A little known town west of Brisbane is doing the heavy lifting when it comes to Queensland’s race to meet housing targets, with new figures revealing the regions powering the state’s building approvals.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed Jimboomba, a rural suburb in Logan City, recorded the most building approvals in the state in the 2024/2025 financial year at 2072.

A total of 38,102 new homes were given the green light in Queensland last financial year, up from 32,976 in the previous financial year.

However, this is well below the 49,200 homes needed each year to meet Queensland’s share of the National Housing Accord, which aimed to deliver 1.2m new homes across the country by mid-2029.

Jess Caire, Queensland executive director at the Property Council of Australia, said Queensland’s share of the NHA equated to 246,000 dwelling by 2029.

“That’s roughly 49,200 dwellings per year, or 12,300 per quarter,” she said.

“It should also be noted that the Queensland Government has its own target of delivering 1 million new homes by 2044.”

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The 10 best performing SA3 regions in Queensland racked up 14,653 building approvals between them in the 12 months to June.

Jimboomba recorded 2072 building approvals, followed by Ipswich Inner (1887), Brisbane Inner (1865), Narangba – Burpengary (1767) and Caloundra (1535).

The data also revealed the regions where building approvals plummeted and shot up between the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 financial years.

The worst hit was Surfers Paradise – North, with building approvals down 1155 year-on-year, falling from 1440 to 285.

In Mermaid Beach – Broadbeach figures dropped from 761 to 130 from one financial year to the next, while in Newstead – Bowen Hills just 28 new homes were last financial year, compared to 569 in the previous year.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, building approvals nearly doubled in Brisbane City, from 476 in the 2023/2024 financial year to 1111 in the following 12 months.

In Kangaroo Point, building approvals went from 0 to 551 in the same time, and in Caloundra West – Baringa the figured surged from 776 to 1150.

Ms Caire said Queensland was performing relatively well on building approvals compared to other states, supported by strong initiatives such as the Residential Activation Fund, which had helped boost activity.

“However, the scale of the challenge remains significant (as) the annual build target represents volumes never before achieved year on year,” she said.

“This makes it critical to focus on converting approvals into completions.

“A building approval alone doesn’t put a roof over someone’s head.”

Ms Caire said there was a need for all forms of houses, at every price point and in every location to combat the housing crisis.

“Ultimately, what matters is building more homes – not just having them approved,” she said.

“To achieve these, all tiers of government and industry have a role to play and must work together to address the factors that are rendering development infeasible.

“We need to improve the feasibility of apartment buildings in areas with well serviced transport connectivity.

“We need to unlock housing in middle ring suburbs with different and diverse housing types.

“And we need to cater for much needed new land supply by unlocking land and appropriately planning for these areas.”

Ms Caire said Queensland was yet to hit its completion targets in a single quarter.

“Typically (Queensland has been) undershooting its target by roughly 3000-4000 dwellings per quarter, and of course every quarter that we don’t make the target, the greater the challenge becomes,” she said.

“The enormity of the task … presents a unique opportunity to drive reform, including streamlining approval processes, adopting innovative construction models and pursuing further tax reform.”

ABS data showed Queensland delivered 33,719 dwellings in the 2024/2025 financial year, which equated to 13.71 per cent of the total target.

Housing Industry Association economist Maurice Tapang warned the real increase in housing could be significantly smaller than figures showed, with demolitions data suggesting about 20 per cent of the homes commenced in a given quarter were being matched by others being torn down and replaced with just the one residence.

Mr Tapang said the Association was hopeful apartment approvals were the beginning of a new trend of rising sales.

However, he said the biggest increases and decreases around the country being largely recorded in apartment-centric suburbs was an indication they were likely to be volatile.

“With apartments there’s a whole lot of things that can lead to construction not commencing until five years down the line,” he said.

By contrast, Mr Tapang said about 80 per cent of detached house approvals were under construction within three months.

Brad Duggan, Metricon chief executive, said there was plenty of demand for new homes in Queensland, but not enough rezoned and serviced land in the growth corridors where people actually want to live.

“Until that land is unlocked, the state won’t be able to contribute its fair share to national housing targets.”

Mr Duggan said the National Housing Accord target was achievable in Queensland and nationwide, but not under “business as usual” settings.

“Across every major market, the story is the same: we have willing buyers and willing builders, what we need is a planning and land-release system that matches that ambition,” he said.

“The nation doesn’t have a construction capacity problem.

“Builders can deliver homes quickly, in our case, 60 days for a single storey home and 100 days for a double storey.

“What we need is the land and approvals pipeline to match that pace.”

The post The QLD regions where new builds are booming appeared first on realestate.com.au.

As mortgage-rate lock continues to be one contributor to stalled listings across the U.S., a growing number of homeowners are asking real estate agents about portable mortgages.

The feature is widely used in Canada and the U.K. and allows borrowers to transfer their existing mortgage — and interest rate — to a new home.

But Phillip Cantrell, founder of Benchmark Realty, said the American mortgage ecosystem may not be able to absorb portable mortgages without deep, industry-wide consequences.

He stressed that the U.S. mortgage-backed securities market relies on long-term, fixed-rate loans with highly predictable performance, something portability threatens to destabilize.

“Portable mortgages, in addition to other issues, would totally destroy the pricing models current used by MBS’s in their investor presentations,” Cantrell said. “The portable mortgage is also predicated on widespread lender adoption and the lender being willing to trade one asset for another.”

Why international models don’t easily translate

Other countries often require that borrowers remain with the same lender and complete the sale-and-purchase cycle within a tight window.

Cantrell says the U.S. would face similar, if not stricter, constraints.

“The devil is how the details are finally worked out,” he said. “If the same parameters are required that are used in other countries, the rest of it is up to the fees charged by the investor/lender – and those are sure to be high. This concept really only works when the homeowner is ‘buying up’ since any deficiency would become immediately due or the lien would not be released on the house being sold.

For sellers looking to move laterally or down in price, portability would offer little benefit. The borrower would need to cover any shortfall and still supply a down payment on the new property, Cantrell added.

Leonard Steinberg, chief evangelist at Compass, agreed about prospective complications.

“Move-up buyers may have difficulty affording the additional cash for financing needed as prices have gone up in many areas since mortgage rates went up,” he said. “Those buying similarly valued homes may find this most useful.

“Anything that helps the consumer be in a better position to transact  — and afford  — a move, the better for all. But portable mortgages often have higher initial rates. Most will want to keep their ultra-low rate and allow it to be portable. Agents always benefit when their clients are in a better position to buy and sell.”

Affordability and rate lock

Although portable mortgages are often promoted as a solution to rate-lock paralysis, Cantrell argues the real barrier to mobility is the surge in home prices over the last decade.

“Overall, I don’t think that rate-lock is as big an issue as the unrealistic home price increase we have seen over the past several years, caused purely by the low cost of money. The government creating massive amounts of money out of thin air,” he said. “In our area, from 2015-2023 we had a 100% increase in the median home price. Affordability is a much bigger problem than rate-lock.”

He added that homeowners hesitate to list not because they’re stuck with a lower rate, but because they can no longer trade up meaningfully.

“When a seller cannot sell, and then buy something better with the equity accumulated, it’s a price/affordability issue much more than a rate issue,” Cantrell said. “It’s not so much the rate that can’t be replaced that restricts activity as it is the fact that a seller can’t better themselves by selling.

“Doing so is a lateral move more than a move-up. The only way to really combat affordability is by bringing costs down.”

Donnie Samson, CEO of Samson Properties and head of The Donny Samson Team headquartered Virginia, said he’s a huge proponent of portable mortgage use.

“I’ve discussed the idea with (National Association of Realtors) leadership as to how much I think that we need to push for this as much as possible,” he said. “There’s thousands and thousands of homeowners that need a bigger house, want a bigger house, or want to move to that different neighborhood for their kids, but trading in the 3% to 6% just doesn’t make sense if they’re staying in the home that they’re in.”

While not discounting ongoing pricing and affordability issues, Samson said rate lock remains a key barrier in restoring what’s considered normal home transaction volume.

“(Rate lock) really chokes the ability for buyers to get into the marketplace,” he said. “A study recently showed the average age of first-time homebuyers is 40 years old, which was the highest it’s ever been. Well, it’s because when the affordable inventory becomes available, nobody’s selling those homes to move up, because they’ve got 3% interest rates. Even if they are moving up, they’re keeping (their current home) as a rental. The lock-in effect is real.”

What portability would mean for agents and brokers

Cantrell warns that portability would require real estate agents and brokers to dramatically expand their mortgage expertise.

“Since a portable mortgage only works with the same lender — meaning the same lender who has the low-rate mortgage must be the same lender on the new house — it would require that either all lenders offer this, or that agents have lender relationships with as many of those offering it as possible,” he said. “Not all lenders will do it, so when an agent encounters a home with a lender who won’t do it, then the entire concept is irrelevant.”

Specialization might emerge, but it would be difficult given how many agents lack technical mortgage knowledge, said Cantrell.

“Training on this for the individual agent would be particularly problematic since most lack a basic understanding of mortgage structure as it is now,” he said. “That’s why so many were caught flat-footed by the rate run-ups a few years ago. They did not know how to read the leading indicators and prepare their clients or business. Most brokers only know slightly more and consistently defer to the lender on any question regarding mortgages.

“(Agents) would need to become near experts so they don’t get in the middle of a deal. Things could go astray because the current lender refuses to port, and the seller cannot buy without it.”

Market impact may be limited

Despite growing conversation, Cantrell remains skeptical that portability would change the U.S. market in any significant way.

“For it to have any impact at all, there would have to be widespread, universal lender acceptability, and the agents would have to educate themselves on who does what and how,” he said. “I don’t see either of those happening very fast. I also do not see it having a big impact on the market at all and because of the complexity.”

Operationally, brokerages that do not handle mortgages directly would see little impact, but Cantrell said firms offering in-house lending could face serious complications.

“If a brokerage does engage in mortgage services, it could be quite problematic on the compliance side, and until widespread adoption takes place, could be the cause of many deals imploding,” he said.

Who stands to benefit?

Cantrell says portability would not help most segments of the market.

“Luxury buyers usually have larger equity or are dealing in cash,” he said. “Relocation clients would only be able to utilize this product if they used the same lender, and since there is usually a time limit of 30-120 days to buy something else, this could negatively impact relocation clients.”

Move-up buyers are the only group that stands to gain, and even then only under specific conditions, according to Cantrell.

“The only ‘if’ here is if the move-up buyer is willing and able to purchase something more expensive than what they just sold,” he said. “If they move laterally, or down in price, this product would do them no good.”

Steinberg said anything the industry can do to help buyers and sellers is worthwhile.

“Like everything in real estate, what is good for some won’t be good for others,” he said. “I personally believe a portable mortgage has both pros and cons long-term. Right now, we have to navigate the big short-term challenges.

“Sellers that are either attached to their low rate, convinced rates will come down over time and are waiting and those who simply cannot afford more because of higher rates — they could be beneficiaries of these transferable mortgages.”

Samson said the perception of future interest rate drops among buyers also feeds into subdued transactions.

“There’s a lot of people sitting on the [sidelines] right now because they hear that interest rates are going to drop more,” he said. “It’s slowing down those buyers a little bit because they’re like, ‘Well, I want to time it just right at the bottom of the market,’ which is crazy. You can never really time the interest rates completely perfectly.”

Much attention has been given to the potential impact private listings could have on minorities and protected classes, but one Realtor is asking a court to consider how off-MLS marketing could impact senior home sellers. 

Greg Alkema, an 80-year-old California-based real estate agent, posed this question in an amicus brief filed earlier this week in Compass’s antitrust lawsuit against Zillow.

The lawsuit was initially filed in mid-June. Compass claims that Zillow’s listing access standards policy — which bans listings from its site that are publicly marketed for more than one business day prior to being available for display on Zillow — is harming both Compass and competition in the listing portal space. 

For Alkema, central to this lawsuit is the question of whether private listings are a marketing choice or a serious threat to consumers. In Alkema’s mind, private listings and off-MLS listing practices fall into the latter category.

According to Alkema, private listing networks create a “shadow marketplace,” which he says increases dual agency roles, reduces competition and suppresses sales prices.

These effects pose the largest threat to the senior home seller community, according to Alkema, who himself is a senior citizen. He argues that the concealment of a senior’s listing, which is frequently their main financial asset, could cause them to lose value in the sale of their property. According to his brief, this could be seen as elder financial abuse, in addition to a possible breach of fiduciary duty by the listing agent. 

Due to this, Alkema is asking in the court order for Compass to disclose information about sales of its off-MLS listings. This includes how many off-MLS listings there are and what price differences exist between these sales and comparable MLS sales.

He also requests that the court require Compass to prove that off-MLS listings “do no damage” to consumers, especially seniors. 

It remains to be seen if the court will accept this amicus filing. Judge Jeannette Vargas, who is overseeing the suit, is currently contemplating evidence and arguments presented during a four-day hearing last month regarding Compass’s preliminary injunction motion.

The brokerage is seeking to prevent Zillow from enforcing its listing access standards policy. A ruling is not expected on this motion for several weeks. 

Hovnanian Enterprises’ latest earnings call held on Thursday revealed a builder trying to course-correct after posting a net quarterly loss.

Executives acknowledged the grim realities of the firm’s fourth-quarter operating and financial performance. Still, they also laid out several reasons they expect the just-completed period to be a one-time blip in an otherwise strong run ahead. 

Wall Street does not like surprises, and this performance qualifies as one. The parent company of K. Hovnanian Homes — taking a big hit as a result of falling short of analysts’ expectations — saw its stock (HOV) tumble by 22.51% on Thursday after the firm reported a net quarterly loss of $667,000 in Q4 of 2025. The news is a potential warning sign for other homebuilders navigating a challenging market where buyers and margins are both stretched thin. 

“The year-over-year comparisons are challenging, to say the least, in almost all metrics, given that 2024 was an excellent year for us, and the environment became much, much more challenging in 2025,” CEO Ara Hovnanian said on the earnings call.  

Amid these tensions, K. Hovnanian is holding steady in its overarching strategy of pace over price. In doing so, the builder is taking a page out of Lennar’s “even-flow” playbook and leaning into a volume-first approach akin to that of Smith Douglas Homes. 

This approach has its drawbacks — K. Hovnanian’s adjusted gross profit margin is down to 16.3%, down from 21.7% a year ago, amidst an environment of stagnating prices and generous incentives. However, maintaining volume and market share is central to the company’s operating thesis, said CFO Brad O’Connor.

“We have the second-highest inventory turnover rate among our peers. This is an important part of our strategy because it means we sell and replace our inventory more quickly than most competitors, demonstrating a more efficient use of our capital.”

Company executives believe this blueprint could enable them to return stronger in the second half of fiscal year 2026 and win back the confidence of Wall Street analysts and their clients. The builder’s gross profit margin is expected to bottom out next quarter, while increasing exponentially throughout the year. Here’s how executives plan to make this forecast a reality. 

Moving through low-margin lots and shifting to a land-light model

K. Hovnanian is relying on a volume-heavy strategy to cycle through low-margin lots acquired in 2023 or earlier. This is an issue weighing down the builder’s margins. Those vintage lots were underwritten when K. Hovnanian offered much lower incentives. Therefore, these lots are delivering slim margins amid today’s difficult market environment. 

The builder is leaning even more heavily into its high-pace strategy to move through these lots quickly. Lots acquired more recently, in 2024 and 2025, are expected to provide better returns, generating higher returns across a larger percentage of deliveries in the quarters ahead. This is a positive sign. 

“Our focus on pace over price and our short-term strategy to move through lower margin lots are laying the foundation for stronger performance when the market stabilizes and as we open communities with our newer land acquisitions that factored in higher incentives while still achieving normal return metrics,” Hovnanian said. 

There is also a clear shift to a land-light model. Executives report that 85% of K. Hovnanian’s lots are controlled via option, up from 45% in fiscal 2015. The builder can leverage this to its advantage, at least in some cases. 

“In today’s challenging market, we’re also working with some land sellers who we have option agreements with to buy mutually beneficial solutions where we both share a little bit of the pain in a difficult market. Strategically, we decided to sell through lower margin lots to make room for new land acquisitions that meet our IRR (Internal Rate of Return) targets,” O’Connor explained. 

Maintaining a high inventory of spec homes to drive sales

K. Hovnanian is maintaining a high inventory of spec homes, which the builder refers to as quick move-in homes (QMIs). Spec homes accounted for 73% of sales in the last quarter, well above the historical range of roughly 40%. 

However, spec homes have declined as the overall percentage of sales over the last three quarters. 

This spec-heavy approach has led to the company’s first-ever backlog conversion ratio of more than 100%, meaning they delivered and received revenue on more homes than were included in their beginning backlog for that quarter. 

A spec-heavy approach has downsides: those homes typically require more incentives to sell and don’t offer the benefit of custom upgrades. However, executives noted that this strategy is the best way to maintain a high sales pace and pave the way for success in 2026.

“By focusing on pace over price, maintaining a higher inventory of quick-moving homes, we’re able to sign and deliver more contracts each quarter, convert backlog at a higher rate, and keep our communities active and burn through our older land that has lower embedded margins. This clears our balance sheet for newer land acquisitions, underwritten to provide solid returns even with the current high incentives,” Hovnanian explained. 

Shifting buyer segments and regional emphasis

The entry-level buyer segment is the most strained, as younger Americans and the middle class are increasingly struggling to make ends meet and afford homeownership. As a result, K. Hovnanian, similar to Beazer Homes, seems to be shifting away from this strained segment in search of higher margins. 

“I can look back and say we were too heavily invested in the more affordable tertiary markets with entry-level homes. This has been the more challenging segment of the housing market, and we have been staying clear of these locations in our new land acquisitions,” Hovnanian said. 

The firm, like PulteGroup, is emphasizing the active adult segment as more Americans age into retirement. That segment, which is less price- and interest-rate-sensitive, accounts for 19% of K. Hovnanian’s business and has generally performed well. 

K. Hovnanian’s emphasis is now also shifted to geographic areas of strength. The northeast typically has less new inventory and offers better returns, while many southern markets have a glut of new homes that require higher incentives or price reductions to sell. 

“Our land position is heavily weighted to the Northeast, which is over 53% of our lots controlled, and that’s important because the Northeast is one of our most profitable segments. It is lowest in the Southeast, a more challenging market at the moment, where we only control 17% of our total lots,” Hovnanian explained. 

SG&A remains high, but there are other cost-cutting measures available

SG&A costs are relatively high and are expected to be between 13.5% and 14.5% of total revenue next quarter. These costs could remain high, but executives framed this spending as an investment in future efficiency. 

“One of the reasons the SG&A ratio is running a little high is that we are expecting community account growth, and we have to make new hires in advance of those communities. In addition, we are making significant investments to improve processes and technology in many areas to significantly increase our efficiency in future years,” O’Connor explained. 

Executives pointed to a couple of ways to reduce costs, as SG&A spending is expected to remain elevated in the near term. One of these is re-bidding with suppliers and trade partners for more favorable contracts, as many builders have done recently. 

Another way would be to replicate a strategy of buying down a 7-year ARM rather than a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. According to Hovnanian, several peer companies have had success on that front. 

“That has two benefits. One, you can qualify buyers at a lower rate and at the same time actually save cost, which helps margins. So we’re going to begin advertising and promoting that program more aggressively starting this weekend. And if it’s as successful as we’re seeing, that incremental portion of our buyers that use a seven-year ARM will help our margins,” he said. 

Key Takeaways

Hovnanian Enterprises didn’t perform well last quarter. The company’s revenue of $817.9 million slightly beat out Wall Street expectations but was down strongly from $979.6 million a year prior.   

K. Hovnanian’s net loss and declining revenues are a warning call for builders across the country. However, there are at least a few insights that builders from across the country can take from the company’s earnings call. 

• Hovnanian’s shift to a land-light follows a broader asset-light industry trend reshaping homebuilding. 
• Large builders may increasingly turn to buying down a seven-year ARM versus a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to pad their margins. 
• Improved efficiency can come at an upfront cost. Hovnanian’s SG&A expenses remain elevated, partially because of investments to improve processes and technology. While this is weighing them down in the short term, executives are betting that these investments will pay off in the long run. 
• The entry-level market is strained. Yes, this may sound obvious to anyone in homebuilding. But K. Hovnanian’s apparent shift away from the more affordable markets and enhanced emphasis on active-adult communities is a sign of where demand in the market is heading. 

For now, K. Hovnanian is betting that its shifting strategy can help the company weather the storm for the next quarter until a forecasted resurgence deeper into next year. Only time will tell how that strategy will play out.