David Bonaddio
David Bonaddio covers the property market through a mix of auction reporting, housing data and case‑study driven stories about buyers, renters and investors. He works as a real estate reporter whose stories run across the Herald Sun, other major News Corp mastheads and specialist property titles. His coverage focuses on making complex property issues accessible, using market data, survey findings and expert commentary to show how shifts in interest rates, tax policy and sentiment affect people in the market. He also has a strong interest in podcasting, video and new formats that can draw wider audiences into detailed property reporting.
Auctions, housing data and market shifts
Bonaddio regularly reports on auction trends, combining clearance rates, listing volumes and price movements with agents’ on‑the‑ground perspectives. In coverage of weekends where around 650 homes were scheduled to go under the hammer, he has highlighted that auction volumes were down by roughly two‑fifths compared with a year earlier.
He tracks the impact of repeated interest rate rises on bidding power, explaining how higher borrowing costs constrain what buyers can afford at auction even when committed bidders still turn up.
His auction reports often draw on data from major property analytics providers to quantify clearance rates and compare current performance with previous weeks.
In one recent piece he noted a preliminary clearance rate in the low‑60s, framing it as the strongest auction weekend in several months and using individual high‑profile sales to show how renewed competition plays out in specific suburbs and price brackets. Across these stories, he uses agent quotes and case studies to connect city‑wide numbers to individual campaigns and buyer decisions.
Beyond weekly auctions, Bonaddio follows broader market shifts, including periods when homes take longer to sell, prices soften and listing volumes decline. He shows how these conditions interact with policy settings and economic confidence, positioning auction outcomes as one visible signal of deeper changes in buyer and seller behaviour.
First-home buyers, affordability and financial pressure
Affordability pressure on first‑home buyers is a recurring strand of Bonaddio’s work. He has reported on buyers arriving at brokers up to $20,000 short of the deposits they need, using survey data to show how early access to superannuation has left many regretting depleted balances when they come to purchase a home. In that coverage he breaks down how many respondents have taken money from super, how many regret it, and the small share who did so specifically to fund a deposit, tying those figures to fears that property prices will outpace savings.
Bonaddio also focuses on borrowing constraints that arise from rate rises, documenting how tightened serviceability tests and higher repayments limit what buyers can offer at auctions or private sales. His stories frequently include brokers and financial experts explaining the practical consequences of policy shifts for low‑ and middle‑income households trying to enter the market.
Through these pieces, he situates individual frustrations within a clear picture of how lending rules, wage growth and savings interact.
Alongside deposit and borrowing challenges, he writes about renter‑landlord tensions and consumer anger around aggressive demands or unfair treatment, using specific disputes to illustrate how tight rental markets can amplify conflict and stress. That strand of coverage keeps renters in view within a beat often dominated by buyers and investors.
Prestige homes, celebrity property and The Block
Bonaddio’s brief extends into prestige and celebrity real estate, where he tracks record‑setting sales and high‑profile listings. He has covered luxury homes that quietly set new suburb price records, drawing on industry sources to report sale prices in the multimillion‑dollar range and explaining why buyers are willing to pay more than ever for standout properties. In these stories he often details architectural features, land size and location, while noting how strong digital engagement and private inspections indicate demand at the top end of the market.
He also reports closely on The Block, treating the program as both entertainment and a lens on renovation budgets, design choices and resale value. His coverage has unpacked spending gaps of several thousand dollars between competing houses during room reveals, juxtaposing outlays with judges’ scores to show that higher spend does not always translate into better outcomes.
In another piece, he revealed the next season’s location via a major development site acquisition, outlining the scale of the land deal, the history of the vendor and the staged sale of multiple blocks.
Across these prestige and television‑related stories, Bonaddio connects celebrity and media narratives back to core property themes such as capital growth, buyer psychology and the dynamics of high‑value negotiations. His professional profiles note a regular celebrity property column, reinforcing that this is an established part of his beat rather than an occasional diversion.
Commercial deals, urban development and property businesses
Commercial real estate and urban development are another consistent focus for Bonaddio. He has reported on the sale of significant legal and office landmarks worth tens of millions of dollars, explaining how new ownership and redevelopment plans are expected to reshape key parts of the central business district. In growth‑area coverage he has detailed major transactions for future shopping precincts, describing how multi‑million‑dollar land deals underpin new retail hubs in developing corridors.
His reporting extends to large semi‑rural sites on the fringe of established suburbs, including hidden multi‑hectare holdings marketed with vacant possession and expressions of interest campaigns. These stories situate individual properties within broader patterns of infill development, land banking and changing city form.
They align with earlier career experience covering growth corridors and development trends, as outlined in his professional profiles.
Bonaddio also covers the business side of real estate services, including corporate failures linked to changing tax policy and weaker consumer confidence. In reporting on the collapse of a prominent property advisory firm, he set out the scale of its client base and portfolio, before detailing how investor tax changes, tighter lending conditions and higher marketing costs contributed to insolvency.
He supported that narrative with regulatory data on sector‑wide insolvencies, positioning the case as part of a broader shake‑up for property‑linked businesses.
Across commercial, development and corporate stories, Bonaddio’s work reflects a beat that spans residential, investment and industry angles, with a consistent emphasis on quantifying deals and connecting them to structural shifts in the market. His background includes roles at major metropolitan newspapers and property reporting in other regions before his current position, giving him experience across different markets and formats.
4 more real estate journalists.
Aleisha Dawson
Aleisha Dawson covers property where prestige deals, hard market data and lifestyle stories meet, with a particular focus on high-profile apartments and new projects in South East Queensland. She is a regional real estate editor within News Corp’s property network, overseeing property coverage for the Gold Coast Bulletin and contributing to Realestate.com.au’s property news. Her beat spans record-setting penthouse sales, off-market prestige deals, new apartment releases in landmark projects, and one-off high-value homes used as case studies in buyer behaviour. She tracks land and apartment markets with a data-led approach, using specific price points, volume figures and suburb lists. Dawson also reports on quirky homes, celebrity property, pop culture-linked locations and technology-shaped renovations, and her stories are widely republished by developers, agents and project marketers.
Blair Jackson
Blair Jackson explains housing through money: how prices, policy and banks shape the way people buy, sell and live. He is a reporter with the national wire service NewsWire, covering real estate and household finance across Australia. His work follows housing downturns, price movements, negative equity, mortgages, first-home buyers and existing borrowers. He reports on renters, poor housing conditions, high rents, repairs, affordability and housing inequality. He examines zoning, supply targets, tax changes, construction limits, development decisions and efforts to fix housing shortages. His finance coverage includes mortgage fraud, bank risk, interest rates, household costs and windfalls used to pay off property. He also covers auctions, listings, luxury homes, renovations and major developments. Jackson combines data, policy analysis, expert warnings, open-home and auction detail, and personal examples to show how financial decisions affect households and communities.
Bonnie Campbell
Bonnie Campbell is a luxury property reporter for The Australian Financial Review who focuses on the very top of the residential market, where big-ticket homes, mega-mansions and high-profile sales set and test price records. She covers trophy properties, record-breaking deals and prestige streets, using individual sales as case studies in how wealth, status and grand houses move through the market. Her stories track extreme price movements, large-scale renovations, unusual features and multi-million dollar listings, and link them to high-net-worth buyers, business leaders and public figures. She repeatedly returns to prestige coastal, resort and lifestyle markets, explaining how scarcity, views and amenity support multi-million dollar valuations. Alongside single-property features, she produces roundups of major luxury deals to show patterns in where the biggest money flows and which houses define the top end.
Caroline Delaney
Caroline Delaney is a senior property and features journalist at the Irish Examiner whose work links individual homes, damaged houses and outdoor spaces to the wider housing landscape. She covers residential listings with clear, price‑led pieces on specific homes coming to market, highlighting core details such as guide price, size, house type and a plain sense of location. Her property features look at fire damage and repair, treating house fires as a structural issue for the housing market and following cases through court proceedings and the process of putting homes right. She also reports on outdoor spaces and synthetic lawns, including environmental experts’ views on plastic turf in domestic gardens. Her news and features background keeps the tone fact‑led rather than promotional and gives her coverage a practical focus on aspiration, risk and everyday use of housing.