HomeMate.com.au

Selling your home? A small quick profit is a good profit when selling. Last year a Gold Coast couple refused an offer of $14.5 million for their beachfront home development site. Last week they had to let it go for $9 million at auction as the financial crisis bites. The house on the Gold Coast’s [...]

Coastal towns from Tully in Queensland to Upper Burnie in Tasmania are tipped to be among next year’s property hotspots, as house prices in capital cities experience modest falls and upmarket property languishes under the strain of the financial crisis. In its final property pulse report of the year, RP Data says it expects first-home [...]

Shoddy builder complaints soared to a record 5669 in Queensland last year. This is up nearly 25 per cent in 12 months, with 28 builders barred for life. The Building Services Authority said most complaints related to bungled plasterboard installation, defective tiling, leaking roofs and cracks in concrete paths and driveways. There also were complaints [...]

Jobs will determine how well the housing sector rides out the financial turmoil, according to Housing Industry of Australia. Falling interest rates and increased grants have helped boost interest in buying a new home but fear of losing their job has kept many buyers waiting in the wings. Melissa Ketchell’s Public Property blogMr Dale told [...]

First home buyers are allegedly forward dating contracts to illegally claim the boosted first-home grant. Some dodgy real estate agents and mortgage brokers are encouraging the fraud, suggesting buyers change the date of existing contracts to fall after October 14 so they qualify for the latest lucrative federal government grants. Forward-dating contracts could net first-home [...]