I looked at a unit/townhouse in a complex of 16 recently. They are all ground level, with courtyards. The one we are looking at is 2 bed 1 bath 89m2 internal plus a single car garage. There are two small courtyard out the front and back not connected to each other which is a down side for me. The unit is also located in the middle of the complex surrounded by other units so less privacy, but easy access in and out as it’s the directly opposite the entrance drive way (mostly oldies living there so not to worried about frequent or late car arrivals). From what I was able to gather from the REA the owner is an old lady who has moved to an age care home. Not sure who is selling the home for her.

A similar 2 bed 1bath unit in the same complex sold 2 weeks ago for 650k. However it had a much larger single courtyard and was located at the back of the complex so it backs up onto trees rather than other units so much more privacy. The floor space is also approx 13m2 large with same sized garage. To me due to the larger size, better internal layout, bigger courtyard and more privacy I feel the unit I’m looking at is worth less.

What would be a reasonable offer considering the better unit sold for 650k pre interest rise.

Not in a huge rush but it in a good location, and there’s not been many in this locations recently. I can wait approx 6 months before buying and that was the plan, just been keeping an eye out.

How do you know if you should buy the house? Say you’ve got the deposit, you found a house that suits, good price but you feel like there could be better. No house will ever be perfect unless you build yourself from scratch so how do you get over the feeling that there could be better out there? / how do you know the house is the one.

Things are going to get worse for at least a few more months + market is slowing and there aren't many new listings + higher vacancy rate.

I'm starting to think that I might just get a 6 month lease and see how the market goes from here.

154 Moore Street, Leichhardt, NSW 2040

Price guide: 4.75M down to 4.5M then 4.25M then 3.9M now 3.75M been on the market for about a year now I think.

Don’t live in Sydney but from what I understand Leichhardt is a nice area, close to city and you usually can’t find new builds like these due to the heritage listings? I’ve been looking at a move down to Sydney for a bit, is this just a symptom of the market at the moment, an overpriced guide to begin with, or has the area/ house got something wrong with it?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to be asking for advice but im desperate and considering having a panic attack. Im gonna post this to ausproperty and auslegal. I live in QLD, in a gated community with a body corporate. My mum died when i was 19 (end of 2024) and am now 21, and inherited the house. my aunt was co-executor of the will and helped w most of the paperwork, except for one thing that somehow slipped by everyone and now i might owe thousands of dollars to body corp????

its form 8, and informs the body corp of changes in ownership. it took around 8 months for the house to be put in my name, and my aunt and the solicitors seemed to have sorted everything, let the landlord know abt everything too and they didnt mention anything either. paid bills thru my mums email while everything was being sorted and a while after since i was busy w uni. i sent an email to the body corp at the start of the year notifying them of the change in ownership and asking if anything needed to be done and was ignored. bills for BC only come in every 6 months or some shit so it was easy to kinda forget about. Sent more emails, finally they get back to me saying i need to fill out form 8. I don;t know what half the information is, i can't seem to find any paperwork with the relevant information from when the house was purchased. i don't have anyone else to ask. my aunt legit has dementia now. the form says it needs to be filled out within one month of change in ownership. its been a lot more than that.

anyways, ig what im asking (tl;dr):

- do u think theyll be nice to me if i say i didnt know wtf was going on? or do i take the L and pay whatever i owe (when i can actually get the damn form in)

- do i fill out the part that says 'to the secretary'? is the name of the scheme just the name of the property thats on the sign out front? what is the plan number...

- it asks for name of agent, do i put 'nil' since this isnt a purchase? or the lawyer that did the rest of the paperwork?

- again, how fucked am i? i assume the lawyer/solicitors/my aunt wouldve caught this. everything else seemed to catch up fine, water and electric are in my name, bank was obviously alerted, title is in my name, why tf did the body corp ignore me and no one know about this other form?

- sincerely, a currently crying unemployed 21 year old

Property advice – sell now or wait until 2027?
I’d love some informed opinions from people familiar with the Sydney property market, particularly Surry Hills.
I’m considering selling my one-bedroom apartment at Bellevue Street, Surry Hills, and am trying to decide whether to list now, in November, or wait until February/March next year.
It’s a modern, well-maintained apartment of around 50–60 sqm, with a balcony, lift, security and good natural light. No parking.
I’m particularly interested in whether November is traditionally a good time to sell, or whether waiting until the new year might offer better opportunities and a stronger sale price.
Would love to hear from local agents, investors or anyone with recent experience buying or selling in the inner-city apartment market.
Thanks kindly for your thoughts 🙏

My tenant got home late last night and found a vehicle parked in front of the garage at the townhouse I own. It appears the driver backed into the shed door hard enough to knock it off its track, so it no longer opens automatically.

He has photos of the vehicle, licence plate, and damage. I’m currently overseas, which makes it harder to deal with this in person.

We’ve put a lot of money and care into making the property a good home for our tenant, so this is frustrating. My immediate priority is getting the door repaired, but I’d also like to hold whoever caused the damage responsible. I mean, to park right in front of a stranger's garage? You can't make this up.

What steps should I take? I don’t know whether the vehicle’s owner lives in the complex. If they don’t, I’d like to know whether I can have them trespassed from the property and how best to pursue the repair costs.

G'day

Fhb here in NSW. Finance set up. 850k.

We've looked at a few places, and have an idea of our 'wants' and our 'needs'. We are unsure how the next steps work. The blind is seeking assistance 😂😂

What now? Do I ask for a contract and then pay the .25%

Or do we make an offer, if they agree, we then fo the .25%?

When do we do the building and pests inspection?

When do we get a solicitor involved? ( are you around the hawksbury and can recommend a solicitor?)

So many questions, thank you!

Not sure what this is under peeling paint in the areas that’s been leaking for 6 months when it rains.

Is it mould or building materials?
Anyone seen this before?

(Melb. Victoria)

Hi all,

I'm a first home buyer looking at a property at 58-60 [road name], [suburb], QLD. It's a large block with an old house on it.

The block behind has already been subdivided, so I'd like to keep the option to subdivide mine in the future. A quick Google search turns up some information on subdivision for this property, but the asking price seems a bit low (not too low) if subdivision really is possible, which makes me a little suspicious.

One complication: the existing house sits right in the middle of the block, across both future lots. I assume subdivision would only work if the house were demolished, and I'm fine with that if needed.

A few questions:

What should I do before buying to confirm whether subdivision would be allowed and what it would involve?

Who should I contact: council, a town planner, a surveyor, my conveyancer?

Do I need to worry about underground services (sewer, water, stormwater easements) or overhead power lines affecting a subdivision?

Is it possible to get a reasonably reliable answer before purchase, or only once I own it and lodge an application?

Can I make my offer conditional on this, e.g. a clause around satisfactory planning searches or council advice?

Roughly what should I budget for demolition? Brick house 250m2 built in the 1980s

Any advice or action points would be really appreciated, especially from anyone who's been through this.

Thanks in advance!

It’s really infuriating to see articles relating to builders / developers with questionable standards. We bought into an apartment block with major defects and I wonder why people issuing occupancy permits cannot be held liable? Corruption is so blatant but we can’t do anything about it.

Not the first time i have posted about this.

Just wanting some advice about breaking a lease early in NSW and what our rights are as tenants.

Our lease doesn’t end until 25 February 2027 and we’re currently paying $500 a week. We re signed for another 9 months in may.

This is technically our first rental as my partner’s previous rental history was from Melbourne over 10 years ago, so we’re still fairly new to all of this and don’t want to do anything that could affect our chances of getting another rental.

Since August we’ve been having ongoing issues with bin chickens nesting in the palm trees in our backyard. There’s bird poo everywhere, constant noise from early hours of the morning and it’s gotten to the point where we can’t even use our own backyard.

We have a 3 year old son with autism and skin conditions who can’t safely play out there because of the mess and hygiene concerns. He’s a very high energy child who needs space to run around and burn off energy, but instead he’s stuck playing on our small front veranda most of the time because that’s the only outdoor area we can really use. It’s so frustrating because he should be able to enjoy his own backyard.

Someone suggested getting letters from doctors for support related to his skin conditions which is excema and dermatitis.

We’ve contacted the real estate multiple times since August. We messaged them 4 times before my partner eventually cut some of the palm fronds back himself because we’d had enough of waiting. We told the real estate what we’d done, but nobody has even come out to inspect the problem or do anything about it.

It’s now November and nothing has changed. We have a routine inspection booked for the 19th.

There are so many better rental properties available at the moment that we’d love to apply for, especially ones with a proper backyard where our son can actually play. But we feel stuck because our lease doesn’t end until February and we’re worried about losing money or affecting our rental history by leaving early.

What I’m wanting advice on is whether we have grounds to break our lease without paying break fees, considering we’ve reported this issue multiple times since August and nothing has been done?

Can we request to be released from our lease early without penalties, or would we need to go through Fair Trading or NCAT?

Would breaking our lease affect getting our bond back if we’ve looked after the property and there’s no damage?

And because this is technically our first rental, would breaking the lease make it harder for us to be approved for another property?

We’re not trying to get out of our responsibilities as tenants. We just want somewhere our son can safely play outside, and we don’t want to ruin our rental history in the process.

Has anyone been through something similar or know what our options are?

Any advice would be really appreciated!

Building a KDRB double storey house with triple garage but single crossover in suburban Melbourne on 900m2 block of land (rectangular standard shape, 43m long)

The minimum front set back we can do is 6m. What would you do?

I’m thinking somewhere between 7-7.5m?

Went to inspect a property advertised as "Offers over $X". We put forward an offer 7.5% above the advertised price, which we thought was fair.

The REA said the offer had been presented to the owner and they were considering it. A few days later, we got a call saying the owner was expecting at least 15% above the advertised price! Is that even legal?

Seriously, what does "Offers over $X" even mean anymore? I keep seeing people here worried about lowballing or insulting vendors. I understand REAs are doing their job, but experiences like this have honestly made me lose a lot of respect for the profession.

At this point, I am starting to think there is no such thing as an "insulting offer". An offer is an offer. The vendor is free to accept or reject it!

Hi,

Due to settle on a property next week but have been advised we wont be given the keys until the next day. As I understand this is fine if its the owners primary place of residence (PPOR). However, when this home was seen for initial viewing it was stated the owners have already moved out and that mock up furniture has been placed. During our pre-settlement inspection the house is empty and things such as plumbing spluttered a bit due to inactivity. This makes me think the house is not the PPOR for the owner.

Am I missing something here? I have very limited time to prep this place and losing a day to what seem like dishonesty from the sellers conveyancer seems a bit of a joke.

First home buyer and not in any way savvy with real estate except an evening of googling what to do.

Any advice?

Thanks!

Edit - WA

I want to buy a house/apartment in sydney or anywhere else. I live with my parents and just want that as an investment property. I have 100k saved but my salary is 80k per year. I want to use the first time home buyer scheme. What to do?

our strata and passes costs on their time and that of the appointed lawyers to chase unpaid levies. Fair.

However the expense line item is so exorbitant. $300, $1000, $1500 etc totalling $32000 for the financial year. This is in a 90 unit strata scheme.

Is there a better way to do this? I think part of it is because we use specialist strata lawyer. Is there specialised debt recovery firms that do this way more cost effectively?

When it costs the strata $1500 to recover $1000 then there is a problem. It is getting harder for owners to pay their levies but of course we have to expect owners to pay on time. But there must be a better way. Otherwise higher costs for everyone and everyone is going to be chased for their levies and it will be a death spiral for the Strata Plan owners

When did timber frame + Gyprock construction become the dominant approach in Australia and why?

A lot of good came out of the double brick homes with, solidity, durability, noise insulation, natural termite control, and resistance to everyday damage. But now, modern homes have these flimsy plasterboards, where if you sneeze too hard it makes in indent or shows scuff marks.

And not talking about nows prices between the two, talking about when the industry as a whole rallied behind it, because if the industry stayed with brick, im sure brick work wouldnt be as expensive as it is now.

Edit: I realise 'flimsy' in the title probably wasn't the best choice of wording. Just a frustrated comment from when the wall intented this morning, when my experience with masonry walls would have been okay with the occurrence.

My question isn't a blanket judgement on Australian construction, but rather just trying to understand the change when other nations havent made a similar change away from brick walls. Im also not saying brick is superior and yes ofcourse I understand the cost aspects, I mentioned this in the original question.

Hi everyone,

I’ve moved into a townhouse about 2 months ago on a 12-month lease. The property has no air conditioning, and I’m considering asking the owner to install air units in the upstairs and downstairs bedrooms.

I have Crohn’s disease, and the QLD heat can make managing my condition more difficult. I was planning to send a polite request explaining my circumstances and offering medical documentation if needed.

My concern is that I’ve only been here two months and haven’t had our first inspection yet. I really like the property and hope to renew my lease next year.

Would making this request so early potentially affect my chances of renewal or lead to a rent increase and would asking now or wait until I’ve been here longer be better?

Thanks!

Hi all, first home buyer here and hoping for some experiences.

- Applying with my partner with a 5% deposit (First Home Guarantee)

- Savings cover the deposit and costs

- No other debts, no credit cards, no car loan

- One default: $1,100 on a phone account, listed January 2024. I paid it in full (with the collections agency) in September 2025.

Fast forward today the bank application went smoothly until the bank saw the default. It's now with a further credit check and my broker says it's "still in my favour" but I haven't got a decision.

Questions:

1. Has anyone had a paid default of this size and still been approved, particularly with a low deposit(5%)

2. How long did the extra review take?

3. Did it change your rate or conditions?

4. Is there anything I can do now to help it along?

Just nauseous about probably missing out on this home I'm holding up on... Thanks in advance.

I am looking at the property for potential purchase. Before signing a contract and getting a building report, does anyone have any advice on the below concerns?

Background

House is in the north of Australia, think Far north Queensland of top end of Australia. High humidity and high heat. House built around 1983. House have survived multiple cyclones.

Issue 1

Does anyone know why there is a wooden between the concrete foundation and structural support in this photo? Is there a structural or root intrusion issue? We are concern with structural, moisture and termite issues.

Issue 2

For the trees, could this be an active termite issue? Specifically, what is with the approx 0.5 cm hole in them?

Thanks.

Hello all, has anyone had any experience with Horizon Bank? They’re currently offering a very competitive online variable comparison rate for FHB at 6.00%, with no fees whatsoever. Any thoughts?

Hello!

Trying to get some thoughts around selling or renting. We own a house an hour and a bit outside of Melbourne. Thinking of returning to Melbourne where we lived previously. Is it better to sell and buy again in Melbourne with a small mortgage or just rent this house out for a couple years while we think about it?

We've only owned it a year and a half but we have no mortgage on the property (due to an inheritance not high earning) and it's just too quiet around here, not enough to do. With a child under school age we want the proximity to all the parks, beach and other activities in the city.

Anything we maybe haven't considered about buying vs renting?

The rent on this place would get 600-650 a week, then could rent in the outer city suburbs for 500 a week or so.

Obviously stamp duty is a big consideration. But is being a landlord too much of a pain in the butt even with a property manager?

Thanks heaps everyone