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GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋

TODAY'S FEATURE

Top agents aren't asking about the package anymore

Twenty years of talent acquisition experience shows a clear shift: the strongest sales performers are quietly researching your leadership team, your culture and your career pathways before they'll even consider a bigger commission split. If your pitch still starts and ends with the numbers, you may already be losing the conversation. In the full article, Olivia Chammas, Director of Talent at Urban Real Estate, unpacks what's really driving agency switches, and it isn't what most principals think.

What you'll learn in the full article:

• The experience audit: the handful of questions top candidates now research about your business before they'll take your call.
• The retention myth: why throwing more money at your best performers often doesn't fix the turnover problem – and what does.
• The reputation flywheel: how the agencies winning the best talent built a reputation that draws people in before the job is even advertised.

Read the full article →

TOGETHER WITH @REALTY

The spring playbook just changed – most agents haven't noticed yet

A vendor who hears nothing for three weeks starts filling in the blanks themselves – usually with the worst possible story about the price, the campaign, or you.

That's the real shift this spring: clearance rates are down to the low 50s, buyers can afford to wait, and the agents still winning listings are the ones pricing off real comparable data and keeping vendors talked through every week, not just at the open.

@realty has built its platform around exactly that – CMA reports agents can generate on the spot, digital price updates vendors can see without ringing to ask, database matching that surfaces the buyer already sitting in your contacts, and real-time campaign analytics so a flat first week gets fixed in week two.

Have a look at what's behind the new spring playbook.

DEPT OF LENDING

Units outperform houses as borrowing power shrinks

Here's one for the vendor who insists houses always win: units are flat for the month and up 1.8% annually, while houses dropped 0.3% and now sit 0.4% lower than a year ago. Sydney and Melbourne show it clearest – unit prices barely moved while houses kept sliding. Realestate.com.au Senior Economist, Eleanor Creagh, says buyers are trading size and location for affordability, and more falls are likely as rates bite further.

DEPT OF PM

BDM ties rent reviews back into client relationships

Bradley Fraser doesn't just hand a property over and move on – the DiJones BDM diarises twelve-month tenancy anniversaries and talks reviews through with the property manager before it goes to the owner. He also built his sales pipeline by ringing clients just to ask what's changing in their industry. Speaking at PM/ONE 2026, his advice was simple: know people on both sides of the business.

DEPT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

International investors pile into London property as bulk deals near £80m

Nine apartments, one buyer, £11 million – that's the latest single transaction behind a wave of overseas money chasing London rentals. Luxury house rents have jumped 67% in a year as stock tightens, and buying six-plus dwellings at once even gets investors a tax break. Beauchamp Estates Managing Director, Jeremy Gee, says investors there are enjoying rising demand, falling competition and low vacancy.

HOW IT SOLD

Interstate family pays $1.42m for Daylesford architectural home

Will Walton of Belle Property Trentham & Daylesford ran a 75-day campaign to sell an architect-designed house with a heated plunge pool to a family relocating from interstate. Strong photography and targeted digital marketing brought interstate buyers to a regional inspection, and the result landed well above the suburb's $818,000 median.

Find out the story behind how it sold →

AI cannot cite content that was never written. getailsa.com →

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Five Queensland offices unite as Ray White Rural Condamine Group

Pittsworth, Warwick, Dalby, Chinchilla and Stanthorpe have spent years building separate reputations across the Darling Downs – now they're one business. Directors James Croft, James Arthur, Alison Jones, Lizzy Arthur and Sally Croft have brought their 35-strong team together as Ray White Rural Condamine Group, naming the new identity after the river that connects all five towns they serve.

Josh Wilson and Tara Apps launch Belle Property Echuca Moama The Murray River town now has a dual-licensed team covering both sides of the border. Josh Wilson, born and raised in Echuca with 12.5 years in real estate and an average of around 85 sales a year, leads sales, while Tara Apps brings 12 years across sales, business development, property management and leasing to head up property management. Together they'll service residential, rural, lifestyle, small farm, commercial and industrial property across Echuca Moama for Belle Property's newest office.

Charmaine Budd takes over Ray White Port Augusta Port Augusta's Ray White office is going out on its own for the first time, splitting from its long-standing arrangement with the Whyalla branch – and Charmaine Budd is the one taking it forward as principal. She's spent nine years working her way through the Port Augusta office, and will spend the next 12 months growing her team, rolling out more of Ray White's marketing and technology across sales and property management, and building a bigger local presence in the community.

Donations to double for one day in A Night Without Home The clock is on this one: until 9am today, the first $75,000 raised for A Night Without Home is being matched dollar-for-dollar by First AML, REI Astra and Bunnings. Katrina Konstas, REA Group's Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer, says the matched funding is designed to build momentum for A Home for All Foundation ahead of World Homelessness Day on Saturday 10 October.

Leah Kirk to take over Ray White Whyalla Whyalla born and bred, Leah Kirk started out as a receptionist 13 years ago and has spent close to 11 of them with Ray White. Next month she steps into business ownership of Ray White Whyalla, with her husband Jamie – also a licensed local agent – joining as auctioneer. Her first-year plans include expanding sports club sponsorships and rolling out streamlined in-room and online auction options for vendors.

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AGENTS ON SOCIAL

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TRUE OR FALSE:

A London council once spent £6 million building a fake hill in the middle of the city – 25 metres of scaffolding covered in turf – and charged people to climb it for the view. It stopped selling tickets within days and offered refunds.

And the answer is …

True. Sometimes a property addition doesn't attract buyers after all... It was 2021, the shoppers hadn't come back after lockdown, and Westminster Council decided a hill would fix it. The marketing promised sweeping greenery. Visitors got scaffolding showing through the grass, the bill nearly doubled, the deputy council leader resigned, and the whole thing was pulled down six months later. via CNN.