A ute driver has been charged after allegedly stealing copper guttering from heritage-listed buildings at a Queensland conservation park, with the incident highlighting a nationwide surge in copper theft that is wreaking havoc on heritage sites and construction projects alike.

Rangers at Cape Pallarenda Conservation Park, located 10km northeast of Townsville, were alerted to “suspicious activity” and discovered that the park’s World War II-era fortifications had been damaged, with their copper guttering stripped.

The park, which also features a 1915 quarantine station, is a significant historical site, and the theft has caused outrage among authorities.

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Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service ranger Joe Jess said the damage to the heritage buildings not only harms the state’s history but also places a financial burden on taxpayers, as costly repairs will now be required.

“We are urging the community to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity in our protected areas to QPWS or the Queensland Police Service,” he told Yahoo News.

“Reports can play a critical role in protecting our parks and facilities and ensuring offenders are held accountable.”

The 30-year-old man will face multiple charges, including wilful damage, when he appears in the Townsville Magistrates Court this week.

Copper theft triples in Queensland, hits construction industry hard

The Cape Pallarenda incident is part of a broader crisis sweeping the nation.

Copper theft has surged in recent years, with construction sites, homes, and public infrastructure increasingly targeted by criminals seeking to profit from the valuable metal.

In Queensland alone, the crime has tripled since 2020, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology.

Electricians and builders are bearing the brunt of the thefts, which are causing significant delays and financial strain on new home construction projects.

Melbourne electrician Jay Kinnell, who works on housing developments, says he has been targeted by copper thieves five times this year alone.

“Aircon guys get swamped, but electricians probably have it the worst because our cables are worth the most amount of money, and it’s the easiest thing to pull out of a house,” Mr Kinnell told Yahoo News.

In one recent incident at a construction site in Preston, Melbourne, thieves stripped copper wiring from a half-finished home, forcing Kinnell to redo the work at a discounted rate to help the builder absorb the loss.

While builder’s insurance often covers the theft, the financial and time costs still weigh heavily on tradespeople.

“We’re operating at a partial loss, but it definitely leaves us with a ‘break-even’ repair,” he said.

A nationwide epidemic

Copper theft is not limited to construction sites.

Public infrastructure and heritage properties have also been targeted.

In June, a major Queensland highway was plunged into darkness after road lighting infrastructure was impacted by copper theft.

Last month, CCTV footage captured a thief disguised with a cardboard box stealing $40,000 worth of copper wire and equipment from a Ballarat construction site.

In Coffs Harbour, NSW, a tradie lost $300 worth of copper piping ripped from under a home.

The high scrap metal value of copper makes it an attractive target for criminals, who sell it at unregulated scrap yards or online marketplaces for quick cash.

The Australian Institute of Criminology estimates that metal theft costs the economy over $100 million annually.

The post Ute driver charged as copper thefts hammer housing market appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Now that jobs week is over, we are all left with one truth: it really is about the labor market over inflation data when it comes to mortgage rates, which hit a fresh year-to-date low after Friday’s terrible jobs numbers.

The question now is whether mortgage rates can drop below 6% and stay there with some duration in 2025 or 2026. That has seemed impossible to do since late 2022. With Fed policy still modestly restrictive, we have only approached 6% when the bond market thinks the economy is performing poorly. This is the question I’ll address today.

10-year yield and mortgage rates

In my 2025 forecast, I anticipated the following ranges:

• Mortgage rates between 5.75% and 7.25%
• The 10-year yield fluctuating between 3.80% and 4.70%

Overall, 2025 is on track with my forecast. The 10-year yield has remained within its proper range in response to Federal Reserve policy and economic conditions, while mortgage rates have fluctuated between 6.29% and 7.25%. However, even with job growth slowing —evidenced by a recent report showing negative job creation in one report — we still haven’t dipped below 6% in mortgage rates. I talked about this in detail during today’s special episode of the HousingWire Daily podcast.  

But the simple answer here is Fed policy is still too restrictive to get mortgage rates to really go lower than 6% and stay there. In the past two years, the 10-year yield has reached levels of 3.37% and 3.63%. At those levels, we could see mortgage rates drop below 6% today, especially given the favorable spreads currently available. However, during both of those periods, the bond market was anticipating a recession.

The point here is we have been here before with mortgage rates near 6%, but to go lower, we would need a weaker economy or the Fed crying uncle and turning dovish.

Mortgage spreads

This year has seen favorable pricing primarily due to improvements in mortgage spreads compared to the levels of 2023 and 2024. As long as there are no significant market disruptions and the Federal Reserve continues to cut rates toward neutral, this trend is expected to continue.

If the spreads today were as bad as they were at the peak of 2023, mortgage rates would currently be 0.83% higher. Conversely, if the spreads returned to their normal range, mortgage rates would be 0.47% to 0.67% lower than today’s level. Historically, mortgage spreads have ranged between 1.60% and 1.80%.

The best levels of normal spreads would mean mortgage rates at 5.82% % to 6.02% today.

Weekly housing inventory data

I typically adjust our weekly data to account for national holidays because many people take vacations or engage in leisure activities instead of searching for homes or listing their properties. With Labor Day last week, we observed a noticeable decline in our weekly inventory data. I anticipate a rebound in active listings this week — if that doesn’t happen, I’ll address it. Our Housing Market Tracker data has shown a shift in the national markets since mid-June and I still want to respect this trend.

For example, it’s been rare for active inventory to decrease in August over the past few years, but it did this year. Therefore, we should pay attention to this trend given its duration. The year-over-year inventory growth rate recently peaked at 33%, but it has since dropped to 20% and is now in jeopardy of being cut in half as mortgage rates are nearing 6%.

Last week, inventory fell. 

• Weekly inventory change (Aug. 29-Sept. 5): Inventory fell from 860,728 to 846,516
• The same week last year (Aug. 30-Sept 6): Inventory fell from 704,654 to 703,376

New listings data

The new listings data peaked during the week of May 23 this year, reaching a total of 83,143 listings. Since then, this number has gradually declined. Initially, I was excited about reaching my target of 80,000 weekly listings for 2025, which we didn’t reach at all last year. But we didn’t see the growth above 80,000 that I was looking for and now we are in our traditional seasonal decline period. 

To give you some perspective, during the years of the housing bubble crash, new listings were soaring between 250,000 and 400,000 per week for many years. Here’s last week’s new listings data over the past two years:

• 2025: 64,682
• 2024: 61,936 

Price-cut percentage

In an average year, approximately one-third of homes experience price reductions. Homeowners often lower their sale prices when inventory levels increase and mortgage rates remain high, which is why the percentage of price reductions is greater in 2025 than it was last year. This has been another great story for housing in 2025, as the housing market has become a much more friendly market for buyers in 2025. 

For my 2025 price forecast, I anticipated a modest increase in home prices of approximately 1.77%. This suggests that 2025 will likely see negative real-home prices again. In 2024, my forecast of a 2.33% increase proved inaccurate, primarily because rates fell to around 6% and demand improved in the second half of the year. As a result, home prices increased by 4% in 2024. The rise in price reductions this year compared to last year reinforces my cautious growth forecast for 2025. This data line growth rate has also cooled down recently.

We saw a notable decline week to week in the price-cut percentage, but I will wait to see if this is a trend next week, as the holiday might have distorted this data line

Here are the percentages of homes that saw price reductions last week in the past few years:

• 2025: 41.5%
• 2024: 39%

Purchase application data

We’ve had five weeks of testing the housing data with rates under 6.64%, which has been the key level in the past. So far, the trend is positive, which has been the norm since 2022. This week, we saw a -3% decline in the week-to-week data, but it was up 17% year over year. This makes four positive weeks and one negative on a week-to-week basis. 

Here is the weekly data for 2025 so far:

• 16 positive readings
• 12 negative readings
• 6 flat prints
• 31 straight weeks of positive year-over-year data
• 18 consecutive weeks of double-digit growth year over year 

Weekly pending sales

Our weekly pending home sales provide a week-to-week glimpse into the data; however, this data line can be impacted by holidays and any short-term shocks. We are still showing slight year-over-year growth in this data line. The pending sales data will typically hit the existing home sales report 30-60 days out.

Weekly pending sales for last week:

• 2025: 65,168
• 2024: 62,181

Total pending sales

The latest total pending sales data from HousingWire Data provides valuable insights into current trends in housing demand. Last year, we observed a significant shift when mortgage rates decreased from 6.64% to around 6%. We have achieved consistent low-level year-over-year growth recently and this week continues that trend, It will be interesting to see this data line over the next few months if rates can stay at the low 6% level. 

Total pending sales last week over the last two years: 

• 2025: 359,275
• 2024: 357,687

The week ahead:  Inflation week and jobs revisions

After jobs week, we run right into inflation week, which is still very important to the Federal Reserve, as they have been very cautious about rate cuts due to tariff inflation. We also have the annual job revisions coming up, which can move the markets as well. Jobless claims data will be released on Thursday; it had a slight pick-up last week.

Be prepared for some more economic data drama this week, as this will be the last week of data before the Fed meets.

While all the teams were happy for Sonny and Alicia at finally taking out a win – for the challenge treatment room at the Hepburn Springs Bathhouse – they were equally sorry for Ben and Emma for just missing out on a win yet again.

“We were stoked that they won it,” Mat said.

“They had the week from hell. Do I think they should have won it? No, I think Ben and Emma’s was much stronger than theirs.”

But there was no time to linger as the teams put the finishing touches on their rumpus rooms.

Can, with what has become her trademark dry wit and deadpan delivery, pointed out that the rooms could be whatever the teams wanted.

“It could be a playroom, an extra bedroom or an all-out sex room,” she said.

Which should mean they took extra care getting the measurements right.

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Sadly, neither Han nor Can seemed able to operate a tape measure with first their trademark arch, then their TV, then their entertainment cabinet, then their couch, then their velvet sound proofing panels all failing to fit their assigned spaces in the girls’ theatre room.

The lesson, according to Can?

“Measure twice, thrice, frice, scythe. Keep measuring. Just don’t stop measuring.”

It’s a lesson Robby’s floor installers should have heeded. In his determination to avoid using breaker boards on the herringbone pattern floor boards he and Mat are laying throughout their entire house, they ran out of boards for their rumpus room, leaving Mat shocked.

Robby left a note on the exposed sub-floor for the judges that the situation was out of their control, but it was a note that came back to haunt him at judging time.

Alicia had decided to go for broke in her and Sonny’s rumpus room, painting the walls and ceiling the same moody colour.

“It’s as good a week as any to give it a crack,” she said.

“We’re getting used to negative feedback.”

Emma also made a bold move, making a last-minute decision to paint her ceiling the same sage green as a feature wall in her and Ben’s room.

Then it was on to the judging.

Emma’s colourful ceiling was an immediate hit with all the judges, along with a timber feature wall, built-in book shelf, leather couch and sheer curtains.

“This is everything that we would have hoped from last week,” Shaynna Blaze said, referencing the pair’s lacklustre living and dining room.

“The question is what’s going to give the contestants the best bang for buck, and this is a second living space,” Marty Fox said approvingly.

“The only issue is this room is so good the buyer will walk out of here and into the main living area and think I wish that area was like this area.”

The judges were equally enthusiastic about Han and Can’s theatre room. Once they’d resolved all the measuring issues, they’d fitted in a mammoth curved couch, those velvet sound proofing panels, a coffered ceiling and built-in shelves on either side of a huge TV.

“Bloody brilliant” was Darren Palmer’s assessment.

“This is so marketable,” Marty said.

“I love almost everything in here.”

It was a similar lovefest in Sonny and Alicia’s room with its deep brown walls, ceiling and built-in book shelves and couch oriented towards both the TV and the view.

“This is what I’ve been looking for all this season. It’s so on-trend. I am besotted,” Darren said of the colour-drenching.

“Yes, it’s so on-trend it will be out of trend,” Marty observed, before he was corrected by Darren.

“Mate, it’s only paint and it’s going to look great in photographs, and it’s so appropriate for Daylesford. It’s a near perfect room.”

The only quibble was that Sonny and Alicia hadn’t also painted the air-conditioning duct and ceiling light fittings the same colour.

It was clear it would be a three-way battle for first place when it came time to judge the remaining two teams.

Britt and Taz were confident their wellness room with pilates machines, TV and giant fridge would give them the point of difference they needed. The judges had other ideas.

“Everyone else is going to have two living rooms and it will definitely impact them because at the end of the day you have one living space when you’re spending more than $3 million,” Marty said.

“They have reduced the value of the house. They need to change this. This is fundamentally incorrect.”

“It’s so niche,” Shaynna agreed.

Darren said the best way forward was to move everything from the wellness room into the big shed the teams would be creating later in the competition, and redoing the room as a second living space.

But if the judges were critical of Britt and Taz’s choice, they had no issues with their style or execution.

The same couldn’t be said about Mat and Robby’s boring room, with half a floor. The boys had always said they were going to do the bare minimum in the room to try and take out the $10,000 budgeting prize, but the judges were positively irritated at their attitude, as well as the note claiming the missing floor was not their fault.

“It’s not inviting, it’s not warm, it’s not Daylesford,” was Marty’s assessment.

“They have dropped the ball because they were winning and they got cocky. They haven’t understood the value or a second living space. It’s sucks. They’ve done nothing.”

“This is terrible,” Shaynna agreed.

As expected the other three teams fought it out for first, with Emma and Ben once again just missing out, with a second place, but at least they took out the $10,000 budgeting award, which given Mat and Robby’s deliberate lack of effort must have stung.

Han and Can won, and received a perfect 10 from Darren Palmer, giving them an extra $10,000.

Can’s assessment?

“As always, I’m most proud of myself.”

FINAL SCORES

Han and Can 29.5

Emma and Ben 28

Sonny and Alicia 27.5

Britt and Taz 20.5

Mat and Robby 18

MISSED AN EPISODE? HERE’S ALL OUR RECAPS SO FAR

Episode 1: Why no NSW applicants were good enough for The Block

Episode 2: The worst day on The Block

Episode 3/4: ‘Tear them off’: teams forced to rip tiles from walls

Episode 5: Judges feedback leaves one contestant vomiting

Episode 6: Dan and Dani’s heartbreak

Episode 7: The big problem with the Block house designs

Episode 8: Robby and Mat’s drunken blunder

Episode 9: ‘An up-market nursing home’

Episode 10: Can faces the wrath of Han

Episode 11: Han micromanaging from her sick bed

Episode 12: Sonny cops a spray from Alicia

Episode 13: Brutal feedback leaves Block team confused

Episode 14: Han and Can are in trouble with Dan, and other contestants

Episode 15: Han explodes at Dan in shocking tirade

Episode 16: Defiant Han gets epic dressing down from Scott Cam

Episode 17: Two teams are smashed by hyperbolic judges

Episode 18: Two teams start the week devastated by judges’ feedback

Episode 19: Copying scandal erupts as Alicia and Sonny point the finger

Episode 20: Ben and Emma drop good news into tense Block week

Episode 21: Ben and Emma and Sonny and Alicia cop the wrath of the judges

Episode 22: As Sonny and Alicia despair, Mat summons his inner Mean Boy

Episode 23: Han and Can all but quit the spa room challenge

Episode 24: Ben and Emma finally crack after yet another loss

The post The Block 2025 Episode 25 recap: Britt and Taz make a major blunder, but Mat and Robby cop the worst criticism appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Australia’s coolest pools of 2025 have been revealed at the annual SPASA Awards.

The 2025 SPASA Awards of Excellence shine a spotlight on pools and spas, showcasing design and craftsmanship that transform backyards across Australia and New Zealand into world-class lifestyle sanctuaries.

“Australian pool and spa design continues to redefine outdoor living, combining creativity, luxury, and lifestyle in ways that enhance wellbeing and enjoyment,” SPASA CEO Kristin Brookfield said.

“These award-winning projects show how thoughtful design transforms homes into personal retreats where every detail is a celebration of life at home.”

Zen Building Pools took out three awards for its design in Mittagong, NSW – Innovativee Project, Concrete Pool of the Year, and Concrete Pool and Spa Combination and Concrete Pool over $240,000.

It was described as a “seamless fusion of luxury and design”.

“This multi-award winning, multi-tiered pool showcases precision, innovation and elegance in pool design,” the judges said.

“Set against a tranquil, forested backdrop, this breathtaking tiered pool seamlessly integrates with the surrounding landscape to create a private oasis of serenity and sophistication.”

Laguna also took out three awards for its Victorian pool in Clifton Hill.

Those awards were for Concrete In-Ground Spa, Pool Landscape Design and Spa of the Year.

“A curved freestanding pool with spa and cold plunge is the perfect duo, while a sweeping infinity edge and layered landscaping create a seamless flow, offering a space for everything from energising morning dips to tranquil evening reflections,” the judges noted.

In Queensland, Ezy Living Pools took out the award for Concrete Lap Pool for its Burleigh Heads creation.

“This sophisticated pool creates a true oasis, designed for ultimate relaxation and luxury,” the citation said.

“A stunning acrylic window offers a mesmerising view, while a spa provides a serene space to unwind.

“Comfortable day beds complete the setting, making the pool a private retreat that turns everyday moments into a vacation.”

Aloha Pools took out two categories – Commercial Project of the Year and Hotel/Resort Pool over $1 million.

The judges said of the South Melbourne pool: “The 5-star hotel-style lagoon pool features a cascading waterfall with its resort-inspired design that brings relaxation to the heart of the city,” the citation said.

“Truly innovative with its water-to-water heat pump repurposing waste heat from the building’s cooling towers, enhancing sustainability, while acoustic isolation mounts prevent pool vibrations from reaching apartments.

“This expertly engineered pool delivers a world-class aquatic experience in a high-rise setting.”

Mullum Pools was awarded the Concrete Commercial Pool up to $250,000 for its Byron Bay creation.

“Inspired by Moroccan riads, the Byron Bay pool blends calm and character with elegant curves and eclectic surrounds,” the judges said.

“Swimmers can float in soothing magnesium waters and enjoy a unique viewing window that connects the experience both within and beyond the water.”

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The Concrete Pool up to $240,000 was taken out by Jade Pools for their design in North Kellyville, NSW.

“Nestled within the bushland, this pool and spa flow together in perfect harmony,” the citation said.

“A tiled spa spills gently into the pool below, while finishes throughout echo the natural landscape, creating a retreat that feels both refined and deeply connected to its setting.”

Courtyard/Small Pool over $80,000 and Small Pool of the Year was awarded to Elite Pools and Landscapes in South Australia.

Other winners included:

Fibreglass Lap Pool – Summer Central Pools, NSW

Fibreglass Pool of the Year – Barrier Reef Group, WA

Fibreglass Pool up to $80,000 – Narellan Pools Hawkesbury Nepean, NSW

Freeform Pool of the Year – Tāwharanui Peninsula, Matakana, NZ

Master Pool Builder Technical Project – Apex Pools, Victoria

Renovation Project of the Year – Rogers Pools, QLD

Concrete Pool up to $180,000 – Jade Pools, VIC

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