Alice Stolz

I think we all know when you actually get stuck in and do it and sit in front of a spreadsheet, it can actually feel quite empowering.

And, you know, nowadays there is so much literature and information out there and so many services available, often for free, on how to navigate your way through this if you don't find yourself having a high level of financial literacy.

There is so much help and information available.

So I suppose I just think the onus is on all of us to actually take responsibility for that.

Yeah, look, I think when people say, oh, people are going to put off selling, people are going to put off buying, the reality is that a lot of people can't.

And if you're having a baby, you might be able to put off needing that extra bedroom for maybe six months or a year or something, but eventually you're going to need the space.

It's the same with, you know, if someone has a death in their family and they might be a deceased estate potentially ready to hit the market and the family might wait off a little bit.

But at the end of the day, someone's going to say, look, I actually need the money.

We need to sell that house now and so on.

And as I said, people move for jobs and there are all sorts of things that dictate where people live and when they buy or sell.

So I think people who hold out...

can really only probably hold out so long because I don't really think that that many people move purely for lifestyle choices.

Most people move for a demographic change or shift.

I hope so.

But I really did finish, full disclosure, I really did finish last week, just before I wrote that piece, thinking, feeling quite despondent by it all.

And I just thought, we really have to look ahead and try to sort of see the bigger picture here.

And, you know, I saw Philip Lowe, the governor of the Reserve Bank, speaking this week.

And he was saying that no one anticipated the economy to bounce back like it did during COVID.

And it was only a year and a half, two years ago that we're in this depth of uncertainty.

potentially facing a huge economic crisis.