Real estate agents are standing up and taking notice of how social media expert Kurt Opray attracted 30 per cent more buyers to an auction than usual and sold his house for $135,000 above the reserve price. I had a chat with Kurt about how he did it.

And in other property news, the Reserve Bank Board has released the minutes of this month’s monetary policy meeting. The minutes note there’s been some signs of improvement in housing activity, although at low levels. The RBA says that while housing prices fell last year, there was some stabilisation, mostly in major cities, towards the end of the year. Building construction activity has been subdued because of slower population growth, tight access to credit and the pull-forward from the earlier boost to grants to first home buyers. Housing credit grew a little more slowly than household incomes.

Now, where will the strongest residential property growth be this year? First National Real Estate CEO Ray Ellis gives us his forecast.