The Bigger Picture: Policy, Regulation & Victoria's Property Market

In this episode of Property, Straight Up, host Mel Dennis steps back from the transaction table to look at the forces shaping Victoria's property market from the top down.

Mel sits down with Toby Balazs, CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV), who brings over 20 years of experience across proptech, residential, and project marketing — and right now, a packed policy agenda heading into an election year.

From a controversial auction rule change the industry believes will backfire, to 130+ regulatory shifts hitting property managers in just four years, to a landmark compliance deadline every agent needs to know about — Toby covers the structural shifts that will affect buyers, sellers, investors, and renters alike.

WHAT WE COVER:

• Why investor confidence is wavering — and what the REIV wants government to do about it
• The auction reserve debate: what the government proposed, why the industry pushed back, and what a better solution looks like
• Vendor-paid building and pest inspections: the case for, the caveats, and what a staged rollout might mean in practice
• 130+ changes to the Residential Tenancy Act in four years — and why the REIV is calling time on further reform
• The end of the REIV's RTO and what mandatory CPD means for practitioners
• AML Tranche 2: the compliance deadline hitting agents on July 1 and how to get ready

ABOUT DOMAIN & CO

Buying or selling a home is one of the biggest decisions of your life. Often the biggest financial decision you'll ever make. Bigger than anything else you'll sign your name to.

And the people meant to help you make it have started to look a lot like the people you didn't trust in the first place.

The polished ones in the sharp suits. The corporate machines who never learn your name. Or worst of all. No one. Just you and a portal and a hunch.

We've spent thirty years on both sides of property. The buy and the sell. The boom and the bust. The houses that grew. The ones that didn't. The agents you'd want in your corner. The ones you wouldn't.

We've walked the same families through five, six transactions across decades. First home. Family home. Forever home. The next chapter after that.

So we don't pitch. We don't perform. We don't take work we don't believe in. We just tell you what we'd do, if it were us in your position.

For property, told straight. We're your property people.

https://domainandco.com.au/

 Timestamps: 

0:00 Introduction & guest background 

1:08 Toby's background — from Proptech to REIV CEO 

2:26 The REIV's role: advocacy, compliance and education 

3:08 Election year priorities — rental supply and investor confidence 

5:03 How much has regulatory change hurt Victoria's rental market? 

6:18 130+ changes to the Residential Tenancy Act in four years 

8:57 The REIV Blueprint for a Better Functioning Property Market 

11:01 The auction reserve debate — government proposal vs. REIV's fix 

14:29 Balancing price transparency with vendor protection 

16:21 Mandatory vendor building and pest inspections — pros and risks 

19:38 Education changes — REIV exits its RTO role 

21:22 Mandatory CPD coming industry-wide — what agents need to know 

23:17 Biggest opportunity: fixing rental supply 

24:19 Biggest challenge: AML Tranche 2 changes from July 1 

25:34 One thing Toby wants consumers to understand right now 

26:16 Upcoming REIV events — NAFE, AUSTROS and Young Agents 

28:23 Wrap-up & where to find the REIV Blueprint 

Transcript

0:00

One thing I've learned after nearly 30 years in property is that behind every property transaction there's a story, a big decision, and often a lot more emotion and complexity than people expect. This podcast is all about giving you access to the people, insights, and strategies behind smart property decisions so you can make better moves, whether you're buying your first home, investing, selling, downsizing, or planning your next step. Today we're stepping into the bigger picture of the property market, looking at policy, regulation, and what's shaping the future of property in Victoria. Because beyond interest rates and listings, there's a number of structural and legislative changes that are having a real impact on buyers, sellers, investors, and the industry as a whole. Today I'm joined by Toby Balage, the CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria. Toby leads the peak body representing real estate professionals across Victoria and plays a key role in advocating for the industry, particularly around legislation, transparency, and the future of the property sector. Toby, thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks very much for having me, Mel. Toby, why don't we start a little bit about you? Tell us your background in real estate. Yeah, sure. So I've spent most of my time in Proptech. So I worked at uh realestate.com.au for a long time, for over 13 years. Um I then went and joined uh Real Estate View and took on the leadership role of Real Estate View, which then morphed into View Media Group. So spent a lot of time in Proptex and Portals. Now really excited to be leading the REIV. I've been in the role almost six months now. So uh hopefully getting my head around it all. And uh yeah, it's a real privilege to represent the industry. So it's great that um real estate's not a new concept for you, I suppose, coming in and leading the um peak body of Victorian real estate. Yeah, correct. Yeah, over 20 years um and dealing across multiple facets of the industry. So when I was at realestate.com.au, I was primarily dealing with the property developer part of the industry, so project marketers, developers being high density land, uh house and land, so and obviously um advertising agencies and project marketers. So that was sort of the most of my time spent at um at realestate.com.au and then at realestate uh view.com.au was more so on the rese side. So hopefully a fairly rounded view of the market. Yeah, it's quite broad, fantastic. Tell us a bit about your role at the RAIV as the CEO. Yeah, so as I said, it's just been six months now. Uh it's it's a fantastic opportunity that I've uh I feel very uh privileged to be able to take on. It's really about advocating for the industry. And and there's been so much change uh in the industry over the past uh five or six years. And so really I would view my job as being advocating for the industry, being front-facing, hopefully putting the right measures in place for government to consider and legislate, and then looking at all the compliance piece that needs to be uh supported throughout the industry, education and training, and then some of the digital platforms that we also offer. So it's quite a broad remit, but probably the key one is that advocacy piece. Fantastic. So this year is an election year. Tell us what are the key priorities that the REIV is advocating for when it comes to property? Yeah, look, it's it's a really challenging property market at the moment. And I think one of the real challenges we have is on the property management or the rental side, is there's not enough incentives in place for landlords or private rental providers to want to continue to invest in this state and to supply their properties to the rental market. And speaking to any property manager out there, I think they would agree that it's very tough on them in terms of trying to keep up with the regulatory requirements of what needs to be done to manage a rental property. You've got vacancy rates at a very low level. So, really, what we're saying as part of the election coming into an election year is that we want to make sure Victoria is a really strong destination for capital for people investing in this state. We've got a supply issue. Uh, we don't have enough rental properties being allocated to the pool. So if we can uh ensure that there's enough sort of incentives for people to invest in the state, then that is gonna be a really key part of providing those rental properties. The other thing is from a sales perspective, and most people would have seen that there's been some talk in the media around what they want that the government is proposing to change with regard to auction rules. And I'm happy to talk through the detail of where it's gonna go, but we believe our recommendation for how to manage reserve prices is a far better solution than unfortunately what the government's putting forward at the moment. We think their intent is good, but unfortunately their execution is going to be counterintuitive. It's hard when you when you're governed by a body that's not actually doing the job on the ground. Absolutely. Very true. Yeah, that is challenging. So as we've spoken about, there's been a lot of change over the past few years. How important is it to create a more stable and investor-friendly environment for Victoria? Look, that's hugely important. And and probably one of uh, if not the biggest priority for us is how do we encourage property investors and landlords to continue to supply properties to the rental pool. We recently uh released some research that we commissioned, independent research by an external research agency, and we had a majority of property investors say that under the current tax and regulatory settings, they would seriously consider either selling up, reducing their portfolio, or investing elsewhere. And that that's a real problem. Yeah, as a vendor advocate, we're certainly seeing a lot of um investors selling their investment properties. Yeah, and that's a real problem. If you get to the point where investors don't believe that the market is going to be suitable for them to continue to hold that property, it comes back to basic economics, supply and demand. We have less supply, demand is still there, demand is growing. We're a growing population here in Victoria, which is fantastic, but we need to make sure that the private rental providers are supported to have the right incentives to supply to the market, because if that goes, then vacancy rates uh will get even more tighter and prices go up. That's right, and that's not going to help the market at all with um people looking for places to live, that's for sure. Yeah. So we've seen a significant amount of regulatory change, particularly in property management. What impact is that having on the industry as a whole? I think the real challenge is the poor property managers, to put it bluntly. I mean, what a tough job. You've got, I think, over 130 new regulations that have come in through the Residential Tenancy Act over the past uh four years. So keeping up with that rate of change, and we know that doing such an amazing job to try and make sure that their landlords understand exactly what their obligations are, and then working with prospective tenants, knowing that it is such a tight market and there's so much demand there. So that's really challenging. And what we're saying to the government is we understand that there's been a lot of change. A lot of the change, again, is good intent. They're trying to make places safer and more livable, and and that's absolutely supportive. The sheer rate of change, though, is a real challenge. And so what we're saying to the government is we need you to just pause on those regulatory changes, make sure that both landlords, property managers are able to get their head around exactly what needs to be done, and provide some confidence that there's going to be no more significant changes in the market because unfortunately it is driving investors elsewhere. A lot of my career has been spent in property management, started on reception and went through to property management for quite a number of years and ran um a very successful property management company for 20 odd years. I have never seen anything like the changes that they're dealing with now and um feel a little thankful that we got out of it when we did five years ago. It is true. It just, you know, I I look at the team that we work with on the property management side and hats off to them. They're doing an amazing job, as you said, educating all of the landlords who aren't happy about the changes either and sometimes take it out on the property managers. So I imagine that's really affecting, I guess, the careers of property managers and how many great property managers we have in the industry now. Yeah, and and it absolutely is true, Mel. That's exactly a really uh hats off to all the property managers who who do an amazing job trying to keep this essential part of the market going, you know. We uh run a lot of education and training here at the REIV, and every time we have uh a session that's about property management, about regulatory change, about RTA uh and compliance, we have a room full of people very passionate about making sure they're doing the right thing and making sure that they are compliant. And so I hats off to them. I really see our role as being trying to help them through all that regulatory change. We have really great connections into government, uh be it CAB or VCAT, and so we can get people along to help answer those questions. And so what we're trying to do is continue to assist our property managers, agency owners, and principals to ensure that they know what their compliance requirements are and then help them educate landlords as well. Yeah, fantastic. So let's talk about the RAOV blueprint. So this is for a better functioning property market. Yep. Tell me what that looks like. Yeah, the blueprint, I'm extremely proud of the blueprint. I can't take any credit for it because uh I think all the work was done just before I joined, but we had an amazing group of uh representation from across the industry working on that strategic working group. Large organizations, smaller organizations, regions. And when you say across the industry, what's some of the people that were there? Yeah, so we had um Andy McCann, who's the CEO of Jealous Craig, we had uh Nigel O'Neill, CEO of Woodards, uh Lisa Pinnell from CEO of Barry Plant, Luke Benetzi, I just hopefully I've pronounced his name correctly, Key Auctioneer. Uh we had Robin Waters, uh, we had I'm missing some names there, I do apologize for those who I haven't mentioned, but we we had a a great cross-section of the property industry from buyers' advocates, from large agency owners to smaller agency owners to auctioneers, those involved in property management. So it was a sounds like a really good cross-section. An amazing cross-section. And and a very, very committed group of people putting forward what is going to be and what we firmly believe are really foundational recommendations to make this the property market in Victoria better, more transparent, and function as it ideally should. We're a bit frustrated, a bit blindsided, to be completely honest, when the government before we'd even um we're probably three weeks away from actually releasing that blueprint and they announced the auction rule changes. And so we continue to put forward the blueprint uh as a way to make the property market more effective here in Victoria. But that auction rule is a really key one that um I'd hope you're happy to talk about it now if that is. Yeah, absolutely. I guess just on the blueprint, is that something for public knowledge? Like is that some somewhere people can go if they want to check out what that blueprint looks like? Yeah, absolutely. So the blueprint's available on our website. So if you just go to reiv.com.au, you can download that blueprint and it gives you all the key, I suppose, recommendations that we've put forward for the industry. And I mean, I can give you a quick overview of them now if you like. Yeah, go first. Yeah, sure. So um, in terms of pricing, so we're saying from a private sale or private treaty perspective, it should just be one asking price rather than a range because if you think of it as being um that's your ideal or preferred price, so it should just be one. Obviously, you can negotiate from there, but one price from an auction perspective, and and I'll sort of unpack it as we go through if that's okay, Mel. The government had proposed that seven days out from the auction day, you had to declare your reserve. We know that people go to auction because there's probably variance in the price of that property, and they want to understand the market demand and where their property is going to be priced. So after two weeks, to have to then say, well, here's my actual reserve, announce that to the market, we think is is not balanced and not fair for vendors. We absolutely want to increase uh price transparency and address any underquoting that is it's in the publications, in the media a lot. I don't think it happens anywhere near as much as they would make out. But you know, in terms of combating underquoting, what we are saying with auction sale method is that so long as the reserve exists within the 10% range, that should give strong enough guidance to buyers as to where they need to be to potentially buy that property. So for example, I've got a property that's marketed nine to nine ninety. The government saying seven days out, you would have to declare exactly what your reserve is. So say okay, it's nine sixty. And it might not it might not even be in that range. Correct. Realistically. Correct. Yeah, so well, what we're saying is that from a range perspective, is that if it is advertised as nine to nine ninety, the vendor three days out, in accordance with cooling off provisions, would say to their agent that our reserve or my reserve exists within the range. So then when it goes and is advertised, and as a prospective buyer, I know when I turn up on auction day that the property is going to be called on the market between nine and nine ninety. That's fair. That gives vendors the flexibility they need on auction day to be able to manage their reserve up or down, but then it also gives buyers enough confidence to say that, you know, if I've got uh borrowing power up to that amount, then I could potentially be in the market. What frustrates buyers is when it's being advertised at nine to nine ninety but doesn't get caught on the market to 1.1, they feel like they've been misled. What we're saying, if the vendor confirms that their reserve exists within the range, then that's fair and equitable. If it changes three days out, and as the vendor, I say, actually, I want a million and fifty now, then the agent would then adjust the reserves, adjust the advertised range to meet it so it sits within the 10% band. A lot of agents wouldn't know what the owner's reserve is going into the campaign. Like they're advertising a range based on other comparable properties. They've obviously got the statement information that shows other properties that it compares to, but don't know what the vendor's reserve is going to be until sometimes five minutes before the auction. Yeah, exactly. So that is how it is today. And what we're saying is that we're happy to support a change in that the vendor would need to communicate with their agent three days out, not the specifics, but the fact that their reserve exists within that range. Because then we feel that gives enough price guidance and price transparency to buyers, but gives vendors, understandably, with most people bringing their largest asset to market, gives them the flexibility to be able to manage the sale conditions. So the range would be put on at the start, what the agent agent believes, and then changed three days out if it doesn't fall within the owner's reserve. That's a 100% correct. If if it has changed in that time, then that will be reflected in the 10% advertised range. Yeah, okay, great. And I guess that sort of covers off on the underquoting, which has been a really big topic for forever. Yeah. That I can remember. Sure. So and it's hard to for the balance of transparency for buyers while still protecting vendors too, because it's a big cost for vendors to go through to sell a property. Like if the property doesn't sell, they've sometimes outlaid. I mean, if they've got to get the property ready, take that off the cards. But you know, doing any works. But 30 grand before they even sell the property, they could be down if the property doesn't sell. That's exactly right. Exactly right, Mel. And and that's where some of the frustration that we've had in conversations with government is they talk about the fact that, well, if they if it doesn't sell, then they can just move it to private sale or they can make an adjustment after the auction. The whole point of the auction is to try and get a result on the day. On the day. And and I think you that's a very valid point you raise around the cost the vendor incurs to bring their property to market. And at the end of the day, it's their property that they should have a certain amount of control over. To advocate for vendors to have to actually declare their reserve, we don't think is balanced and a fair and equitable way to be able to manage your largest asset. So I think that's a really key point about the costs uh involved. And it's very stressful. You go to bring your property to market, you do a lot of work, um, you invest a lot in marketing to be able to bring your property to market. And the ideal is to have the auction day get that result. Done and dusty. The other thing, too, is that, and and this is the adverse effect of what the government's proposing. Vendors will understandably try and mitigate their risk in terms of having to declare a reserve. So they'll probably go higher or they'll move to other sale methods. There'll be ways around it. There will. It'll be worked out. So the the issue is that we want to encourage auctions. Auctions are the most transparent way of selling a property. You know who your competition is, you know exactly where the price is, and that should be encouraged rather than discouraged. Absolutely. So building inspections. There's been a bit of talk about making building inspections mandatory from the vendor's point of thing. Tell me, or side of things, tell me what's the thinking behind that. So this again is picking up on the underquoting, I suppose, and the frustrations from buyers. People missing out and having to spend money on building inspections when it was never going to be the price range that they thought it could be. Spot on. That's exactly right, Mel. So what we've said is that, okay, if there's going to be a range of measures that we can put forward to make this fairer, we have that price transparency when it comes to an auction. So you would say, okay, here's the range that the reserve is going to exist within. But if we also say, as a vendor, you go and pay for a building and pest inspection, you're required to do so. So then it takes the onus away from a prospective buyer or buyers having to go and complete a building and pest inspection multiple times for that one property. So in that example, I'm interested in the property. I go get a building and pest that's marketed nine to nine ninety, but doesn't get caught on the market too well over 1.1. I feel like I've wasted my money. So we're saying, okay, the vendor provides that. And then when it goes to settlement, whoever buys it, then that building and pest would then hand over to the buyer. How many buyers do you think will trust an inspection that's been commissioned for by the vendor? Yeah, so I mean the the way in which the building and pest inspections are provided is that there's a certain amount of reliance that you can put on that. And that's what the building and pest industry is there to provide that for. That doesn't mean that as a buyer, if you don't want to just take the vendors building and pest, it doesn't preclude you from going and doing that again. So long as we get the introduction of this new proposed regulation well managed, and it does need to be a staged approach. We do need to work really closely with government, really closely with the industry to make sure that the mandatory requirement for building and pest is well managed. We believe that it's still overall going to be something that would be of benefit for the industry. We know it's a mandatory requirement in the ACT. Uh, and so we'll take some learnings from the ACT as to what they've experienced with making a mandatory requirement. But for the most part, most of our members have said they think this is a really good thing. But we do need to work closely with with industry and government to make sure it's implemented in the right way. What do you think some of the risks or unintended consequences could be if it's not managed properly? Pricing's probably the one of the one of the things that we look at. If if a vendor pays for it, but then at the end of the when it goes to settlement, it gets passed over to the buyer, there could be some issues around price because the price goes on to the buyer at the end of the day. We think we can manage that through competition as well. So um you want to make sure that the the quality of the building and pest inspection is there and and suitable, fit for purpose. But then there's also many multiple providers out there, so competition will help keep the price down. So it is something that we need to be aware of and look to manage. But we think working with industry, working with government, we can make sure that we bring in the right sort of rules and regulations to support this being a positive outcome right across the industry. And I guess, you know, there's got to be some sort of regulation around it to not have the sharks come into the industry. Because as soon as something gets regulated, everyone's like, great, this is easy money, let's all jump in because there's not enough people to do the job now. Yeah, and that's exactly what we've been saying to government that we need to make sure that this is a staged approach. It's not something that you want to just implement without doing due diligence, without enough consultation. And I think that we can work really closely with the government when they propose to bring this in. Terrific. Let's move on to education and the REIV. So there's been a few changes around training and qualifications. Tell us what's happening in that space. We made the decision, most people would have uh been aware to to exit the what we call our RTO, our registered training organization, which was bringing students into the industry. Uh, so that was what's the CERT 4, which is the old agents rate and the um the diploma. We saw that there was really strong demand for us to ensure that people were job ready once they're in the industry. And so that's really been our focus, going to be our focus now, is to say, you know, with a whole lot of compliance that people need to be aware of, with regulatory change, with the need for more and more professional development, we see that we can play a really strong role in making sure that the industry has the necessary tools, the necessary info, and a training platform to be able to make sure that everyone's job ready, they understand what needs to be done. And we're really excited to be able to bolster our education and training offering, not only here at the REIV, but looking at going and doing bespoke training for a number of organizations that have already shown some appetite and some interest for that. Uh so that's going to be a real focal point for us in the coming years. So just taking away essentially the CERT 4, which just for those people out there listening is the qualification you need pretty much to pick up a phone in a real estate company. So if you're looking to get a job, look into your cert four. Correct. Um or the old old agents rep, as you you and I would have done as from back in the day. Um so just looking to take away that and the the fully, I guess when you want to be fully licensed that course, you're looking to take both of those away, but still offering other training. Yeah, absolutely. So it's um not necessarily the ticket or the qualification to enter the industry, but once you're in the industry, then there's a lot of work that we can do in terms of professional development. Absolutely. So, how important is ongoing education and standards in maintaining the trust in the property sector? I think it's it's huge. And and you know, the conversations that I'm fortunate to have with the industry is around how can we ensure we're better? What can we do to raise those professional standards? And it's a genuine want and a genuine need in the industry for for people to understand exactly how they can excel and be better in the industry. There'll be an introduction of mandatory CPD, which will come into the into effect early next year. Which used to be a thing. Yeah. So we we have CPD requirements as part of the RAIV, but this will be an industry broader, uh sorry, a broader industry CPD requirement. Is that run by consumer affairs or where will that be run from? Because not everybody is a member of the REOV, unfortunately. Yeah, unfortunately. REIV document. You can just fill in your membership form there. So the BLA will be the ones who will essentially manage business licensing, sorry, will be the ones who essentially manage the CPD requirements across the industry. And then will that take off the REOV doing CPD as well? Not at all. No. So the CPD requirements that will come into effect will basically be around five CPD points per annum. We have a higher threshold. Across the industry, you'll be five. There'll be two mandatory units and then three electives that we need. We're working through at the moment with CAV, with BLA as to how we can hopefully help guide that. So there will be CPD that comes in across the industry. We see this as a great opportunity for us to continue to impress upon the industry the training and the education and the compliance and everything that we can provide. We won't be the only provider of CPD. There'll be RTOs and other prescribed organisations who can provide that CPD. But we believe that we in the best possible position to be able to hopefully lead that charge and provide quality training that's going to be industry relevant. Looking forward, what do you see as the biggest opportunities or challenges for the property market? We've touched on some things around obviously the um the changes in regulations and landlords leaving the market, unfortunately. Although as a buyer's advocate, we're seeing a lot of interstate people come in and buy investment properties. Yes. So the investors we're buying for at the moment are all in Sydney. Yep. But we're selling for everyone who lives in Melbourne. Yeah, it's actually just on that, what we're seeing, I think the reason, and you would be much closer to it than I am, Mel, that people are seeing the capital values of Melbourne or Victoria and saying, well, that's good buying because in X number of years and the the capital growth will be there. And I would agree. I would agree with that. The downside of that is that you've got landlords at the moment who are having to undergo the regulatory change and all the compliance, and so that's why they're exiting. And that's probably one thing that I would say. The biggest opportunity is for us to be able to have government and regulators understand the impacts of all the change that is reducing the rental pool and the rental supply. That's not good for Victoria, that's not good for people who need access to quality housing and they want choice and they need reasonable pricing with less supply becomes a real issue around that. The biggest challenge, I would say, we had a uh summit here a couple of weeks ago is the introduction of AML provision, so anti-money laundering. Yeah, we'd be doing uh a podcast on that too, so stay tuned. Stay tuned, okay. Good, good. Uh we love that because what we're trying to do is make sure that we get the industry as ready as possible for the AML uh Tranch 2 changes that come in on July 1. I think for the the vast majority of the industry, people have got their head around it, they've got a program or processes in place to make sure they're AML compliant. Make sure you go to the Ostrack website and um fill out the form required there, tick that box. And it's not a small amount of learning either. It's quite quite a lot that we've got to go through as agents. There is, I think. There is. Um, and it's you know it's a big change that's coming through. And but what I would say is that you know there's resources that we can help with. There's other providers out there who provide tech solutions to be able to do that. The Ostrack starter kits themselves, or perhaps some of the smaller operators, um, is a good way to have the tools and the, I suppose the templates to be able to do what needs to be done. But we know that is going to be a challenge. That's a big change, and we're gonna try and help the industry as best we can to get ready for that change on July 1. Yeah, great. If there's one thing you'd like people to better understand about the property market right now, what would it be? From a consumer perspective, it would be around understanding the price transparency that the industry and the REIV is advocating for. We know that there's certain elements of the transaction with such a big purchase that we want to make sure that the industry is supporting that. And and I would say to the buyers out there and and consumers looking at property that we are absolutely committed to making sure that we can provide a framework for which the property market functions better. And that's really what the blueprint's all about. So anyone who's listening, I would love them to download the blueprint and have a look at um the recommendations that we're making. We might put the link into the uh show notes as well so we can grab it easily. Yep. Yeah, great. Toby, the REIV run a lot of events as well, which are great for the industry. Why don't we touch on those and what you've got coming up? Thanks, Mel. Um really excited to say that we've got what we call the NAFES here, the National Awards for Excellence. Uh so that's going to be held in the third week of May. Uh it's at Centre Peace here in Victoria, and that's gonna be the national awards. That'll be a fantastic event to recognise the absolute best of the best from across the country. Fantastic. Tied in with. So that's everybody who's won um a state event goes into the pool to to look at winning the national title. That's exactly right, Mel. So yeah, it should be it promises to be a fantastic event. We've also coordinated with that got the Ostros, so that's the um the auction competition across Australia and New Zealand. So the absolute best of the best in terms of the auctioneers will also be competing in that week. And that's great bringing across the um across from the ditch uh the New Zealanders. It'll be great to have them here. Absolutely. So we've got um competition from right across the country, as well as uh internationally if you look at the the New Zealand competitors. So that's that's an amazing event. And really importantly, we do have a young agents uh event that will be scheduled for. We're just locking down the timing, probably towards the end of June. This is an amazing event that uh I'm an uh an old man, unfortunately, but in terms of where we want to go. In terms of where we want to go from the REIV is encouraging as many young agents out there to get involved with what we're doing. This is such a critical part of where the industry is going, and we want all the young agents out there to come along to the events, be a part of what is forming here. Uh, the young agents representative or chapter used to be something that was really well attended. It was. Um and we're really excited. Yeah, really excited to have um that sort of reignited and um we'll we'll certainly make sure we put plenty of support behind that. That's really exciting. So if you're under 30, 30 and under, I think is the the cutoff. Unfortunately, I'm just a touch over 30, so I I'll be there in a uh an official REIV capacity and then I'll get out of there and let the young guys enjoy their night. Well, we're we're sponsoring the event, so we're we're certainly keen to be there as an official capacity. So yeah, maybe the Botox will come out for that. But Toby, thank you so much. It's been incredibly insightful and such a valuable perspective on what's happening in the market right now. Um, if anyone would like to learn more about the RAIV, as I mentioned, we'll include the details about the blueprint, but also the RAIV in the notes, and you can jump on are.com.au. Fantastic. If you're navigating a property decision and want guidance tailored to your solution, we are always here to help at Domain and Co2. So thanks for listening to the Melbourne property brief and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on the next episode. Thanks very much.