The other week I read an article about the pre-purchase build report. The article detailed some changes that may be coming to this weird and wonderful sector. The changes actually apply to the pre-auction industry rather than the pre-purchase market.

You see – what happens at the moment is – when you are going to buy a property at auction you need to have access to building inspections – so you need to pay up to $500 for a combined building and pest inspection before you even bid for the property – so if you do not win the auction and buy the house – then you lose your $500. Then you get to do it all over again.

So what the authorities are talking about doing is – forcing the seller to buy a combined building and pest report and then make it available for all potential bidders at the auction. What happens then is – the successful bidder (if there is one) will need to reimburse the seller for the report they had ordered.

It is my view that this is a good thing for the Real Estate Industry in NSW, it will encourage| more people to attend auctions and hopefully increase clearance figures.