Is Australian Property a Bubble or the Biggest Opportunity of 2026

George Markoski Hello, George Markoski and Christina Markoski coming to you live for the Positive Property Show. And welcome. Tonight we’re having the great debate. Is the great Australian property bubble debate. Is there a property bubble or is there not? What? I’ve got something for you tonight. Something different. There’s been a national survey done on Australians about market sentiment, about salary, housing, everything else like that. So I’m going to go through that later on. But first we’re going to start this debate. Christina. Christina Markoski Hi, George. Good afternoon. George Markoski Well, if it’s a debate, one of us has to say it’s a housing bubble. Christina Markoski The great Australian property bubble debate, imminent crash or endless boom. George Markoski So, so, okay, what are you going to go for? Because we need to have different sides. Christina Markoski Okay, I see. You want to make it like a. George Markoski Yeah, why don’t you push that it’s a bubble and I’ll push that. It’s not. Or the other way around. Christina Markoski Okay, I don’t mind, whatever. Or we could just talk about the points in general for both. George Markoski Okay, okay. Well, okay. People are saying there’s a property bubble. And the one thing they’re saying is this. They’re saying that property prices never been higher ever in Australia. Christina Markoski Well, that’s a fair point. George Markoski That is a very fair point. We got it. We’ve got to call that one. They are. But I want to say something else though. I want to do a counter to that. That’s what I want to do. Right. So are they the most expensive they’ve ever been? Yes, they are. They’ve never been higher property prices. However, if you look at history, just about any time you look at the property prices, you can say one thing, they’ve never been higher. You can literally buy it every year, nearly every month. So over a 10 year cycle you can say that every time and then there’s a little dip and you can say, okay, they have been higher, but only for a little bit because they’re still the highest they’ve ever been. George Markoski So I think when it talk, when you talk about property price never being high, I don’t think it’s a serious. Christina Markoski Argument because they’re always going to be higher. George Markoski The stock market’s never been higher either. Right. Because what happens is we got this thing called inflation, and the government’s capitalism is built on inflation. So governments are printing money all the time. And that’s the thing we need to realize. And because of that, price are going to keep going up. And every time we look at it and go, wow, this is so high, surely can’t keep going. It does, because inflation pushes it. Christina Markoski Yeah. But would you say with what’s going on in the world right now, that we could be looking at a correction and the property bubble burst could be around the corner with the Strait of Hormuz closed again and, you know, supply chains being stifled. So how is that impacting the property market in Australia? George Markoski Yes, okay, that’s a good point and I appreciate you bringing that up. So market sentiment’s at all time low and the strata who moves is really a big challenge because they keep opening, closing it. No one can make up their mind. Christina Markoski And feel like it changes every 10 minutes. George Markoski Look, not every 10 minutes, but it. The. The Iranian government and Trump and Israelis are. They’ve got different goals. Right. That’s the thing. And because they’ve got different goals, it’s hard for them to have an arrangement and agree. And, you know, you think they’re gonna have a ceasefire and they have. At the moment, they’ve got a ceasefire. And Trump extended it again. He said he wasn’t extending it, but extended it. So the fact of it is, it’s gonna be very hard to have an off ramp. I doubt it’s going to end soon because I think all parties involved are very stubborn and it’s going to be tough. So what’s that going to do to the economy? Well, what it’s going to do to the economy is it’s going to do what Covid did. Christina Markoski Right, Right. George Markoski Because with a contraction of availability of energy, so what’s happening is we’re not getting enough diesel. The thing with Australia is, though, when gas prices go up, we make more money if we do it properly. Christina Markoski Right, okay. George Markoski Okay. Well, we’re. We’re one of the biggest exporters of natural gas in the world. We’ve got a lot of resources. So when there’s resources that are getting clogged up. So look what happened with Ukraine and Russia, right? So Ukraine and Russia, basically what happened there is the war. The war happened. So it was harder to get oil out, harder to get gas out, harder to get coal, iron and also wheat because Ukraine’s the breadbasket of Europe. So who took its place? Well, Australia went up. Everything went up, right? And if you look at our trade surplus, we’ve got a massive trade surplus. This is how you rate countries in the world, right? Because what you have is you buy things from different countries and then you sell different things in different countries, right? George Markoski Imagine, you know, you own Australia and you’re selling coal here, selling iron there. We pick up some cars from Japan, we pick up this other stuff. And what happens is then you’ve got an. Either a trade surplus or deficit, right? A surplus means that you’ve sold more things that you bought, which is good, right? It’s a bit like if you earn 2,000 a week, right, and you spent only 1,500, that’s good. It’s not bad. But if you earn 2 grand a week and you spend 3 grand a week, that’s bad, right? Now that’s America. That’s what America does, right? They spend big, right? Just their interest alone is so expensive. Like, you’re crazy. So Australia actually is a good position because we actually spend less on things coming in than things going out, right? George Markoski And then the strata for we’ve got a surplus, which is very, very strong, very powerful thing. Now, at the moment, we don’t tax our resources in the right way. I did a post about this. Christina Markoski I can agree on that, absolutely. George Markoski Now all we have to do is tweak that a little bit and we’re literally going to be a rich country because of this. Christina Markoski So with the politics in Australia, do you think that will ever happen? George Markoski Look, I hope so, but we’ve got a crossroads now. Door one, do always do, and then totally tank our economy and stuff everything up. Door two, create a better policy. Tax the gas cartels, because there are a bunch of cartels. Tax them, tax our resources going out, right? And then we can actually become the richest country in the world again. So we’ve got a great opportunity. It’s very exciting. If we do it now. There’s been a lot of pressure. I mean, the government makes more money out of taxing people’s drinks than taxing gas at the moment. Christina Markoski Wow, that’s crazy right now. George Markoski That is so crazy. Christina Markoski That’s where their focus is. George Markoski Their focus is, let’s Tax everyone. Well, look, Australia, they make. They make more money out of taxing people for cigarettes and alcohol. Christina Markoski I was about to say cigarettes. George Markoski And the thing is, the fact of it is, the policy is backfiring because they’ve taxed it so much that now it’s so worthwhile for criminal gangs creating an underground market. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski Which was then. They’re making billions. Right. So what happened was, if you look at America and prohibition created the massive underbelly of criminals in America that’s still there to this day. And unfortunately, our government taxing tobacco too much is just creating a lot of gangs and mafia and underground criminals. It’s ridiculous, right? Because what you need to do, you need to tax people, but not too much. But the Australian government loves to tax our wages, tax cigarettes. They love taxing all the people so much, but they’re too scared to tax the billionaires. They’re too scared to tax the big corporates that take all our resources and laugh all the way to the bank and pay sweet FA tax at all. George Markoski Japan’s now asking us not to tax our gas that goes to them, but they tax the gas when it comes in and make money out of it. Wow. It’s like, okay, Japan, why don’t you take your tax out? If we’re going to take our tax out, why can’t we tax our own resource when you are taxing them, when you get them from us? Right? So what we need is we need a strong leader that can do deals. You know, I would love to just do deals with the government. Right? I would love that. I’d love that. Right. I wouldn’t want to be a politician. I’d love to be hired as a negotiator and just do deals that work for the Australian population. I’d love to do that. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski That’s what we need. We need someone that can do deals and someone’s not going to be bribeable. Christina Markoski Do you see that ever happening for Australia, though? George Markoski Them hiring me to do deals for them? Christina Markoski No, no, I mean someone who can do deals, getting into that position. George Markoski Okay, so in politics, if you look, Victoria had Jeff Kenneth, right? And guess what happened when Jeff Kenneth got in power? He did deals. He went to the Grand Prix, took it from Adelaide, took the tennis, took everything and put it all in Melbourne. Christina Markoski Made the state great. George Markoski He made Melbourne so amazing that property price went up. They had the best restaurants, everyone was getting jobs, they were making money. And it was equal to Sydney, Right, Because Melbourne was falling behind and Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth were moving past Melbourne and Melbourne were just stagnating. Jeff Kenneth took over and then Melbourne became equal to Sydney instead of, you know, went past all the other. All the other cities. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski Then who did they have recently in Melbourne? Christina Markoski Dan Andrews. George Markoski Yeah, they’re Dan Andrews. And Dan took it from. Christina Markoski Put Melvin in the toilet. George Markoski From equal number one to on the bottom right of the bottom. Christina Markoski It’s funny, I was having this conversation with a few people today actually about how Melbourne used to be the greatest state in Australia and now it’s considered one of the worst after Covid and after the full almost lockdown for two years and it just destroyed the economy. George Markoski Yeah. So we really need the right governance, right. Christina Markoski Oh, it makes a huge difference. George Markoski The challenge is, the challenge is we’ve got labor at the moment who I think suck. I feel that one person that did a good job for labor was actually Kevin Rund. And he only did one good thing. Everything else he did was pretty crap. Like during the GFC he just gave $2,000 to all the lower income earners. And what they do, they just spent it on TVs. Right. Instead of helping the economy like see Malcolm Turnbull, helped the economy. He did a lot better. He actually got us through. Did a great job with Jobkeeper and job assistance. Right. He kept that infrastructure going and we became the richest country in the world. Kevin Rudd did one good policy only, the 35% tax on mining and resources and he got stabbed in the back. Christina Markoski He didn’t get it through for long though until they. George Markoski No, didn’t get it through at all. Didn’t get it through at all. Julie Gillard stabbed him in the back and just took over and curtailed to the mining companies. Christina Markoski He never eventuated to anything. George Markoski You think about this, right? The mining companies aren’t willing to pay 35% tax on their billions, but they expect the average person that earns over 150,000 to pay 50% tax in Australia. Right. So you know the workers that work all the FIFO that work for the mining companies, they pay all this tax. The mining companies don’t pay it. Right? Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski So what’s happening is the burden of tax is going in the middle class like always. It sucks. So let’s go back to the bubble. Is this a property bubble? Right. Is the bubble going to burst? Because a lot of people are curious about that. Is it going to burst? Look, the fact of it is we’ve got to look at supply and demand because when you look at housing price at the moment, it measure makes your eyes water, right? Doesn’t it? Right? It does, it does. Christina Markoski Very expensive. George Markoski You look at it, you want it, you look at buying a property, you want to cry. Right. But I’ve been through places like this before. Basically the fact of it is it’s the supply and demand that’s the issue. And with the government at the moment, and I think they’re bringing in 3,000 immigrants every single day. Christina Markoski Yeah, that’s huge. George Markoski And these 3,000 people need somewhere to live. And how is the bubble going to burst when you got so many new buyers coming in? Right. You know, when Apple, they released a new iPhone, they charge a lot of money for it. Does the bubble burst? No. Why? Because people want to buy. All comes down to supply and demand. That’s what it comes down. Christina Markoski Right. George Markoski And the fact of it is, I’ll show you some stats soon that we had more construction companies go broke during COVID than in Australia’s history. That’s how bad it is. More companies going broke in construction than the last hundred years. Christina Markoski Wow. George Markoski Now guess what’s going to happen again very soon. Christina Markoski Similar thing again. George Markoski Yes. So what happened was Covid thinned out the herd and now they put more pressure on and the people that survived that famine that you know, that survived through that, they’re going to hit again. Because the problem is if you’ve just gone through all this pain, right. And making no money as a construction company, you need to make money to get back on your feet. They just started making money again and guess what, they’re getting hit again now. They’re getting smashed and there’s going to be a die off again. So it’s a bit like, you know, the dinosaurs. I see the construction companies like the dinosaurs. And when the comet hit and they all died, well, basically Covid hit, a bunch of them died. There’s a few dinosaurs left and now they’re getting hit again by another comet. Right. They’re all embargo. George Markoski That’s the thing. So. Christina Markoski So you’re saying only the toughest will survive. George Markoski Only look, what’s happening is the construction companies that are really dialed in or backed up with a lot of cash, they will survive. And people that are unlucky, just bad timing. They didn’t expect this to happen. So some of it’s skill, but some of it’s luck. Right. People have a big pipeline of fixed costs. They’re screwed as well. Christina Markoski Right. George Markoski So. So what’s happening at the moment? This is the funny thing. Auction rates have gone down in Sydney and Melbourne. And auction rates, when they go down, it usually Means that property prices are going down. That’s just a fact. We’re going to look at it realistic. So the signs are that the steam’s coming off and there’s a slowdown. This slowdown, how long it will last? Not long, because you can only slow down for how long before. So what’s happening is a lot of people are selling and they’re going to end up renting and they’re going to go, wow, cost so much to rent. I have to buy again. Right. Because not going to help. And now the government wants to get rid of negative gearing and GST concessions and that’s going to make the market even tougher. George Markoski So is the bubble going to burst or we’re going to have endless growth? You can’t have endless growth forever. However, when there’s an issue of supply and there’s a lot of demand, that’s going to keep pushing growth until it stabilizes. And the only way to stabilize is, the only way we can stabilize is what we need to do is we need to cut immigration right down and then we need to build more properties. So even cutting immigration right down is not going to fix the problem because. Christina Markoski We’ve got a massive backlog. George Markoski That’s right, We’ve got a massive backlog and we’re going to. Christina Markoski Was supposed to be built, but we missed the mark. And each year that gets bigger and bigger. George Markoski Not only that. Not only that, though. Remember last week of the week before, I spoke about how we’ve got a lot of approvals but that are turning into builds because people can’t afford to build them. Well, what do you think is going to happen now? The construction collapsing? It’s going to get worse. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski So that pipeline, which is already 100,000 houses short, is going to get even smaller. Christina Markoski Surely the government’s got to do some sort of bailout here to get things moving. George Markoski Look, the government, this is what they need to do. They need to one, slow down immigration and make it reasonable. Immigration is good for the country, but only if it’s measured and we need to slow it right down, slow the F down. Then what we need to do is tax our resources. We are in the lucky country. We’ve got so many resources, got a lot of smart people here. Australians have got a beautiful culture. We’ve got everything going for us, but we just need leaders that know how to lead and can make the tough decisions and help us go forward in a good way. Everyone in Australia should be doing really well. We should be kicking ass. Right. We should Give less money to the billionaires and more money to the middle class. George Markoski More money to the people out there working and actually creating Australia, making it happen. So the big debate, is it a, is there a housing bubble? Housing is expensive, that’s the fact of it. But the other fact is construction costs have gone. So if you buy in today’s price, it’s going to cost another 35 to 50,000 to build a house in six months time. So whatever you’re looking at now, the price you’re looking at now is going to be 35, 50,000 more expensive even if people don’t want to buy it. So this is the fact, even if no one wants to buy it, you still need to build it for that price. So therefore it has to go up by that much anyway. The thing is though, you got people wanting to buy it, so it’s going to go up even more. George Markoski So I feel that the pressure is so strong that it’s going to push property prices anyway. Long term, you know, short term market sentiment, kind of funny things and we might have a little dip. Long term it’s going to grow. What I tell people to do, this is what I tell people to do. You need to build your portfolio one property at a time. Regardless if it’s summer or winter, the season going to go around and what happens is people forget that when it’s summer it’s going to be winter, when it’s winter it’s going to be summer. Yeah, but it is. And what needs to happen is you need to stick to principles and just build your proper foliar one step at a time. George Markoski Let’s go through the survey of what Australians are feeling at the moment and then after that we’re going to do Q and A. So if you’ve got any questions, type in the chat right now. We’re going to talk to them about them. Let’s go. Christina Markoski Yeah, I can see we’ve got quite a few. Come here. I’m getting ready to read these out when the time comes. George Markoski Yep, let’s do it. Christina Markoski We’re going to go through the survey first. George Markoski Yep. Go through the presentation. Okay. Okay. So Australians are losing confidence. The system across Australia, confidence. The system has started to crack. National survey reveals growing frustrations across the living housing, affordability and the direction of the country. So this is not just economic data, this is sentiment. And historically when sentiment shifts like this, the data tends to follow. So this is the biggest concern for people in Australia right now. As we speak, the housing crisis is become the top concern. So you look at this. What is the biggest cultural problem facing Australia right now? 24% Are facing housing crisis. 23% Domestic and family violence. Christina Markoski Wow. George Markoski 16% Antisemitism. That’s a lot of people worrying about anti Semitism. 15% Is other 12. 13% Wealth disparity. 4.3 Future to close the gap between indigenous and non indigenous Australians. Failure. Sorry. 2.8% Islamophobia. 1% Access to education. That’s what people are worried about at the moment. Interesting that housing and domestic violence are the two top concerns of Australia. Christina Markoski Was it multiple choice and did they only have those options to people? George Markoski They only had these options to pick. Christina Markoski Okay. Yeah, yeah. George Markoski So, so what happens is when you got multiple choice, you almost force answer. Right? Christina Markoski Yeah. Because it seemed very specific with those sorts of concerns. George Markoski Exactly, exactly. So I don’t think you’d ring someone up and go, what’s your biggest concern? They’re going to say Islamophobia. Probably not. Or anti Semitism. Christina Markoski Probably. George Markoski Probably not. Christina Markoski Because someone’s got to pick that box out if you send it out to enough people. Yeah, yeah, fascinating. George Markoski Okay, so what makes you most worried about the future of Australia? Christina Markoski High cost of living. George Markoski Right? Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski So cost of living is the biggest thing that people are worried about and quite. Christina Markoski I get rise of artificial intelligence 6.1%. George Markoski Yeah, but let’s go through the numbers. So cost of living and I can see that because inflation creates cost of living issues and we’ve already gone through massive inflation in Covid so we’d like finally settled down and now we’re going to go through it again. Like how many of these cycles can you afford? How many cycles can you handle? But guess what number two is Immigration. Right. So the government needs to listen because if they don’t listen, what’s going to happen is everyone’s going to vote in Pauline Hanson instead to fix the immigration issue. And I don’t think that’s a good answer. And I know a lot of people think, you know Pauline Hanson, she’s going to get in there and change things and all that. George Markoski I think we need a whole team of good people, politicians that can do a really good job and I’m hoping the Liberal Party can step up and do this job themselves. Rise of wokeness 20% I mean people were worried about that a while ago, but they’re still worried at the moment, I guess. Then housing prices, then climate change and rise of artificial intelligence. Interesting. The one you picked out, Christina, of the 3.3%, what salary do you need to be rich. Okay, now look at this. Okay, so rich now starts at $250,000 a year. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski Right. Christina Markoski Not surprised. George Markoski So you look at this 21% people say you need to make over 450,000 a year to be rich. Then 90% said 350 to 420% said 250 to 300. But 20% said 200,000. 250. So interesting. Only 2.4% think 80 to 100,000 is rich. I agree. I don’t think it’s rich. It’s going to be hard. Right. So now most Australians think top tier income is now the baseline for wealth. Christina Markoski 450,000 Plus. George Markoski Yeah. What minimum salary do you need to get by? So 34% said they need 100 to 150,000 to just get by. People need six figures now just to get by. They’re not going to understand that because everything’s gone up in value. Right. Then 17% said 150, 200K, 27%, 80 to 100. And then 10 said 60,000. 6% Needed 2, 100 to 250,000. 2.8 Need 250,300 just to get by. 1.9% Of people need 350,000 to get by. They must be living in Sydney. And I can understand that in Sydney you need a lot of money. How much money do you have? Okay, so 17% of people have got 5,000 to $20,000 savings. Right. And then 12% have got not a. Christina Markoski Lot less than 20%. George Markoski Can you read this out? It’s very small writing. Christina? Christina Markoski Yep. Which one do you want me to read? George Markoski Let’s start at 17 and work our way down. Christina Markoski Next highest looks to be 12.8%. 100 To 500,000. George Markoski Okay. They’re doing very well. Christina Markoski Wow, that’s huge. Yeah. George Markoski Then next is these people have got 100,000 to 500,000. Get your money out the bank, put in property. Christina Markoski So next is 12.7%, 20 to 50,000. George Markoski Then 10% of people got 1,000 to $5,000. Not a lot. So the fact of it is, this is the thing, we’ve got inflation at the moment. So regardless of whatever they’re saving, unless they’ve got this in an offset account they’re saving up to buy a deposit on a property, it’s going to shrink. Okay, look at this. People are skipping one in three people avoiding the doctor because they can’t afford it. And this is Australia, not America. In America, everyone avoids the doctor. But look at that. Yes. I can’t Afford. So I got to prioritize other things. Nearly 30% of people. Christina Markoski 35.6%, No. But I think it should be cheaper. George Markoski Yep. Do you think the tax too much? Okay, 76 of Australians said, yes, I should get to keep more of what I earn. Amen. I agree. Christina Markoski 76% Of Australians are switched on. George Markoski Oh, wait. Look at this. 2.2% Said no, I’d be happy to pay more tax. Christina Markoski Who ticked that box? George Markoski People that work for the ato. Christina Markoski I don’t believe anyone ticked that, honestly. George Markoski Does Australia have a problem with the tall poppy syndrome? 51% Yes. 49 No. Okay, so 51%. Yeah. We are a society. Feel that need to drag down people reaching success. 49 No. The only people who complain about this are those who big note themselves. Interesting. I really. I’ve traveled around a lot, and I’ve noticed a big difference when it comes to. In America and Australia. And America do not have tall poppy syndrome. America almost overboard where they love success and really worship it. We’re in Australia. We bag it a little bit. And I think, I don’t want to be like America. I don’t think we should worship success, but I think we need to appreciate it and appreciate people that have become. Christina Markoski We’ve got to have a healthy respect. George Markoski For it, though, because if someone’s become successful at something, well, it’s not easy to become successful. So they’ve done something good and we should appreciate it and learn from it, not go, oh, what a loser. He’s rich. You know what I mean? Do you lie on your tax return? Okay, most str. Still playing it straight. 76% Say no, I am always truthful. Christina Markoski Under 2% say yes, I have in the past, but I wouldn’t anymore. George Markoski Yet 6% said prefer not to say, I wonder what they’re doing. Christina Markoski I think we’ve got the answer there. 3.7% Said, yes, I try and get away with as much as I can. 11.6% Yes. But just a little bit. George Markoski My view is I think you’d never, ever lie in your tax return. I think it’s stupid. I think what you should do is legally reduce your tax as much as possible. Do not lie because lying is a false economy. It’s going to catch up to you sooner or later. Okay, what income do you need to have to afford to have kids in 2026? Christina Markoski 32% Say more than 200,000 for the household income. 36.8% More than 100,000. 19.2%. At least an average salary of about 100,000. George Markoski So what they’re saying you need more than 100,000. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski Starting a family is not cheap. That’s another thing people need to look at. Okay, what age do you think you’ll be able to comfortably retire? Christina Markoski 42.7% Say between 60 and 70. Less than 50%. George Markoski 21%. What are they saying? Christina Markoski I don’t think I’ll ever be able to comfortably retire. George Markoski That’s sad. 10%, 50, 60, 16%. 70 To 80.4%. 30 To 42.6. I am retired, but not comfortable. 5.2. I’m already retired comfortably. Christina Markoski Look, fascinating. George Markoski The fact of it is around about 92% of people end up on the age old pension. And I would suggest for most people the age old pension is not comfortable. Christina Markoski Well, it’s not keeping up with inflation for one. George Markoski No, it’s not. I think it’d be very difficult at the moment if you’re on the old age pension. Christina Markoski I mean, every year it gets further and further away. George Markoski Thing is, if you look at the old age pension, we spend more money on NDIs than the old age pension, which is crazy. And the thing is the old age pension, people worked all their lives to get there, paying taxes. And I think the least we can do is actually reward them with giving them a comfortable lifestyle when they retire. I don’t think we should be allowing Australians to work their whole life and then struggle. I’m totally against that. I’m just not impressed that’s what we do. How worried about are you that AI will negatively impact your job? Christina Markoski So 48% say not worried. My job couldn’t be done by AI. George Markoski Yep, sure. Not until next year. Christina Markoski Give it a few years, those stats will change. 25% Somewhat worried and then looks like everyone else is sort of not really that worried. George Markoski No one, no one’s worried at all. No one’s worried at all just yet. Okay. Are you worried about Australia becoming a cashless society? Christina Markoski 42% Say yes. I’m worried about the effect on older and disadvantaged people. So 28% say yes because I frequently use or am paid in cash. 24% Say no. I’m still a fault for it. George Markoski Yeah, Look, I like the option to have cash. I think it’s important. But also, I mean, you look at sometimes what happens when governments think that you’re the wrong person. They can just freeze all your assets. And then what do you do if. Christina Markoski You’ve got no cash? George Markoski Right. Because the problem with cashless society, it gives governments and big banks too Much power over what you can and can’t. Christina Markoski Do with your own money. George Markoski Yes. Would you consider leaving Australia and moving to a different country? Well, I said yes to that, but have a Look at this. 56.6% Said, no, I’m not interested. 32% Said, yes, I’d like to. That’s a lot of people. Christina Markoski That’s no wonder they need so much immigration to keep up with everyone leaving. George Markoski Yep. 8.6 That I’ve. I’ve moved to another country but have returned to Australia. What’s the last one? Christina Markoski 2.4%. I’ve left Australia and live in another country. George Markoski There you go. Christina Markoski They’re the people who have actually done it. George Markoski Yeah. A lot of people leaving the west and moving into other countries for a lot of reasons. I. I know quite a few people that left Canada because they were too woke in the schools and they wanted their kids to have an education that wasn’t too woke and they went to another country. Okay. If you’re a tenant, do you believe what you pay in rent is reasonable? Christina Markoski 71% Doesn’t apply to me because they’re not tenants. George Markoski We don’t have a lot of tenants in Australia. And 20% said, no, it’s not too high. Oh, no. Christina Markoski They said, no, it’s too high. Sorry, they think their rent is too high. George Markoski Oh, okay. Sorry. I really mistook that one. 6.9 Said, yes, it’s fair. That’s my tenants, by the way. Just letting you know. Christina Markoski 1.2%. I should probably be paying more. George Markoski Oh, no, that’s the ones where, you know, you get that tenant and you’re. Christina Markoski Like, haven’t had the rent put up in 10 years. George Markoski Yeah, exactly right. And they’re like, they’re a good tenant. You know, they’re very stable. Yes, but you haven’t put the rent up in 10 years. Okay. Have you considered selling your home in the past 12 months due to mortgage stress? Christina Markoski 46% Have said, I’m not in mortgage stress and have not considered selling. 36% Doesn’t apply to me. Then. 8.8%. I’m in mortgage stress, but I haven’t considered selling. 6.6. Yes, but I haven’t gone through with it. And 2%. Yes, I’ve sold for this reason. George Markoski Yeah. So you can see it’s a very small percentage. Christina Markoski Yeah. Interesting. I thought that would have been much higher, personally. George Markoski Yes. People, a lot of people just haven’t got the mortgage risk, which is fortunate. And the people that do are sticking their guns. It’s interesting, isn’t it. This is very interesting to know. If you own a home, how long do you think it will take you to pay off your mortgage? Christina Markoski Okay. 27% I have paid off my mortgage. George Markoski Look at that. That’s huge. And that’s very indicative. Australia with the lucky country. Because there’s not a lot of country where you can see that at all. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski 15.9% Within 30 years, if you look at that. 27.4% They’ve already paid off their mortgage. That’s part of the reason why our property market is so strong, because the property price in other countries are so expensive compared to the income. They wouldn’t be able to do that. Christina Markoski Right. George Markoski Yeah. We’re very lucky. Still, let’s keep going through the. No, no, go back. I want to go through the numbers. Christina Markoski Yep. So 15.9% say within 30 years. 18.6. Within 20. 15% Within 10 years. 7% I don’t think I’m ever going to pay off my mortgage. And 16% I don’t own my own home. George Markoski There you go. Do you still aspire to own a house? Christina Markoski 60% I already own a home. George Markoski That’s good. Well done. Christina Markoski 19%. Yes. It’s the Australian dream. George Markoski It is the Australian dream and I want to keep it alive. Christina Markoski 10%. Yes, but I’ve accepted I will never be able to afford it. 5.7%. No, I’ll never be able to afford it. I don’t think so. I don’t think about it. George Markoski Yeah, interesting. Christina Markoski 3.2%. Yes, but I’ll buy an investment, not a place to live. Because of prices. George Markoski They’re very smart. Look at that. Rent vestors. Right. 3.2% Of people are investors. I thought I’d point that out. That’s pretty cool. Christina Markoski Yeah. And 1.9. No, I don’t care. I’m happy renting. George Markoski There you go. Some people don’t care. Christina Markoski Interesting. George Markoski So, okay, now let’s go to the state of the nation. Rate cuts are not coming anytime soon. Our unemployment rate remains stable. So what’s happened is because of an inflation and everything that’s happening, the RBA said that if the unemployment rate goes up, they might cut rates. But unemployment hasn’t gone up. People have still got jobs, which is good news for the economy. Now what we’re going to look at is back in the 90s, unemployment rate was over 10% and property prices still went up at 10%. Unemployment. Christina Markoski 10% Fuel reduction use. Interesting. George Markoski Working. Here we go. The economy hasn’t felt the real impact yet, so fuel shortage is slowing. Growth and I expect to hit jobs in coming months. The risk is the RBA tightens too far before being forced to reverse. So this is the impact of 10% fuel reduction, use, mining, construction, transport, agriculture. Now this is the thing though, you look at that second graph, construction. That’s a double whammy because a 10% fuel, if it affects construction, that means less properties getting built and more construction companies going broken. Look at construction costs. So have a look at this graph because this is really important. We had 2020, as you can see, constructions went up in 2021, 2022, then finally they went back down in 2023, 24, 25, back to normal and look what’s happening now. George Markoski That graph is off the charts and it’s bigger than what happened in 2022. So basically material input costs are rising sharply and builders are getting hit with another wave of price increases in 2026. It’s going to be tough for everyone and the construction industry is heading for a breakdown. So rising costs and contract pressure are pushing builders towards insolvency. New supply will stall as projects become unviable and contracts collapse. Christina Markoski Who’s going to come in and finish all these projects? George? Because there’s going to be so many half done projects in Australia. George Markoski Look, half done projects, the worst thing ever because they cost so much to build. Christina Markoski No one wins, just sits there and does nothing. George Markoski Yes. So what’s going to happen is there’s a big pipeline, that massive pipeline we’ve sold of properties that have been approved ain’t going to happen. A lot of that pipeline is going to get canceled. So the smart builders are going to cancel before they go broke. The dumb ones are going to start building and go broke halfway through. And that’s what happened in Covid. A lot of people got stuck with half built projects and then you’ve got to sue them and then they’ve got no money so they can’t sue them. And then to get a builder to finish a project that’s half built costs more than building the whole project on its own. Because the thing is when what builders do is they create systems and they’ve got teams and those teams know their work. George Markoski So to take on something different is too expensive and too hard. So let’s get on to real people, real results. Why smart investors are buying right now. Let’s have a look. Welcome. This is Tristan. So do you want to go to this, Christina? Christina Markoski Yeah. So Tristan used equity from his own occupier in Queensland to get into Beaudesert. So settled in 2025, purchased for $419,000. Did a 10% deposit, currently valued at 565,000. So it’s had capital growth of just under $150,000 on the first property. George Markoski $146,000 In about a year. Christina Markoski Yeah, yeah. Less than a year. George Markoski Yep. Christina Markoski That’s amazing. George Markoski Yep. Let’s go. Christina Markoski Next property, Caboolture Queensland. So this one also settled in 2025, purchased for 550,000. 10% Deposit, currently valued at 700,000. Capital growth of 150,000. George Markoski Great. Christina Markoski So that’s 300,000 they’ve got with an act. Looks like he’s recently got into that one. George Markoski Yeah. Yep. But that means that he’s made $296,000 in about 12 months. Now, if you look at that survey, people say that over 250,000 a year is rich. And Tristan’s done that with just his property portfolio not even working himself. Is Tristan here tonight? Christina Markoski Hello, Tristan. George Markoski Tristan, how are you? Tristan A. Evening. How’s it going? Christina Markoski Hello. George Markoski Very good, yeah. Tristan A. Absolutely stoked with those results. George Markoski That’s. That’s cool. Christina Markoski Congratulations. George Markoski Yeah, look, I’d love to go through your journey. How did you hear about us? How did you find out about a positive property? Let’s go from the beginning because this is curious. I’m curious. Tristan A. Yeah. I was on maternity leave with our third one and scrolling through Tick Tock and then seen both Christina and George’s different Tick tocks and thought this. Yeah, there might be something here. So I had a moment where in between no sleep with children and having some time, but sort of delved into it. I sort of tried having an investment property myself and going through that and yeah, ended up getting rid of that. Totally. To be able to be cashed up and use equity and get into these ones. I suppose Caboolture for me though is using super. So I mean, virtually, you know, not even 18 months with build and having it all done now. And essentially I’ve made another 150 grand in my super, which I wouldn’t have done in a retail fund. So that’s absolutely worth it. George Markoski Okay, I’ve got. I’ve got one question first. Okay. Who’s TikTok convinced you, me or Christina? Tristan A. Christina wins hands down. Sorry. George Markoski Of course, of course. Christina Markoski Thanks, Tristan. George Markoski No worries, Tristan. I. I understand that. Yeah. Now, what happened to your first investment property? Did you buy that on your own? Why didn’t it work out? What’s the difference of what we did with you? Tristan A. Yeah, so it was. I bought an apartment when I was. Before I was with my wife and I’d lived in that originally and then we obviously blended together into the house and so I kept it. But it was an apartment that had eight units or eight apartments in it and then started to have. We ended up nearly 3,000 a quarter on Body Court and then they had structural wall issues for it and they were talking about taking another 150 grand loan out on the, on top of the, for the Body Corp. And I was just, yeah, alarm bells. I’m like got out of it, made a little bit of money out of it so I didn’t lose anything but. George Markoski Oh good. Tristan A. Absolutely get out of that before locked into really high Body Court stuff. So. And yeah, it’s able to then use equity where we are now and a little bit of that cash and so yeah, keep the journey going. But yeah, I’ve got the executed contract back last week for Canberra and the act there, so that’s exciting. So. Christina Markoski And you’ve just paid a thousand dollar deposit down to secure that property? Tristan A. Yeah, I’ve got to pay another 47 soon. But yes, that’s. But yeah, absolutely still 10% deposit, like that’s crazy. And exactly like you’ve highlighted tonight with the costs, you know we’re going to see another huge spike and certainly locking those in for a fixed fee now is a big benefit for us. George Markoski Yeah, yep, absolutely. Yeah, totally. What I was going to ask is what was your biggest challenges as you went through the program buying property? Because you know, people hear the good stuff. You made a lot of money, well done. But there must be some challenges as well I suppose. Tristan A. Like Beaudes, it was a good 18 months so I, you know, joined up, signed up, all excited with the steam and then the sitting and waiting part is, was just the real hard bit to actually. Oh hang on, am I doing the right thing? Is that still there? But you know, now I mean by desert’s just ticked over a year being tenanted now and you know, got a rent increase as well. So it’s just. Yeah, absolutely. The proof is in the pudding there. But I suppose me being impatient as well, that was probably the hard bit for me. George Markoski Yep, yep. And now with what’s happening with the building industry, we’re gonna have to be very patient with properties because yeah, I’d rather be patient and get my project finished than being patient, not get it finished because that’s the thing that people are going to experience over the next couple of years is going to be tough. Tristan A. Yeah, most definitely. But big thank you to PP team. Awesome. Happy to be making money with you all. George Markoski So fantastic. One last question. What would you say to people that are watching this live right now thinking about investing in property? Tristan A. You snooze, you lose. Jump in. George Markoski I love it. I love it. Yeah. Tristan A. There’s sitting idle on the fence and wondering and waiting for it for that moment, you know, it just thinking, you know, put your investor hat on. It’s not. Not somewhere where you need to live or anything like that. It’s, you know, think about what’s going to give you the best return and jump in. George Markoski Excellent. Tristan A. Thank you. George Markoski I really appreciate you. Thanks, Tristan. Tristan A. No worries. Thank you. Christina Markoski Thanks, Tristan. George Markoski So, Christina, we’re going to go through the Q and A now. We’re going to go to the Q and A. We’re still on the live in the public group. What we’re going to do, go to the Q and A and then we’re going to go in the private group after that. Okay. Christina Markoski Yeah, easy. So is there any concerns around building supply shortages? I’ve heard online about the PVC shortage which will cause delays in construction. Is there any truth to this? George Markoski Yes. Basically there’s a PVC shortage and the price have gone up as well. And it’s going to create delays. Christina Markoski From my friends in Melbourne. Business has gone backwards there. George Markoski Yeah, Melbourne’s been a bit of a challenge. Christina Markoski However, I think we all know that. George Markoski The thing is, the thing is what we’re going to realize about Melbourne at the moment is Melbourne’s in winter and what happens after winter, Spring. I can see where Melbourne is price wise. It’s got room to move, so it’s actually, it’s good. Christina Markoski What deal today still works? If interest rates continue to rise, growth stalls for five years and costs increase aligned with inflation, then explain exactly where it breaks. George Markoski Okay. Say that again because that was a big comment. Christina Markoski That’s a lot. I know. George, what deal today still works? If interest rates continue to rise, growth stalls for five years and costs increase align with inflation. George Markoski Yeah. Okay, look, growth stalling for five years when there’s such a massive issue with supply. Yeah. So that’s. That can’t happen. The fact is growth cannot stall for five years. In order for growth to stall for five years, what we need to do is one, stop all immigration completely and then catch up. So for example, New Zealand, they had a different situation to us because they didn’t have the issue of supply that we did. They were still building a lot of houses and getting a lot of immigration, but then they cut immigration Completely. And what happened was they were geared up to build all the buildings, houses. They kept building and created a bit of an oversupply. And then New Zealand had a correction, but now they’re going back up again. George Markoski So in order to stop growth for five years, we need to stop immigration for five years. Christina Markoski George, how confident are you with your builders and developers not going broke with the current pipeline of work? George Markoski Look, I’m very confident that we’ve got very good builders that know what they’re doing, that we’ve had good relations for a long time. Right. So I’m very confident. I’ll never guarantee anything because this is unguaranteeable. Could one of our builders go broke? Yes. Have they any of our builders gone broke in the last 20 years? No. So you look at our track record. We’ve got an amazing track record for 20 years straight. Every single person that’s joined our program has made money and not one builder has ever gone broke. There you go. Christina Markoski Okay, got a question here from Craig and Michelle about discretionary trusts. Do you know anything about unincorporated associations and corporate trusts? George Markoski That’s a lot of legal words. I’ve got a basic grasp understanding of trust, but that’s. I’d rather get someone that knows trust to actually explain that. Christina Markoski Yeah, Yep, That’s. That could be a whole episode with a financial advisor on that topic alone. George Markoski Yeah, totally. Christina Markoski All right, cool. That’s come to the end of all of those questions. George Markoski Okay, well, guess what we’ll do? We’re going to our private group and dig deep on some topics. We’re going to say goodbye to the public group. Thank you very much. And get in there. Thank you. Christina Markoski Thank you. Bye bye.