📉 Still pricing rentals off last year's numbers?

GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋

TODAY'S FEATURE

Slower rent growth isn't the same as relief

More than 50 rentals priced above $1,200 a week – that's what one recent check within a five-kilometre radius in Brisbane turned up. Harcourts' Karmen Costigan says rental growth is slowing and supply has improved in some locations, but rents remain at record highs and some suburbs are reaching a ceiling on what tenants can or will pay. If your next rent review or appraisal leans on last year's numbers, you may be pricing for a market that has already moved.

What you'll learn in the full article:

• The local-market reality check: Melbourne and Canberra renters have a little more room to move while Perth, Adelaide, and Hobart stay competitive, so the national headline won't price your next rental.
• The affordability ceiling test: Why the highest asking rent can turn into the longest vacancy and a poorer result for the owner.
• The who-bought-it question: Two investment properties can sell on the same day, and only one stays in the rental pool, depending on who buys it.

Read the full article →

TOGETHER WITH OPENAGENT

What OpenAgent's data reveals about seller behaviour in a slower market

The homeowner with a deceased estate to settle or a job interstate isn't waiting for the market to cheer up. OpenAgent's data shows those ready sellers are more open to meeting an agent than a year ago, even as 61 per cent of the homeowners it speaks with show moderate or high hesitation. Investors have turned around the sharpest – Head of Data Kevin Kong reckons this year's negative gearing changes are a factor. And before any introduction, OpenAgent spends around 12 minutes on the phone with the homeowner, so the referral that reaches you isn't a cold lead.

Learn more →

DEPT OF DATA

John McGrath tips a new cycle before June

Forget the single-digit falls in the data – John McGrath says some big city markets are down 20% on the street. It's the fastest fall he can remember in eight corrections, yet his McGrath Report 2027 still calls a turnaround before this financial year is out.

DEPT OF INSURANCE

Victoria plans ban on strata manager commissions

Strata bills for your investor clients could go either way. The REIV backs the transparency behind the proposal but warns managers may recoup lost insurance commissions through higher fees. With more than 500,000 strata-managed properties in Victoria, it wants consultation before the details land, and the timing is still unconfirmed.

DEPT OF LEGISLATION

Leanne Pilkington flags gaps in NSW pricing rules

Here's the catch Leanne Pilkington has spotted: a vendor who knocks back a written $1.5 million offer, then later decides $1.4 million is fine, still couldn't advertise below $1.5 million under NSW's incoming disclosure rules. The Laing+Simmons CEO wants NSW Fair Trading to make room for documented price cuts – and sort out agent changeovers – before the rules go live.

HOW IT SOLD

Off-market feedback, a higher guide, and $1.23m

After more than 12 months working with the vendors, Angela Proudman of North Coast Lifestyle Properties showed their Ballina home off-market to a few buyers. Their response gave her the confidence to lift the guide from $1m–$1.1m to $1.175m–$1.25m. A two-week negotiation between two buyers followed, ending at $1.23m – well above the suburb's $922,000 median.

Find out the story behind how it sold →

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Jeremy Wilkinson hits Titanium status in six months

Harcourts Launceston's Jeremy Wilkinson is the first Harcourts agent in Tasmania to reach Titanium this financial year – and his fifth time at that level earned him an engraved Titanium 5 Club trophy. He credits regular follow-up, honest advice, and a team he can rely on, and a significant share of his business comes back through past clients and referrals.

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AGENTS ON SOCIAL

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TRUE OR FALSE:

The city of Darwin got its name when Charles Darwin sailed into the harbour aboard HMS Beagle in 1839.

And the answer is …

It's actually false. Charles Darwin wasn't even on board. In 1839, two Beagle officers, Wickham and Stokes, named the harbour Port Darwin after their old shipmate, who'd sailed with them on an earlier voyage. Thirty years later, Surveyor-General Goyder set up a town there and gave it a proper name: Palmerston. It didn't take. Everything arrived by sea, and goods and passengers kept being sent to "Port Darwin". By 1900 the town was back to Port Darwin in all but name. In 1911, when the Commonwealth took the Territory off South Australia's hands, it made it official: Darwin. Video: AI-generated with Google Gemini via NT Place Names Register.