‘Build-to-Rent’ (BTR) is an alternative residential tenancy model, where units in a complex are purpose built for long-term leases, held cumulatively and continuously by one owner and managed by a single manager. This post provides a brief overview as well as highlighting the emergence of BTR developments in Australia. Read more

The Victorian Government (Government) is progressing on its 2018 election commitment to ban embedded networks in new residential apartment buildings, by releasing an Issues Paper to commence formal stakeholder consultation into this issue. What is an embedded network? Embedded networks are private electricity networks, where electricity is supplied to an area or building through a … Read more

The Victorian Government has announced as part of the Victorian budget for 2020/21, the Big Housing Build, the largest ever investment in public and community housing in Victoria. The Big Housing Build will involve a $5.3b investment in social housing, creating: 9,300 new social housing dwellings; and 2,900 new affordable and market homes for first … Read more

In a welcome move to the real estate sector, the Victorian Budget 2020/21 includes numerous measures to stimulate construction and increase the housing supply. Read more

The State Governments of New South Wales and Victoria have recently announced shake-ups to their respective stamp duty regimes as part of their 2020-21 State Budgets, with NSW in particular proposing significant changes to property transfer taxes. Read more

On 29 March 2020 monetary thresholds for acquisitions of leases of land of more than 5 years (including options to renew) by foreign persons were reduced to zero.  This meant that a large volume of leasing transactions which previously did not require approval fell into the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) net.  On 3 September 2020, the FIRB amended these temporary measures to allow renewals and material variations of leases to proceed without approval in some circumstances. The new measures took effect on 4 September 2020. Read more

There is no doubt that Covid-19 will have a significant and long lasting effect on the real estate sector. The sector will not return to the way it was and we will see the impact of the pandemic permeate all parts of the industry for years to come. It is important for real estate players to pre-empt some of these predicted future trends so that they can be ahead of the game in both taking defensive positions on risk areas and pursuing new opportunities. One thing Covid-19 has shown the world is how quickly things can change and imagination can create possibility for things which were never considered possible before now. Read more

Generally, if a landlord intends to terminate a lease due to a tenant’s breach of the lease,  the landlord must first serve a notice (Breach Notice) on the tenant. The landlord must then grant the tenant a “reasonable time” after service of the Breach Notice to remedy the breach, if it is capable of remedy, and pay any money that is required to be paid as compensation to the landlord’s reasonable satisfaction. But what is a "reasonable time" exactly? Read more