News & insightsBuying
Buying
Every buying article on Burbfinder, sorted by latest. 32 articles in this category.
Buying8 min
Body corporate special levy due diligence: the strata certificate read that surfaces the $40k surprise
Strata buyers who skip the certificate save a couple of hundred dollars and risk five-figure surprises within 18 months of settlement. Half an hour of reading does the work the agent never volunteers.
Buying8 min
Off-market property purchases in Australia: the real access path, the price premium, and the due-diligence problem
Off-market sales sit between 10 and 20% of capital-city transactions. The pitch is privileged access at a fair price. The reality is a compressed timeline, a premium, and a vendor who didn't want to test the open market.
Buying8 min
Strata vs Torrens vs community title: the three Australian title types and what you actually own
A Torrens owner controls the dirt and the bricks. A strata owner controls the air inside the lot lines and shares the bricks via a body corporate vote. A community-title owner sits in between.
Buying8 min
Buying at a mortgagee auction in Australia: where the discount actually is, and where the risk lives
The folklore says mortgagee auctions are 20-30% under market. The reality is usually 0-8%, and the risk premium can eat the rest. Read the contract, price the friction, then decide.
Buying8 min
Title insurance in Australia: what it actually covers, the one-off premium maths, and when it earns its keep
Title insurance is a one-off premium that backstops the things a conveyancer cannot fix after settlement. Most buyers skip it. The ones who buy it know what their conveyancer's indemnity will and will not cover.
Buying8 min
Property valuation methods in Australia: bank valuation vs registered valuation vs agent appraisal
Three numbers describe the same house. They are produced for different readers, by people with different incentives and different liability, and the gap between them is where most buyer disputes live.
Buying8 min
Vendor finance and rent-to-own in Australia: the alternative paths to ownership, and where they go wrong
Vendor finance and rent-to-own are sold as paths to ownership for buyers banks have rejected. The structures are legal, the maths can work, and a small minority of deals are genuine. Most are not.
Buying8 min
Settlement-day adjustments in Australia: how council rates, water, body corp and land tax get pro-rated
Settlement adjustments split the outgoings the vendor pre-paid for the rating year. Get them wrong and the buyer overpays by thousands, or inherits a land tax bill nobody warned them about.
Buying8 min
Easements, encumbrances and caveats: what's lurking on a property title in Australia
Most encumbrances on a title are harmless. The handful that aren't can block an extension, delay settlement by weeks, or quietly strip value off the price you just agreed to pay.
Buying8 min
Using a buyer's agent in Australia: when the fee actually pays for itself
A Sydney buyer's agent fee on a $1.2M house is $20-30k. The honest question is whether the agent extracts that much value back, and the answer depends on the buyer's situation more than the agent's pitch.
Buying8 min
PEXA settlement explained: what actually happens on settlement day in Australia
Settlement in 2026 is a 15-minute orchestrated transfer inside a virtual workspace. Here is who is in the room, what they each sign, and where the day usually goes wrong.
Buying8 min
Tenants in common vs joint tenants: what your title type actually means in Australia
The choice between joint tenants and tenants in common decides whether your share of the family home passes automatically to a co-owner on death or lands in your estate. The wrong choice costs more than most people realise.
Buying6 min
Subject to finance and inspection clauses: the contract conditions that decide whether you can walk
In WA and Tasmania the contract is binding the second you sign. Subject-to clauses are not extras. They are the entire safety net, and the difference between strong wording and lazy wording can be a $70,000 deposit.
Buying6 min
How NT stamp duty is calculated in 2026 (Darwin)
The NT is the only Australian jurisdiction that calculates conveyance duty from a single algebraic formula rather than a bracket table. On a $480,000 Darwin contract the answer is roughly $22,341.
Buying6 min
Cooling-off periods by state: how long you have to walk away after signing
Five days in NSW. Three in VIC. Zero in WA and Tasmania. The statutory right to walk away from a signed property contract varies wildly across Australia, and the auction carve-out catches buyers out every weekend.
Buying6 min
Building and pest inspection cost in Australia: is the $550 worth it?
A combined inspection on a metro house runs about $550. The cheapest termite-damage repair starts at $12,000. The maths is not subtle.
Buying6 min
How South Australia stamp duty is calculated in 2026
SA charges nothing on a new-build first-home purchase at any price, and the full schedule on an established one. The gap is the whole story.
Buying6 min
How Tasmania stamp duty is calculated in 2026
TAS doesn't run a flashy first-home exemption like SA. It runs a 50% discount up to $750k and stops there, which on a Hobart median price is worth roughly $11,700.
Buying6 min
Strata fees and body corporate explained: what Australian apartment buyers actually pay
The listing quotes the asking price. It rarely quotes the $7,000 a year you'll keep paying after settlement. Strata fees are the apartment cost line that decides whether the maths still works.
Buying6 min
How ACT stamp duty is calculated in 2026 (Canberra)
Canberra is the only place in Australia phasing conveyance duty out entirely. The duty bill on an $850k house is about $25,940 in 2026, and it gets smaller every year on the way to zero in 2032.
Buying8 min
NSW suburbs priced well below their neighbours in 2026
Some New South Wales suburbs trade well under the median of the suburbs that sit beside them, and the gap is wider than most buyers assume.
Buying7 min
VIC stamp duty: how it's calculated and what you'll actually pay
Victoria hits hardest at the $750k-$960k band, then flattens to a single 5.5% slab to $2M. Here is the bracket map and where buyers actually overpay.
Buying6 min
Conveyancer or solicitor: who do you actually need to buy property?
Most buyers don't need a solicitor. A handful absolutely do, and picking the wrong one costs more than the fee gap. Here's the honest split.
Buying6 min
Off-the-plan property: the risks every Australian buyer underestimates
Off-the-plan looks like a tidy way to lock in tomorrow's home at today's price. The fine print, and a soft 2024–25 settlement market, said otherwise.
Buying6 min
Buying property with a partner in Australia: joint tenants vs tenants in common
Joint tenants vs tenants in common in plain English: survivorship, contribution splits, lending traps, and what title structure actually protects.
Buying6 min
How to choose a suburb using public data
Skip the agent's pitch and the influencer's lifestyle shot. Five public-data signals that actually predict whether a suburb is right for you.
Buying7 min
First home buyer guide: deposits, stamp duty, and concessions
What a first home actually costs after stamp duty, LMI, and conveyancing — plus which state concessions are worth the paperwork.
Buying5 min
How to read SEIFA scores when comparing suburbs
SEIFA isn't one number. It's four. Here's what each index measures, why the deciles can disagree, and how to use them when shortlisting suburbs.
Buying6 min
Stamp duty in NSW vs VIC: which state actually costs you less?
Which state really stings less on stamp duty? The answer flips three times between $600k and $1.5M, and it depends on whether you're a first-home buyer.
Buying5 min
How much can I borrow for a home loan in Australia?
Generic '4-5x your income' rules of thumb don't survive contact with a bank's serviceability calculator. Here's the real math.
Buying7 min
How is stamp duty calculated in NSW?
NSW transfer duty runs on a six-bracket sliding scale that surprises most buyers at the $1M and $3M thresholds. Here is how the math actually works.
Buying7 min
Borrowing power vs serviceability: what banks actually check
Borrowing power is what a calculator says you can borrow. Serviceability is what a bank's assessor actually approves. The gap is where loans fall over.