Hotspotting Terry Ryder & Tim Graham

🌟 Leading the Way in Property Management: Corinne Bohan from the award winning Image Property 🌟
Join us on the latest episode of the Hotspotting podcast, where we sit down with Corinne Bohan, the trailblazing Managing Director of Image Property—Australia’s #1 Property Management Company for four consecutive years according to the RateMyAgent Awards. Dive deep into the world of elite property management with insights from a leader managing over 5,000 properties.
🏡 What Sets Image Property Apart? Corinne shares the secrets behind Image Property's success, focusing on their process-driven approach that handles everything from proactive maintenance to strategic tenant selection. Discover how their emphasis on exceptional client service, combined with rigorous staff training programs, leads to exceptional customer experiences and high retention rates.
🚀 Insider Insights on Overcoming Industry Challenges From navigating low vacancy rates to maximising returns, Corinne discusses how Image Property's dedication to sustainable rental incomes and a detail-oriented management strategy has carved a unique niche in the market. Learn about their innovative solutions and the critical role of problem-solving and project management in their growth trajectory.
🌐 Expansion and Impact Hear about Image Property's recent expansion into new markets like the Gold Coast, and get a peek into the future with discussions on major commercial projects impacting the real estate landscape.
🔑 Why Listen? Whether you're a landlord looking to optimise your property investment or a property management professional aiming to elevate your operational strategies, this episode offers invaluable perspectives from one of the industry’s best.
You can watch the full episode on Youtube too, and make sure to follow Hotspotting for more expert takes on the real estate market's hottest topics! 🎙️
Watch on YouTube - https://youtu.be/ryYhJEBjx_4
To learn more about Image Property or to connect with Corinne Bohan please visit www.imageproperty.com.au
 

Australia has some outstanding markets which are performing on every metric, including price growth, rental growth, low vacancies and high yields.
And many of these places on not what you might expect.
Every quarter, Hotspotting publishes a report we call The Pulse, to identify 50 locations across Australia which deliver rental yields well above the average to investors.
The primary parameter of our national Top 50 list is to identify good markets with high rental yields, but our criteria also includes prospects for capital gains – and this report features locations which perform outstandingly well on price growth.
To provide an example of the possibilities, consider the regional town of Murray Bridge in South Australia.
In Murray Bridge, house rents have risen 27% in the past year, with the vacancy rate dropping further in the latest quarter to just 0.4% and the median rental yield growing from 5.4% to 5.5%. The median house price has grown 22% to $415,000 in the past year.
In Geraldton in WA, the median house price rose 11.6% to $355,000 in the past quarter, but the median rental yield remained well above average at 6.7%, following a 23% annual rise in house rents, with vacancies low at 0.8%.
This report also highlights some of the nation’s promising unit markets, in recognition of the rising trend of more and more buyers opting for apartments and townhouses – and attached dwellings now out-performing on price growth.
In Bowen Hills in inner-city Brisbane, the vacancy rate is 1.2% and the median unit rent has risen 15% in the past 12 months, with the median rental yield increasing from 6.2% to 6.6% in the past three months. 
In that quarter, the median unit price has increased 7.1% from $425,000 to $455,000.
There are many other examples of this kind of outstanding performance on both rents and capital gains – all identified in the new quarterly edition of The Pulse.

If investors had followed our tips, three months ago, in a special report we call The Pulse, they could have achieved double-digit capital growth - in the latest quarter alone - and up to 30% in the past year.
The primary parameter of our national Top 50 list of locations in The Pulse is to identify good markets with high rental yields.
But our criteria also includes prospects for capital gains – and this report features locations which perform outstandingly well on price growth.
If you have an initial rental yield of 6% or 7% and your property’s value is growing 10% or 15% (or more) per year, you’re a happy investor.
Several of the locations on our Top 50 list have recorded capital growth above 10% in the latest quarter alone, headed by the Perth suburb of Orelia which increased 18% in three months.
All of the 50 locations on our Top 50 three months recorded capital growth over the latest quarter, except one – and most experienced median price growth above 5% in the quarter, including nine locations which rose more than 10% in three months.
In the case of Orelia, this means $70,000 in capital growth in just three months, while the Perth suburb of Hillman also rose $70,000. 
If you had bought a house at the median price in East Mackay, Queensland, your property’s value would have risen $50,000 in three months. 
A $490,000 purchase in the southern Brisbane suburb of Kingston three months ago would now be worth $535,000, up $45,000 in the latest quarter.
In annual growth terms, 11 of our suburbs have risen by more than 20% in the past year.
This report demonstrates that it is possible to achieve an investment property that ticks every box for the owner: high capital growth and above-average rental yields in affordable locations with ultra-low vacancies and rent rising more than 10% per year.
Among the most outstanding performers identified by this report are locations where property values have risen notably, but rental yields have increased because there has been an exceptional increase in rents.
One of the stand-out markets highlighted by this report is the Queensland town of Dalby, the key regional centre for the Western Downs region west of Brisbane. 
With vacancies near zero, rents have risen 24% in the past 12 months, with the median rental yield increasing from 6.6% to 7.2% in the past three months. Property values have also soared, with the median house price up 15% to $350,000.
That is the kind of performance that is possible if you get the quarterly editions of the special report we call The Pulse.
 

The latest price data from two of the biggest sources of real estate information shows a resurgence in the regional areas, in competition with the capital cities.
The background to this is that the combined regions have outperformed on capital growth since Covid, with regional areas generally out-performing the big cities in the past four years.
But in the past 12 months, the tables have turned somewhat, with the cities overtaking the regions on growth in median prices, led by Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.
Now, we’ve seen another twist, with the latest statistics from both PropTrack and CoreLogic indicating that the combined regions have had a resurgence since the start of 2024.
Let’s look at the PropTrack numbers first.
PropTrack figures indicate that the Combined Regions had 0.3% growth in the home price index in April, compared to 0.21% in the Capital Cities.
The highest growth for April was in Perth, followed by Adelaide, but with the regional areas of NSW, Queensland and WA also exceeding the national average growth figure.
In annual terms, the cities are ahead, up 7.2% compared to 5.1% in the regions.
Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane have all had exceptional growth, but the regional markets in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia have all increased by more than 10% in the past 12 months.
The under-achievers in the past 12 months have been Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra and Darwin, as well as Regional Victoria and Regional Tasmania.
We really do have multi-speed markets, which is the norm in Australia at any point in time.
But since the Covid era started, the regions have been the overall stars, with home prices rising 55% in four years, compared to 36% by the capital cities.
In that four-year period, the biggest increase had been by Regional Queensland, up 68%, with Regional South Australia close behind with a 67% increase.
Next is Adelaide, followed by Brisbane and Perth.
Three other regional markets grew more than 50% in four years – NSW, WA and Tasmania.
CoreLogic has different numbers from PropTrack, which also is normal, but the market patterns are similar.
The CoreLogic figures show that in the past 12 months, the cities are ahead with house prices rising 10.3%, while the combined regions have risen 6.3%.
But more recently, the regions have excelled.
In April, house prices in the regions increased 0.8%, compared to 0.5% in the capital cities – with the regional markets in Queensland, South Australia and WA all rising more than 1%.
But the single biggest increase was Perth, up 2%, while Adelaide increased 1.2%.
In the latest quarter, the regions are up 2.1%, compared to 1.7% in the cities, with the regional markets of WA, South Australia and Queensland again leading the way – but again with Perth recording the biggest individual increase.
In the year to date, the first four months of 2024, the combined regions have grown 2.6% compared to 2.2% by the combined capital cities. 
It’s a similar scenario with the unit markets.
In the year to date, the combined regions have growth 2.8% against 1.7% in the capital cities – and in the unit markets, the regions are also ahead in the past 12 months, up 7.2% compared to 6.7% in the cities.
In the cities, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth have all excelled on unit price growth, but Melbourne, Hobart, Darwin and Canberra have been weak and dragged down the capital city average.
In the regions, Queensland is the leader and South Australia, WA and NSW have all performed solidly.
The overall message in the data is that affordability is the key factor.
Whichever way you look at the price data, the outstanding performers have not been expensive cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra - but smaller cities like Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane, and the affordable regional markets.
 

The silliest people skulking around the edges of the property industry are the shallow attention-seekers who pump out nonsense reports claiming that no one can afford to buy property – not because it’s true or useful, but simply to drum up some free publicity for the business who is the source of the misinformation.
The shallowness and pointlessness of these reports is demonstrated by the results being seen in property markets, which emphatically contradict the notion that most people can’t buy homes because they’re unaffordable to the vast majority.
We are constantly inundated with reports claiming young Australians are priced out of the property market and doomed to a life-time of renting – but the latest official data shows there has been a 13% annual increase in the number of loans to first-home buyers.
The attention-seeking report writers claim no one can afford to buy, but first-timers are out there buying homes in rising numbers.
Beyond the apparently dire plight of young buyers, there are growing instances of reports saying most households are priced out of the market, not just the first-timers, and that our real estate is unaffordable to the vast majority of people.
And yet, in stark contrast to those claims, our markets are extremely busy with buyers in all price ranges - and prices continue to rise steadily.
Here’s the thing: if you want to achieve cheap and easy publicity for yourself or your business, the fast-track is to publish alleged research on housing affordability – and to guarantee maximum coverage, your so-called report needs to conclude that it’s a dire situation and hardly anyone can afford to buy homes.
Media loves that story line and will publish it every time, despite the fact that they ran the same or a similar story last week, and the week before, and the week before that.
Apparently journalists believe we all have an insatiable appetite for lies about housing affordability.
The sad reality is that it’s really easy to pump out a report with negative findings - because the report writer gets to decide their own definitions of affordable and unaffordable. It’s completely random and arbitrary – but the creators of these shallow documents pretending to be research can rest easy in the knowledge that no journalist will ever challenge them on their definitions and parameters, nor ever question their findings. They’ll go for the easy option of the cheap headline, every single time.
Recently one of the big four banks produced a particularly scurrilous and worthless press release, pretending to be serious research, which found that only 13% of homes in Australia are affordable for buyers.
Now, if that was true, property markets across the nation would be largely dormant. There would be few sales occurring and prices would be falling in most markets.
Of course, the opposite is happening. Current sales levels across Australia are 24% higher than the same time last year and prices are rising in most markets across Australia.
How can these two contradictory things be happening?
It’s because the report in question is shallow nonsense.
And we shouldn’t be surprised that a major bank would produce a dishonest document to generate publicity – we all know from the royal commission and from our own personal experiences that the big banks are very comfortable with being unethical in the pursuit of profits.
So we’re not surprised to see National Australia Bank producing a headline-grabbing report that was based on the principle that you should never let the facts get in the way of a cheap headline. When you’re a big four bank using the media, the truth is always optional – and indeed usually rather inconvenient.
So, here’s what the NAB report claimed – and, to their credit, they managed to keep a straight face while talking about it.
They said that just 13% of the homes that are for sale in Australia are affordable to the average household. Presumably that me

It’s remarkable how many politicians think that the solution to every problem that afflicts the housing market is to scrap negative gearing and make other changes to drum investors out of existence.
Want to fix the rental shortage? Scrap negative gearing.
Make housing more affordable? Scrap negative gearing.
Facilitate the construction of a million new homes in Australia? Scrap negative gearing.
The illogic of these attitudes – and the way they run counter to the truth – is quite remarkable.
And, while it’s become quite common for politicians and others to recommend the end to negative gearing tax benefits, none of those advocates have been able to explain how that measure would lift rental supply or improve housing affordability.
When asked for numbers, they don’t have any.
Those who hold to the view that massively punishing property investors will solve all the ills in the housing industry should ask themselves a few basic questions.
Why is it that Australia abolished negative gearing in the 1980s but within two years had reinstated it?
Why is that New Zealand, in similar fashion, banned negative gearing three years ago and is now in the process of bringing it back in?
And why is it Ireland, that ended negative gearing some years ago as well as increasing taxes on investors, now has a rental shortage catastrophe far worse than Australia has now?
History shows that every time a nation decides to scapegoat and punish property investors, rather than implement real solutions to housing problems, they end with a situation far worse than they started with.
NZ did it, partly based on the theory that deterring investors would put a lid on property prices and make homes more affordable. But NZ house prices soared, because it was home buyers pushing up prices, not investors.
Rents also rose sharply in NZ, because many investors dropped out of the market, causing a serious rental shortage.
So it’s alarming to see politicians seeking attention – and I have to say it’s usually minor parties like the Greens or independents who are grandstanding – constantly declaring that anti-investor policies will fix all the housing problems.
The latest “look at me” politician to do this is the loud and bogan independent Jacqui Lambie.
I’ve been observing Jacquie Lambie for a long time – let’s face it, she loves the limelight - and she has always struck me as someone who desperately needs counselling – constantly angry, always bombastically shouting about something or at someone - and desperately unable to articulate a coherent sentence, so it’s always difficult to understand why she’s so worked up.
So it really shouldn’t surprise me that she called a press conference recently to declare that if we wipe out negative gearing it’ll fix the rental shortage. But was unable to explain exactly how that would work. Because it wouldn’t work. It would achieve the opposite.
She also claims it would cause house prices to drop – which perpetuates the myth that somehow negatively-geared investors are the reason prices rise in Australia.
My estimate is that less than 20% of buyers in the market are negatively-geared investors. What we’re being asked to accept is that this small minority of buyers somehow overpowers the 80% plus of buyers who are home buyers or investors not claiming negative-gearing tax benefits, such as myself.
The largest and most powerful cohort in the market at any point in time, including right now, are home buyers other than first-home buyers. They are older, with higher incomes, they have equity in their existing homes, and they have considerable borrowing power – far more so than first-home buyers OR investors.
The politicians who are most vocal about squashing investors are the Greens, who would, if they had the chance, cap rents, scrap negative gearing, increase capital gains tax and impose other taxes on investors.
To get an impression of the impact that would have on