Empower Blog Property & Financial Investment

Australia’s Housing Market Bubble

Australia's housing market has had their best winter since 2007 according to figures released this week by RP Data. The company says prices for capital cities dwelling rose 4.2% over the three months to the end of August. The increase had been lead by housing market in Sydney and Melbourne as prompted a warning by the Reserve Bank Governor, Glenn S...

Watch Video

RBA Rate Decision – October 2014

Hello, the Reserve Board met today and kept interest rates on hold. Well anticipated that they were going to remain on hold and it's certainly a view that they are going to stay lower for longer. That's being about installing confidence into the market place for business to start doing more lending. In the last 4 weeks, there have been some big thi...

Watch Video

ABC News – Is the Property Market too Hot?

The Reserve Bank has warned that Australia's property market has become unbalanced because of the surge in loans to investors. The RBA is worried about speculative buying, particularly in Melbourne and Sydney and is now talking to other regulators about stricter lending standards. On top of that, there seems to be concerns about people over leverag...

Watch Video

Growth in property investor loans hits post-GFC high

>> PLAY AUDIO HERE PM is one of the grand institutions of Australian public broadcasting. The program celebrates its 40th anniversary on July 7, 2009 - four decades of reporting Australia and the world. Sydney and Melbourne accounted for most of the country's house price growth in the past year. In Melbourne, buyers agent and property com...

Listen Now

What you need to know when increasing your rent

Laws differ from state to state around rental increases, however the reasons for rent increases are similar across every state and Territory throughout Australia. Rent reviews and increases should be revised at least annually, if not at every 6 month interval. The common times to do so are January or February, when most landlords are looking at the...

Read More

Top 153 Unit Hotspots

Just like many hot button issues, the debate on whether houses make better investments compares to units continues to divide investors. Whether you prefer to invest in houses rather than units, the reality is that units are no longer the laggard they once were, thanks to soaring demands from homebuyers. While houses are still the dominant force,...

Read More

What’s in the New Season of LLLA

>> Play Audio Here   The return of Location Location Location Australia Season 3 on the LifeStyle Channel had brought a lot of entertainment on each household's Wednesday nights. Kevin Turner from Real Estate Talk interviews Bryce and asked him about what's in the new season of LLLA. Here's a snippet of the interview: "Kevin: Bryc...

Listen Now

Perth suburbs star

This time, the new season of Location Location Location Australia brings Bryce back to Perth. The West Australian has taken this opportunity to interview him on his most recent purchase. Here's a snippet of the article: "As the Perth-raised co-host of Location Location Location Australia, Bryce Holdaway is often quizzed by WA viewers as to why t...

Read More

Income for Life

Putting together a great property portfolio is as easy as A, B, C and D. In the August 2014 issue of Money Magazine, Bryce Holdaway wrote about the simple formula that he used to create an income for life with a property portfolio plan. "I stumbled on a quote last year that made me reflect on how well I actually understand the very topic I am so...

Read More

Pros and Cons of Buying Off the Plan Apartments

The Pros There's lots of reasons to consider why you should buy an off the plan purchase because there's nothing that can replace that sort of brand new feeling. You're the first person to actually move into the property. There's got shiny taps, it has got beautiful clean tiles, the carpet smells fresh and its got that really nice cozy feeling abou...

Watch Video

Which is the best state to invest in?

As a property investment analyst and qualified property investment advisor, I'm often asked which is the best state to buy property in. But that's not necessarily the best question. There are over 9.4 million dwellings across Australia and those numbers increase around 130- 160,000 new dwellings every year. So on average, every week there's over tw...

Watch Video

Uniformity for Buyers Advocate License

>> Play Audio here   In this podcast, Kevin Turner from Real Estate Talk interviews Ben and asked him about the issue that we have in our property industry across Australia: The lack of a uniform Buyers Advocate license. Here's a snippet of the interview: "Kevin: I want to take this subject one step further. I’m talking now to t...

Listen Now

Sky Business Channel, Your Money Your Call (Aug 2014)

In the 25th of August session of SKY Business News Channel, Your Money Your Call, Ben Kingsley joins Margaret Lomas and Brad Matthews from RESCOM to discuss different aspects of property across Australia. This time, they answered a number of emails and calls from viewers and some of the topics are: During the GFC times when Australia Property M...

Watch Video