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In Family Law Court decisions in Australia, following divorce, the female party is frequently disadvantaged financially in the long term. This paper provides a critical assessment of valuation evidence as a data source in research and discusses valuation accuracy, valuation variation and valuation bias, as well as the Australian family court system and the role of valuers as expert witnesses. In particular, valuation in family law, as it relates to gender inequality, is discussed. The study aims to determine whether the current system of valuation in the Family Law Courts disadvantages women. This paper was important to reveal information that stakeholders in family law cases use on a day-to-day basis.

A database of 658 cases was developed and analysed to examine the influence of valuations of the matrimonial home provided by both the male and female parties on the final decision of the court.

Findings showed that valuations from the female party had marginally more influence on the outcome. However, financial disadvantages for the female party persist despite this. This raises several questions for future research, regarding reasons for this persistent disadvantage.

Research limitations included a time-consuming process.

Further researchers can use the findings from this paper to further research.

Social implications include the ability of the research to impact on society. In this regard, it was the matrimonial home in relation to divorce proceedings.

The originality of this paper stems from the analysis of a database that was created from a large number of cases from Austlii database family law cases.

The purpose of this paper is to review what is known about property cycles following the financial crisis of 2008.

The method is to review the literature on property cycles published since the 1930s, to examine the extent to which endogenous causes have been identified as distinct from exogenous factors that may have produced cyclicality resulting from weak adjustment mechanisms but not cycles.

Whilst there is broad consensus that the property market has delays in adjustment which produce oscillations resulting from external shocks, it is more difficult to identify endogenous causes of cycles, though there are some possible candidates, notably technical progress.

The slump after 2008 has cost savers and taxpayers dear, so better means of predicting cycles so that policy makers can mitigate them is desirable.

The debate about whether property cycles result from exogenous shocks or endogenous causes is in danger of being lost sight of. If the former, then the property industry is a channel through which external factors feed through to the economy, albeit magnified by weak adjustment factors. If there are endogenous causes, then policy makers would be unwise to overlook their potential destabilising impact on the economy.