Property Buzz

PropertyBuzz, your daily dose of property news.

An unscrupulous agent forced to repay his clients losses; what’s happening with the Housing Australia Future Fund; and have renters felt relief from slowing prices?

Welcome to Property Buzz! I’m Juliet Helmke. Today is Wednesday, 11 September.

– An agent described by a NSW supreme court judge as  â€śthoroughly unscrupulous” has been ordered to repay the money lost by a family, totaling more than $7 million,  after he encouraged them to invest in Ralan property developments.
– Ralan Group owed investors more than $500 million when it collapsed in 2019, with a pipeline of 3,000 apartments in development across Sydney and the Gold Coast. But a scheme that many investors took part in to release their property deposits to the firm in exchange for a 15 per cent return upon settlement was found to essentially be operating as a fraudulent Ponzi scheme, with the funds being used to repay other investors’ interest and cover losses.
– The defendant in the trial, Gary Chu, was accused of pushing a family to ultimately sign contracts for more than two dozen apartments through this scheme, while knowing of the group’s dodgy business practices. Justice David Hammerschlag determined that Chu was responsible for the losses, and ordered him to repay the family from his own pocket.

– Sticking with the development industry, and firms are reportedly growing nervous with the first round of funding from the Housing Australia Future Fund delayed, and no indication of when it might be assigned.
– After a protracted parliamentary battle, HAFF came into effect and  began accepting applications for funding in January 2024, with successful applicants to be notified in July. The scheme sees developers partner with community housing providers to build and develop affordable housing on sites that are already approved for the construction of market housing.
– Tom Forrest, CEO of the Urban Taskforce Australia, which represents the interests of developers, warned that firms may feel forced to move on from plans to develop the sites as part of the HAFF program if the funding isn’t announced soon.

– The latest release of the Rental Pain Index by Suburbtrends shows Australia’s rental crisis is far from resolved, with 68 per cent of the country still experiencing rental stress.
– Despite lower rental increases recorded lately, the slowdown in rental price growth was found to have not significantly reduced the risk of homelessness, especially in areas with vacancy rates below 1 per cent.
– The latest report indicated that the top 20 local government areas in Queensland and South Australia have maintained Rental Pain Index scores over 80, demonstrating high levels of financial distress.
– Suburb trends has cautioned against viewing slower price growth as an indicator of improvement for tenants, stressing that the overall pressure on renters remains severe.

That’s Property Buzz for today. See you again tomorrow, 12 September, for your daily dose of Property Buzz.

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An unscrupulous agent forced to repay his clients losses