Latest news with #DannyWallis
Herald Sun
17-05-2025
- Business
- Herald Sun
Melbourne families flood Frankston and Sunshine as Melbourne's sub-$1m homes rapidly disappear
Melbourne homes under $1m could be set for a mini-boom, with new data showing families are rushing to secure properties before competition explodes. Just 856 homes are set to go under the hammer this week, including fewer than 300 priced under $1m, but auction volumes will surge to 1270 next week and more than 1400 the week after — a 29 per cent rise on this time last year. PropTrack figures show Melbourne listings fell 13 per cent in April, driven by school holidays, long weekends and the federal election. RELATED: Inner Melbourne pad's five-car garage revs up buyers The Block regular Danny Wallis reveals Vic landlord fears Inside Chrissie Swan's stylish $2.86m Melbourne pad But the pullback has left fewer homes on offer, especially in the family-friendly, sub-$1m price range. PropTrack senior economist Anne Flaherty said buyers chasing affordable homes were being squeezed into a shrinking pool. 'Demand is rising under $1m, but the number of suitable properties is falling,' Ms Flaherty said. 'And if we get a rate cut next week, that's only going to supercharge the competition.' She said family-sized homes — especially those with three or more bedrooms — were vanishing quickly. 'There's now a much higher concentration of buyers in that price bracket,' she said. Prominent buyers' advocate Cate Bakos said families were flooding into Frankston, Thomastown and Sunshine, chasing land, lifestyle and school zones. 'Places like Frankston won't stay under $1m for long,' Ms Bakos said. 'They're the last affordable pockets close to infrastructure, lifestyle and schools. And we're already seeing investor activity pick up again.' MR Advocacy director Madeleine Roberts said Frankston homes had jumped more than $200,000 since November, and demand was rising fast. 'You're seeing buyers who were looking in Cheltenham or Bentleigh now chasing homes in Frankston — because that's where the space is,' she said. 'But there's not enough homes for all of them. 'We're seeing 10, 15, even 20 families chasing the same property if it's well-priced and well located.' She said many families were shocked by how strict school zones had become. 'They assume they'll have more flexibility, but if a school's in demand, you need to be in-zone — there's no way around it.' Ms Flaherty said signs of a new wave of buyer urgency were already emerging. 'There's a definite sense of FOMO building,' she said. 'Melbourne's typical house price is now below Brisbane's, and only slightly above Perth's. 'Investors are taking notice — including those from interstate.' She also flagged the outer northeast as an area to watch. 'There are still a number of suburbs there with house prices under $1m, great road and train links — and once the North East Link opens, connectivity will only improve.' Suburbs with the most auctions this week include Craigieburn, with 16, Glen Waverley, 15, and Reservoir, 14. Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox. MORE: PropTrack: See what your suburb will be worth in 2030 Banks in rate cut war to woo borrowers ahead of RBA meeting Melbourne housing affordability crisis prices families out of their own suburbs
News.com.au
15-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
The Block serial buyer Danny Wallis, REIV reveal landlord fears for Vic budget, what it would take to win them back
Victoria's top real estate industry group has revealed they fear landlords will be hit again in the state's 2025-2026 budget next week. It comes as The Block serial buyer and prolific property investor Danny Wallis has revealed the state government has broken the trust of landlords and can no longer hope to stop an exodus that has wiped more than 20,000 rental properties from the state. Last weekend Mr Wallis sold his fourth investment property since the Allan government announced a land tax increase for the start of 2024, and expects he will have divested six properties from his portfolio by the end of this year. The 6 Gray Lane, Albert Park, property fetched $2.15m at auction. He still retains about 10 homes bought from hit reality renovation show The Block as part of his expansive investment property list, which also includes homes that have been made available to house families getting treatment for kids with cancer via the My Room Children's Cancer Charity. But the tech entrepreneur said the only homes he would buy in the state today were now the high-end listings from The Block, and only then because they come with tax benefits that outweigh the levies implemented by the state government. He is now selling whenever tenants leave his investments, and in most cases not to other investors — meaning they are being lost from the rental market. In the September quarter of 2023 Homes Victoria reports show there were 671,109 active residential tenancy bonds across the state. The latest data in December last year showed just 649,978, reflecting a 21,131 decline from the peak of available rental homes in the state. Earlier iterations of the report reflected a 677,492 peak in September 2023, but have been revised. The exodus has widely been blamed on land tax tweaks implemented by the Allan government at the start of 2024. 'I don't think they can do anything to stop it, the trust is broken,' Mr Wallis said. 'I'm expecting the state budget will be hitting landlords again, this government seems to hate landlords.' Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Kelly Ryan said she too held concerns. 'We do have concerns around the investment side,' Ms Ryan said. 'The new treasurer, in one of her first media engagements, said landlords are rich and can afford the land tax. 'If that flows through this budget, that would be a concern as we know the majority of investors are school teachers, and nurses and tradespeople.' She added that one of the best things the next budget could do for rebuilding investor's confidence in Victoria, and to help build a larger supply of rental homes, was to leave landlords alone. 'No announcement is an announcement when it comes to the investor market at the moment,' Ms Ryan said. 'If they can slow down the pace of change, that's a big thing for the market. Give them a chance to catch their breath and get their heads around things.' Noting more than 150 reforms made since just before the pandemic, many of them requiring expensive upgrades to homes, she said ongoing budget and policy tweaks targeting landlords had resulted in many being forced to sell. Ms Ryan added the most important step the government could take would be to use land tax as an incentive scheme to encourage longer-term availability of rental properties by providing discounts to investors who keep homes available for tenants for extended periods. While that would 'make things better than they are', Ms Ryan said it wasn't clear if it would be enough to stop the tide of investors selling up. Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia Victorian representative Matthew Scafidi said the government could win some investors back by relaxing tax burdens on those who only held one home – while raising the cost for those who own large numbers. 'If you have one, you shouldn't pay as much land tax, and if you own 10, you would pay more — as that person is running that as a business,' Mr Scafidi said. 'And the mum and dad who have bought an investment property … they can't afford it.' The Abode Advocacy Group founder said with instances of land tax going from $5000 a year to $30,000 for some investors, forced sales had been inevitable. Mr Scafidi said interstate buyers were now eyeing Melbourne as an alternative to Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, where prices had comparatively surged during the past two years. Mr Wallis said the interstate investors were probably tenants' best hope for more rental choice in the future, but warned they too could be scared off if the government pursued investors again in next week's budget. 'They are thinking it's easy money, but they're not coming at the same rate as others are leaving,' Mr Wallis said. 'And they don't realise what they are going to get hit with.'
News.com.au
10-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Bushranger Ned Kelly, The Block's Danny Wallis in Melbourne auction action
Victoria is on its way to a post-election auction bump, with a second-chance auction for a piece of Ned Kelly history and serial The Block buyer Danny Wallis among the sales action. PropTrack Data shows the state's clearance rate today came in at 69 per cent, from 629 recorded results. Danny Wallis sold his 6 Gray Lane, Albert Park, property for $2.15m, decently above the $1.8m-$1.95m he had been seeking when Whitefox's Peter Servas sent it under the hammer — and a solid uptick from the $1.8m he paid in 2020. Records show Mr Wallis owned the three-bedroom property through his firm DSAH Holdings. It is the latest in a series of homes he has sold off in response to state government changes to rules around investment properties and landlord requirements in Victoria — including 38A Grey St, St Kilda, which he bought off the hit Channel 9 renovation reality show in 2019. It became the first home the entrepreneur and businessman sold in response to the government's changes including increased land tax to recoup Covid-era losses. Meanwhile, a Benalla property known as the Bootmaker's Shop, which bushranger Ned Kelly fled to before a violent struggle after escaping from the courthouse over the street in 1877. It was sold under the hammer for $360,000 after it tested the market for the second time this year. The shop at 64A Arundel St had initially gone under the hammer on April 11, but only attracted one bidder and passed in at $250,000. A second attempt by Ray White to sell it a month and a federal election later ended with the $360,000 sale of the property to a buyer who indicated they were part of Ned Kelly's lineage. Kelly was 16 when he took refuge in the shop, which today has a plaque installed in it to commemorate the bushranger's visit during which he threatened to shoot constable Thomas Longin after the cop grabbed the criminal's genitalia. Kelly later killed the constable in a gunfight known as the Stringybark Incident. Ray White's Shayne McKean handled the listing, while Jeremy Tyrrell called the online auction which attracted three bidders and a result that was 'off and running at a price that no one was expecting'. While the original auction might have fallen victim to the typical election 'handbrake' on the market, as well as school and public hollidays, the prospect of an interest-rate cut within the fortnight had Mr Tyrrell convinced strong underlying demand from buyers will quickly boost the auction market. 'I think it will only accelerate from here,' he said. Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Jacob Caine backed the call, indicating that after recent weaker clearance rates today's 69 per cent figutre showed 'it's back on in Melbourne'. 'And I would expected that we will start to see that clearance rate really strengthen over the weeks and months ahead,' he said.
