There’s a lot of apartment news around but it’s hard to go past a remarkable story of how 19 strangers bought an apartment in Surry Hills, Sydney, used it as the testbed as they learned about renovation and then put it up for auction last weekend.

According to the story in Domain (see link below) the syndicate from The School of Renovating gave the two-bedroom, two-bathroom property at 2/9-19 Nickson Street a top-to-tail renovation.

Founder Bernadette Janson, a former registered nurse and mother of four, has been renovating homes for 35 years and offers training, mentoring and support to aspiring property renovators – many of whom are women making a mid-career change.

The apartment, bought for $1.065 last December went on sale with a $1.25 million price guide which would give the investors a share of $200k, minus reno costs, plus a heap of priceless experience

How did it go at auction? You’ll have to read here … but maybe not before you’ve checked out all the other apartment news stories in this week’s feed from Leftfield Communications.

Free Reads

Domain

Nineteen strangers bought and renovated a Surry Hills apartment. It’s headed to auction A syndicate of 19 owners is hoping for a strong result as its renovated Surry Hills apartment goes to auction this Saturday.

Realestate.com.au

Ready when you are: 16 new apartment projects to move into in November 2026
From the Yarra in Abbotsford to the Swan River in East Perth, 16 new apartment projects ready to move into in November, pairing waterside outlooks with city-fringe addresses and a mix of terraces, duplexes and townhouses.

Property values fall for seventh month: Which city is worst hit?
National capital-city median dwelling values have now fallen for a seventh straight month, with one state recording the biggest drop.

Mortgage cliff deepens as almost 25,000 households face default
Almost 25,000 households are staring down a mortgage cliff, with one postcode posting a 25 per cent spike in just three months.

Property prices drop further as homeowners stare down another rate hike
Home values kept sliding after the RBA’s latest rise, with borrowers bracing for another as inflation refuses to ease.

Higher interest rates make Brisbane Australia’s toughest property market for couples to buy
Brisbane has earned the unwanted title of Australia’s least affordable capital for couples trying to buy.

Home prices back to 2021 levels, Sydney falls lead nation
Sydney home values have fallen for an eighth straight month, stripping an average $131,000 from the city and returning prices to 2021 levels in some suburbs.

Melbourne house values tumble to $952k ahead of RBA decision
Melbourne’s median house price has fallen for a twelfth straight month, down almost $2000 in October to $952,000 and nearly $74,000 over the year.

Under the hammer: ‘Brisbane experienced a particularly difficult week’
Brisbane’s auction clearance rate is the nation’s weakest, plunging to just 16 per cent this week as buyers braced for a predicted Tuesday rate rise.

Hobart only capital to dodge home price falls
Hobart was the only capital to dodge home-price falls in October.

New home price laws divide experts in NSW
Experts are divided over new NSW laws, taking effect from November 17, that will require home sellers to display an asking price or price range.

Top banker reveals 2 radical ways to beat RBA’s rate squeeze
With the Reserve Bank poised to deliver its next rate verdict on Tuesday, house hunters face one of the toughest spring markets in years.

‘On the hook’: Falling home values threaten a huge source of Aussie home loans
Australia’s falling home prices are threatening the country’s fifth-largest lender, the bank of mum and dad.

Sydney rents surge past Treasury budget forecasts as prices jump up to $200
Sydney rents have surged well past Treasury’s budget forecasts since the federal tax reforms, with some areas up $200 a week.

‘Unattainable’: Sydney singles shut-out of market
Falling home values were meant to help buyers in, but four rate rises this year have cut borrowing power and lifted repayments, leaving Sydney singles on an average salary able to afford homes in zero per cent of suburbs.

‘Like a plague’: Melbourne sellers face subdued auctions ahead of rate call
Melbourne’s housing market is tipped to struggle through another weak weekend amid expectations of a rate rise.

Surging rents surpass affordability protection for half of Melbourne
Close to half of Melbourne’s tenants signing new leases are facing rents surging beyond a key affordability cap the state introduced in March.

Developer Cavcorp dodges $6.1m payout after court overturns Newstead apartment ruling
A high-profile developer who tore up an off-the-plan contract and resold two luxury apartments for double the price has dodged a $6.1 million payout in a shock court win.

Urban Developer – Partly Free

Approval Figures Expose Uneven Recovery in Housing Pipeline
A surge in apartment approvals lifted Australia’s home approvals in September, but a sharp fall in detached-house permits exposed an uneven recovery in the pipeline.

Co-Living Scheme Clears First Hurdle in Sydney’s Inner-South
Theo Onisforou’s Angus Property Development has won concept approval for a $53 million mixed-use scheme with 250 co-living rooms at Alexandria.

Apt.Residential Reveals Bondi Plans for $725m Highrise Duo
Apt.Residential has filed plans for two neighbouring build-to-rent high-rises at Bondi Junction worth a combined $725 million-plus.

Lender Pursues Quick Exit on Almost-Complete Bathla Project
A near-complete $55 million Bathla project at Marsden Park is being sold with the mortgagee in possession, needing as little as a month of works to finish.

Edge Reveals 10-Storey Scheme at Fremantle’s Leighton Beach
Edge Visionary Living has filed plans for a 10-storey, 81-apartment tower at Fremantle’s Leighton Beach, on a renewal site that has languished since before the global financial crisis.

Sammut Locks In $76m Pre-Launch Haul for Brisbane Riverfront Tower
Sydney-based Sammut Group has marked its Brisbane debut with a $76 million pre-launch haul from high-end buyers for its 15-storey riverfront tower.

Cavcorp Court Win Draws a Line Under Developer Sunset Clause Risk
Cavcorp has won its fight over the sunset clause at Luminare, with the Queensland Court of Appeal ruling 2-1 to overturn a $6.1 million damages order.

Apartments.com.au – Free

First look: Ford Land lodges plans for 320-apartment One Rosebery
Ford Land has lodged plans to transform a historic Rosebery industrial site into a residential and retail precinct with 320 apartments in buildings up to 21 storeys.

First look: CPDM files plans for 78 apartments in Turramurra under NSW housing reforms
Sydney group CPDM has filed plans for a nine-storey, 78-apartment development in Turramurra under NSW housing reforms.

First look: Hannan family files plans for $174m Edgecliff apartment towers
A company linked to the Hannan printing dynasty has lodged plans for a $174 million twin-tower development in Edgecliff.

Port Melbourne townhomes come with up to $85,000 stamp duty saving
Buyers looking to get into Port Melbourne without compromising on space may find the numbers more attractive at the completed Port Lane townhome community.

Do you really need that second bedroom? Why some Sydney apartment buyers are thinking smaller
With the price gap between one and two-bedroom apartments often running into hundreds of thousands of dollars, some Sydney buyers are asking whether that extra room is always worth it.

Apartment towers to rise as part of new Eastwood Town Centre redevelopment
The owners of Eastwood Shopping Centre have gone back to the drawing board less than two years after lodging a $322 million redevelopment of the ageing complex in Sydney’s north-west.

Pay-walled

The Australian Financial Review

Sydney home values have shed 10pc since February
Sydney home values have fallen more in the past eight months than Melbourne’s did over the previous four and a half years.

Auction clearances slump to six-year low on rate worries
A sharp jump in last-minute auction withdrawals sent clearance rates to a six-year low last week, as vendors pulled scheduled auctions at more than double the rate of a year ago amid expectations of a fifth rate rise on Tuesday.

WA, Queensland scramble in battle for tradies
Australia’s skilled-worker shortage has not gone away, but weakness in NSW and Victoria over the next year could hand the resource-rich states a boost.

The ‘unexplained’ companies kept out of Bathla’s administration
Bathla co-founder Bhart Bhushan kept a series of companies owned by the collapsed developer out of administration, some of which have been trying to sell properties.

The Australian

Cheaper homes lead rapid price downturn as investors retreat
Sweeping tax changes have pushed mum-and-dad investors out of the property market, with the cheapest homes now bearing the brunt of an accelerating price downturn.

Billionaire Harry Triguboff’s Meriton lifts profit 72 per cent amid building sector crisis
Australia’s richest man has defied the embattled property market, with Harry Triguboff’s Meriton lifting after-tax profit 72.6 per cent to $552.1 million for the year to June.

Goodman Group gambles with data centre joined by high-rise apartment project
Industrial landlord turned data centre developer Goodman Group has proposed apartment towers of up to 60 storeys on the same Macquarie Park street as a planned $1.4 billion AI data centre.

Harry Triguboff wins state-significant approval for 505 homes at Little Bay site
Australia’s richest man, Harry Triguboff, has won the first step in his plan to develop his contentious Little Bay landholding in Sydney’s east, with the NSW government declaring it a state-significant site for 505 homes.

Homeowners warned to brace for entrenched higher interest rates ahead of Melbourne Cup hike
Homeowners have been warned to brace for higher interest rates becoming entrenched ahead of the Reserve Bank’s expected fifth rise this year on Melbourne Cup Day.

The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Thanks for raiding us’: Inside the crackdown on underquoting
When inspectors from the property taskforce knock on real estate agency doors, they can be as intimidating as police.

Inner-city warehouse apartment sells for $150,000 below reserve
A warehouse apartment in the celebrated “Meta by Starck” building in Surry Hills has sold for $150,000 below reserve.t $2.25 million.

The Brisbane Times

Highgate Hill townhouses await court approval after half a decade of delays
A triple block of premium Highgate Hill townhouses could finally be finished more than half a decade after going on the market.

The Daily Telegraph

Developers abandon Sydney for Queensland as bureaucratic delays stall major housing projects
At the northern end of bustling Barangaroo, beside the $2.2 billion Crown Sydney tower, sits a concrete wasteland that captures what developers say is happening in Sydney: nothing, as bureaucratic delays stall major housing projects and push developers toward Queensland.

Billionaire Harry Triguboff’s Meriton lifts profit 72 per cent amid building sector crisis
While rivals Mirvac and Stockland reported plunging sales, Harry Triguboff’s Meriton has lifted profit 72.6 per cent to $552.1 million for the year to June.

The Herald Sun

No relief in sight as growing number of Aussies face mortgage pain
Victoria has the highest rate of mortgage stress in the country, with the number of households carrying a high mortgage burden surging over the four years of the Albanese government, and no relief in sight as a growing number of Australians face mortgage pain.

The Gold Coast Bulletin

Palm Beach penthouse smashes record with $15.5m sale to Sydney buyers
A Palm Beach penthouse has shattered the southern Gold Coast’s off-the-plan record, selling for $15.5 million, 70 per cent above the suburb’s previous benchmark, before construction is even complete, to Sydney buyers.

Developer pushes ahead with Kirra high-rise after court overturns 14-storey approval
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has called for scrapping a controversial tower height-uplift policy after a court overturned the council’s approval of a $130 million Kirra high-rise, with the developer pushing ahead regardless.

The Adelaide Advertiser

Adelaide inner west rezoning plan opens door for 20-storey towers in Hindmarsh
Buildings currently capped at three storeys could soar under a government plan to rezone Adelaide’s inner west and unlock thousands of new homes, with 20-storey towers possible in Hindmarsh.

The West Australian

WA families suffering mortgage stress more than doubles since Anthony Albanese came to office
The number of Western Australian families suffering mortgage stress has more than doubled since 2022, with about 85,600 homes now carrying a high mortgage burden.

Sky’s the limit as developers seek to double Scarborough height restriction with $90 million 85m tower
A $90 million skyscraper proposed for Scarborough’s beachfront could rise to double the local height limit.

The St George & Sutherland Shire Leader

Diagram reveals scale of proposed 32-storey tower in Miranda
A proposed 32-storey tower opposite Westfield Miranda would dwarf its neighbours, including a new nine-storey apartment project.

The Illawarra Mercury

What buyers need to know before snapping up an older Wollongong apartment
While much focus falls on new and off-the-plan apartments around Wollongong, agents say there are real benefits to buying an older unit, outlining what buyers need to know before snapping one up.