This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade dig into the Victorian petition to ban "continuous video sweeps" during rental inspections - and why the technology being described isn't what's actually happening - plus the data privacy questions nobody in the coverage thought to ask.

Kasey sits down with Kasey Lawrence of The Rental Network - consultant, trainer, and the industry's unofficial agony aunt - on the "listen up" text message that mortified the internet, Victoria's prescribed rental application form, bond portability's teething problems, and why the money hiding in the average rent roll would shock most principals.

Also this week: Cotality confirms the downturn has spread to Brisbane and Adelaide as the RBA meets Tuesday; REA Group grows earnings 15% on flat listings - and what that means for agents' and vendors' marketing spend; one year of CoStar-owned Domain, graded against the boardroom revolt in the US; whether off-market (or as Pete insists, "off-portal") sales have gone too far; the $52,000 strata levy letter no owner wants to receive; Peter's interview of the week with Ellis Taylor of Real Time; and The Block returns - along with the annual question of whether it helps or harms how Australians think about renovation.

A special edition of Before the Weekend, recorded in Sydney.

Peter Schravemade is joined by Jacqui Barnes, Head of People and Growth at Laing+Simmons and author of the Women in Real Estate Insights Report, and Ellis Taylor, Director of Real Time Australia - the recruiter that Blackbird and AirTree name as their number one preferred talent supplier.

Two months on from the report's launch, Jacqui returns with the person who is using her findings against the industry. Ellis is candid about it: the hardest stretch for a new agent is months six to eighteen, and that is precisely when he calls. "That's when I target them."

Jacqui's response is that the industry has handed him the opportunity. Agencies spend seventy to eighty thousand dollars a year bringing someone up to speed, then make a judgement call at month nine on a two-year journey - without doing much to help the person get there.

The conversation covers what the report found about the gap between the support leaders believe they provide and what their people actually experience, why tech sales retains people that real estate loses, how AI-driven talent engineering builds a personalised eighteen-month campaign around your best juniors, and what an agency has to do to make itself hard to raid.

Both guests finish with something an agency owner can act on before Monday.

Links, the full report and contact details for both guests are in the show notes.

Victoria changed premiers this week after months of questions over debt, infrastructure, crime and integrity — and on the very same day, the REIV took what it called an unprecedented step and stood alongside the Opposition to demand the Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 be substantially redrafted.

Consumer Affairs Victoria forced changes to one of the country's biggest rental application platforms, and a Melbourne band managed to pin almost every part of the housing crisis on real estate agents, landlords and property investors.

Peter and Kasey also work through allegations of development land being flipped to associates in Melbourne's growth corridors, a seven-figure defamation judgment between competing Sydney agents, a Double Bay agency that collapsed while suing a former employee who has since died, and a NSW Supreme Court fight over what critics are calling "deposit flicking".

Then there's Dashdot. Two months after a collapse that left hundreds of customers and employees owed millions, its founders are back — offering business coaching.

Plus: the RBA's warning that housing has weakened more than expected, Queensland's claim of a record 50,000 homes under construction, the review of 46,210 Queensland social housing tenancies, Australia's 13 million spare bedrooms, and new Suburbtrends research on who really controls the country's commission pools.

Every source referenced in this episode is listed at beforetheweekend.com.

Got a guest suggestion or a story you want covered? [email protected]

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade are joined by REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella for a timely conversation about the Realworks forms transition, what Queensland agencies should be checking inside their businesses, and why compliant forms still sit at the centre of agency risk.

The episode also previews REIQ LIFT, Top of the Props and the upcoming PropTech Pulse report, with a focus on practical technology, industry collaboration and the need for real estate businesses to build flexible, secure and compliant tech stacks.

Kasey and Peter then move through a packed national news block: the hidden government costs built into new housing, warnings of a possible house price correction, the Bank of Mum and Dad pulling back, NSW Fair Trading action against Netstrata, Victorian rental advertising fines, Section 27 changes, NSW rental reforms and failed sale re-letting rules. The episode closes with quick mentions on AML, SMS Sender ID registration and Mike DelPrete’s take on the shift from portal wars to pressure on portals.

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade unpack one of the biggest operational stories to hit Queensland real estate this year: the Realworks transition, the end of REIQ’s relationship with Dynamic Methods, and what it means for forms, templates, historical documents and compliance workflows.

The conversation looks beyond the software problem and asks whether real estate forms have become critical industry infrastructure. Kasey and Peter also cover falling property industry confidence, Queensland’s decline in dwelling approvals, the SMSF borrowing debate, the start of AML/CTF obligations for real estate, ACMA’s SMS Sender ID and spam compliance changes, a cautious shift in buyer behaviour, allegations around misleading property images, and a QCAT compensation decision involving a real estate salesperson.

The common thread is trust: trust in platforms, trust in forms, trust in communications, trust in compliance systems and trust in the professionals who carry the risk on the ground.

In this Quick Bite episode of Before the Weekend, Peter Schravemade is joined by Toby Balazs, CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, to unpack the growing wave of regulatory pressure facing Victorian real estate professionals.

Toby discusses the proposed disclosure of auction reserve prices, changes to rental legislation, the impact of more than 150 Residential Tenancies Act changes, pressure on property managers, investor confidence, housing supply, Section 27 deposit release, AML obligations and the practical realities for agents trying to operate in a heavily regulated market.

The conversation also explores whether new rules designed to improve fairness and transparency may create unintended consequences for buyers, vendors, renters, rental providers and the wider Victorian property sector.

Reference / download link

Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 PDF Available at the website: www.beforetheweekend.com

In Episode 7 of Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade unpack a week where confidence became the central theme across Australian real estate.

They discuss falling auction clearance rates, Domain's forecasts for Sydney and Melbourne price falls, investor uncertainty following federal budget changes, Victoria's latest rental reforms, REIQ's Realworks transition, and the growing conversation around price transparency sparked by the Property Seeker Chrome extension.

Peter also shares key takeaways from the PIPA Summit and REISA Revolution, including AI, AML, energy efficiency ratings and the shift from transaction-focused agents to trusted advisers.

This week's feature interview is with Avi Kahn from Ray White AKG, who joins Kasey to discuss leadership, culture, growth, industry reputation, training, technology and why he would abolish price guides across Australia.

In Episode 6 of Before the Weekend, Peter Schravemade and Kasey McDonald unpack a huge week in Australian real estate, beginning with the collapse of buyer’s agency Dashdot and the serious questions it raises about upfront fees, consumer protection, trust and the property investment advice sector.

The episode also covers Queensland’s worsening rental supply crisis, with new analysis suggesting the state has lost nearly 13,000 rental bedrooms over three years, plus a Gold Coast prestige sales feud that asks who really gets to define market value: the selling agent, the buyer’s agent, the auction floor or the final buyer.

Peter and Kasey also discuss another trust account misuse case in Victoria, a Sunshine Coast unfair dismissal claim dismissed after just one week of employment, and Ben Ikin’s move into proptech as CEO of SearchX.

The feature conversation then turns to REA Group’s growing network of strategic partnerships, with Adrian Knowles, CEO of Harcourts Australia, joining to explain the Harcourts and REA Group deal, and Sadhana Smiles from REIP responding to questions about data sovereignty, REIP Nexus, proptech partnerships and whether the industry is moving closer to or further away from control of its own data.

It is a long episode, but an important one, covering trust, data, portals, technology, agency risk and the future direction of the real estate industry.