Please find above RP Data’s March housing market update, which covers the state-of-play of the housing market as at end-February 2013.
And below is RP Data’s weekly housing update, which provides a neat summary of weekly housing market activity to 10 March 2013, including the latest readings from RP Data’s two new leading indices: the RP Data Mortgage Index and the RP Data Property Index.
RP Data Market Update – Week Ending March 10, 2013
Capital cities up 0.8% on the week – a continuation of the gains that commenced mid 2012.
Who is buying, you have unemployment in Australia rising faster yet prices are going up, to me it must be foreign investors doing this, creating a hot market at the same time. If it were just locals then I doubt the market would be going up in price.
PF, with Melbourne yeilds in my area so low you need at least that gain per month to break even. I bidded at a house that went for 1.1 last week, sold for 920k in 2008. Once you take out stamp duty and sale costs, then factor in the 50 to 60k loss per year on a buy v rent scenario, i reckon I am better off by > 100k … lets not forget that if you bought in 2008 you also had a couple of years of large gains, followed by small falls.
Simply put, yields are so crap in most of Aus that housing is a purely speculative investment – it requires LUCK and TIMING to come out on top.
House prices going up near 1% per week. Yeah, that sounds sustainable to me!
With a 3.6% gross yield on Melbourne houses and plenty of new build units due to hit the market in the coming 12 – 24 months why would any young person want to buy into that market?
Precisely! And they’re not….
.
Its only foreign buyers keeping the market afloat at present.
If…
…housing sales are declining
…credit growth is declining, almost flatlining
…mortgage debt is multiples of what it was
…record or near record number of properties are on the market
…yields on illiquid investment properties are stuffed
…interest rates get forced up because central banks can’t solve a solvency crisis with ever more liquidity
…boomers are retiring and trying to sell down (so can enough people afford the debt to buy up?)
makes one wonder if we are seeing the dying throes of the greater fool stampede into the echo chamber called “safe as houses”
If they increase immigration to cover the sell-off of the baby-boomers investment properties then expect to see a Golden Dawn-esque type party get some traction out here.
mdsee – Actually I don’t buy any of those arguments.
You dont want to Peter because your livelihood depends on none of that happening, which it is.
Christian – I don’t buy them because they are wrong.
I don’t see how it would affect my livelihood if I’m wrong, in fact it would probably improve it.
Really Peter?
The sales data in Victoria shows:
- more houses on the market and fewer sales
- credit growth still positive (but not by a lot) and a declining trend over 5 years
- debt to GDP at multiples what it was in 1996
So are you disputing facts now?
Why wouldn’t you buy when you can get returns like these (sarcasm alert)
Property renting for $895 per week
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-dulwich+hill-409976487?rsf=emailalert-propdetails
Purchased 23rd January 2013 for $1,330,000
http://www.realestate.com.au/listsearchview.ds?theme=rea.sold&newSearch=true&display=list&search=search&where=17+Jesmond+Ave%2C+Dulwich+Hill%2C+NSW+2203&includeSurrounding=true&propertytypegroup=&numbeds=&numbeds=&propertytype=&lotSize=&listprice=&listprice=
3.4% Gross Rental return (before agents, stamp duty, repairs, rates etc etc)
What are people thinking????
“Property renting for $895 per week”
Correction. Property advertised for rent at $895, may not be what they achieve
Imagine the holding costs on that one while vacant… could be a situation where they’ve bought the family home, but not yet ready to move in so renting it out in the meantime or maybe they are expecting capital growth to outpace their losses!