― Getting a precise fix on Australia’s housing markets remains tricky. Sentiment and lead indicators continue to point to a material slowdown and turnover is showing a renewed decline. However the picture around price growth is much less clear cut, with some moderation overall but trends varying greatly across capital cities – ranging from double digit growth to persistent declines.
― The situation continues to have many moving parts. The main drivers are the ‘macro-prudential’ measures deployed in March and weaker foreign buyer demand. However, there are numerous ‘sub-plots’ driving variations across sub-markets including: state government policy changes affecting foreign investors and first home buyers; differing exposures to investor activity and the mining downturn; and differences in the supply-demand balance including across wider metropolitan areas and specific sub-markets such as those being more heavily affected by surging ‘high rise’ construction.
The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
PulseAugust2017
