I've noticed multiple large apartment blocks going up in the last five or ten years where maybe only a year or so later, workers have to come back to repair shoddy work. This is part of a garden bed. Less than four years old. It's not just this corner either. Glancing at some of it, it's been damp proofed and then render on top. I'm not a builder but it seems to me that the two materials are in no way compatible. The render can't possibly stick to the rubbery damp proofing. The damp proofing doesn't explain this corner though.

It's not just quality of work either. Some of the designs just don't seem great. We all learn somewhere, and it feels like each design is the architects first big project. And then they become an Uber driver or barista or something. So each design feels like a noobie design. Same with the trades. No one seems to stick around long enough to become a master at their trade.

Is this the future for dwellings? I live in a 1980s six pack. Boring as hell, but it's not going anywhere. I actually tell anyone thinking of buying a unit to steer clear of new builds and get a 1980s build.

Hey, I’m honestly at a loss and need any advice on what steps we can take here.

Our new neighbours moved in about 4 months ago and at first everything was completely fine. Then they put up some kind of shade/privacy curtain that apparently violated body corporate rules. A few neighbours complained (not us), but because we share a wall/fence, they seem to have assumed it was us.

Ever since that got taken down, things have escalated.

- They’ve been calling me names like “weasel” and “dumb dog”

- They encourage their kid to yell “dumb dog” at me over the fence

- They’ve been putting their rubbish in our bin, including slashing their bags so it spills everywhere

- We suspect they’ve also been pulling our bin back in on bin day so we miss collection

I tried to handle it calmly. The first time I found receipts in our bin, I collected everything that was clearly theirs and returned it to the wife, asking them to stop. She said it must have been a mistake (it’s definitely not).

Within 10 minutes of that conversation, they started banging on the walls.

Last night I found another bag, took it straight to the husband, and asked why he keeps doing it. He literally said “on principle” and laughed.

They’re also playing really loud music every night right up until 10pm, then turning it off exactly at 10 on the dot — which makes me think they know the rules and are staying just inside them.

At this point it feels like targeted harassment and I don’t know what the best move is:

- Body corporate?

- Police?

- Council?

- Just keep documenting everything?

Has anyone dealt with something like this in QLD? What actually works?

I don’t want to escalate things unnecessarily, but this is getting ridiculous. And they’re quite intimidating.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Belated update:

I didn’t end up writing the letter. That next weekend they just got worse. Banging, drilling, loud music. I stayed quiet, recorded everything, and made my cameras obvious hoping they’d back off. 

Then came Monday they switched to doing it all night instead. Kept recording, trying to build evidence. Had a peek outside and realised… they were PACKING. 

They spent the whole week packing every night (loudly, it was painful). I just kept my head down and waited it out, hoping they’d hurry up and get the f out.

On the last night of them moving out they kept yelling out to the complex/everyone to “go find some common sense.” Ironic.

Spoke to other neighbours after they left and apparently they stopped paying rent after the shade cloth complaint and spent months trashing the place. Holes in walls, wrecked counters, missing taps/handles.

So yeah… looks like the problem sorted itself out, but they absolutely trashed the place on the way out. 

While we are waiting our settlement date, seller solicitors sent us an email that the tenant will not be able to vacate the property on the settlement date and will be able to move only after 40 more days.
Seller failed to fulfill the vacant possession condition in the contract if sale.
What is our situation here ?!!
Any thoughts?

Completely bonkers this property market. This property up 17.3% estimate in 6 months. I live in an apartment and was flicking through our area to see what the prices are doing. Completely unsustainable and in a bubble. Surely has to crash back to earth

Hi folks,

Does anyone have an idea of how much a cabin like this would cost to build? Minus the pool…

70sqm approx

I was speaking to some people born in the early 50s. They bought a suburban house for $47k in the 80s and now it would sell for approx $1M. That's not shocking to me anymore; there are plenty of stories out there like that. But what did shock me is when I heard what their First Home Buyers scheme was. Apparently, the government payed for $7k of their $47k house...

Instead, what is our current First Home Buyers scheme? Oh that's right, we have the privilege to take out massive loans with only a small deposit... great. Oh and in October they removed any income limits so even people on very high income are eligible for the First Home Guarantee. I'm sure that won't increase demand and prices- oh wait it already has and it's only been 1 month...

At what stage will home owners figure out they are trying to sell at yesterday’s prices. I’ve been watching my area for a couple months and nobody showing up at open homes and very few have dropped their prices although there have been a few who’ve dropped by 100k.

If you have your house up for 1.35 and no offers, nobody enquiring, nobody going to open houses - drop your dang price sellers YOUR PRICE is too damn high. Look at what’s happening in Canada or NZ. You missed the top, accept it.

We officially got the keys to our house today and it still doesn’t feel real! 🥹🔑
We’re first-homeowners and honestly feel like there’s probably a million things we don’t know yet.

This is really overwhelming for us.

For those who have owned a home for a while — what are the things you wish someone had told you when you first got the keys?

i have just turned 18 (M) and I really want to be financially secure and not have to stress and i know i have time on my side so i'm just reaching out for some advice from more experienced people , what is the best way to go about this and saving for a house? i'm currently earning like 300 weekly and still living at home etc. What would people wish they did or knew at my age ? Thanks.

Xmas day was exciting for us. Long story short, neighbours got themselves in an unusual situation however now the retaining wall is unsafe. Who do we complain to to: 1. Get this fixed asap 2. Get them to pave their driveway 3. Build a fence They apparently have called their insurance and a tow truck has removed the car however other then speaking to them how do we know that this is going to be fixed asap. Their kids play dangerously close to the wall every day. They have been building their place three plus years. When TC Alfred happened we complained to council because they weren’t using any skip bins for their rubbish and it was all over the ground. Council said it wasn’t their problem and go to body corporate. It was a yo-yo between the two until the body corp sent our letter of complaint to the owners.
When land was bought covenant rules state that you must start build within 3 months of purchase and put to 9-12 months to complete build. Who looks after the covenant when these rules aren’t followed?

Hi all,

Hoping I could get some feedback from some of you.

I’m planning to get a mortgage in the next 12 months. I’m 25 from Brisbane.

My projected salary for this year is around 150k (net 9200/month) . My guaranteed minimum is 137k ( net 8500/month)

I have low expenses, my rent is 2000 a month and my expenses are less than 2500 a month so I have a surplus of $4000 a month (based on minimum salary)

I want to take the next step and buy a house. A $850k loan would mean repayments of $5150 a month.

I would take in my current housemate of 5 years with me who’s agreed to rent a room from me for $1300 a month.

Assuming that by owning a house will make my expenses go up, say to $3500/month, it would leave me a buffer of $1150 a week after having paid mortgage and all.

This is of course on my minimum salary, modelling this with my projected salary my leftover would be around $1850/pm

Also I have $0 debt. Given that I’m still kind of young, have no dependents and single I thought I could take on more risk and start getting a house.

What do you think? Interested to hear your views/opinions.

Lots of fear mongering stories coming out of Murdoch media as the war continues.

I guess I’m curious to hear your opinions on:

1) Do you think the property market will actually stagnate or decrease house prices? And if so, do you think it’s a national outlook or a city by city thing. For example regional cities are now exploding in property prices, a delay behind major cities as those from big cities can no longer afford a home and are moving regionally to buy, increasing local market prices.

2) What is the benefit to Murdoch media pushing this fear mongering via every outlet possible re a recession and falling house prices, not sure how this benefits Australia’s billionaire class, do they want us to spend less? Take less risk? Avoid buying property?

3) If you were about to buy and have chosen to hold off since the US/Israel war machine kicked off again, why did you make that decision? Or has the instability of global fuel sources and the potential impacts on the US economy encouraged you to buy now so you have a secure long term home and investment?

4) Property investors, where are you heads at right now? Holding, selling, reinvesting in something else?

I think ultimately we will just be buying a house in the next month or so as we want to stop renting asap, we have a place on the QLD Boost to Buy scheme, and I don’t see property prices dropping in the hundreds of thousands over the next few years at all, and surely this global instability and millions of people being displaced by the US/Israel war and climate change is only going to increase immigration to countries like Australia, increasing housing demand.

Not us (although we are dog owners). Been doing the rounds at some open homes in Brisbane over the past few weekends and saw a family bring their dog into all the open homes. My initial thought was wtf leave the dog at home. But maybe times have changed and it's OK these days?

edit: a lot of comments have reminded and enlightened me to the fact that old houses can be stubborn and have a lot of problems. And I hadn’t realised how expensive it is to renovate old ones. I’m more of a nostalgist and sucker for heritage styles and would personally renovate a place. Thanks for all the comments so far! It’s a very insightful discussion

I live in an area that has many beautiful, older homes with unique details, character, beautiful brickwork, and often well shaded and established gardens with trees and a lawn. Think red brick that contrasts beautifully with solid white timber framed windows. Tiled, gabled roofs with chimneys. Trees that give shade. Crown moulding inside on the walls. French doors and windows.

In the last 6 months alone, I have seen four houses purchased in the area for $2 - 3 million each, and then DEMOLISHED only for some horrible, soulless, copy-paste McMansion to be built that looks more reminiscent of a demountable school building or a commercial warehouse than an actual home, that takes up the whole plot space because of course it MUST have more bedrooms and bathrooms and a media room and a walk in closet and god knows what else.

The average household size is 2.5 people. And in 2021, more than one in four households (26% of Australians) were people living alone ( https://aifs.gov.au ). Many of these houses already had 3-4 bedrooms, 2+ bathrooms. I have personally, never met a household (unless it's a share house or multiple generational co-living) that has needed 5+ bedrooms and 3+ bathrooms. If you’ve got the cash to drop over $2 million, why wouldn’t you put that into extending or lovingly renovating a house that actually means something, instead of bulldozing it for some lifeless box? As someone who can only dream of owning a home in this economy, it truly gives me a visceral reaction when I see the demolish fence and signs go up.

I understand that yes, older homes may need some work - and I am not defending those that for health/safety reasons would genuinely need to go, but these in particular in my area are not in disrepair. They were well cared for until the (usually) elderly couple decided to sell.
I’ve seen the real estate photos. I’ve walked through those open homes been charmed at how sturdy they are and how much detail and character they have.

But I need someone to explain to me this destruction of charming homes that are sturdy and honestly still spacious. Is it just some cultural allergy to anything old mixed with a desire to keep up with some "modern" aesthetic (whatever that is)? Or is it builders and contractors pushing the “cheaper to rebuild” line after you buy a multi-million dollar home so they can cash in on a teardown job, and then build a house that is easy but that won't outlast your own grandchildren?

You can extend older homes. You can renovate them. (My parents did this with our childhood home)

Unless they are literally falling to pieces, these older houses should be cherished before they all disappear in a sea of tacky, muted, uninspiring McMansions. I mean it's such a "I'm rich but still cheap" sort of thinking.

What is everyone's take on this? Specifically on seeing these old houses that are liveable being torn down. And, I am genuinely curious, if you went that way, what was the motivation?

I’m from a country where property auctions only occur because of a foreclosure, it’s a desperation move by the bank. Whereas I come here and everybody looks at me like I have two heads when I ask why the hell property auctions are standard practice for homes.

I’ve attended a few auctions here and talked to friends about their experiences and it’s insane. Fake reserve prices, real estate agents lying, or other allegedly illegal or unsavoury practices that consistently happen. Some people will say auctions are transparent or a better reflection of the market, but what a load of crap. It just seems like a scummy way for scummy real estate agents to get people to spend more money on a home than it’s actually worth through pressure and deception.

Among the many reasons why the property market is irreparably screwed for young people in this country, the auction system seems like a key factor in why prices have spiraled out of control.

Edit: Wow I didn’t expect this much engagement. Thanks for the insights guys! I’m glad to hear that auctions may not be as common in other states as Brisbane has led me to believe. Nonetheless, there are a shit ton of home auctions in this country. I suppose the post should have been “why are auctions an acceptable way to sell homes in Australia.” Seems like the only people who like auctions are one of the lucky few who haven’t had a shitt experience or one of the privileged few who can rock up to an auction with bottomless pockets and screw a young family to get their newest investment property

A quick look today at realestate.com shows hardly any houses selling under $1m within kms of Brisbane CBD. Suburbs like Keperra even - complete knock downs are going for over $1m. I am worried for our children - how on earth are they supposed to afford a house? And first home buyers - the new 5% deposit scheme is just going to make it worse! Absolutely astounding.

Granted it was one of her only two gripes with the property this inspection (the other, understandably, being a hedge that needs attention). Yet the only time the other 99% will notice it is at night. If I need to spend $6 to keep the real estate off my back so be it. But why fix something that's not broken?

With negative gearing changes, rising build costs and investors getting squeezed… Australian landlords are going to have to innovate.

Why rent a 4x2 to one family when every bedroom can become a “dual occupancy premium sleep pod”?

Government wanted affordable housing.

Landlords heard:

“maximize yield per square metre.”

At this rate the next house listing will be:

4 bed

2 bath

11 tenants

“Close community atmosphere”

$390/week per partition

Update: A lot of good ideas are being thrown in the comment section. I might as well add mine too in this update

$2 per toilet flush, refundable bond if the seat is left in original condition.

Coin-operated shower timers

Subscription-based air conditioning

‘Natural light levy’ for north-facing windows

CPI-linked toilet paper charges

I’m about to exit a rental that I have been the sole occupant of since it was built (I moved in before COVID). While removing a large rug, I noticed two patches on the carpet that looked like they had table legs or something on them. When I tried to brush them out, the carpet disintegrated. I genuinely have no idea for the reason why.

Since I have been there, I have seen an owner change and four different property managers. The current property manager is the type that isn’t really understanding. Part of me is saying it’s all reasonable wear and tear. The other part is screaming that my bond won’t be returned and I’ll be made to pay for new carpets.

Any help/general advice or advice from people that have been in similar situations would be greatly appreciated.

Now that housing has practically passed the unaffordable threshold pretty much anywhere urbanised (and even many regional and remote areas). How long do we predict society to last? It's well documented that people arent having kids anymore due to housing anxiety and the cost of living these days (among other issues). Is the honest expectation for teachers, nurses etc or anyone with "normal" or average jobs and wages just to put up and accept a new reality, and normalise 70+% of their paycheck going to landholders and banks whilst society slowly decays?

Title is a high level question that can be unfolded 1000 different ways. What are people in their 20s going to do? Homelessness? parents house until 50? Not even try? How would anyone on an early-career income rent or buy in the next 20 years?

Cheers

I found a property privately and agreed on a price with the seller about 3 weeks ago (subject to them finding somewhere to buy).

Since then:

• They asked if I’d pay more - I said no, vendor was ok to proceed with original offer.
• A week later said they didn’t want to waste my time - agreed
• Now they’re back saying agents think it’s worth more and asking again if I’ll increase before they list it

I’m over the seller stringing me along while trying to push the price up.

What is it with people wasting time like this?

I would consider this more of a rant, but I’m also shocked and surely this isn’t just me? My partner and I recently bought our first home which was very very exciting but quickly felt not so exciting for me - my partner still is very optimistic. Within 24 hours, our hot water system broke which cost us literal thousands of dollars to replace as well as other small little things at the same time (new kitchen tap, shower head etc). We already knew our roof needed to be replaced from our building & pest but paying for that on top of the unexpected plumber was rough. Our front doors and back doors + framing need to be urgently replaced which are both French huge doors and I was SHOCKED at the price, rookie mistake by me not researching these costs prior. Just got a quote to get a roof on our low set deck and balustrades and christ that was well over what I was expecting. Aircon supply and install too, plus have to get a quote for new fencing and I am just too scared to even get that quote now. I feel like I bought a lemon at this rate but is this normal? Feeling very humbled right now.

Quick edit to fix my million spelling errors 😅

So we bought a block of land intending to build on it as a first home owner however the prices to build had completely blown out the budget

What are our best options? We own the land roughly 1000sqm,