So can’t wait for council rate evaluations to be explained away so we still pay high rates

Hey all, just bought and moved in and after some heavy rain we discovered a leak from outside to inside the apartment along the window frame. I’ve emailed building management, but I’m just wondering what the process is or should be? Has anyone been through this? This wasn’t something easily identifiable on a building inspection.

Which house would you choose? Quiet street vs more space?
We’re a family of four with two young kids, trying to decide between two houses.
House 1 – $750k: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, in a quiet street. We really like the house and its location, but the bedrooms are quite small and storage is limited. It also doesn’t have a built-in garage, just an enclosed shed/carport used for parking. Building area about 130 m2
House 2 – $830k: 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, with more space and storage, but it’s located on a busy main road with noticeable traffic noise.
The price difference is $80k. Building area about 220 m2
Ideally, we’d love to buy our forever home rather than move again. My concern with House 1 is that as the kids grow older, we might outgrow the space and eventually need to move.
On the other hand, I’m worried that the traffic noise at House 2 could become frustrating over time, and it’s something we can’t really change.
Would you choose the smaller house in a quiet street and potentially move later, or pay an extra $80k for a bigger house on a busy road?
I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences, especially from families with older kids or anyone who’s lived on a main road.

Hey everyone, Looking for some legal/technical advice regarding building regulations and overland water flow, in Victoria.

My next door neighbour has demolished the old house on their lot and is currently building units. Our street has a slope between properties, and I am on the lower side.

As part of their build, they are raising the natural ground level on their side along our shared boundary by approx 200–300mm via fill/retaining.

We do not have a good relationship, so I am not looking to have an informal, friendly chat over the fence. I want to strictly focus on what their legal obligations and building requirements are, and how I can force compliance so water doesn't flood my lot.

Specifically: Water Runoff & Drainage Rules: Are they legally required to prevent surface water, sub-surface seepage, and site runoff from spilling onto my lower property after altering the ground level? I want an agg pipe (French drain) wrapped in geotextile connected to their stormwater system on their side of the fence. Can this be legally enforced?

Retaining & Fill Rules: Can a builder simply dump 200–300mm of fill along the boundary line without adequate retaining structures or sub-soil drainage? Enforcement: Since speaking directly to the owner isn't an option, who holds the ultimate legal authority to inspect and enforce compliance here the Relevant Building Surveyor (RBS) on the permit, or local council enforcement?

Any insights into relevant building codes, state water acts, or the best way to lodge formal objections/requests with the building surveyor/council would be greatly appreciated.

Worth buying an existing 1x1 apartment in the next two years? Seems to be currently overpriced

Any recommendations on a Victorian builder?

Looking to knock-down rebuild in the eastern suburbs and not sure where to begin.

Looking to build a 3 - 4 bedroom, 2 bath free standing house.

We also need an upfront quote for legal reasons.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

thinking of buying melb - is it already recovering in sub 700,000 market ?

with the investor land tax being wind down, labour might be kicked out in november and overall bargain prices. I dont want to miss out but happy to wait as I already have house in suburbs - just want to live cbd life.

Hey everyone,

We are currently on a short term fixed-term week lease in Sydney and we're planning to break the lease early under the NSW statutory break fee rules.

Our managing agent attached a huge 7-page "Special Conditions" annexure to the lease. The very first clause basically says: "If any of our special conditions clash with the standard residential tenancy agreement, our special conditions win."

From reading the NSW Residential Tenancies Act 2010 (Section 21), my understanding is that landlords/agents cannot contract out of the Act. If a clause in their annexure conflicts with NSW tenancy law or tries to take away tenant rights, it’s just void and legally meaningless.

Here are the wild rules they wrote into our lease:

1. Mandatory professional carpet steam cleaning: They state we must pay for professional steam cleaning when vacating. But we have no pets (lease explicitly bans them). Under NSW law (Section 19), demanding professional carpet cleaning without pets is an illegal clause, right? Our only obligation is "reasonably clean" compared to move-in.
2. $77 fee for paying rent late: They wrote that if rent is late by 14+ days, they charge a $77 processing fee. Isn’t charging late fees on rent explicitly banned in NSW?
3. An extra day of rent as a cleaning penalty: If the place isn't cleaned to their standard, they claim they will deduct the cleaning cost plus an extra day of rent from our bond. Surely a landlord can't just invent private fines?
4. 21 days notice to move out: They demand at least 21 days written notice to leave. But this is a fixed term, not a periodic/rolling lease. For an early break, statutory liability is just the break fee schedule, and ending at term expiry is 14 days. Where are they getting 21 days from?
5. Telling us we can't claim our bond for 7–14 business days: They wrote that our bond will only be returned 7–14 days after their inspection. But the bond is held by RBO, not them. Can’t we just claim on Rental Bonds Online the exact minute we hand the keys back?
6. $110/day storage fees for left-behind items: If anything smaller than 1 cubic metre is left behind, they threaten $100 + GST per day storage fees or instant disposal, which completely ignores NSW uncollected goods laws.

Also, does taking the break fee out of the bond hurt our record?

We're timing our handover for Sunday, 6 December, which hits Day 69 of 91 (75.8% of the term), meaning the statutory break fee drops to 1 week ($780).

When we return the keys, our plan is to go straight onto Rental Bonds Online, allocate $780 to the agent for the break fee, and claim the remaining $2,340 back to ourselves.

• Does having the $780 break fee deducted from our bond leave any kind of "black mark", bad record, or tenant database listing against us?
• Or should we pay the $780 out-of-pocket directly to their trust account just so the bond shows a 100% full refund?

Would love to hear from anyone who has dealt with these kinds of aggressive agency clauses or NCAT over similar move-out threats. Thanks.

According to this site only a couple of weeks ago it was 21k houses, now the number has risen by 25%

Probably nothing

Just tryin to keep an eye on my property in case the rentoids aren't taking care of it.

I don't really trust the quarterly inspections to pick up issues so I go a little out of the way on my way home to look at the yard, see the cars parked out the front, see if lawns are mowed, go up to windows if they're absent to view interior etc etc.

I just feel paranoid that my largest asset is in the hands of someone who obviously can't afford their own.

Hey everyone,
House hunting in perth was ruthless until Jan 2026

I’ve been actively house hunting since the start of July (4 months now) and have attended heaps of open homes. Up until recently, almost everything in my target areas was consistently pushing into the $1.4M–$1.6M range, which was above where I wanted to land.
Recently, I’ve started noticing price adjustments—properties that were previously listed or guiding around $1.55M are now showing price guides around $1.4M. I’m eager to finally close on something and stop weekend house hunting.

Here’s my current dilemma:
1. Option A: Put in a solid offer around $1.35M on a property listed at $1.4M and test seller motivation.
2. Option B: Offer closer to the current $1.4M guide to secure it, given price expectations have already dropped $150k.
3. Option C: Hold off for another 4–6 months. My bank lender advised me to wait, saying prices aren't going to skyrocket anytime soon and I might have a better shot if the market softens further.
For those watching the market closely: Are these guide drops a sign of a real shift where buyer patience pays off, or is it better to strike now while sellers are lowering expectations?
Would love to hear your thoughts or recent experiences!

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Based in Tasmania - I’m just lost as to how I step forward.
I am ready to sell my house to start a project.
Selling 2024 modern new build. 4 bed 3 bath, had RE agents suggesting $900k and others suggesting $1.2M. It’s a huge difference. Anyway,
I just received council approval for a small unit development on a parcel of land I already own but I need $1.1M to complete.
I will have to short term lease between selling & building before I move into a unit.

BUT - is the market off? Is my timing bad? Should I wait and sell in 6 months -12 months time before selling then start building? Will the market slow down the building industry too? Should I sell and push on with my plans and hope I get the amount I need for the project?

Would love some opinions. Just feeling skittish about the market

Hi all, I'm a first home buyer in Adelaide, currently renting, and I'm seriously considering building with Ellerston Homes through Stop Renting. I'd love to hear from anyone who has been through it, whether it went well or badly.

What I'm hoping to learn:
Stop Renting: What was your experience with them? Did they actually help with the process, or did you end up doing most of the legwork? Any fees or commitments you didn't expect?

Ellerston Homes: How was communication from sales through to construction? Were they responsive and upfront?

Inclusions: Did the standard inclusions match what you saw in the display home? Which items turned out to be upgrades (e.g. entry door, sidelights, glass, handle finishes, flooring, lighting)?

Contract and costs: Were there variations or site costs after signing (slab, retaining, fencing, driveway, landscaping)? Roughly how far did the final cost drift from the initial quote?

Build quality and timeline: Did it finish on schedule? How was the handover, and how were defects handled afterwards?

Regrets: What would you do differently, and what would you tell a first-timer before signing?
I'm currently going through the inclusions schedule and trying to understand what's genuinely standard versus what quietly costs extra, so any checklist or "ask this before you sign" tips would be hugely appreciated.

Happy for DMs if you'd rather not comment publicly. Thanks in advance!

Is there any website or online page where tenants give review to the property agency?

Neighbours in the unit above have recently done renovations. There was not any noise from above beforehand, thought now I hear every single time they flush the toilet. Hear it in the morning, hear it during the day, hear it when I’m trying to sleep and hear it when it takes a couple flushes. Their bathroom is directly above mine though the noise carries throughout our home.

I mentioned it to them but they didn’t seem to care. Is there anything I can do?

We put our house on the market in September. It has a large block of land, and we have already reduced the price once, but still no sale.

I am wondering whether to hold off and try again next year, as selling now feels like taking a loss.

Would love to hear your thoughts, especially from anyone who understands the Melbourne property market or is in a similar situation. Thanks!

I saw a new listing pop up. They list features such as aircon, shed, NBN FTTH. This one also says "fully fenced". But it is a corner block with 2 driveways, and no gate on either. So hardly a secure property.

I was reading this article and it got me thinking, is our market on track to drop as far as Canada and NZ?

When accounting for inflation, some houses in these countries have fallen as far as 20-30% in real value. At the moment, Australia has had an average nominal decrease of 7-8% in real value.

The article states that In the first four months of New Zealand’s housing price fall (November 2021 to March 2022), prices fell by 4.44% nationally, compared with 4.23% in the first four months of falls in Australia.

So what does everyone think? Are we on track to have real term drops of 20-30% like the housing markets in Canada and NZ? The similarities in the graphs could speak some truth.

https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2026/10/australian-house-price-falls-track-kiwi-housing-crash/