beaches around the area within 500m-1.5kms of the complex, the unsupervised children causing a nuisance in the complex driveway treating it as a personal playground, shouldn’t be tolerated by the other lot owners.

Has anyone experienced something similar? What’s the best course of action to tackle this?

It seems absurd to me that it should just be accepted and that the remainder of the complex ‘deals with it’ as a couple of tenants are inconsiderate of their neighbours and surroundings.

We're in a global economic downturn. House prices are dropping EVERYWHERE. Why is everyone acting like it's the fault of the last fed budget?? If anyone is interested, I did NOT use AI to pull this information together. I'm genuinely just an interested person who has been trying to understand what's happening.

UK: Home sellers cut asking prices on 3000 properties a day https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c84g13z6xx4eo

US: America's home sellers now outnumber buyers by 63% - the biggest gap since the housing crash https://nypost.com/2026/10/15/real-estate/us-home-sellers-outnumber-buyers-by-record-63/

NZ: Zealand house prices crash back to 2017 https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2026/10/new-zealand-house-prices-crash-back-to-2017

Canada: Canada's deflating housing bubble stymies wealth effect of booming stock market https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-deflating-housing-bubble-stymies-wealth-effect-booming-stock-market-2026-04-28/

France: Why are property prices falling in France? https://www.connexionfrance.com/property/why-are-property-prices-falling-in-france/817005

Sweden: Is Sweden property market bubble bursting? https://investropa.com/blogs/news/sweden-property-market-bubble-bursting

And so on, and so on, and so on. It's happening EVERYWHERE. This is the hangover from the years and years of cheap debt. Let's stop telling ourselves it's Chalmers' fault.

With the new Tesla technology of flying cars it seems to be the next step of technology that is coming to us after electric and self driving cars. Will houses that are near freeways be the most desirable houses to buy? Like literally fly over the side barrier straight into your back yard?

what happens if the sale contract is not ready before auction? my partner and I are hoping to attend the auction of a property on sat oct 24th but I've been chasing up the sale contract for two weeks with nothing to show so far. apparently the vendor submitted the sale documents needed to their solicitor last wednesday. at that point the property had already been listed on realestate.com for like 20 days. if the contract isnt ready in time do they just reschedule the auction? we are still waiting on building inspection results to come tomorrow regardless but it feels a bit unfair that someone can have a propery up for sale for so long without it even being ready to go. we would have considered a private offer but there just isnt time before the auction

Hey guys :) ,

Just seeing if anyone has recent experience building around the Hunter region area in NSW. We are looking to build a 4 bed 2 bath. We have asked around but are still definitely in the early stages of building. Am I being delusional or is a 4 bed with decent/okay inclusions doable for the low 500,000s. (We already have land sorted). Any advice is welcome I am new to this!

Me (30) and my partner (31) moved from England to WA last year. Lived there for 10 years. We both have no bank of mum and dad, and have worked extremely hard for our careers like many people.

We are now looking to buy a house.
Have $200k cash, on around $200k combined income. No kids. Partner due a good wage increase soon when he finishes his gap training early 2027 (converting English regs to Aussie, he’s a commercial/industrial sparky).

Is it a good time to buy? When we came back a year ago, we were pretty shocked of how mental the housing market had gone especially compared to the UK.

Anyway, we’ve found a house we like, been to inspect it twice. Looking around $790k mortgage with today’s interest rate.

I know no one has a crystal ball, but having no parents around (both of us - how lucky are we), I just want some older, wiser advice to be honest. I wish I had parents to ask for advice or talk things through with.

Would you wait for a bit to see if the prices fall further? Or go ahead with something you genuinely like (needs some work on it, but easily liveable how it is whilst we do some renos).

Thanks

There have been too many topics on the local property bubble on the verge of bursting. But if it is the reality, i think Aussies stand no chance to own a home.

I am not even talking about the difficulty of getting home loans or resulted job losses. The top 0.01% of foreign investors and big hedge funds will swoop in to speculate local properties with cash. Yes cash. There are people from China, India, Vietnam who have 10, 20 mils in the bank ready to take over good stocks of Aussie homes.

Do you think you can compete with them?

Hi all.

I’m seeking recommendations for an affordable removalist company to assist with a relocation from Sydney to Melbourne.

I recently obtained a quote from Chess Moving for just under $10k for 29 cubic metres (approx. 2 bed home).

When we moved up to Sydney from Melbourne four years ago, we paid $4800 and will have the same amount of furniture / belongings.

I appreciate that costs have increased since then, but the quote we obtained from Chess seems a bit steep.

Would greatly appreciate any recommendations!

Currently looking at purchasing a property that has a network pole and line to the front yard. Would love to have at the minimum the line underground, does anyone have any experience with relocating the connection to the property and the pole to the curb? Based in Perth WA.

Me and my sibling own a house together for the last couple of years, we have had a couple of things happen and they are going to sign the house over to me would I have to pay stamp duty on a house that I already paid the stamp duty on when we initially bought it

My husband and I (both FHB) have put and offer in on a property and signed the contract. We are currently in the cooling off period. We have had the Building and Pest Report done and a Timber Pest Inspection (TermaTrac).

The Building and Pest report has noted the presence of alate termites but it was on a step in the front garden. The termite report mentioned no live termite activity and notes that alate / delate termites flying about can happen due to the current season.

So I would think the above can be managed with a pest management plan and ensuring you are having yearly treatment or whatnot especially since the property has been deemed by both inspections and reports as being highly conducive to termites.

The issue is the property itself is on a zero boundary on both sides. One side is completely inaccessible. The trees from the neighbour’s yard along the boundary wall are overgrown and have been going over the roof and the foliage and debris seems to continue to go into the gutter. Not sure if they have an agreement or any discussion in the past of ensuring the trees and foliage is maintained but think this is something we would need to try to negotiate with the neighbours.

The B&P inspector was unable to see what was going on underneath the exact area the trees are growing over and mentioned the difficultly in keeping it maintained (he had mentioned water ingress issues too) as directly underneath that area you can see discolouration in the ceiling of the bedroom.

The gutters are also full of sludge and overgrown algae / moss (looks like the vendor has not looked after the gutters in quite some time so would need a clean and a check of the down pipes). Drainage seems to be an issue likely also because of all the build up in the pipes and surrounds and in general the drainage around the house is not adequate. You can see obvious concerns of constant moisture around the house / consistently moist conditions.

Going back to the susceptibility of termites - due to the zero boundary, moisture and a deck area which touches against the property wall all the way across to the other boundary wall with no access underneath or any space really (weepholes covered, no 75mm slab exposure), we have been told getting pest treatment done can be very tricky because ultimately only 2 out of 4 sides of the house is accessible.

Also the B&P inspector couldn’t get access to the roof as it was not provided however the pest inspector seemed to be able to poke his head in but unable to move inside due to its low pitch (concerns of termite activity flagged again).

I don’t know how much I should worry about this. I feel as though the other things like the gutters and the tiling of the roof and water ingress may put us in a position to negotiate on the price. Especially since there are issues observed with the roofing too.

I also understand termites are always a risk with a house (it is titled as freestanding) but the difficulty in manoeuvring either zero boundary side for effective treatment is making us anxious especially due to the likelihood of high termite risk as it is a high risk area (close to dense bushland / water). The house is on a concrete slab. Also again on the zero boundary, not sure of the difficultly of renovations in the wet areas and trying to cut through concrete slab or what not to connect to pipes and things like sewerage.

Not sure what to do, especially as it has become apparent the property needs more immediate work than we had anticipated (I would assume you would want to fix things like moisture and environments conducive to it ASAP). Plus we would be more comfortable financially if these things could be fixed medium term.

Would really appreciate if anyone had any insights or thoughts.

Thank you!

EDITED TO ADD: On a side note, the inspector mentioned the vendor seemed nervous the whole time he was there and didn’t really help to move obstructions to get into the man hole for the roof etc.

I’m 24, I take home $83k a year without overtime. Take home closer to 90k+ with overtime.
No debt. Secure job/ trade and still currently living at home

I truly feel there’s no point building a future anymore. It seems so out of reach. How can I borrow 700k for a first home and make it work ? I need some perspectives and or ideas on how and if it’s possible for me to be paying off a home loan and still have a life.