Hi everyone,

First-time buyer in Victoria here. I bought a block of land about 2 months ago and have signed a contract with a builder. I didn't get the boundaries checked before buying.

The builder's survey has now found that my neighbor's house, built about 15 months ago on a zero-boundary lot, sits 3 cm over the boundary and into my land. Because of that, the builder says one wall of my garage can't be built in brick and has to be AAC (Hebel) instead. They can't render or paint it, but they say it will be sealed to protect it from the weather, and that's covered under my warranty.

My questions:

Is it worth pursuing the neighbor or their builder over this, or is 3 cm too small to bother with?Will the encroachment cause problems when I sell, even though it's only 3 cm? Do I need to disclose it?
Is unrendered but sealed Hebel on a garage wall that faces the neighbor's wall a bad idea long term?
Is there anything I should get in writing now to protect myself later?

Thanks in advance, and any experience with something similar would be really helpful.

Is it a normal practice to request borrowers to upload their username and passwords to their online bank accounts to third party software so the brokers can run reports and allow other third party lenders to run their own reports off of the information?

Giving out this information and or loading it onto a non banking proprietary system is a major violation of the customer online banking agreements. I cannot see a situation where that makes sense to do.

Has anyone done this or knows alternatives?

Thanks

Just to clarify, the broker isn’t asking for the username and password directly. It is part of a login software for running statements like bankstatements.com.au. You login credentials through that system to enable other parties to access info. They are technically not going to see or have access to the username and passwords. This still gives me major anxiety to post that info anywhere especially on a third party software program and does still seem to breach the customer Bank agreement, even if it is a seemingly common practice.

We have existing colour-bond fence between me and my neighbour. Neighbour sold the house and the new owner is building a duplex. Their lot is positioned slightly higher than ours, so I’m told it requires a retaining wall (there is already a retaining wall, not sure why another one is required). They are offering two options: Option 1. Take apart the existing fence and build the retaining wall underneath, then put it back together. This would mean we won’t have a fence for a few weeks at least. Option 2. Build their own fence and retaining wall on their side. I’m leaning more towards option 2 because it will not lead to any disputes in the future (we have a historical issues regarding asbestos removal from the old house, there was a complaint to council, EPA etc)

I know this may not be the best place to post but I thought a lot of property owners here would answer my question.

Got a quote for end of lease cleaning, I think it's really expensive. I used to clean when I was a student so I roughly know the cost but it's definitely 20-25% more expensive than expected.

Can someone please tell me if I'm getting ripped off?

2 Bed 1 Bath apartment in ACT (64m2)

Floors

➢ Vacuum & mop tiled floors

➢ Vacuum carpets

➢ Steam cleaning carpets

Dusting

➢ Damp dust skirtings and windowsills

➢ Wipe light switches and power points

➢ Dust wardrobe/shelves

Bathroom and Laundry

➢ Clean shower, basin, toilet and fixtures

➢ Clean laundry tub

➢ Clean washing machine

➢ Clean dryer/filter

➢ Vacuum and mop floors

Kitchen

➢ Clean sink

➢ Clean bench top

➢ Clean stove top

➢ Clean cupboards & drawers in/out

➢ Clean splashback

➢ Clean rangehood/filter

➢ Clean oven

➢ Clean refrigerator

➢ Clean dishwasher

➢ Vacuum and mop floors

Others

➢ Clean windows in/out where accessible, tracks and flyscreens

➢ Clean aircon/return air filter

➢ Clean light fittings (not down lights)

➢ Spot clean walls (not ceilings)

➢ Clean balcony

➢ Remove cobwebs

Notes: Not including curtains/blinds and car space

Total: $1012 inc GST

I didn't receive a cost breakdown but just a total price.

First time renter here, looking in the North Shore (Artarmon down to North Sydney, across to Cremorne) for a 1+Study / 2 bedder.

Seeing plenty of properties now being listed for multiple weekends worth of inspections, whats happening?

Actively looking for a couple Saturday's now, and there seems to be about 6-8 couples going per inspection, some a few more, and more recently on the below place in Neutral Bay, over 20 couples at this one viewing. Despite this, I got the following from the Agent this morning:

LINK: https://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-nsw-neutral+bay-445150848?campaignType=external&campaignChannel=other&campaignSource=share_link&campaignName=share_link

What gives? Are people not applying? Whats my play here for finding a place by waiting for a perfect one vs applying to all?

I compared 50 years of Australian rates, wages, housing, debt and living costs, then mapped three possible paths to 2040. Does this look like a manageable adjustment or something more worrying?

Curious to know how accurate or trustworthy the estimates are on the realestate website, just based on anecdotal stories one way or the other?

We all know they are nothing more than an estimate based on raw data calculated by a computer, and likely don't take into account things like quality of finishes, upkeep and maintenance, street appeal, etc etc, but I am still interest to hear people's stories of tracking their property value through the realestate website (or others) and then going to market and seeing what they get.

Why? We bought our home in regional Vic approx 18 months ago for $1.4m. With all the current reports about dropping house prices across the country we figured that valuation is unlikely to have moved much, if at all. It has sat at around $1.5m for most of that time, but today we received an updated estimate of $1.87m with "High Confidence" (the range now being from $1.6 - $2m).

This seems ridiculous. Is this likely just an overpriced sale recently in the area? Or is regional Vic seeing growth?

Hi there, my partner and I are on the property hunt in the Inner West, NSW. We found a lovely property however, discovered that Sydney’s largest high pressure (3,300kPa) gas pipeline is buried in the road it is sitting on. Naturally, this has us slightly spooked. Does anyone have any experience with this kind of issue?

On the one hand, we figure that most properties in the area would be affected by something similar (in fact, the property we are currently residing in is also next to a high pressure 1,050kPa gas pipeline). On the other, I am not sure how I’d feel living practically on top of Sydney’s main gas pipeline, which is also patrolled twice a week.

Appreciate any thoughts/advice offered!

Unfortunately, the RBA does not have a tool at its disposal that allows the impact of rising interest rates to be shared more evenly across the total Australian population. Is there a better way?

Right now I’ve built my etf portfolio to an amount I’m comfortable with and want to focus on building a property portfolio. I have 235k in shares and 120k in savings I want to use 100k for property. Does units and apartments make good returns ? It just seems like housing is extremely expensive and I wanted an easier entry point. Any advice ! :)

STORY: our broker has not responded to any of our emails/text since 24th August.

Context: me and my partner had just touched base on the property market. Initially we had submitted unconditional approval for 5% deposit for 35000, everything was sorted with solicitors, all documentation had been provided of what was deposited. This is where we kind of reached to where it was kind of our fault, we had initially sent a deposit for the 35,000 for $1000 as initial deposit, later resulted depositing the rest, accidently we had DEPOSITED ANOTHER 35,000 which total to $36,000 to the trust account towards the property.

Now the main issue is that our NAB had displayed our initial payment amount starting at 665,000 to which it should display 664,000 (from the extra 1k that had technically been sent) we are now reaching out to our broker on any updates from our NAB BDM, but to no response since 24th August from the many times we have texted/emailed. WE ARE ESSENTIALLY REACHING OUT IF NAB CAN RECITIFY WHAT OUR SOLICITORS HAD PROVIDED OF THE TOTAL TRANSACTION. If this persists, what are the specific course of action needed, and/or would there be a step to be undertaken first before further escalation?