Empower Blog Apartments

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,...

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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...

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Why should you do a Contract Review?

Look in my view, you should absolutely get the contract reviewed by a solicitor or a conveyancer prior to entering into a contract but definitely before you go unconditional on a property. Because let's be honest it's a big decision you're about to make and you going to spend a lot of money and there's a reason why lawyers and solicitors drive arou...

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Are One Bedroom Apartments still the Poor Cousins?

Ask a baby Boomer what they think the great Australian dream looks like and chances are they will say a detached house on a quarter acre block surrounded by a garden with a BBQ and a hills hoist. Ask the same question to a Gen Y and they are likely to say an apartment in the suburb where their café culture lifestyle is… usually the inner city su...

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Is Land Size still King?

Look in my view, I think land size isn't King anymore and I think in the 20th century it was and its largely driven by baby boomers who had the Great Australian Dream as an aspiration and their idea of the Great Australian Dream was a detached house on a quarter acre block, surrounded by garden with a barbecue in heels hoist and that was represente...

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What Will Be The ‘Highly Prized’ Property in 20 to 40 Years From Now?

The data is in for the last 40 years and it seems clear who the winners in Australia’s biggest cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are; if you invested your money in the inner city fringe suburbs compared to buying in new estates you would have more than likely doubled and in a lot of cases tripled your money compared to returns from buying ...

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Is the Real Estate Agent a Friend or Foe?

I’m often amused by the antagonistic approach that some buyers adopt when dealing with a real estate agent in the midst of a negotiation.  Sure, the agent is employed by the seller to get them the best price and terms and draw as much money as they possibly can from the buyer but equally, they’re a crucial cog in the chain for you getting the ...

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The 7 Biggest Property Investment Mistakes

If I were to ask you what do you feel more comfortable with, investing in shares or property? The majority of people would say property.  The reason for this is because property is something that we all have experienced in our lives, so naturally we automatically assume we understand it better than shares or managed funds.  Shares on the other h...

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ABC Melbourne Radio – Bryce Holdaway with Jon Faine

Bryce Holdaway, Director, Property Advisor and Buyers Agent of Empower Wealth was interviewed by Jon Faine from ABC Melbourne Radio with the topic of the day; how is Australian's housing choices changing and what is the trend looking like? In this session, Bryce discussed about: Are investors looking for apartments rather than houses these days...

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Apartments vs Houses

Ben Kingsley, Founder, Director and Property Advisor of Empower Wealth on Melbourne Property TV (MPTV) Panel discussing on which is better, Apartments vs Houses. Although this is a very simple question, people often mistake the difference between the size of the dwelling vs the land value. Ben will be explaining why there are no definite answers...

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‘Off The Plan’ and New Property as an Investment Asset?

You know the saying “I wish I had a dollar for every time…..” Well in my case this saying rings true for people buying ‘off the plan’ properties and seeing the price they paid come in at a lower valuation once the property is actually built. So for me I wish I had all the dollars that made up the shortfall in valuations from the purcha...

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Which Unit is Best – High Density or Low Density?

I’ve been in conversation with a couple of buyers advocates over the past few weeks, and it’s surprising how many of their attitudes differ with regard to investment property, namely whether you should be buying apartments in high density areas (HD) such as CBD locations, or low density (LD) inner city locations. For the sake of a comparison, I...

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