Dethridge Groves Real Estate
Fremantle's Preferred Agent Since 1979
Welcome To DGRE
With over 45 years of service to the greater Fremantle community, Dethridge Groves Real Estate is your local expert in real estate sales and property management. Three-time REIWA award-winners in marketing and communications, dgre has an expert team of real estate selling agents and property managers, led by former REIWA President Hayden Groves. dgre is your preferred, trusted real estate partner, having sold and managed more homes in and around Fremantle than any other agency. Contact us today for your free market appraisal, property management services, market analysis and general real estate advice from the community’s leading agency.
Properties we think you'll love
Your Team
Principal & Director
General Manager / Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Business Development Manager
Leasing Manager
Sales Associate & Buyer Manager to Michael Harries
Property Manager
Property Manager
Residential & Commercial Property Manager
Inspections Manager
Client Communications Coordinator
Marketing Manager
Executive Assistant to Hayden Groves
Marketing Manager
Latest News
Sep 25, 2024
Super Homes
As COVID-19 rolled out across the globe, our Federal government responded by introducing various stimuli designed to keep Australians working and building homes. Building commencements spiked but the rapidly rising costs of materials and labour combined with fixed price building contracts has seen nearly 3,000 construction companies fail this year alone. That’s partly why there’s very little chance we will build the 1.2 million homes promised by the current government by 2029. nearly 3,000 construction companies fail The construction sector accounts for a substantial component of the workforce, so it made sense to keep tradies in work by offering incentives for home buyers to build new homes. Such incentives have taken various guises since John Howard first introduced them during his Prime Ministership. Nowadays, superannuation’s enormous pool of citizen-owned money has proven to be a useful cash-neutral resource for government to tap into by using people’s own funds to unlock housing supply and mobility. The expanded First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSSS) enables participants to build a deposit of up to $50,000 plus earnings in the low tax environment only superannuation offers. First home buyers can deposit up to $15,000 per annum into a super fund with after-tax non-concessional contributions or via voluntary additional salary sacrifice contributions. There are some useful tax savings to be had via the scheme. As Nick Bruining has elegantly explained, “A couple buying a house together [earning less than $120,000 each p.a] can effectively combine their schemes and save $100,000 this way.” Of course, the purpose of superannuation is to enable a comfortable retirement for seniors. The ‘super downsizer’ rules allow a one-off single contribution of up to $300,000 per person to be plopped into super from the sale proceeds of your primary residence. To qualify, you need to be over 60 (as from 1st July 2022) and have lived in the home for at least ten years. The sale proceeds need to be deposited into super within 90 days of settlement and the contribution is not considered part of any of the other contribution caps that otherwise apply to superannuation funds. In theory, if you and your partner are 60 and both utilise all of the various concessions that apply from 1st July, you could each deposit a non-concessional contribution of $330,000 into super using the ‘bring-forward’ rules. By adding the $300,000 downsizer contribution, a couple who sells their family home could, in a single day, contribute a combined $1,260,000 into their super fund. There are also moves from the federal government to tweak the tax rules for superannuation funds to incentivise them to invest in the ‘build-to-rent’ sector. It would not surprise to see superannuation continued to be used as a funding pool for home buyers as affordability constraints continue to challenge the dream of home ownership. Please note the content as opinion only. This does not constitute financial or tax advice. Seek independent, professional advice from licensed financial advisors....
Sep 16, 2024
Are We Close to Market Peak?
For a laugh, I often respond to the question, “When do you think the market will peak?”, by giving a specific date. It’s amusing because markets don’t normally behave in a linear, predicable way. In this current market, that date is some way off, notwithstanding some significant economic calamity occurring in the meantime. Our mining-led economy has not been impacted by the recent falls in iron ore and lithium prices, with Perth property market continuing to lead the nation, now well ahead of Queensland and South Australia. Sydney and particularly Melbourne are markets in decline as affordability constraint team up with higher interest rates and cost of living pressures. Both cities declined in value by 0.1 percent last month. Stock levels are rising in these major capitals with Ray White group reporting the highest level of spring listings ever recorded in these markets. Rental affordability continues to decline Perth’s house prices are up 24.6 percent year-to-date, a figure that is unsustainable across multiple years, to record a mean house price in August of $864,989. Brisbane nudged $1,000,000 to record $980,741 and Adelaide is at $854,659. Sydney’s mean house price of $1,601,518 is probably at current peak and Melbourne’s property-tax-loving government will continue to drive house prices down below its current $1,035,054 mean house price in coming months. The Real Estate Institute of Australia’s latest affordability report was released this week finding further deterioration in housing affordability across the nation. The average loan repayment now amounts to 48.1 percent of median family income, up 1.3 percent for the June quarter. Unsurprisingly, Western Australia’s housing affordability worsened last quarter by 1.7 percent with 39.5 percent of median weekly family income of $2,630 going to servicing the average sized loan. Victoria’s falling house prices helped affordability in that state with average weekly incomes of $2,510 losing 45.8 percent to average loan repayments. Rental affordability continues to decline too with West Australians paying 23.6 percent of weekly incomes to rent, up from 21.8 percent last year. Over time, housing affordability has declined by 11.3 percentage points over the past twenty years, with rental affordability deteriorating by only 3 percentage points over the same period. Despite much media coverage and political hyperbole about the rental crisis, it remains far more affordable to rent than own property. Across the nation, rental affordability has declined 2.4 percentage points over the past five years and 0.2 percentage points over ten years. Comparatively, home ownership affordability declined 16.2 and 14.5 percentage points during the same periods. It appears that mum and dad investors have done an exceptional job in delivering relatively affordable rental homes for millions of Australians, despite governments and the Greens actively pursuing policies that discourage them to do so. Perth’s property market will continue to rise, perhaps at a slower pace for the next quarter as affordability constraints emerge. And as for a specific date for the market peak – 29th February or April 1st next year....
Sep 10, 2024
Politics of Housing
This week, the Greens proposed a new housing policy that would introduce a national watchdog with the power to prosecute property owners who breach proposed new tenancy laws. Rent control remains high on the Greens’ political agenda who want penalties imposed for landlords who put rents up by more than two percent over two years, or who lease properties with undersized kitchens or bathrooms. The Greens also want a two-year rent freeze, tenants to have a presumed right for five-year leases and prohibit landlords from not renewing leases should they wish to sell. In further landlord-hating parlance, the Greens would fine landlords up to $15,650 and their agents $78,250 for breaches of their new suite of tenancy laws overseen by their new tenancy watchdog. Greens housing spokesman, Max Chandler-Mather reckons “landlords never do basic repairs” and that tenants are “powerless in their own home.” This is just garbage and from a bloke who took to the stage last week defending the unscrupulous actions of some leaders of the CFMEU. This latest ‘thought-bubble’ housing policy from the federal Greens has zero credibility, is designed to shock the electorate, drive division between tenants and landlords and fails the pub test – even in Fitzroy street Last time I looked, it is the private investor market that supplies 9 in 10 rental homes in the nation. It seems obvious that if you disincentivise private investors (with things like rent cap / freezes) investors will stop providing enough houses for renters. This leads to shorter supply (investors will sell) which pushes rents even higher. Yet, somehow, the Greens and have missed this fundamental economic point. Other Greens’ policies such as calling for changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts seek to demolish the current rental housing system, causing a rental crisis far worse than currently experienced. The Greens say they want solutions to address the rental crisis ‘right now’. Well, you don’t and simply can’t solve it by turning on the very people that supply the houses; you can’t magic more housing supply out of thin air if all your policies are designed to whack investors. To get more supply in the market immediately, you could start with stamp duty reform. Imagine offering a stamp duty rebate for investors that offered property at a below-market rent that guaranteed a certain reasonable return with fixed moderate annual rent increases. Investors would buy and re-supply the market. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is on the record as a supporter of reforming stamp duty; that unfair tax that stifles economic growth and impacts affordability. Everyone from the Henry Tax Review through to the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) agree with what real estate agents have always known; that stamp duty is a significant barrier to property ownership and rental affordability and is a transaction-killing tax that should be reformed. There is no avoiding that the only way to address rental affordability is by increasing supply and unhelpful policies that seek to diminish supply rather than incentivise it is counter-intuitive madness....
Sep 5, 2024
We Need Investors
The latest inflation figures released this week reveals some softening in consumer spending on fuel, discretionary items and electricity. The treasurer labelled inflation ‘sticky’ – code for ‘still too high’ at 3.5% for the twelve months to July. Rents are up 7% contributing to keeping inflation above the target band of 2-3%. Perth’s rents have stabilised over the past two months with median house rent at $650 per week, supply has crept up from last year and median days on market are beginning to rise. For context, four years ago, house rents were $370 per week The primary reason rents have risen so sharply is due to lack of adequate supply whilst demand -through increased population – has rapidly increased. Governments have very successfully shifted the blame for today’s housing affordability challenges away from their own housing policy failures and instead pointed the finger at property investors and the real estate agents that represent them. Politicians have very effectively shifted the narrative away from supporting private property investment to supply homes to the market whilst simultaneously blaming investors for spiralling rents and house prices. This is a remarkable achievement. Like it or not, unsophisticated private investors – ordinary Australians – supply 27 percent of all homes in the nation to tenants. Government supply about 3 percent as social housing. It is fact that across Australia, 9 out of 10 rented homes are provided by private investors. Yet, in this time of greatest need, with supply of rental homes at severe lows, there are few housing policies that seeks to encourage the investor cohort into supplying more homes. Instead, governments shun the idea of stamp duty reform, land taxes continue to rise and tenancy laws continue to swing in favour or tenants. Negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts are insufficient incentives to encourage enough investors to buy. Appealing tax settings and returns in superannuation funds, commercial property and syndicated funds offer ‘mum and dad’ investors an alternative to direct residential property investment. Prior to 2014, the volume of investors buying residential homes to add to the rental pool, ran at a higher rate than those selling rented homes. Talk of changes to negative gearing tax laws from the then opposition, along with broader market factors, began to see this trend reverse. Nowadays, there are more rental homes nationally being sold than purchased. In Victoria, thanks to rising land taxes and changes to tenancy laws, for every three tenanted properties sold, only one remains in the rental market. In WA, there are now 1,000 fewer tenancy bonds being held today by the Bond Administrator than in 2019. When investors are inactive in the market, it falls to government to provide the housing; something they have failed to do. Put simply, governments – supported by the media and tenancy advocates – have been busily whacking investors, whilst simultaneously failing to provide enough rental housing for Australians as the only alternative to the private investor market. And, somehow, they’ve so far been able to get away with it. ...
Sep 25, 2024
Super Homes
As COVID-19 rolled out across the globe, our Federal government responded by introducing various stimuli designed to keep Australians working and building homes. Building commencements spiked but the rapidly rising costs of materials and labour combined with fixed price building contracts has seen nearly 3,000 construction companies fail this year alone. That’s partly why there’s very little chance we will build the 1.2 million homes promised by the current government by 2029. nearly 3,000 construction companies fail The construction sector accounts for a substantial component of the workforce, so it made sense to keep tradies in work by offering incentives for home buyers to build new homes. Such incentives have taken various guises since John Howard first introduced them during his Prime Ministership. Nowadays, superannuation’s enormous pool of citizen-owned money has proven to be a useful cash-neutral resource for government to tap into by using people’s own funds to unlock housing supply and mobility. The expanded First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSSS) enables participants to build a deposit of up to $50,000 plus earnings in the low tax environment only superannuation offers. First home buyers can deposit up to $15,000 per annum into a super fund with after-tax non-concessional contributions or via voluntary additional salary sacrifice contributions. There are some useful tax savings to be had via the scheme. As Nick Bruining has elegantly explained, “A couple buying a house together [earning less than $120,000 each p.a] can effectively combine their schemes and save $100,000 this way.” Of course, the purpose of superannuation is to enable a comfortable retirement for seniors. The ‘super downsizer’ rules allow a one-off single contribution of up to $300,000 per person to be plopped into super from the sale proceeds of your primary residence. To qualify, you need to be over 60 (as from 1st July 2022) and have lived in the home for at least ten years. The sale proceeds need to be deposited into super within 90 days of settlement and the contribution is not considered part of any of the other contribution caps that otherwise apply to superannuation funds. In theory, if you and your partner are 60 and both utilise all of the various concessions that apply from 1st July, you could each deposit a non-concessional contribution of $330,000 into super using the ‘bring-forward’ rules. By adding the $300,000 downsizer contribution, a couple who sells their family home could, in a single day, contribute a combined $1,260,000 into their super fund. There are also moves from the federal government to tweak the tax rules for superannuation funds to incentivise them to invest in the ‘build-to-rent’ sector. It would not surprise to see superannuation continued to be used as a funding pool for home buyers as affordability constraints continue to challenge the dream of home ownership. Please note the content as opinion only. This does not constitute financial or tax advice. Seek independent, professional advice from licensed financial advisors....
Sep 16, 2024
Are We Close to Market Peak?
For a laugh, I often respond to the question, “When do you think the market will peak?”, by giving a specific date. It’s amusing because markets don’t normally behave in a linear, predicable way. In this current market, that date is some way off, notwithstanding some significant economic calamity occurring in the meantime. Our mining-led economy has not been impacted by the recent falls in iron ore and lithium prices, with Perth property market continuing to lead the nation, now well ahead of Queensland and South Australia. Sydney and particularly Melbourne are markets in decline as affordability constraint team up with higher interest rates and cost of living pressures. Both cities declined in value by 0.1 percent last month. Stock levels are rising in these major capitals with Ray White group reporting the highest level of spring listings ever recorded in these markets. Rental affordability continues to decline Perth’s house prices are up 24.6 percent year-to-date, a figure that is unsustainable across multiple years, to record a mean house price in August of $864,989. Brisbane nudged $1,000,000 to record $980,741 and Adelaide is at $854,659. Sydney’s mean house price of $1,601,518 is probably at current peak and Melbourne’s property-tax-loving government will continue to drive house prices down below its current $1,035,054 mean house price in coming months. The Real Estate Institute of Australia’s latest affordability report was released this week finding further deterioration in housing affordability across the nation. The average loan repayment now amounts to 48.1 percent of median family income, up 1.3 percent for the June quarter. Unsurprisingly, Western Australia’s housing affordability worsened last quarter by 1.7 percent with 39.5 percent of median weekly family income of $2,630 going to servicing the average sized loan. Victoria’s falling house prices helped affordability in that state with average weekly incomes of $2,510 losing 45.8 percent to average loan repayments. Rental affordability continues to decline too with West Australians paying 23.6 percent of weekly incomes to rent, up from 21.8 percent last year. Over time, housing affordability has declined by 11.3 percentage points over the past twenty years, with rental affordability deteriorating by only 3 percentage points over the same period. Despite much media coverage and political hyperbole about the rental crisis, it remains far more affordable to rent than own property. Across the nation, rental affordability has declined 2.4 percentage points over the past five years and 0.2 percentage points over ten years. Comparatively, home ownership affordability declined 16.2 and 14.5 percentage points during the same periods. It appears that mum and dad investors have done an exceptional job in delivering relatively affordable rental homes for millions of Australians, despite governments and the Greens actively pursuing policies that discourage them to do so. Perth’s property market will continue to rise, perhaps at a slower pace for the next quarter as affordability constraints emerge. And as for a specific date for the market peak – 29th February or April 1st next year....
Sep 10, 2024
Politics of Housing
This week, the Greens proposed a new housing policy that would introduce a national watchdog with the power to prosecute property owners who breach proposed new tenancy laws. Rent control remains high on the Greens’ political agenda who want penalties imposed for landlords who put rents up by more than two percent over two years, or who lease properties with undersized kitchens or bathrooms. The Greens also want a two-year rent freeze, tenants to have a presumed right for five-year leases and prohibit landlords from not renewing leases should they wish to sell. In further landlord-hating parlance, the Greens would fine landlords up to $15,650 and their agents $78,250 for breaches of their new suite of tenancy laws overseen by their new tenancy watchdog. Greens housing spokesman, Max Chandler-Mather reckons “landlords never do basic repairs” and that tenants are “powerless in their own home.” This is just garbage and from a bloke who took to the stage last week defending the unscrupulous actions of some leaders of the CFMEU. This latest ‘thought-bubble’ housing policy from the federal Greens has zero credibility, is designed to shock the electorate, drive division between tenants and landlords and fails the pub test – even in Fitzroy street Last time I looked, it is the private investor market that supplies 9 in 10 rental homes in the nation. It seems obvious that if you disincentivise private investors (with things like rent cap / freezes) investors will stop providing enough houses for renters. This leads to shorter supply (investors will sell) which pushes rents even higher. Yet, somehow, the Greens and have missed this fundamental economic point. Other Greens’ policies such as calling for changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts seek to demolish the current rental housing system, causing a rental crisis far worse than currently experienced. The Greens say they want solutions to address the rental crisis ‘right now’. Well, you don’t and simply can’t solve it by turning on the very people that supply the houses; you can’t magic more housing supply out of thin air if all your policies are designed to whack investors. To get more supply in the market immediately, you could start with stamp duty reform. Imagine offering a stamp duty rebate for investors that offered property at a below-market rent that guaranteed a certain reasonable return with fixed moderate annual rent increases. Investors would buy and re-supply the market. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is on the record as a supporter of reforming stamp duty; that unfair tax that stifles economic growth and impacts affordability. Everyone from the Henry Tax Review through to the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) agree with what real estate agents have always known; that stamp duty is a significant barrier to property ownership and rental affordability and is a transaction-killing tax that should be reformed. There is no avoiding that the only way to address rental affordability is by increasing supply and unhelpful policies that seek to diminish supply rather than incentivise it is counter-intuitive madness....
Sep 5, 2024
We Need Investors
The latest inflation figures released this week reveals some softening in consumer spending on fuel, discretionary items and electricity. The treasurer labelled inflation ‘sticky’ – code for ‘still too high’ at 3.5% for the twelve months to July. Rents are up 7% contributing to keeping inflation above the target band of 2-3%. Perth’s rents have stabilised over the past two months with median house rent at $650 per week, supply has crept up from last year and median days on market are beginning to rise. For context, four years ago, house rents were $370 per week The primary reason rents have risen so sharply is due to lack of adequate supply whilst demand -through increased population – has rapidly increased. Governments have very successfully shifted the blame for today’s housing affordability challenges away from their own housing policy failures and instead pointed the finger at property investors and the real estate agents that represent them. Politicians have very effectively shifted the narrative away from supporting private property investment to supply homes to the market whilst simultaneously blaming investors for spiralling rents and house prices. This is a remarkable achievement. Like it or not, unsophisticated private investors – ordinary Australians – supply 27 percent of all homes in the nation to tenants. Government supply about 3 percent as social housing. It is fact that across Australia, 9 out of 10 rented homes are provided by private investors. Yet, in this time of greatest need, with supply of rental homes at severe lows, there are few housing policies that seeks to encourage the investor cohort into supplying more homes. Instead, governments shun the idea of stamp duty reform, land taxes continue to rise and tenancy laws continue to swing in favour or tenants. Negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts are insufficient incentives to encourage enough investors to buy. Appealing tax settings and returns in superannuation funds, commercial property and syndicated funds offer ‘mum and dad’ investors an alternative to direct residential property investment. Prior to 2014, the volume of investors buying residential homes to add to the rental pool, ran at a higher rate than those selling rented homes. Talk of changes to negative gearing tax laws from the then opposition, along with broader market factors, began to see this trend reverse. Nowadays, there are more rental homes nationally being sold than purchased. In Victoria, thanks to rising land taxes and changes to tenancy laws, for every three tenanted properties sold, only one remains in the rental market. In WA, there are now 1,000 fewer tenancy bonds being held today by the Bond Administrator than in 2019. When investors are inactive in the market, it falls to government to provide the housing; something they have failed to do. Put simply, governments – supported by the media and tenancy advocates – have been busily whacking investors, whilst simultaneously failing to provide enough rental housing for Australians as the only alternative to the private investor market. And, somehow, they’ve so far been able to get away with it. ...
