Our new home is almost finished construction in Queensland. Our build has taken almost 14 months from slab to (hopefully) handover. Not including the 9 months it took from initial contract signing to site commencement.

We spent months trying to find the right builder and did our due diligence. They were honestly great at the start but once we signed our first contract that’s when it went severely down hill.

We have had the absolute worst experience with our builder to the point where the stress has almost ended our 8 year relationship.

I really want to spread the word about our awful experience around to warn others however I’m worried about any potential repercussions.

I’m not the type of person to write a negative review of any establishment, normally quite the opposite. But the complete lack of attention to detail and care this particular business has put into our forever home has been completely soul crushing. Oh and our builder? He won’t even talk to us or do a site walk through. He likes to be a mystery figure hiding behind his administration team.

We have not had one single walk through during our entire build, even after requesting one multiple times. We are at the point of wanting to sell once we get the keys.

An apartment in Edithvale south east Melbourne for under 400k and the weekly cost of body corp is 322???? Is that absurd or the norm?

There is 50 apartments in the complex and I just cannot fathom how the body corp would be so high they’d make 16,000$ a week

Update

I called to confirm that was accurate and was informed that there has been some extensive repairs this year.

I am glad to see the shock because I have spent a long time building up a deposit and had a 40% deposit on this property. I booked a chat with a broker and reached out to the real estate agent and when I got that back it was crushing. Glad to know that’s not the norm and will hopefully find the right buy

We inspected a lovely property in Melbourne about three weeks ago. It was initially advertised at $980k–$1.06m, and we went back for a second inspection. Two days later, the price was reduced to $950k–$1m.
Yesterday, the agent called and said they’d received two offers at the lower end of the range. I mentioned that I was planning to offer below that, and he encouraged me to submit an offer anyway, saying the other deals might fall through.
I found that a little suspicious. If they already have two offers, why encourage a lower one?
Considering the next rate hike and property prices going down, so I decided to test the waters and submitted an offer just over $925k.
What would you do next? Would you wait for their response and hold your ground, or consider increasing your offer if they come back saying there’s a higher offer?
We genuinely like the property, but I don’t want to get caught up in a bidding war.
Keen to hear your thoughts, especially from people who’ve bought in Melbourne recently.

Hi guys,
I am 30 years old and start thinking about buying my first home. I had around 10% deposit at this point and looking for the lower side of the market ideally under 650k in Adelaide as I am buying alone. I had an investment oversea which I try to sell to get more deposit. But I am worry until I get enough 30% deposit to be more safe the house price will go back up again? What do you guys think I should do? Can anyone predict if its would go at least flat for a few more months?

First home buyer here. Anyone know a good suburb to keep an eye out for properties less than 1m

Currently live in Hawthorne (yep bougie) and if I want to buy in my suburb, a townhouse is like min 1.2m (get fktt)

Happy to move but also be realistic about travel, I’m a nurse and do night shifts a lot so I don’t want to drive home too far

Our neighbours are looking to sell. They have a basement that floods, and a builder has quoted them a large amount to properly fix and waterproof. Since they got this quote, they've been coming at us complaining that its because of water coming from our side of the fence. We are uphill from them, so it makes sense that some comes across but council guidelines seem to suggest that is a normal thing and not our liability.

We want to be neighbourly but also don't have a lot of money. They initially said we have to build stormwater pits, which we pushed back on, and now they are asking if we can put agi pipe behind the small retaining wall, which we may be open to.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this experience and how fair it is this solution?

I had a first recently. I got a message from the REA I bought a long time ago off saying they had a property in my building that was having a mid week open home and I should come by to said open home and “support my neighbour”. Anyone else think that’s odd? The neighbour wouldn’t be there and we are not buying. I gather it’s to say that they got someone through the door… I mean props to them for being community minded I guess.

I’ve just settled on my first home, and my anxiety and discomfort with change are overwhelming any excitement I feel. I struggle with change so I knew I’d feel overwhelmed and overstimulated moving into a home that I’m now responsible for.
The anxiety is also doubled because furniture present during the open home, B&P, and pre-settlement inspection disguised how much the hardwood floor in the open kitchen/dining/living slopes towards the southern exterior wall. A re-stump/re-level is in my future and it’s going to be a pain because theres very little space to work under this area of the house. I can see a square of flooring has been previously removed, I assume when the kitchen was updated.
I knew there would be some work needing to be done, but I wasn’t expecting for it to be this big straight up, how can I make sure I still utterly love my house through the anxiety?
Going to go have another little cry and keep researching pricing and processes.

Considering buying a house in Melbourne.

A building inspection found northern is subsiding, along with some wall and window misalignment. The rest of the house has no major issue and in overall good condition, no crack.
(FYI, P&B Inspector said it is dropping by 20mm by 1200mm, whereas resin injection company found floor level difference up to 35mm).

The suspected cause was a disconnected stormwater pipe, which has now been repaired with a full report from the plumber. The vendor will pay for resin injection, which proposes lifting the house by up to 10mm to stabilise the foundations. The remaining unevenness won’t be fully corrected as the engineer explained 'it is unsafe the force a house back to its orginial level, the main goal is to stablise, not leveling',
To make it better, there’s a transferable 20-year warranty against further substantial downward movement in treated areas, the warranty also cover unforeseen events beyond reasonable control—such as burst pipes, cracked drains, clay shrinkage, soil erosion, nearby construction vibrations, subsidence from vegetation growth, and loads from a single-storey extension.

The house otherwise ticks all my boxes, and it is the first one that I genuine like and hard to pass after looking at houses for 4-5 months (picky FHB).

Would you proceed, or walk away? I’d appreciate honest opinions, especially from anyone who has dealt with subsidence or resin injection.

My husband and I are in the process of putting offers on houses for our first home, which is super exciting!!
Our budget is 750K, and with the current market situation we’re trying to lowball properties in the 800-850k mark, especially those that have been on the market for 60+ days.
We’ve found pushback from vendors that are still quite stubborn on their prices. Any idea on when/if this might change?
Hoping to get a good price leading up to Christmas

Hi everyone, I moved to Sydney earlier this month for what I thought would be a long term job and signed a 12-month lease near Milsons Point. Unfortunately, I was let go shortly after starting, through circumstances outside my control, and am now without income.

I contacted the real estate agent to ask about negotiating an early exit or finding a replacement tenant, but they said my only option at this stage is to pay the four-week break fee under NSW law.

Is this really my only option? Can the landlord agree to waive or reduce the fee, or allow a replacement tenant? Would applying to NCAT for hardship termination be worthwhile, or could it end up costing me more in rent while I wait?

I’m not trying to avoid my responsibilities, I’m just trying to minimise my losses in an unexpected situation. I’m early in my career and don’t have much savings ://, so I may have to return to my home country because of this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi all, I previously asked Reddit whether it was “ethical” to have my 3.5 year old and I in a 1 bedroom unit/apartment that I can fashion into 2 smaller rooms. The advice was wonderful and I’m very grateful for so many great ideas.
I’ve now found a place for under 400k which is 52 m². Is that insanely small for a mum and her 3.5 year old? Is anyone living in similar circumstances?
I don’t have a very large deposit or savings account so I’m trying to do my best to make it work.
Option 1) don’t take this place and save more to afford something a bit bigger
Option 2) say f#@! it and go for this place because it’s 100k cheaper than my pre-approval amount
Help please!
Thank you

Im a solo mum to a 4 month old baby and own a townhouse with a relatively small mortgage of 170k. It's across the street from wetlands, a park and playground. Woollies is a short walk away. Even with increasing interest rates I can work part time and pay it off by the time I'm 40 in 4 years.

But...it is a townhouse and has no yard, just a courtyard.

I could sell up and take out a bigger mortgage and get a house with a yard but it won't have the same amenities down the street. It would obviously take me a lot longer to pay off.

I want to invest in my daughters future but if I take out a bigger mortgage I can't guarantee I'll have the money to do so. But I worry if she lives in a townhouse she won't get the same quality of life as she would in a "proper" house.

As a teacher at the top pay I can't earn any more.

What would you do?

I own a typical dogbox 1BR unit in inner city Sydney. I've had it for 20 years and only just realised I have no insurance for it.

Should I start now with landlord insurance or any other kind of insurance?

Not sure what I need. Any advice welcome please and thank you.

It has had good tenants the whole time. No serious building issues or defects.

I bought my first home in Melbourne in March ‘26, not long after the recent peak in my area.

My Bank has it down at least 7% since then, and I’m now seeing places in the same area listed well under what I paid.

I’ll admit I had a nagging feeling I should have waited until after the budget and the state election. There was talk of the Libs scrapping stamp duty for first home buyers under $1M, plus some tax changes for investors on the table. At the time they had little to no chance of winning, but if they do get in, it would have applied to my situation. Still, I absolutely love the place I bought, and it obviously wasn’t going to sit there waiting for me. I figured it was better to act than hesitate and regret it.

A few things have made me feel better about it:

1. There’s almost nothing out there I’d want to buy and live in. Prices are lower, sure, but since buying I haven’t seen a single place I’d be as excited to call home. A lot of what’s coming up looks like ex-rentals being offloaded.
2. Scrapping stamp duty probably won’t save first home buyers much. If you've suddenly got an extra $40–50k to put toward a purchase, I'd assume that will just go into bigger and better offers. So prices under the threshold would rise by at least that much (as we've seen in the past) so the saving gets eaten up. Even if I’d waited and qualified, I think I’d have broken even at best.
3. I think Victoria will be one of the first markets to recover. It’s been the laggard for a while, and for bloody good reason, but I don’t see that lasting forever.

Anyone else in a similar spot? Bought near the peak and either regretting it or weirdly comforted by it? It’s great to finally have a home and my weekends back, but damn, I’d have loved to have the ball in my court the whole way through, with agents actually returning my calls.

Above is a list provided by GPT, but the overall question was, how is 'high density' zoning going to impact prices in those areas?

• Few people i've asked said, dilution is going to happen and avoid these areas and overall area becomes non-prestige
• But ChatGPT etc says just the opposite "A block of land that used to only hold one family home can now potentially hold 20+ apartments and land becomes valuable"
• What other suburbs would you then choose if 'Glen Waverley' etc becomes high density zone?

What's your thoughts on this?

​

I'm currently in the process of purchasing a 1-bedroom apartment in South Brisbane as my PPOR, but the latest inflation figures and predictions of further interest rate hikes have made me reconsider.

Given the current economic outlook, Brisbane property market conditions and potential for further rate increases, I'm wondering whether now is still a sensible time to buy or whether it would be better to hold off.

I'm particularly interested in people's thoughts on the outlook for 1-bedroom apartments in Brisbane over the next 1–3 years, especially compared with the broader housing market.

Would you proceed with the purchase or wait another 6–12 months to see how things unfold?

Keen to hear different perspectives, particularly from those following the Brisbane apartment market.

Hi all!

I’m a first home buyer who’s put an offer in on my first apartment and am currently in the 21-day subject to building inspection / finance period.

The building inspector gave me a call (and advised I’ll get the report tomorrow) and noted the apartment itself is fine but the basement carpark has a major defect. Here are the notes from the call:
- extensive moisture to external masonry block work. visible to external walls. level of staining quite extensive. very heavy salt deposits built up, water retention and pondering across base of basement carpark floor. moisture levels may present premature degradation of the building + promote onset of mould.
- has potential for parts of building to degrade / deteriorate. can see where water is coming from around front garden bed - damage to cement sheet linings, hasn’t been waterproofed correctly, allowing extensive moisture to get into carpark. only rectification is fixing waterproofing into the major walls. Body corporate issue; would be a very large cost.

I’ve reached out to body corporate and CC’ed my conveyancer to see if the body corporate is aware of the issues and if any works are planned.

What do I do?? I’ve had a chat with a few people and some are saying to get out while I can and others are saying it’s impossible to find an apartment without issues. This has been the only property i’ve found without cladding or balcony issues.

Thanks in advance, really panicked so would appreciate any advice.

So I want to sell my current home and buy a new one. How do I actually work this out so I am out of my current home and into the new one before the settlement?

Do I ensure that the house I'm buying settles first so I get a week or so to move and then my old house settles like a week later?

And what covers the mortgage in between, would that be a temporary bridging loan of a week or something? That seems like a lot of work for the bank for just a week or two.

I'm also considering subject to sale and a long settlement, just to ensure it all works out.

Hi all,

​Need a reality check on the current mechanics of fixed-term terminations in Victoria.

​Situation:

​12-month fixed-term residential tenancy expiring late January.

​Formal Notice to Vacate served nominating the final day of the fixed term under Section 91ZZA (Owner/family occupation).

​Property manager has notified me that under Section 91ZB(1)(a), the renters now have the statutory right to serve a 14-day counter-notice and leave prior to the fixed-term expiry, with rent ceasing on their nominated date.

​It feels completely asymmetric that serving a required statutory notice to prevent a rollover into a periodic lease allows the tenant to terminate the fixed term early without ordinary lease-break liability.

​Has anyone navigated this at VCAT recently?

Last year sold a house in UK - commission was 1% and Rightmove listing and photographs were included. Here (Brisbane) Ive been quoted 2-3% plus costs of marketing. I'm just wondering how typical/negotiable this is - Loads of agents falling over themselves to sell my house - how successful have people been in getting a good deal?

Has anyone personally used Power to the Buyer Agency recently to purchase an investment? Not finding much information or reviews about them online so I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience. How was your experience with their service, communication, transparency around costs and the overall buying process?

A two bedroom apartment would sell a lot easier in the future which is my main reason for forgetting to instead of one

I'm looking at buying in the mickleham area have seen this town house in the same estate i currently rent in what do you think?

NSW based.

The only light on my floor stairwell has gone out. I’ve emailed strata about it and they asked if any other lights are out as it’s not worth a commercial callout just for one light. They then said they’d speak to the committee about it. Do I have any leg to stand on other than it being unsafe? Thanks