Australians brace for another rate rise ahead of RBA meeting today
Amid looming rate rises, there are reasons to be cheerful as mortgage holders head into 2023
2 min
Mortgage holders should brace themselves for more pain as the Reserve Bank of Australia board prepares to meet this afternoon for the first time this year.
Most economists and the major banks are predicting a rise of 25 basis points will be announced, although the Commonwealth Bank suggested yesterday that the RBA may take the unusual step of a 40 basis point rise to bring the interest rate up to a more conventional 3.5 percent. This could present the RBA with the chance to put further rate rises on hold for the next few months as it assesses the impact of tightening monetary policy on the economy.
The decision by the RBA board to make consecutive rate rises since April last year is an attempt to wrestle inflation down to a more manageable 3 or 4 percent. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that the inflation rate rose to 7.8 percent over the 2022 December quarter, the highest it has been since 1990, reflected in higher prices for food, fuel and construction.
Higher interest rates have coincided with falling home values, which Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee says are down 6.1 percent in capital cities since peaking in March 2022. The pain has been greatest in Sydney, where prices have dropped 10.8 percent since February last year. Melbourne and Canberra recorded similar, albeit smaller falls, while capitals like Adelaide, which saw property prices fall 1.8 percent, are less affected.
Although prices may continue to decline, Ms Conisbee (below) said there are signs the pace is slowing and that inflation has peaked.
“December inflation came in at 7.8 per cent with construction, travel and electricity costs being the biggest drivers. It is likely that we are now at peak,” Ms Conisbee said.
“Many of the drivers of high prices are starting to be resolved. Shipping costs are now down almost 90 per cent from their October 2021 peak (as measured by the Baltic Dry Index), while crude oil prices have almost halved from March 2022. China is back open and international migration has started up again.
“Even construction costs look like they are close to plateau. Importantly, US inflation has pulled back from its peak of 9.1 per cent in June to 6.5 per cent in December, with many of the drivers of inflation in this country similar to Australia.”
Australian actor Chris Hemsworth has joined Archie Rose Distilling Co. as co-owner and strategic business partner as the Sydney spirits company prepares to enter the United States. The partnership brings Hemsworth together with Archie Rose founder Will Edwards, with the pair aiming to build greater international recognition for Australian whisky. Founded in Sydney in 2014, …
Continue reading “Chris Hemsworth Joins Archie Rose as Co-Owner Ahead of Global Expansion”
Porsche has revealed a one-off 911 GT2 RS that brings the extraordinary silhouette of its 935/78 “Moby Dick” racing car onto the road. Created by Porsche Sonderwunsch with Manthey, the commission began with a near-new GT2 RS. The owner requested greater performance, a Slantnose profile and a rear wing influenced by the limited 911 GT3 …
Continue reading “Porsche Builds a Road-Going “Moby Dick” From a 911 GT2 RS”
4 min
A Perfect Storm Claims a Major Player
Western Sydney’s property development sector was rattled this week by the collapse of Bathla Group, one of the region’s most prominent builders of affordable housing.
Administrators from Teneo were appointed to the group’s main entity, Universal Property Group, along with related firm Raj & Jai Construction, after months of mounting financial pressure.
The scale of the fallout is significant. Universal Property Group reported liabilities of $3.2 billion as at June last year, the bulk of it owed to private credit funds, a detail likely to draw scrutiny as administrators work through the group’s finances.
Founder Bhart Bhushan pointed to a “perfect storm” of softening sales, the impact of May’s federal budget changes and rising construction costs. Bathla’s chief executive was more blunt, acknowledging that falling property prices and climbing build costs had squeezed the business over a sustained period.
The human cost is already visible. Off-the-plan buyers across Bathla’s Western Sydney projects, including in Schofields, Marsden Park and Tallawong, suburbs at the heart of the group’s development pipeline, are now facing uncertainty over deposits, settlement timelines and unfinished builds.
It’s a story that has become depressingly familiar in NSW, with more than 1,500 construction firms going under in the state this financial year alone.
A Market Searching for Certainty
Bathla’s failure isn’t an isolated event. It’s a symptom of the conditions squeezing developers across Western Sydney, and Marsden Park sits right at the centre of that pressure.
Rising construction costs, tighter lending and softening buyer sentiment have combined to push even large, established players to the wall.
For prospective buyers looking at Marsden Park, the collapse has sharpened a question that was already on many minds: not just whether a development looks good on paper, but whether the developer behind it has the staying power, capital discipline and planning relationships to actually deliver.
In that environment, track record has become the differentiator that matters most.
Buyers are no longer simply comparing floorplans and masterplans. They’re asking who has the balance sheet, discipline and history to see a precinct through from approval to completion.
KDMC: 25 Years, Zero Incomplete Projects
Against that backdrop, KDMC’s position in Marsden Park stands out.
The Kanebridge Group development arm has been building in Northwest Sydney for 25 years and, in that time, has never left a project unfinished.
That’s not a marketing line. It’s a completion record buyers can check against a market that has just delivered a stark reminder of what happens when developers overextend.
KDMC’s flagship Marsden Park project, a roughly 1,320-home precinct at 264A South Street, reflects the scale of ambition the suburb now needs from a developer that can actually deliver it.
It’s also a project with history.
Back in 2017, KDMC launched Stage One of the development and sold 49 units in a single day, a result that speaks for itself in terms of market confidence.
Shortly after, the project was abruptly put on hold when Transport for NSW halted the DA to reserve the site for a future train line. It would have been easy for a lesser developer to walk away.
Instead, that pause has turned into the site’s greatest asset.
With the train line now set to connect Marsden Park directly to both Sydney Airport and the CBD, the residual site has become one of the most sought-after development opportunities in Sydney, a rare case of patience and planning discipline converting a setback into a generational upside.
The current stage of the project is backed by lodged State Environmental Assessment Requirements and formal development applications, along with independent valuation and transport infrastructure analysis.
The aim is to ensure the precinct is grounded in real, defensible fundamentals, precisely the kind of financial and planning discipline that was missing in Bathla’s playbook.
KDMC has also backed its recent projects with a 10-year defect warranty, well beyond the statutory minimum most buyers have come to expect.
For anyone who has just watched a major developer collapse mid-build, that kind of guarantee isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between a confident purchase and a leap of faith.
The Bottom Line for Marsden Park Buyers
Marsden Park’s growth story doesn’t need more supply promises. It needs a developer who delivers on them.
With Bathla out of the picture and its Marsden Park buyers left assessing their options, KDMC’s quarter-century of completed projects and extended defect cover offer something increasingly rare in the current climate: certainty.
For anyone weighing up where to place their trust in Marsden Park right now, the calculation has become simple.
Choose a developer with a story of every project finished, and a site whose fortunes have only strengthened with time, not a headline about one that wasn’t.
For more information email propertyconcierge@kanebridge.com.au
French luxury-goods giant’s results are a sign that shoppers weren’t splurging on its collections of high-end garments in the run-up to the holiday season.
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