Property news makes prime time
Television news has long had political, economic, and foreign affairs reporters but it’s a sign of the times that most stations now also have real estate specialists.
ONE such is Angelique Opie, property editor at Seven News Sydney, reporting on everything from Saturday auctions to planning reform and mortgage rates. She loves the job, but the assignment was almost accidental.
Graduating from high school in 2017, Opie did a Media and Communications degree at Sydney University, hoping to work in television. Her break was to land a job as a Sky News liaison at Seven’s Sydney city studios. “It was just so lucky that I was able to have that experience in a newsroom so early on, while I was studying,” she says.
That led to roles on Seven’s social media and chief of staff desks, field producing, pickup interviews, and eventually a job as a general reporter.
Opie covered the usual gamut of daily news until mid-2024 when the director of news and current affairs called for volunteers to staff a new national desk of specialists.
She had maybe health or entertainment in mind. “He said, ‘what do you think about property?’ It hadn’t crossed my mind, but I said yep, that would be wonderful.”
And it has been. “It’s a big topic in Sydney and Australia in general, so from then on I’ve fallen in love with covering stories on real estate and housing.”
But even specialists are on call for breaking news, so it’s not at all unusual to see Opie reporting live from an accident, fire, or gangland shooting. “If you’re the closest reporter, you’ll be the first to go,” she says. “You just need to be prepared for anything and able to quickly switch gears.”
Like also being Seven’s fill-in weather presenter, a job that’s entailed a crash course with her peers and the Bureau of Meteorology, presenting against a wall of graphics using multiple autocues. “That was a bit of a learning curve,” Opie adds.
At the forefront of her reporting, though, is the housing shortage and high prices crushing the ability of young people to afford a home.
“We are at a point where I don’t think it can be turned around,” she says. “It’s figuring out the future for younger generations: if apartment living will become the norm, and whether renting will become as common for them, as it was for older generations to purchase.”
If you’re the closest reporter, you’ll be the first to go. You just need to be prepared for anything and able to quickly switch gears.
– Angelique Opie
