Your CRM is a fax machine & SA is more expensive than NSW. 🙃

GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋

TODAY'S FEATURE

Your CRM might already be obsolete

An agent with zero coding skills can now describe a piece of software and have a working version running before their coffee goes cold. So what happens to the CRM, the tool agencies have paid for and trusted for twenty years, when the thing it sells – storage, drip campaigns, a listing launchpad – can be rebuilt by any customer with an AI tool? Avi Khan says the category has one asset left worth paying for, and it isn't the dashboard.

What you'll learn in the full article:

• The propensity test: why the CRM worth keeping is the one that names eleven households in your farm area likely to list in six months, not the one that stores them alphabetically.
• The fax machine moment: the specific reason Avi believes the dashboard, every provider's proudest demo screen, is already a dying interface.
• The liability login: what happens to agencies still paying for a system that holds data but can't score it – and why that bill keeps arriving anyway.

Read the full article →

TOGETHER WITH ELITE AGENT

Would a potential client find enough online to choose you? Elite Agent’s free Brand Audit asks 12 multiple-choice questions to reveal what you have in place, your biggest gap and three practical steps to strengthen your online presence.

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DEPT OF LENDING

Affordability hits record low as SA overtakes NSW

A median-income household can now afford just 12% of homes sold nationally, below even the FY08 low. Mortgage repayments have climbed to 35.5% of income, the highest share since 1989, while South Australia has leapfrogged NSW as the least affordable state and Victoria has become the most affordable on record.

"Without a meaningful increase in housing supply, affordability will remain a significant challenge," says Angus Moore.

DEPT OF CONSTRUCTION

Queensland home building smashes 52-year record

Queensland just became the only state sitting above its all-time construction peak, with new home building hitting $20.3 billion – up 19.3% for the year. Apartments drove 62% of that growth, now making up almost 43% of the state's new builds.

Peter Drennan from Primara Research puts it down to timing: "Brisbane's Olympic infrastructure build and continued interstate migration into the south-east are both landing in the same window as this apartment surge."

Read the full article →

DEPT OF LEGISLATION

China moves to scrap risky presale housing model

For years Chinese buyers paid for apartments years before they were built, sometimes never getting the keys. Beijing has now told developers to prioritise completed-home sales, capped presale loans at five years, and stretched mortgage terms to 40. Analysts say the package goes further than expected – and developer shares jumped on the news, with Sunac up 10.7%.

HOW IT SOLD

Nine opens, two bidders, one $1.495m result

A cosmetic fixer with sunset views drew 34 inspections across nine opens in 22 days. Four bidders registered, two pushed through six final bids, and Shane Bleasdale's young buyers – a tradie and a teacher – secured the Salisbury Heights home well above the suburb's $1.0009m median.

Find out the story behind how it sold →

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

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Shane Stone opens First National agency in Heathmont

Heathmont now has a homegrown agency to call its own. Shane Stone, who grew up in the area and spent three decades across finance, property management, sales and auctioneering – including five years teaching real estate at Swinburne University – has launched First National Stone & Associates, offering sales, property management and auction services across Heathmont and the wider Maroondah area.

Rob and Jacquie Horder open two new McGrath offices Richmond Valley now has a McGrath address of its own, with Rob Horder and Jacquie Horder opening offices in Casino and Kyogle. Rob steps in as principal and Jacquie as director, bringing a nine-strong team and 16 years selling property across the region, including recent sales at Lynchs Creek and Kilgra topping $1.3 million. The new territory stretches from Nimbin to Woodenbong and down to Evans Head, with a property management arm set to grow alongside it.

Aurora Property adds award-winning duo to Lower North Shore team Luddenham's top agent at the 2025 REA Awards for Excellence, Konstantin Melnikov steps into the Associate Director role at Aurora Property, bringing two decades of Sydney residential, commercial and off-the-plan sales experience. He's joined by Ferenc Goemoeri, a Sales Agent who's worked alongside him since 2021, as the pair form Team Melnikov out of Aurora's Neutral Bay office, covering the Lower North Shore from 7 September 2026.

Knight Frank returns to Tasmania in dual-branded McGrath offices Tasmania's two biggest real estate names are teaming up again, and Josh Hart is the one holding the keys. He'll head new dual-branded McGrath Knight Frank offices in Hobart and Launceston, bringing 18 years in the local market, more than four as principal of McGrath Launceston, and over $1 billion in career sales to the expanded patch.

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Nothing cures a heavy sleeper quite like the sound of a potential client entering the chat. 📲

TRUE OR FALSE:

Victor Lustig, the man who managed to successfully close a deal selling the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal in 1925 was eventually jailed when the buyer reported him.

And the answer is …

False. After Lustig's buyer paid up, realised he'd been had, and was so embarrassed he didn't tell anyone. Lustig got away completely clean. It just goes to show: some buyers will do absolutely anything rather than admit they overpaid. via Smithsonian Magazine.