⏰ Three AI checks before 10 December

GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋

TODAY'S FEATURE

Everyone's using AI, almost nobody has changed

If your Tuesday afternoon still feels as frantic as it did two years ago, you aren't imagining it. NAB found 69 per cent of property services businesses now use AI – more than any other small-business sector. Yet CPA Australia found just 10 per cent of businesses have it deeply embedded.

In her end-of-year look at AI in real estate, Samantha McLean says the tools are the easy part. Turning a one-off win into a habit for you and your team is the work.

What you'll learn in the full article:

• The blue spoon test: What a restaurateur's expensive gelato spoons say about the need to create experiences – and what to hand to AI so you have the headspace for them.
• Two questions for your next software renewal: Can my AI read my own data? And what does that cost? Plus why PropertyMe's October move puts others on the spot.
• Three checks before 10 December: The privacy policy change, the problem with client data in free AI accounts, and the scam warning every client should get in writing.

Read the full article →

TOGETHER WITH DIJONES

A tougher property market is exposing an old agency problem

When buyers have more choice and selling conditions have cooled, nobody wants to be dialling cold – so DiJones built Perfect Match, which turns real enquiries, inspections, and agent conversations into call lists of buyers who actually suit the property.

CEO Dean Mackie says tougher markets show you what your agency is really giving you, and DiJones' answer is less admin, simpler compliance (think a guided digital AML workflow), and central support you can use when it suits your business.

Dean's upfront that no agency can make the market easier – only make its agents better equipped for it.

Read how DiJones is setting its agents up for 2027.

Learn more →

DEPT OF LENDING

Investor loans plunge, first home buyers fall too

If investors have gone quiet at your opens, you're not imagining it: new investor loans dropped 30.6% in the September quarter, almost double the previous record fall. Ray White's Nerida Conisbee says first home buyers aren't stepping into the gap, with their loans slipping to the lowest level since late 2022. Her bigger worry is who will fund new construction.

DEPT OF PLANNING

WA weighs letting owners subdivide and stay put

Keep the house, sell the backyard – that's the idea behind Retain and Gain, a pathway the Cook Government is investigating for eligible blocks across Perth and Peel. Owners could carve off one lot of at least 300 square metres, which opens a conversation with people who want equity but aren't planning to move. It's not approved yet – consultation runs until 26 February 2027.

DEPT OF LEGISLATION

Spain tightens rental rules by a single vote

One vote – that's all it took for Spain to freeze rents already above the neighbourhood benchmark and add a 10% tax on tourist apartments. A plan making owners pay a year's rent to end a lease didn't survive the same knife-edge count. With an election on 29 November, the poll-leading Popular Party has promised to scrap the lot.

HOW IT SOLD

One inspection and a $1.04m off-market sale

With roughly six weeks to buy after selling their home, a buyer in Luke Higgins' database needed the right Botany apartment. Luke stayed in close contact, brought them through 141/26 Jasmine Street off-market, and aligned both settlements. It sold for A$1,040,000 – about A$50,000 above similar recent sales in the building.

Find out the story behind how it sold →

Create the case studies AI likes. Third-party, fact-checked, indexed. getailsa.com →

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Helene Shephard joins Century 21 Josie Smith and Co

Josie Smith's Ipswich team has two new faces. Helene Shephard, in real estate since 2007, has joined Century 21 Josie Smith and Co with her co-agent John Wilson. Century 21 Queensland State Director Andrew Simich describes Helene as a multi award-winning agent. Josie says Helene shares her passion for community and client service, and now they'll bring it to Ipswich together.

Julie Ryan joins RWC Collective as head of retail RWC Collective now has a dedicated large format retail team. Julie Ryan joins as head of retail, bringing her entire team with her. She brings more than 40 years in corporate and agency roles and a research-driven, tenant-first approach that partner Neal Orpin says complements the agency's industrial and commercial work. Next up: building out the agency's LFR offering across Queensland.

Simon Freemantle reflects on 25 years building PRD Wagga Wagga Six weeks after Simon Freemantle settled his purchase of PRD Wagga Wagga in August 2001, September 11 shook markets. A GFC, a pandemic, and plenty of compliance later, he's marking 25 years at the helm of a business managing close to 1,500 rental and more than 600 strata properties, with several key team members already brought in as shareholders for the next generation.

Inverell agent trades inspections for dance floor Knowing how to dance wasn't an entry requirement – which suited Ray White Rural Inverell sales agent Tyler Berkley just fine. He's signed up for the Cancer Council's Stars of Inverell 2027 – a personal cause – with a $10,000 fundraising target. Ballroom dancer Krystal Siemon has the job of whipping him into shape before the gala at Inverell Town Hall on 20 March 2027.

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AGENTS ON SOCIAL

Seen an Agent On Social we should include? Let us know here

TRUE OR FALSE:

Buy a freehold block in NSW and you own it all the way down – any minerals or petroleum under the lawn come with the title.

And the answer is …

It's actually false. Freehold stops a lot closer to the lawn than most buyers assume. According to the NSW Resources Regulator, in most cases the NSW Government – the Crown – owns the minerals and petroleum on and under the surface. The exception is a handful of old property deeds, issued under an old titles system, that reserved the minerals to the landholder. Worth knowing before a buyer asks what happens if something good turns up under the back paddock. via NSW Resources Regulator.