Anne Flaherty is an economist at REA Group, where she examines the macroeconomic and demographic trends that shape Australia’s residential and commercial property markets. 

Anne has worked in property economics for over a decade and regularly provides market commentary across media, as well as writing a fortnightly column in The Australian.

Ben is Head of Real Assets Research for the Pacific region at MSCI, responsible for producing thought leadership for the benefit of MSCI’s clients, covering both major property sectors and newly emerging ones.

With over 15 years' experience in Australia, and the UK across investment analysis, research, strategy and product development in the property sector. He has expertise in property sector performance metrics, macroeconomic and financial market data interpretation, and product development.

Ben began his career at IPD in London (now MSCI), where he worked predominantly in research. Upon transferring to the Sydney office, Ben took on the role of Client Consultant for the Asia Pacific region. Ben then moved to CBRE, where he was Head of Capital Markets, Office & BTR within CBRE Research for over five years, before moving to RCA to be Head of Analytics for the Pacific region, which MSCI subsequently acquired in September 2021. 

Brendan Coates is the Housing and Economic Security Program Director at Grattan Institute, where he leads Grattan’s work on housing, retirement incomes and superannuation, macroeconomics and aspects of tax reform. 

He is a former macro-financial economist with the World Bank in Indonesia and consulted to the Bank in Latin America. Prior to that, he was an official in the Australian Treasury.

Brendan has published extensively on all aspects of Australia’s housing problem, from taxation to land use planning to rent assistance and social housing.

Danielle Wood commenced a 5-year term as Chair of the Productivity Commission on 13 November 2023.

Prior to joining the Commission, she was CEO of the Grattan Institute and Head of its Budgets and Government Program. During her time at Grattan, Danielle also held roles as member of the Australian Government’s Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, the Parliamentary Budget Office Expert Advisory Committee, the Jobs and Skills Australia Consultative Forum and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government Research Committee.

Danielle is an Honorary Fellow and former President of the Economic Society of Australia and a Research Fellow of the Women’s Leadership Institute. She was the co-founder and first Chair of the Women in Economics Network.

She is currently an ex-officio member of the Australian Government’s Competition Review Expert Advisory Panel. 

David Woodward is the Chief Executive of Global Apartment Advisors (GAA), a London-based advisory firm focused on residential real estate globally, and is also the Chairman and Co-Principal of GAA-AUS, a Sydney-based investment management platform.

David brings more than 25 years’ leadership experience to this role with expertise in real estate investment, asset management, property management, development and construction for some of the world’s premier public and privately held real estate companies.

Notable roles include Global Head of Multifamily for Brookfield US and CEO at Fortress Investment Group where he was responsible for the turnaround of Stuyvesant Town in New York City – the largest rental apartment community in the United States totalling 11,232 units and 25,000 residents of Manhattan. This culminated in a sale to Blackstone for $5.4 billion, the largest single-asset transaction in U.S. real estate history.

As Co-founder and Managing Principal of Cera Stribley, Domenic has specific expertise in concept design and the development of design solutions. Respected for his sensitivity toward local culture and project context, Domenic's concise understanding of property is vital to achieving architectural integrity and maintaining commercially viable project outcomes.

James has over 10 years’ experience dealing with all types of corporate insolvency appointments both formal and informal, including receiverships, voluntary administrations, deed of company arrangements and liquidations. These appointments represent +$1.3B of distressed property assets in VIC, NSW and QLD in the last 5 years. 

James also specialises in risk management, with extensive experience completing financial capacity assessment reports on builders and developers throughout Australia. 

Jesse is the Director of the Victorian JLL Development Site Services team and has a strong track record of managing complex development site transactions and delivering exceptional results. Jesse leads a dedicated team of professionals specialising in residential, Build to Rent, and commercial development sectors, with a particular focus on Melbourne's inner suburbs.

Throughout his career, Jesse has represented a diverse range of clients, including local and offshore development and investment groups, high net worth individuals, major corporations, government bodies, and non-profits. Passionate about the development sector, Jesse is an active advocate for industry support and continuously works to provide top-level service and creative solutions for his clients.

Based in Melbourne, Jonathon McRostie is a Special Counsel in Clayton Utz's Restructuring & Insolvency team. Jonathon specialises in complex litigation, with a focus on corporate insolvency and reconstruction matters. Jonathon acts for insolvency practitioners, banks, company officers, secured and unsecured creditors and has worked on a broad spectrum of commercial litigation matters. Jonathon has been voted by peers as One to Watch in Insolvency and Reorganisation Law and Litigation (Best Lawyers Australia).

Mark Power is the Head of Income Credit at Qualitas, responsible for the investment outcomes and growth of the income credit business and investment strategies. He joined Qualitas in 2017, and has over 30 years’ experience in real estate finance, with a strong reputation for structuring and delivering attractive capital solutions for clients.

Before joining Qualitas, Mark held senior roles within the Corporate and Institutional Property division at NAB, spanning over 20 years. His extensive background in Australia’s major banks has provided him with a deep understanding of the property finance landscape.

Michael Di Russo is Head of Property at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, where he leads the organisation's debt and equity investments that accelerate Australia’s transition to lower emissions within the built environment. At the CEFC,
Michael has contributed to more than $2.5 billion in purpose-led investments demonstrating market leading outcomes. Michael has more than 20 years' experience in the property sector across a range of roles covering town planning,
acquisitions, corporate and structured finance. Michael has previously held roles with CBA, Westpac Group, Ashe Morgan and Spectrum Property Partners.

Michael is a highly respected and experienced economist with a passion for delivering the in-depth, timely, and highly valuable research that underpins RPM’s expertise and strategic advice. 

He heads RPM’s Research, Data & Insights division; comprising an expert team of economists, property experts, analysists, and GIS analysts who provide key data and analysis on the dynamic property market. This rich intelligence underpins RPM Group’s and its clients’ successes.

Nerida is Ray White’s chief economist and one of Australia’s leading property experts. She provides market commentary to a wide range of Australian media outlets and contributes to Ray White’s publications. 
 
Nerida is the Chair of the Construction Forecasting Council and is a member of the Australian Taxation Office’s Foreign Investment Stakeholder Group. She also provides updates on property market conditions to major Government bodies. 
 
With more than 20 years of property research experience throughout Asia Pacific, Nerida has held senior positions within commercial agencies and major consulting firms during this time. 

Nicola Foxworthy has over 20 years’ experience in affordable housing delivery, holding executive roles in the Victorian Community Housing and Public Service sectors. She has a deep understanding of the policy, regulatory, funding and commercial environment for affordable housing in Australia and extensive experience in affordable housing program design and implementation, strategic planning and stakeholder engagement. 

Nicola is Founding Director of Imagine Housing, an affordable housing consultancy specialising in innovative and collaborative delivery models. She is also a Sessional Member of Planning Panels Victoria and a co-founder of Middle Ground Housing, an incubator for a new model of cooperative housing that provides secure, sustainable cost-stabilised homes for Australians locked out of homeownership. 

Robert has been active in the property industry for over 40 years, most recently as General Manager of Frasers Property Australia (formally Australand) where he was for over 18 years. 

He is the founder and Director of Housing All Australians (NFP), is on the Board of Homes Tasmania and on Livery Housing (which was formally Summer Housing) which is a disability housing provider. 

Through his career, he sat on a number of industry bodies including the Property Council of Australia (Vic), the Residential Development Council, the Housing Industry Association (Vic), the UDIA (Vic), Salvation Army Housing, Liveable Housing Australia, the Heritage Council of Victoria and was on the Victorian Board of Advisors of the Property Industry Foundation.

Steve Sfendourakis is a registered Unlimited Domestic and Commercial Building Practitioner and the Director of Stemcon, a building and property development company established in 2008.

 Stemcon specialises in multi-unit residential and mixed-use projects. 

With over 25 years of industry experience, Steve has worked across a wide range of complex developments, bringing a practical, solutions-focused approach to every project. 

He holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering and an Advanced Diploma in Building Design (Architectural), combining technical expertise with a strong design sensibility. 

Coming from a family of builders, Steve continues that legacy by leading a team dedicated to quality, continuous improvement, and client-focused delivery.

Tamara Gross has worked in commercial real estate for 24 years, 21 years as Head of Leasing at Gross Waddell ICR and then making the bold move in 2021 to join Belle Property Commercial as their Director of Retail.

Tamara has risen to become one of Melbourne’s most formidable retail leasing forces. She thrives on the thrill of deal but in recent years a further passion has surfaced with her high energy public speaking appearances and networking forums. She feels most at home showcasing her amazing skill set in networking and personal branding. 

Tamara saw how male dominated the world of commercial real estate was and championed her own arena for women in property and business.

Tamara has hosted over 250 female property professionals in her boardroom networking lunches and is the founder of Tam’s Belles.      

Tim is a real estate specialist, providing strategic advice in relation to complex property developments, capital transactions and real estate joint ventures.
Tim has a unique perspective of real estate investment, funds management and development, having spent several years as General Counsel and General Manager, Strategy at a property fund.

Recognised by Chambers and Legal 500 as one of its Next Generation Partners, Tim is particularly renowned for his build to rent expertise and deep experience negotiating fund-through development transactions. Some recent highlights include advising Mirvac on the establishment of its $1.8bn BTR fund and many clients on BTR fund-through transactions. 

He has also been busy in the industrial space, notably recently acting for LOGOS on its Amazon facility in Craigieburn – the biggest industrial project ever in the Southern hemisphere.

With more than 20 years’ experience in analysing housing trends, Tim is recognised as a leading authority on residential property trends.  He regularly provides expert commentary on real estate market conditions and the interplay between housing markets, demographic trends and economic factors. 

As one of Australia’s most popular property market analysts and commentators, Tim’s expertise is frequently sought by a diverse array of audiences from government bodies and policy makers through national and international corporate entities across the property, banking and financial sectors, insurance, valuations and consumers.