It’s called the smallest room in the house, but the bathroom makes an impressive contribution to the value of your home, whether you’re living in a 10-bedroom palace or a neat inner-city apartment. Together with the kitchen, the bathroom is one of the favourite areas to renovate when homeowners decide it’s time to sell and…
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The first rung on the property ladder is often restricted to a smaller apartment or house simply because of the limited budgets that define early adulthood. And while it would be lovely to snap up a five-bedroom mansion in a prestigious area, the reality isn’t like that for most of us. Instead, we do our…
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Since the pandemic hit, the rental scene across much of Australia has been a roller-coaster ride. The exodus of residents as we closed our borders, especially overseas students, had an economic impact on many landlords. Today, the situation is turning around with the national rent average rising almost 2 per cent, according to industry researcher…
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Many people currently seeking to climb the property ladder or buy for the first time are asking when the market will peak and how they’ll know when it happens. Buyer confidence is predicted to ease in 2022, but there’s been little sign of that as we roll into February. While the supply of properties for…
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It’s easy but dangerous to become complacent if you intend to sell your home in a red-hot market. The media headlines amplify the big prices paid for some apartments and houses, and you can begin to think selling your home is only a matter of putting a “For Sale” sign at the front of the…
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Society is great at coming up with names to capture the mood of the moment. “Nimbys” (not in my backyard) is a favourite for those who don’t want progress, and then there are the “empty-nesters”, describing parents whose adult children have left the family home. The latest phrase doing the rounds in real estate is…
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An auction is an excellent strategy for maximising the value when selling your home, especially in the current period of a booming property market. It can be a little nerve-wracking on the day as you watch the raw reality of market forces deciding the value of your home. But of course, you have the reassurance…
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One of the best strategies to maximize the value of your home once it’s on the market is to “stage” it. Staging a home involves removing most if not all of your furniture and replacing it with pieces that are selected to show off all the attributes of your home. You can hire a specialist…
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Bushfire season is upon us once again, and it’s timely to remind ourselves of the precautions we can take to make our homes safe, whether we’re living in regional areas or city bushland. Gumtrees on the doorstep are not the only danger. Grasslands within built-up areas, especially those that edge housing estates, represent a significant…
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Investors will likely enjoy 2022 on the back of the most optimistic outlook for rental incomes since 2008. Rents nationally averaged an increase of almost 10% last year despite a Covid roller-coaster ride on which many city apartments sat empty after students and non-citizens headed home because of the pandemic. While gazing into the crystal…
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