R-CODE OVERHAUL

 Proposed major reforms to Western Australia’s residential design codes would mean an additional 50,000 homeowners could subdivide their land and sell their backyards, or demolish and redevelop, helping to boost block values and increase density.

Land blocks of 700 square metres zoned R20 and below would be able to be subdivided, a massive decrease from the 900 square metres currently required.

he R20 density code generally applies to the most common suburban residential properties across the Perth metropolitan region, but the local government areas expected to be the most impacted by the changes include Joondalup, Stirling, Wanneroo, Canning and Cockburn.

Housing and Planning and Lands Minister John Carey announced the proposed changes at a Planning Institute of Australia WA breakfast at the Anzac Club in the CBD on Thursday morning.

The government is also looking at reducing single-home approvals from 60 to 30 days, reducing duplication to make the R-codes easier to navigate, and cutting red tape so more simple residential projects, such as renovations, patios and carports, no longer need planning approval.

The review is being guided by an expert advisory group comprising representatives from the local planning, local government, architecture and property development sectors, with further stakeholder engagement to continue.

Carey (WA Housing Minister John Carey) who predicted it would be the most significant change to R-Codes in decades, said the draft changes were anticipated to be released for public consultation later this year, with implementation expected from mid-2027.

The state government has also released a "health check" of it's plan for the Perth and Peel region hitting 3.5 million people by 2050. (probably be dead by then I won't get to see it).

Perth's annual urban infill rate has been below the 47% target, the document showed, but the most recent data revealed an increase from 34% in 2023 to 39% in 2024.

The changes that they are proposing are among the most significant reforms to the $-Codes since they were brought in three decades ago and build o previous changes to the medium density codes and our broader nation-leading planning reforms.

The proposed changes enable tens of thousands of existing properties to be subdivided that couldn't previously, providing more opportunities for housing in the existing suburbs.

These changes will make it easier for a range of simple residential projects, like single homes, extensions and patios, to get off the ground by ensuring they are not caught up in unnecessary red tape.

“This package is also about enabling more medium and high-density housing, including by changing car parking requirements and allowing greater building height in these areas.”

The Urban Development Institute of Australia WA has also welcomed the announcement, labelling it an important step toward increasing housing supply, housing choice and affordability across Perth.

Chief executive Tanya Steinbeck said there was a particular need to reduce unnecessary complexity, improve certainty and unlock additional housing opportunities within established suburbs.

“At a time when WA continues to face significant housing pressures, reforms that help deliver more homes, faster, should be welcomed,” she said.

Steinbeck said the government’s “health check” of its 3.5 million plan showed Perth remained below its long-term infill housing target, but that the proposed changes would hopefully get plans back on track.

“Reforms that support apartments, ancillary dwellings, townhouses and other medium-density housing forms will also be increasingly important as Perth continues to grow,” she said.

Property Council WA executive director Nicola Brischetto said the key to improving housing affordability and choice was to make it easier to “deliver apartments in the areas where people want to live”.

“While government can’t control every cost, it can remove barriers that make housing more expensive to build. This announcement does that,” she said.

“Perth is building fewer apartments and units today than it was in the 1980s. That’s simply not sustainable for a city suffering through a housing crisis.”

But while industry has so far been supportive of the proposed changes, the WA Greens have hit out at the reforms, labelling them as “uninspiring and lazy”.

The Greens’ planning spokesperson Brad Pettitt said that “this kind of infill results in the worst kind of density”.

“Density that is too low to create walkable transit-oriented neighbourhoods but takes up too much space to preserve tree canopy,” he said.

“What you end up with is suburbs that were once leafy becoming treeless, hot and car-dependent, making them even less livable than they are today.”

Shadow Minister for Planning and Lands Neil Thomson has said he broadly supported the proposed reforms, but questioned why it took the government so long.

“The government announced this tranche of reforms more than a year ago, yet we’re now being told the detail won’t be released until later this year and implementation isn’t expected until the middle of 2027,” he said.

“Western Australians cannot afford another year of delay while the housing crisis continues.”

The absolute incompetence of this Government never ceases to amaze me - we have a lot of money waiting to be spent and yet this damn Government has done very little to help the homeless.  I see them increasing weekly as they give away their rentals on the streets, pitching tenants where they are not allowed to. Australia wake up - we need to have small homes for these people to go. Why are they always relying on the INVESTOR to make the homes available. Well guess with all the incentives being taken away they will keep going for the commercial property.

I have to say I don't believe that the Government has ever tried.  God help us all.

MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS AND GIVE IT A REAL GO!!

SELLING MOSMAN PARK & THE WESTERN SUBURBS!!!

Just remember, people, there is no wrong or right time to buy.

PROPERTY INVESTORS

Property investors are feeling a little uneasy right now because of the up and coming Federal Budget announcement to be on May 12 with the speculation continuing to build around potential changes to:

• Capital Gains Tax
• Negative Gearing
• Broader property investment taxation

Let's be perfectly clear, nothing has been formally announced or confirmed at this stage.

But for real estate, perception often moves markets before the policy does.

With investors already under pressure and now they are considering what's going to happen in the future with all these possible changes, they are reassessing their portfolios due to:

• Rising interest rates
• Cost of living pressures
• Significant equity growth since purchasing between 2020 and 2025
• Tenancy law reforms in many states are shifting further towards protecting the tenants
• They are concerned about the future of taxation and regulations 

Investors are definitely quietly asking themselves whether property is still the right vehicle for them. (really good questions to be honest as it can vary a lot depending on what stage you are in in your life)

We cannot give financial advice but we can make you aware of what's happening, give you an equity check.

Don't leave it too late however, as your property will hit the market with lots of others that have decided to bail out on property. (Government will have no one to blame but themselves). This will mean a lot less rentals will be available, which means a rental hike in the future.

Take away investors and you are certainly going to light a fire you might not be able to put out, you can tell this Government is not pro property.

It's going to be a shemozzle for sure and the mass exodus will come. You can trust this government to make a complete f...k up of it.

So what investor are you:

• Stay the course
• Fence sit and wait for clarity
• Sell in isolation and go early

We do know we are still light on for properties but every week there are more coming on and it will have a lot to do with the investors. 

Give us a call for an equity check on your property but let's see if you should sell or not that's the $100 dollar questions isn't it. 

MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS AND GIVE IT A REAL GO!!!

SELLING MOSMAN PARK & THE WESTERN SUBURBS!!!

KEEPING IT REAL IS OUR MOTTO!!!

THE ROLE OF YOUR PROPERTY MANAGER

 Your property manager is responsible for and not limited to:

• Getting your management authority signed off on
• Arranging the advertising of the property
• Attending the home opens
• Checking the applications and references
• Preparing the lease and bond documents and lodging the bond
• Arranging for the lease sign up and explanation of the documents to the tenant
• Conducting or arranging to have a detailed Property Condition Report done before the tenancy begins
• Collecting the rent and managing the arrears (hopefully not to many arrears)
• Managing payments to water corp - on billing tenants 
• Coordinating repairs
• Performing quarterly routine inspections on your property and providing you with the inspection reports
• Issuing required notices and documentation in line with the legislation
• Managing all rent reviews, doing rental appraisal updates and lease renewals
• Finalising tenancies: re-advertising, bond inspections, reports, damage rectification
• Communicating with insurers on any claims, if authorised to do so
• Sending monthly statements and an annual EOFY summary to the owner
• Ensuring you are fully up to date with your compliance checks
• Maintaining clear communication with you and your tenants.

Alot of people think that it's easy to be a Property Manager, let me tell you I would rather stick pins in my eyes than do their job. Fortunately for us we have two incredible humans running our property management division and they are a "real" team, work together, help each other, nothing is too much trouble.

Just remember you pay peanuts you will get monkeys.  No, it doesn't matter until it does matter and many a time, I have said NO to people that have got themselves in trouble with tenants not paying their rent, they are way behind and it's court time - nope not doing it you have paid peanuts to monkeys and they were not on top of everything and I am not putting my staff into that position.

We have also over the years weeded out the properties that need a lot of work and owners didn't want to do it.

With only being able to raise the rent now once a year it certainly becomes under market value very quickly.

I really value Property Managers; good ones, they know what they are doing, they know the legislation and they are not a walk over with owners or tenants.  Worth their weight in GOLD well maybe SILVER ha ha....the price of gold is ridiculous. 

MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS AND GIVE IT A REAL GO!!

SELLING MOSMAN PARK & THE WESTERN SUBURBS!!

KEEPING IT REAL IS OUR MOTTO!! 

HOW DO YOU BUY & SELL IN CHALLENGING TIMES

It has been a crazy market over the last few months, and I have never experienced market growth like this in my 27 years in Real Estate. Most property values have doubled in value over the last 4-5 years, and our appraisals were being outdated within weeks of giving them. 

Buying has also been very challenging with so many buyers that keep missing out. The successful buyers have already secured finance and are ready to act immediately. Do not attend home opens that are way out of your budget it's just not good for your soul. Or you could contact us to sign you up and we would be acting as your buyer's agent; we have successfully done this for a lot of people this year. Why because they are so busy with their own lives, they just don't have the time to keep looking.

Selling can be difficult too, as many sellers are afraid that they won't be able to find another property to buy. Subject-to-sale offers are not the most favoured in this market, and the 48-hour clause puts a lot of pressure on the sale and often results in the purchase being lost.  Bridging loans, extended settlement periods, and rent-back options are now more common to ensure more secure transactions for the move. I am more than happy to advise on these options, share my handy tips on how to maximise the value of your property and provide you with a realistic market update.

Marketing can be the key to your success at attracting all the buyers that are in your price range, spreading the net far and wide is the fastest way to get your property known to all the buyers out there. We always put our properties on premier-plus listings on realestate.com - usually with a coming soon first. Not forgetting about Domain or REIWA either although they are not the major player, they still bring in a lot of extra buyers to our home opens. We use Openn Offers (the app) and buyers have been responded well to it as they can see others are in the system with their bid in, not necessarily do we show price, there is a lot of strategy around that, but it sure has proven it's worth in the last few years. Give us a call it might be the best call of your life when you find out how successful it's been.

The War has it changed our market? Hard to really pinpoint it at this stage as we did 8 Sales in March and the number of buyers on each property was still very strong. Probably the under supply in the market has a lot to do with it also. Time will tell of course and if the interest rates go up a few more times it will cap certain buyers price range. The market is changing so quickly it's hard to keep up. One thing is for sure DONT BE A GREEDY SELLER !!!    I dont think your time is now, still good time to sell as the prices are still fantastic but they are not reaching the stars anymore.

MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS AND GIVE IT A REAL GO!!

SELLING MOSMAN PARK & THE WESTERN SUBURBS!!

KEEPING IT REAL IS OUR MOTTO!! 

ANTI LAUNDERING WHY IS IT UP TO US?

 Australia’s new anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) rules are set to shake up the real estate industry, but the message from those on the front line is clear: don’t panic, prepare.

From 1 July, agents will be required to undertake basic AML checks on all parties to a property transaction, including verifying identities, tracking deposits, and reporting suspicious activity to the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC). This should be the Government's job not Real Estate Agents, no matter which way you put it it's putting more stress on to Agents and the extra costs to the business is totally unfair.

For many, the reforms sound complex. But one expert says the reality is far less confronting. Depends on which side of the fence you sit I suppose but it's not that easy either.

Rather than turning agents into investigators, the changes are about formalising processes that already exist in day-to-day transactions, and protecting agencies from risk. That's just to make the Government feel better.

Speaking on We Are Selling with Lee Woodward, Lucas McEntee from Riverstone Partners said compliance can be embedded directly into the existing listing-to-settlement workflow, without disrupting how agents operate. That's ridiculous as someone needs to be delegated to do all this extra work typical saying that.

Platforms like Riverstone’s AgencyAML are emerging to support that shift, allowing agents to meet compliance obligations without subscriptions or high upfront costs, starting at just $6 per check, while maintaining a clear audit trail. Why should the agent have to pay any money for a check.

“Agents are already doing much of the AML process during settlement,” McEntee said, pointing to its alignment with existing trust account processes. Thats just not true, we check license and passport for free.

“The AgencyAML solution simply digitises key parts of AUSTRAC’s AML starter kits, allowing the agencies to input the data, remaining compliant.” The inputting is time that someone has to be allocated to do.

Under the solution, every action is recorded, critical in a regulatory environment where, as McEntee warned, if it’s not documented, “it didn’t happen”. 

Beyond documentation, the platform offers training insights to help agents navigate key pressure points, including risk identification, reporting obligations, and decisions around whether transactions can proceed. Doing the Government's work for them.

So what does this mean for agents on the ground? A lot more paperwork, time and money.

Put simply, their role isn’t to investigate crime. It’s to document standard processes and flag anything suspicious, maintaining accountability without slowing deals. Exactly we shouldnt be doing this at all....

That distinction is key, according to Jeremy Moller from Norton Rose Fulbright, who said appointing a compliance officer is essential, even in smaller offices. Again someone has to be allocated yet another job add to their role.

The role ensures AML responsibilities are managed day-to-day and that any issues are properly escalated to AUSTRAC. 27 years I have not had any one dodgy.

While larger agencies may require more sophisticated systems, the combination of digital tools and human oversight is expected to make compliance manageable across the board. The poor little guy get's hit again.

McEntee stressed that while technology can automate tracking and reporting, it cannot replace experienced staff applying judgment in real time. Older experienced agents you mean.

Embedding AML/CTF processes into daily workflows, he said, reduces resistance and shifts the mindset from fear to confidence. You make it sound so easy and it's bloody not, seriously a lot more work for us to do the Government's job.

And because of this, proactive agents who employ innovative tools and implement training regimens are likely to find the reforms far less daunting than initially feared. Bigger agencies.

MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS AND GIVE IT A REAL GO!!

SELLING MOSMAN PARK & THE WESTERN SUBURBS!!

KEEPING IT REAL IS OUR MOTTO!!

STAMP DUTY SCAM BEWARE

 A bank worker has narrowly saved a home buyer from losing $100,000 in a close call after a scammer impersonated a solicitor requesting stamp duty payment.

A National Australia Bank (NAB) staff member has stopped a home buyer from losing thousands in a scam in which the customer received a fraudulent email requesting payment of stamp duty.

The home buyer, referred to as Daniel, was in the process of buying a home and was preparing to pay $100,000 when NAB flagged the transfer.

NAB digital fraud and scams analyst, Sanu Ale Magar, was reviewing the matter and called the customer, who explained what the payment was for.

Magar said stamp duty was a common part of the home-buying process, but felt something was off about the matter and decided to look into it further.

Daniel told NAB he had received payment instructions in an email from his solicitor and believed they were legitimate, given where he was up to in the settlement.

According to Magar, property settlement scams were often successful as the scammers strategically sent the emails at the right time in the process.

“People are expecting to move large sums of money, so the request doesn’t raise an immediate alarm,” she said.

After placing the transfer on hold, Magar told Daniel to independently confirm the payment details with his solicitor using a trusted phone number.

“When Daniel called back, he said the email had not come from the solicitor at all. It appeared the bank details were fraudulent and part of a sophisticated impersonation scam,” she said.

Magar said the transfer was stopped right before any money was lost, as the funds would have been very difficult to recover.

“For many people, this money represents their life savings. Taking a moment to stop and verify details can prevent enormous financial and emotional stress,” she said.

The case has sparked a fresh warning from the bank for home buyers to remain vigilant amid an increasing number of business email compromise scams during property transactions.

According to NAB, stamp duty payments were particularly high-risk, as they involved large, one-off transfers and tight settlement deadlines.

NAB’s group investigations executive, and former Australian Federal Police (AFP) member, Chris Sheehan, told customers to watch out for urgent payment requests or sudden changes to bank details, even if they appeared to come from trusted organisations.

“Most business email compromise scams succeed not because people are careless, but because the request looks routine and sounds reasonable,” he said.

“A moment of verification, a call, a message, a second check, can stop a significant financial loss,” Sheehan concluded.

The story followed data showing a concerning rise in real estate scams, as technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) lowered the barriers to entry for cyber criminals.

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the amount of money victims lost to property scams increased from $13 million in 2021 to $43.2 million in 2024.

Just goes to show that you need to confirm with anyone asking you to transfer any money over to them even if it looks real get the bank account confirmed over the phone to them. As these disgusting criminals are using AI these days as well it's very hard to tell what is real and what is not.  Just double check is my advice.

MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS AND GIVE IT A REAL GO!!

SELLING MOSMAN PARK & THE WESTERN SUBURBS!!

KEEPING IT REAL IS OUR MOTTO!! 

IS YOUR NAME ACCURATE ON YOUR CERTIFICATE OF TITLE?

 

Did you know the importance of having an accurate name on the Certificate of Title?  Often overlooked, Titles need to reflect the correct ownership when looking to sell, retain, or transfer a property. The necessary measures must be taken to ensure you have the right to deal. Settlement Agents are no stranger to sale/purchase settlements, but did you know we also do updates to Titles when a significant change has happened?  Here are some common updates that your settlement agent can complete for you:  Change of Name due to Marriage/Resumption of Maiden Name When you have changed your last name due to marriage/resumption of maiden name, your Title needs to be updated to reflect your correct surname ensuring the Title Deed for your property is correct and accurate. A process that can be completed by a Settlement Agent either at settlement or by standalone application, using your original Marriage/Divorce Certificate is simple but necessary.  Change of Name due to Error In the rare occurrence that your name is misspelt, in the incorrect order or your Christian name has not been shown, we will be able to assist and to amend this for you using a Change of Name application and Statutory Declaration.  Survivorship Applications Where parties are ‘Joint Tenants’ on the Title, the surviving joint tenant(s) must apply to be registered as the surviving proprietor(s). In this case, the surviving tenant(s) will complete the process of Survivorship Application. A process that is usually completed by a Settlement Agent using the electronic settlement program, PEXA, with only the Death Certificate of the deceased party is a quick and simple process that ordinarily takes 7 days to complete. Transmission Applications Where parties on a Certificate of Title are ‘Tenants in Common’ or under ‘Sole Ownership’, the transfer is completed using a Transmission Application. This involves the ‘Executor or Administrator of the Estate’ obtaining Probate in order to be registered as the ‘Proprietor of the Estate’ on the Title. Similar to the Survivorship Application, settlement agents are able to complete this process quickly and efficiently once Probate has been granted. Transfer to Beneficiaries Once Titles have been updated to the ‘Executor or Administrator of the Estate’s’ details, the Executor or Administrator have the authority to transfer the property into the Beneficiaries of the Will. A process which involves assessment by State Revenue can be completed in office effectively. Try not to guess what needs to be done and get the help of a licensed Settlement Agent they are the best people to help and point you in the right direction. MAKE YOUR OWN DECISION AND GIVE IT A REAL GO!! SELLING MOSMAN PARK & THE WESTERN SUBURBS!! KEEPING IT REAL IS OUR MOTTO!!