Episodes

Every few months, a new report lands that says everything is about to change. Interest rates, migration, AI, the tax system. Take your pick. Most of it is noise. dressed up as insight.  In today's episode Simon Kuestenmacher and I step back from the noise and look at what the…

What if the biggest risk to your wealth isn't a bad property, a bad loan, or even a bad market... it's the thing you never saw coming at all? In the early 1980s, a young economist called Don Stammer taught me to watch for something he called the X-factor. Today,…

Australians are wealthier, healthier and living longer than previous generations, so why are we becoming less happy? Why are younger Australians now among the least happy people in the country? And have expensive housing, social media, and our constant desire for more turned the Australian dream into a treadmill we…

For twenty years, the story of Australian housing was apartments. Cranes over the CBD, young professionals in one-bedroom towers, cafes on every corner.   Today, that story is quietly ending, and almost nobody in property or planning has caught up with it yet.   The generation that built the apartment boom is now the generation walking away from it, and where they go next is going to reshape entire suburbs.   Australia’s largest generation is entering a new stage of life, and that is going to change what millions of people want from their homes.  In this episode Simon Kuestenmacher and I explain how Australia’s largest generation is reshaping housing demand.  By the end of this episode, you'll know exactly which property types are about to come into serious demand, and which ones risk being left behind.  We explore why millennials are moving from inner-city apartments towards larger homes with bedrooms, storage, outdoor space and room for hybrid work.  We discuss how the “Millennial Mountain” is influencing consumer behaviour, family formation, property preferences and…

Australians just completed the 2026 Census, the largest and most important statistical exercise conducted in this country which provide a snapshot of who we are, where we live, how we work, what our households look like and how our society is changing. Of course, Census results are more than a…

You're told inflation is running at around three per cent a year, yet when you look at your mortgage repayments, your rent, your electricity bill and your council rates, none of it feels like three per cent, does it? That's because it isn't. Analysis we're going to unpack today shows…

Have you noticed people seem shorter-tempered lately? The bloke who snaps at you in the supermarket queue. The relative who tears strips off a nurse in a hospital waiting room. The parent screaming at a teenage umpire at a junior footy match. You're not imagining it. Nearly nine in ten…

By the time many of today's Gen Z buys their first home, Melbourne will have overtaken Sydney as Australia's biggest city. Canberra will be bigger than Newcastle. And a sleepy Victorian farming town called Warragul will have more than tripled in size. If that sounds far fetched, stick around, because…