The boom in Australian buy-to-let mortgages that has helped fuel record household borrowing could be the next driver of bank bad debts rather than corporate defaults. Business-loan losses were behind the biggest bad debt cycles in the past three decades. But a discussion paper from the Reserve Bank of Australia says unprecedented borrowing by individuals and signs that the residential property market is coming off the boil mean that, for banks, the next one might be different.

Chinese property buyers are showing more interest in Melbourne than any other Australian city due to its high number of new residential developments and livability, according to a leading Chinese-based real estate website.

Grand Design groupies take note. It doesn’t happen often, but a house that featured on the hit Foxtel show is up for grabs. As well as appearing on series four of Grand Designs Australia, the contemporary city-fringe pad in Sydney’s Forest Lodge also won a truck load of industry awards and even grabbed the attention of the Lord Mayor.