Talking Property with CBRE

In this second edition of The House View for 2025, CBRE’s Pacific Advisory Services CEO Phil Rowland and Pacific Head of Research Sameer Chopra discuss the importance of staying the course, at a time when operating conditions are volatile and uncertain.

“Of course this needs to be ‘pragmatic optimism, not blind optimism’, but staying centred on your strategy, looking through the headwinds that are transitory vs structural, and keeping your conviction on the areas where you have a right to win, is just so important,’’ Phil notes.

They also cover off on what they’re seeing in the property market, both in Australia and internationally, what’s happening in the infrastructure arena, and do a deep

dive on Melbourne, to explore whether it’s a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ the city will attract renewed investor demand.

To round out the conversation they do a quick check on the full year predictions they made in January.

Make sure to follow Talking Property wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you don’t miss their next House View in July as well as our regular fortnightly episodes.

George Vallas recently took the reins as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Head of Real Estate, Institutional Banking & Markets.

He joined Talking Property to give us his take on a broad range of topics, including commercial property trading activity, recent market challenges, his expectation for rate cuts and the asset classes he’d choose to invest in this year.

CBA is Australia’s largest corporate real estate lender, so we relished the opportunity to get under the hood to find out what’s driving the bank’s real estate strategies.

Tune in to find out more, including what inspired George to take on a career in banking and where he sees the best property investment opportunities in 2025.

Timing is everything in property.

But can you sell too early? Why are deals like buses? And how important is it to leave a drink on the table when trading assets?

Find out from 8Hotels Hospitality owner Paul Fischmann and CBRE national hotel director Wayne Bunz in our latest Talking Property podcast.

Paul was mentored by some of Australia’s most successful wheeler dealers. He shares his story and the best advice he’s received along the way. Paul and Wayne also share their thoughts on Australia’s hotel market outlook, which you can read more about in CBRE’s latest hotel research report Hotels Australia - Overview & Outlook 2025 | CBRE Australia.

Please reach out if you have ideas for future Talking Property podcasts via [email protected].

Hundreds of Australian companies have just posted their half year results – including a swag of ASX-listed property groups. And one of the key themes to emerge was that the property market appears to be at an inflection point.

Tune in to hear from The Australian Financial Review columnist Robert Harley and The Australian’s Commercial Property Editor Ben Wilmot as they dissect the results, what they flag for the year ahead, the sectors to watch and what’s top of mind for the country’s major property owners and managers.

We recorded this episode on February 27, so the occasional ‘today’ reference relates to this date as the reporting season was wrapping up.

Please reach out if you have ideas for future Talking Property podcasts via [email protected].

In this episode we sit down with Lee Holdsworth, a Bathurst 1000 supercars winner and CBRE commercial real estate expert, who has a key focus on alternative investment assets, particularly in the renewables space.

With Australia’s energy transition dominating the headlines, Lee shares where he sees the best property opportunities, what’s driving investors to focus on alternative investments, the importance of finding the right capital partners and some of the new innovations to watch out for.

He also shares what put property on his radar, how to have a winner’s mindset, and the inherent irony in transitioning from a petrol guzzling career into one geared towards a net zero future.

Make sure to follow Talking Property wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you don’t miss our fortnightly insights and industry perspectives. And keep an eye out for an upcoming CBRE Research report on the renewables sector

In this first edition of The House View for 2025, CBRE’s Pacific Advisory Services CEO Phil Rowland and Pacific Head of Research Sameer Chopra give their take on the key opportunities and challenges for the Australian property sector.

They explore the concept of ‘exceptionalism’ and why we’re likely to see strong rent and capital value growth in premium, well located assets, while gains are expected to be much slower elsewhere.

The global and local trends shaping the property market are also up for discussion, as are Phil and Sameer’s key predictions on interest rates, cap rate compression, investment activity and the return to office.

To kick off 2025 we’ve spoken to four Australian property leaders about the best market opportunities this year, the potential industry game changers, and the areas ripe for transformation.

In this episode we hear from Dexus CEO Ross Du Vernet and GPT CEO Russell Proutt, who touch on everything from investment decision making through to the revitalisation of Australia’s CBDs, shaking up the way that tenants, landlords and investors think about office space, the intersection between real estate and infrastructure and the transformational

impact private institutional capital will have on the property sector.

And make sure to follow Talking Property wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you don’t miss our first CBRE House View episode for 2025 with Phil Rowland and Sameer Chopra.

Happy New Year!

To kick off 2025 we talk to key Australian property leaders about the best market opportunities this year, the potential industry game changers and the areas ripe for transformation.

We’re rolling out two episodes: this episode features QIC Real Estate Managing Director Deb Coakley and Growthpoint CEO Ross Lees. On January 23 we’ll go live with Part 2, featuring Dexus CEO Ross Du Vernet and GPT CEO Russell Proutt. They’re among the “new guard” of Australian property leaders following recent changes at the helm of some of the country’s top platforms.

Make sure to follow Talking Property wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you don’t miss Part 2 as well as our first House View for 2025 with CBRE’s Phil Rowland and Sameer Chopra.

For our final 2024 Talking Property episode, we join forces with Spencer Levy, who hosts CBRE’s hugely successful US property podcast, The Weekly Take.

Spencer is a Global Client Strategist & Senior Economic Advisor for CBRE. In our broad-ranging conversation, we discuss key learnings from his 2024 podcast guests and some high-level takeaways for Australian property players.

Up for discussion? The role Fed rate cuts have had on the market’s psychology, how modular construction could ease the current housing shortage, the secret sauce needed to make cities successful, how to combat NIMBYISM when it comes to the hot button topic of planning, and how to navigate the intersection of tech and real estate.

Resilience and how to be an effective leader are also on the conversation agenda. You can tune into The Weekly Take here and thanks for all your support for Talking Property in 2025.

Talking Property recently traveled to the Property Council of Australia’s annual Congress to discover and share what’s top of mind for the industry’s key decision makers.

In this episode we sit down with Congress panelist Amanda Steele – ISPT’s Group Executive, Head of Property and with Property Council of Australia CEO Mike Zorbas.

In our broad-ranging discussion, Amanda and Mike share why we’re likely to see more property investment activity next year, how we can improve the attractiveness of Australia for global capital, what’s needed to tackle the current property skills shortage, whether we’re shifting the dial on the current housing crisis, and the inherent challenges and opportunities associated with AI.

It’s the second in a two-part Congress series, with our first episode featuring Simon Kuestenmacher - a prolific and very entertaining commentator on demographic and societal trends. You can find that episode here and check out details for next year’s Congress here.