Prospector’s Corner
The headlines that matter
• Labor’s negative gearing & CGT overhaul passes parliament(Bloomberg)
• “Downturn is deepening” – Sydney prices continue falling(AFR)
• Treasurer contradicts housing minister on a property-market “correction” (AFR)
• Cotality: prices could fall up to 8% (Bloomberg)
• SMSF curbs could hit 30% of apartment buyers, developers warn (AFR)
• $140b Asian funds giant (Hillhouse) ramps up its local play (AFR)
• Armani unveils Australia’s first branded apartment - yours for $70m (AFR)
• Where house prices are falling the most in Sydney and Melbourne (AFR)
• REA vs Domain: inside Lachlan Murdoch’s listings giant(AFR Rear Window)
🗣 The contrarian read: regional values are holding up (and rising) while the capitals fall (MacroBusiness)
🎥 Watch: Melbourne is leading the national property downturn (9 News)
🎧 Listen: Equity Mates’ on “more bad news for property” and the latest housing data (Equity Mates)
Open-Home
Opinion
In 2016, two developers paid $4.76m for the Corkman - a 160-year-old Carlton pub in Melbourne, one of the oldest buildings in the suburb.
(source)
A week later it was bulldozed over a weekend, ignoring a council stop-order.
“It’s my site, I can do whatever I want” one told the inspector (The Age).
Rather than wait for a permit, the pair had lodged plans for a 12-storey student-housing tower on the site and sent in the bulldozers before the planning authority could even consider the application (The Conversation).
The minister then initially cut them a deal that would have let them keep building it - no pub required, as long as the tower was finished by 2022.
The men who’d just illegally flattened a heritage building stood to walk away with a high-rise worth millions. Critics called it open season for rogue developers (The Age).
It took years of public fury, fresh court action and jail time to claw that back.
Here is a timeline of events:
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Aug 2016 - Two developers buy the Carlton Inn (c.1856) for $4.76m, $1.76m over reserve. Oct 2016 - A fire is lit inside; days later it’s demolished over a weekend, against a council stop-order. 2017–18 - Asbestos from the site is dumped near a school; ~$600k in fines (the magistrate says he’d have jailed them if the law allowed). 2019 - The minister offers a 12-storey tower instead of a rebuild; a further $1.32m fine (cut to ~$1.1m on appeal). 2020 - Jailed for contempt after breaking a promise to build a temporary park - 28 days each. 2023 - After losing a tribunal fight, they finally agree to rebuild a replica - not as a pub. 2024–26 - The facsimile rises on the corner of Leicester and Pelham (the owners are talking to the Salvos about a soup kitchen). |
Now, there is a 2026 replica of an 1856 hotel sitting on the site.
(source)
For the Data Nerds
Auction Clearance - Domain
Preliminary · weekend ending Sat 27 June vs Sat 20 June.
| City | This Week (27 Jun) |
Prior Week (20 Jun, prelim) |
Sold / Sched. (27 Jun) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 49% | 47% | 221 / 812 |
| Melbourne | 54% | 52% | 289 / 775 |
| Brisbane | 38% | 20% | 32 / 128 |
| Adelaide | 49% | 54% | 37 / 123 |
| Canberra | 48% | 43% | 23 / 63 |
The macro tape this week
Unemployment fell to 4.4% in May as the economy added ~40,000 jobs. ABS
Headline CPI (inflation) eased to 4.0% (helped by cheaper fuel). ABS
What’s Settling Next Week
Forward look · 29 June – 5 July 2026
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Key Watch · Wed 1 Jul Cotality Home Value Index - June. The first clean full-month read since the tax overhaul became law and Cotality flagged a downturn. Cotality |
Tue 30 Jun - RBA minutes from the 16 June meeting - how close the hold really was, and how the board is reading jobs and core inflation. RBA
Tue 30 Jun - End of financial year
Settlement Day
Major deals and M&A
• Lendlease quits the retirement business with a $525m sale of Keyton to Aware Super.(AFR)
• Lendlease also sells its UK build-to-rent assets for $260m(AFR)
• The billionaire Shahin family sells a Newcastle petrol station for $5.7m(AFR)
• An oceanside acreage with its own private beach sells for nearly $20m at Gerroa.(AFR)
• The billionaire Gandel family (shopping-centre tycoons) expand their Mornington Peninsula estate with a $17m acquisition(AFR)
• Discovery Parks is buying the Breeze portfolio - four holiday parks across Victoria, WA and the NT.(RES)
• BYD expands again, committing to more industrial space in Melbourne and Sydney - the EV giant’s footprint keeps growing. (RES)
• The University of Tasmania buys a vacant motel to convert into student accommodation. (RES)
• Kingsmede sells a Sydney growth-corridor housing-estate site - new land changing hands as supply stays the story. (RES)
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Social Media Fix
What the internet is arguing about
X · Renters vs investors
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