Latest / The Real Estate Show / Mix 106.3's Real Estate Show - 12/09/26
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Well, Cam, after a cracker show on the weekend, we're
- 0:03Speaker 1: ready for another Mix 106.3 Real.
- 0:04Speaker 2: Estate Show podcast.
- 0:17Speaker 3: Yes, all thanks to JW Land. Really interesting conversation with
- 0:20Speaker 3: Bushy Martin from Know How Property. Talking about the great
- 0:23Speaker 3: affordability magic trick, we sort of unpacked how can cheaper
- 0:27Speaker 3: homes become harder to buy. And as usual, Bushy put
- 0:32Speaker 3: his own special stamp on this, didn't he?
- 0:34Speaker 1: Very special stamp. And if you think he's pulled out
- 0:37Speaker 1: all the stovs before, well, how did he bring mullet
- 0:41Speaker 1: into the real estate conversation?
- 0:42Speaker 2: Well, of course he did.
- 0:43Speaker 1: He finds a way and you'll have to listen to
- 0:46Speaker 1: hear how he did that.
- 0:47Speaker 3: I loved that we had the opportunity to speak to
- 0:49Speaker 3: the MBA ACT CEO, Anna Nilagama, about the Master Builders,
- 0:54Speaker 3: the Awards of Excellence, which were on the night before
- 0:59Speaker 3: our show went to air. And we talked about the
- 1:01Speaker 3: incredible House of the Year as well.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Yeah, House of the Year, Project of the Year. So
- 1:05Speaker 1: the house was, yeah, really awesome projects that picked up awards,
- 1:09Speaker 1: lots of deserving winners, and a big, big party was
- 1:12Speaker 1: had by the sounds of it.
- 1:13Speaker 4: Yes, indeed.
- 1:13Speaker 3: We say congratulations to the Australian War Memorial as well,
- 1:16Speaker 3: who picked up the Project of the Year Award. And
- 1:19Speaker 3: why not? I mean, if you haven't been there yet,
- 1:21Speaker 3: you really need to go and have a look.
- 1:23Speaker 1: Yeah, what they've done there is spectacular. We also caught
- 1:25Speaker 1: up with Sam McGregor, Principal at Winrose Property, about the
- 1:28Speaker 1: latest cotality report and what it shows for Canberra.
- 1:31Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.
- 1:32Speaker 3: And he just says it the way that it needs
- 1:35Speaker 3: to be said as well.
- 1:36Speaker 2: Yep, I'm calling a spade a spade and we love it.
- 1:39Speaker 2: We really appreciate it.
- 1:40Speaker 3: The thing that I really like about our conversations when
- 1:42Speaker 3: we speak to Sam and we ask this question and
- 1:44Speaker 3: it's a, I mean, it's a question... to see what
- 1:46Speaker 3: is really happening.
- 1:47Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 1:47Speaker 3: The conversations that they're having with other real estate agents,
- 1:50Speaker 3: what are they talking about?
- 1:51Speaker 2: Exactly.
- 1:52Speaker 3: And we sort of get to draw the curtain back
- 1:54Speaker 3: and hear what's really happening.
- 1:57Speaker 2: And he tells us and we love it. Thank you, Seth.
- 2:00Speaker 4: All right.
- 2:00Speaker 3: So that's what is ahead as far as our podcast
- 2:03Speaker 3: is concerned. Again, it is thanks to JW Land on
- 2:06Speaker 3: Mix 106.3.
- 2:08Speaker 1: House prices, we know, we've spoken about this on the
- 2:09Speaker 1: show many times before, house prices are falling across most
- 2:12Speaker 1: of the country, including here in Canberra. You would think,
- 2:15Speaker 1: you would think that that would make housing more affordable,
- 2:17Speaker 1: but apparently that is not the case. There's some new
- 2:20Speaker 1: data that's come out showing that. So we're going to
- 2:23Speaker 1: find out what exactly is happening there and what is
- 2:25Speaker 1: the great affordability magic trick. Bushy Martin from KnowHow Property
- 2:30Speaker 1: Finance joins us now.
- 2:31Speaker 2: Bushy, good morning.
- 2:32Speaker 3: Good morning, guys.
- 2:33Speaker 2: Now, look, tell us what's happening.
- 2:35Speaker 1: How can property prices fall while housing becomes less affordable?
- 2:39Speaker 4: Well, welcome to the great Harry Houdini housing vanishing trick, guys,
- 2:43Speaker 4: where the house prices shrink, your borrowing power disappears, and
- 2:47Speaker 4: for the grand finale, the bank pulls a declined pre-approval
- 2:49Speaker 4: out of your empty wallet. So the answer is that
- 2:52Speaker 4: house prices are only one piece of the puzzle because
- 2:55Speaker 4: higher interest rates are shrinking our borrowing power faster than
- 2:57Speaker 4: prices are falling, while still raising our loan repayments. And
- 3:01Speaker 4: at the same time, our higher living costs are attacking
- 3:03Speaker 4: deposit savings like seagulls and hot chips. So houses may
- 3:06Speaker 4: be cheaper, but the finance bridge is actually narrower, which
- 3:10Speaker 4: means a cheaper house you can't finance isn't more affordable.
- 3:13Speaker 4: It's just a bargain sitting behind the bank's locked door.
- 3:15Speaker 5: Okay.
- 3:15Speaker 3: And so off the back of what you're saying there,
- 3:18Speaker 3: are we measuring affordability wrongly by focusing so heavily on
- 3:23Speaker 3: the actual prices?
- 3:24Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.
- 3:25Speaker 4: Yeah, I think we are, guys. I think we're caught
- 3:27Speaker 4: in sticker price syndrome where we're pricing the front door
- 3:30Speaker 4: but ignoring the financial furniture behind us. And according to
- 3:33Speaker 4: a recent housing affordability report, a typical $ 125, 000 household income
- 3:38Speaker 4: can only afford about 12% of current homes, which is
- 3:40Speaker 4: down from 43% five years ago or a 75% decrease.
- 3:44Speaker 4: So if you're only looking at the sticker price, you're
- 3:47Speaker 4: not buying what I call a mortgage mullet. So short
- 3:51Speaker 4: and cheap at the front but ugly and painfully expensive
- 3:53Speaker 4: at the back. And that isn't a property ladder. That's
- 3:58Speaker 4: a fire escape with most of the rungs missing and
- 4:00Speaker 4: a queue at the bottom, guys.
- 4:01Speaker 1: We shouldn't be surprised that Mullet's been worked into.
- 4:04Speaker 2: Bushy's chat, have we? It's only been a matter of time,
- 4:07Speaker 2: I suppose.
- 4:09Speaker 1: Now, look, Bushy, does all of this create.
- 4:12Speaker 2: An opportunity of sorts or is it another locked door?
- 4:15Speaker 4: Well, both, actually. You know, for the unprepared, it's a
- 4:19Speaker 4: bit of a locked door, but for the finance ready,
- 4:21Speaker 4: it's actually a rare open window. And our totalities revealed
- 4:24Speaker 4: that days have fallen across 93% of capital city suburbs
- 4:29Speaker 4: through the winter, which sounds scarier than a bank day
- 4:31Speaker 4: with a tape measure and no sense of humour. But
- 4:34Speaker 4: more stock and motivated vendors mean more choice, less auction
- 4:37Speaker 4: elbows and more negotiating room. And in our past hot market,
- 4:41Speaker 4: FOMO paid the seller, but in our softer market now,
- 4:44Speaker 4: homework pays the buyer, which means bringing a pre-approval, a
- 4:48Speaker 4: buffer and patience to scarce livable property with resilient demand
- 4:52Speaker 4: is an opportunity. So we don't need to nail the bottom,
- 4:55Speaker 4: just be ready while others are freezing, but the bargain
- 4:58Speaker 4: bin still contains broken toasties, guys, and some of them
- 5:01Speaker 4: are balconies. So use softer prices to buy better, not
- 5:04Speaker 4: simply cheaper, because if the deal needs smoke mirrors and
- 5:07Speaker 4: a disappearing deposit, that is isn't property magic, that's your
- 5:11Speaker 4: deposit doing Houdini. And unlike Harry, it doesn't come back
- 5:15Speaker 4: to the applause.
- 5:16Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, gotcha, gotcha. All right, Bushy, well, that's been
- 5:18Speaker 2: super interesting and we love... As always. Yeah, as always.
- 5:22Speaker 1: You can make any topic super interesting and entertaining. Thank
- 5:25Speaker 1: you so much.
- 5:26Speaker 2: For your time and, yeah, have a great weekend.
- 5:29Speaker 4: My pleasure, guys.
- 5:30Speaker 6: Cheers.
- 5:30Speaker 4: Keep doing the great work.
- 5:32Speaker 2: Thank you. Bushy Martin from KnowHow Property Finance there. Well, Cam, there.
- 5:36Speaker 1: May be some sore heads around Canberra this morning.
- 5:40Speaker 3: Yes, and that song wouldn't have been very good for that,
- 5:42Speaker 3: would it?
- 5:42Speaker 2: No, too loud. You need your sunnies on, headphones.
- 5:45Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.
- 5:45Speaker 1: Crawl into a dark hole. No, it was an epic
- 5:48Speaker 1: night of celebration last night. you know, so it should
- 5:51Speaker 1: be because the Master Builders and Asset Construction High Excellence
- 5:54Speaker 1: Awards were on. Lots of winners, lots to celebrate, lots
- 5:58Speaker 1: to recognise and an epic night overall. And Anna Nilagama
- 6:03Speaker 1: is CEO of Master Builders ACT, joins us now.
- 6:05Speaker 2: Anna, good morning.
- 6:07Speaker 5: Good morning, guys.
- 6:07Speaker 6: Great to be here.
- 6:08Speaker 2: How'd you pull up this morning?
- 6:10Speaker 4: She sounds pretty good.
- 6:11Speaker 2: She sounds brightly.
- 6:12Speaker 6: I'm the boss, so I always aspire to be absolutely fine,
- 6:16Speaker 6: but I think some other people will be a bit
- 6:19Speaker 6: worse for wear.
- 6:20Speaker 1: Yep, yep.
- 6:20Speaker 2: No, totally, totally.
- 6:22Speaker 1: And tell us about the event last night and why
- 6:24Speaker 1: the awards are important.
- 6:27Speaker 6: So many reasons. First and foremost, it's a great industry get-together,
- 6:32Speaker 6: but the primary reason really is.
- 6:36Speaker 4: The awarding of awards.
- 6:37Speaker 6: For excellence for technical quality and trade craftsmanship in ACT
- 6:43Speaker 6: building and construction. We've got just shy of 60 awards.
- 6:47Speaker 6: And last night was our biggest event yet in terms
- 6:50Speaker 6: of number of entries. We had over 250 entries. And
- 6:55Speaker 6: the award itself is actually Canberra's largest black tie event.
- 6:58Speaker 6: So it's quite something to behold.
- 7:00Speaker 2: Yeah, I bet. And tell us, I mean, obviously we
- 7:02Speaker 2: can't go through 60 or.
- 7:03Speaker 1: Whatever you just said just then, but tell us about
- 7:06Speaker 1: some of the major winners.
- 7:07Speaker 6: Two of our biggest categories. Our house of the year,
- 7:12Speaker 6: which was taken home by Gen 5 Constructions and Habitat Constructions.
- 7:18Speaker 6: And they won the Cutterm and Project Home of 2026.
- 7:23Speaker 6: And it's just an extraordinary house. It's a certified Passive
- 7:27Speaker 6: House Plus residence in Turner. And the judges actually said
- 7:32Speaker 6: they believe it's one of Australia's most technically ambitious homes.
- 7:35Speaker 4: Oh, wow.
- 7:36Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.
- 7:37Speaker 4: Okay.
- 7:37Speaker 1: And is there one or two other of the sort
- 7:39Speaker 1: of the key winners you want to give a mention to?
- 7:43Speaker 6: Project of the year, of course, the Australian War Memorial,
- 7:46Speaker 6: the Anzac Hole and Atrium Extension completed by Lendlease. It's
- 7:51Speaker 6: an absolutely fabulous space and I know so many Canberrans
- 7:54Speaker 6: have been enjoying it.
- 7:56Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 7:56Speaker 2: Even Cam, you were saying to me this morning.
- 7:58Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 7:59Speaker 3: So a couple of weeks ago, Elliot Wood's marketing and
- 8:01Speaker 3: comms manager there took me around for sort of a
- 8:03Speaker 3: bit of a personal tour, which was incredible. And on Tuesday,
- 8:07Speaker 3: I hosted the ACT Export Awards there at the new Theatreette.
- 8:11Speaker 3: And I was on stage and I was speaking about
- 8:14Speaker 3: the fact that you could come into this place and
- 8:16Speaker 3: you could spend hours just in each of the installations
- 8:19Speaker 3: that they have. And there are so many stories, so
- 8:21Speaker 3: much sacrifice. It's such a moving experience. And They have
- 8:25Speaker 3: done an outstanding job of bringing it together. So I'm
- 8:30Speaker 3: really happy that it's won the award.
- 8:31Speaker 5: There, Anna.
- 8:32Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
- 8:33Speaker 1: And, Anna, overall, what would you say was a standout
- 8:35Speaker 1: moment for you last night?
- 8:38Speaker 6: I think the standout moment is always just seeing builders, subcontractors, suppliers,
- 8:43Speaker 6: civil contractors being recognised by their peers and seeing a
- 8:47Speaker 6: lot of ambition and hard work being recognised by the industry.
- 8:53Speaker 6: Nothing beats it. It's great to get feedback from your client,
- 8:57Speaker 6: but getting feedback from your peers and such a Such
- 9:01Speaker 6: a hard-marking judging panel really means a lot, especially in
- 9:05Speaker 6: this economy and with all the challenges within building and construction.
- 9:10Speaker 1: And all the fantastic work is one thing, but it
- 9:12Speaker 1: must be pretty special for a bunch of them just
- 9:14Speaker 1: to be able to suit up and frock up when
- 9:15Speaker 1: on a typical day they're just getting around in their
- 9:17Speaker 1: tradie gear.
- 9:19Speaker 6: It's completely amazing. Some people are hard to recognize. Everyone
- 9:23Speaker 6: looks fabulous. And it's just like a wall of people
- 9:27Speaker 6: just having a great time and celebrating the industry.
- 9:30Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 9:31Speaker 3: Hey, speaking of hosting awards, last week I did the
- 9:34Speaker 3: ACT Training Awards. And Anna, the ACT Master Builders, you
- 9:39Speaker 3: walked away with a couple, didn't you? So congratulations.
- 9:43Speaker 4: Oh, thank you.
- 9:44Speaker 6: There's nothing like the team winning an award. We took
- 9:48Speaker 6: out small training provider of the year in the ACT
- 9:52Speaker 6: with our MBA training. And then one of our Certificate
- 9:55Speaker 6: III Carpentry apprentices, Emmy Lee, was actually awarded the honour
- 9:59Speaker 6: of ACT Apprentice of the Year. It was totally unreal
- 10:02Speaker 6: and it was great to get the award from UCAN.
- 10:05Speaker 5: Yeah, it was a good night.
- 10:05Speaker 2: Yeah, so good.
- 10:06Speaker 1: I think we had Emmy on the news as well
- 10:09Speaker 1: when that happened, which is fantastic. Anna, that's excellent. I'm
- 10:12Speaker 1: glad you guys had a great time. Many, you know,
- 10:15Speaker 1: well-deserving winners and all of that. So thank you for
- 10:17Speaker 1: sharing that with us this morning.
- 10:18Speaker 3: And well done for getting through the interview as well.
- 10:20Speaker 2: It sounds like there's a.
- 10:21Speaker 6: Bit of time.
- 10:21Speaker 2: Oh, yes, a bit doing where you are.
- 10:23Speaker 6: I do apologise. It's time for a cup of coffee.
- 10:27Speaker 2: Don't apologise. Story of my life, Anna.
- 10:29Speaker 1: Trying to have a conversation with small people is just
- 10:31Speaker 1: one of the hardest things to do in life.
- 10:33Speaker 2: So thank you for taking the time. All right. Have
- 10:37Speaker 2: a good weekend.
- 10:38Speaker 1: Anna Nilagama, CEO of Master Builders ACT. They can go online,
- 10:42Speaker 1: check out the full list of winners. All right, Ken,
- 10:44Speaker 1: we've had another Cotality report, the Cotality Home Value Index
- 10:48Speaker 1: come out. And when that does, we like to always
- 10:50Speaker 1: put a local lens on it and find out what
- 10:51Speaker 1: that means for us here in Canberra. And Sam McGregor
- 10:55Speaker 1: is the Principal at Windrose Property. Joining us now, Sam,
- 10:58Speaker 1: good morning.
- 10:59Speaker 4: Renee, good morning.
- 10:59Speaker 5: How are you?
- 11:00Speaker 4: Good.
- 11:01Speaker 1: Now, look, can you give us an overview of what
- 11:02Speaker 1: this shows for Canberra this time around?
- 11:05Speaker 4: I would absolutely love to do that.
- 11:06Speaker 5: Look, it's an interesting report looking back over August. We
- 11:12Speaker 5: saw a dip in the average Canberra dwelling price of 1.1%
- 11:16Speaker 5: last month, which is pretty significant. And importantly, I think
- 11:20Speaker 5: it showed that values dipped across all the capital cities
- 11:23Speaker 5: across the country, with the exception of Darwin. But Darwin's
- 11:26Speaker 5: always a bit of an outlier.
- 11:28Speaker 4: Yeah, so I suppose the numbers are down.
- 11:31Speaker 5: It's probably the summary. The numbers are down all across
- 11:32Speaker 5: the country, but 1.1% in Canberra is a big drop.
- 11:35Speaker 3: So many people with so many different points of view,
- 11:37Speaker 3: some opposing, some in line, some out there ones as well.
- 11:42Speaker 3: You're saying with the spring selling season, so we're sort
- 11:45Speaker 3: of in there now, shaping up to be a real
- 11:48Speaker 3: opportunity for buyers. And so that's offering more negotiating power
- 11:51Speaker 3: than they've seen for some years. But you're saying if
- 11:55Speaker 3: they have the confidence to use it.
- 11:57Speaker 2: Which is key.
- 11:58Speaker 3: So do you think that they will have the confidence
- 12:00Speaker 3: to use that newly found buying power?
- 12:02Speaker 5: I'll answer that very honestly. And I think that a
- 12:05Speaker 5: lot of buyers just won't. But in saying that, I
- 12:08Speaker 5: think that the buyers that can scrape it together and
- 12:11Speaker 5: pull the trigger on something will be very happy that
- 12:13Speaker 5: they did two or three months from now. I think
- 12:16Speaker 5: it's really simple. Everyone likes when there's a big red 20%
- 12:18Speaker 5: or 30% off sticker when they walk past a store,
- 12:21Speaker 5: but we don't put them on our for sale signs. So,
- 12:24Speaker 5: astute buyers will know when there's a deal out there
- 12:27Speaker 5: to be snapped up, but also, more importantly.
- 12:31Speaker 5: I'll grab the point you said about negotiating. Look, I
- 12:33Speaker 5: think that if you're putting your house on the market
- 12:35Speaker 5: through spring, you're of the understanding that the market's not
- 12:38Speaker 5: the strongest that it's been. It's definitely not in the toilet, though.
- 12:41Speaker 5: So I think that the buyers in particular that.
- 12:44Speaker 4: Will do well over spring are the ones that... See
- 12:47Speaker 4: a property that they like, see that it's priced well,
- 12:50Speaker 4: and then just go and buy it.
- 12:52Speaker 5: Playing the game of trying to squeeze another 10% discount
- 12:55Speaker 5: probably just not going to work out for people.
- 12:57Speaker 4: And then the longer that they wait, I think, like
- 13:00Speaker 4: I said, probably.
- 13:00Speaker 5: By the end of this year, people are going to
- 13:02Speaker 5: be looking back going, geez, that wasn't good buy.
- 13:03Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 13:04Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it. That's it. Hey, but it's hard for
- 13:07Speaker 2: people to kind of think of it from that perspective.
- 13:09Speaker 5: And so Sam, when you're.
- 13:09Speaker 3: Having those conversations, are people listening to you? Like you're
- 13:12Speaker 3: on the ground, you're speaking to all sorts of different
- 13:14Speaker 3: people and that's what you're saying. Are they going, oh yeah,
- 13:16Speaker 3: come on.
- 13:17Speaker 2: Are they listening? Are they applying what you're saying?
- 13:19Speaker 4: Yes.
- 13:20Speaker 5: It's look the funniest thing to say is no they
- 13:22Speaker 5: don't um and i remember the last time we sort
- 13:25Speaker 5: of had a dip like this and i think it
- 13:27Speaker 5: was probably november 24 actually and i was having these
- 13:30Speaker 5: conversations with people at open homes and saying look this
- 13:32Speaker 5: is a great buying window and the insight that i
- 13:35Speaker 5: would pass on to people that are out there listening
- 13:37Speaker 5: is that when people are laughing at agents that are
- 13:40Speaker 5: saying that that's probably a good indicator that it actually
- 13:42Speaker 5: is um And when I say that, I would say
- 13:45Speaker 5: to people, it's a great time to buy because nobody
- 13:47Speaker 5: wants to. And they're like, I'm going to wait for
- 13:49Speaker 5: it to drop another 10%. That's usually the indicator that
- 13:52Speaker 5: where confidence is in the toilet, it's a good time
- 13:54Speaker 5: to buy. And I think that we're about there, to
- 13:56Speaker 5: be very honest.
- 13:57Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.
- 13:58Speaker 1: And is that kind of the number one thing you're
- 14:00Speaker 1: hearing on the street at the moment or is it
- 14:02Speaker 1: something else?
- 14:03Speaker 4: No, the number one.
- 14:04Speaker 5: Thing that I'm hearing actually, I think, is that the market–
- 14:08Speaker 5: is probably underpriced. It's probably worth grabbing that number. I've
- 14:12Speaker 5: made a big deal out of 1.1% drop in a month.
- 14:14Speaker 5: That is a big drop for one month, but it's
- 14:16Speaker 5: only $ 11, 000 on a million dollar property.
- 14:19Speaker 4: It's not huge in the scheme of things.
- 14:21Speaker 5: What people are talking about at the moment is that
- 14:25Speaker 5: there is a bit of a discount sticker if you're
- 14:26Speaker 5: looking to sell in spring, but most importantly, there's going
- 14:29Speaker 5: to be a lot of quality homes. People talk about
- 14:31Speaker 5: the market like it's this all-encompassing thing, and in a
- 14:34Speaker 5: way it is. But when I want to buy a house,
- 14:36Speaker 5: I just want to buy the one that works for
- 14:37Speaker 5: me and my family.
- 14:38Speaker 4: That's the way we look at it.
- 14:40Speaker 5: And so you see the one that is going to
- 14:42Speaker 5: work for you, you probably want to grab it and,
- 14:44Speaker 5: like I said, look back in three or six months
- 14:47Speaker 5: and you'll.
- 14:47Speaker 2: Be very happy that you did. Yep, yep, 100%. Well, Sam,
- 14:50Speaker 2: always great to chat to you.
- 14:51Speaker 1: I know you're a busy, busy man, so thanks for
- 14:53Speaker 1: taking the time as always and have a great weekend.
- 14:55Speaker 5: Thanks, Renee.
- 14:56Speaker 4: Thanks, Cam.
- 14:57Speaker 6: You too.
- 14:57Speaker 4: Have a great weekend. Cheers.
- 14:58Speaker 1: Thanks.
- 14:59Speaker 2: Sam McGregor, who's the Principal at Winrose Property.
- 15:02Speaker 3: Well, those are the interviews we most enjoyed in last
- 15:04Speaker 3: week's Mix 106.3 Real Estate Show. If you love hearing
- 15:08Speaker 3: about the latest trends or you're just up for a
- 15:10Speaker 3: sticky beak, be sure to drop by for a listen
- 15:13Speaker 3: this Saturday between 9 and 10.
- 15:15Speaker 2: Cam and Renee's Real Estate Show on Mix 106.3.