For all intents and purposes, Perth Property should be experiencing a mega boom. Mortgage demand in Perth is through the roof. New mortgage commitments were up a whopping 106% in trend terms in the year to April, with mortgage demand typically leading dwelling value growth: The latest market indicators from the Real Estate Institute of
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has released its June Bulletin, which includes an interesting report on the reasons behind the rise in Australia’s underemployment rate. The RBA defines an underemployed person as “someone who is currently employed, but who would like and is available to work additional hours”. Thus, even in someone has “one
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Emerging-Market Bulls Pin Currency Hopes on Hawks Outpacing Fed – Bloomberg Ex-Tesla President Sells Stock Worth $270M – The Techee Millennials Aren’t Having Kids Because It’s Too Expensive – Money Microsoft Names CEO Nadella As Board Chairman – The Techee Americas: An inflation storm is coming for the U.S.
Robert Gottliebsen must have gotten off the blower to his mate ‘high-rise’ Harry Triguboff, because today’s drivel in The Australian reeks of blatant special pleading: NSW and Victorian governments are adopting strategies that, by accident or design, are slashing the building of new high-rise apartment towers… When overseas students return to Australia there will be
The New South Wales Government will deliver its 2021 Budget tomorrow. The Government had forecast in its half-yearly Budget review in February that stamp duty revenue for 2020-21 would total $8.372 billion. However, the government now expects such revenue to total $9.379 billion, due to Sydney’s soaring residential property market – delivering a financial windfall
There are calls for former government ministers to be banned from lobbying for companies for at least three years. Former Law Council of Australia president Arthur Moses says a three-year ban would bring MPs into line with similar restrictions on senior business executives, whereas Centre for Public Integrity chairman Anthony Whealy says there should be
Yesterday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg defended the Coalition’s proposed wind back of responsible lending laws, telling reporters they are essential to helping the economy recover from COVID: “Ensuring consumers and small businesses can get timely access to credit as the economy continues to recover from the COVID crisis”. “The reforms are intended to improve efficiency, reducing
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released its preliminary retail sales data for May, which recorded only 0.1% growth – well below analyst’s expectations of a 0.4% rise: Retail sales were 7.4% higher year over year, with turnover still running way above the pre-COVID trend: According to the ABS: May saw offsetting movements at
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has released its June Bulletin, which includes an interesting report on the unprecedented stimulus undertaken by the world’s economies. The first chart below shows the ramp-up in debt across advanced and emerging economies, which was driven higher by pandemic stimulus: These direct measures, including those that are expected to
In April last year, Abul Rizvi – former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration and one of the architects of Australia’s faux ‘skilled’ migration program – penned a spurious article arguing that Australia’s economy would suffer badly from the reduction in temporary migrants: If 50% of long-term temporary entrants depart, Australia would experience negative
CoreLogic’s preliminary report on the weekend’s auctions reported a higher clearance rate driven by strong results from Sydney. The national preliminary clearance rate rose to 77.8% from 77.4% the prior weekend. This was off significantly higher auction volumes, up to 2,418 from the prior weekend’s 1,426 (which was negatively impacted by the Queen’s Birthday holiday).
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: High greenhouse gas emitters should pay for carbon they produce, says IMF – The Guardian World’s Bubbliest Housing Markets Flash 2008 Style Warnings – Bloomberg Can decisions taken by the Basel Committee increase the gold and bitcoin prices? – Arzualvan REPO, REVERSE REPO, FED – Arzualvan The End of
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Red-Hot U.S. Economy Drives Global Inflation, Forcing Foreign Banks to Act – WSJ America’s high-yield debt is on ever-shakier foundations – The Economist Fed Pencils in Earlier Interest-Rate Increase – WSJ Is the pandemic accelerating automation? Don’t be so sure – The Economist Avoiding a requiem for the WTO
MB has frequently questioned the efficacy of Sydney’s WestConnex toll road and tunnel project – the $16.8 billion 33 kilometre motorway under construction that is more expensive per kilometre than the Chanel Tunnel. This hideously expensive project will see existing free public roads like the state-owned M4 (that have already been paid off) being tolled
Recently the federal government attracted widespread scrutiny over its controversial Leppington Triangle land deal. The 2018 purchase of the 12.3 hectare block of land, which was part of the construction of the new Western Sydney Airport, led to an investigation by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) after the land was valued at just $3
The UK is experiencing a third wave of the coronavirus, with 11,007 new COVID cases recorded overnight: UK now has the highest infection rate in Europe, according to new figures from Our World in Data: That’s where the bad news ends, however. The UK also has very high vaccination rates, with more than 42.2 million
CoreLogic released its final auction report for last weekend, with the final clearance rate rising to 73.6% from 70.6% the prior weekend, which was negatively impacted by Melbourne’s hard lockdown. As usual, Sydney drove the market recording a final clearance rate of 74.1% (down slightly from 75.6%), whereas Melbourne’s final clearance rate rebounded to 68.8%
In the Q&A to yesterday’s Keynote Address at the Australian Farm Institute Conference, RBA Governor Phil Lowe stated that the Council of Financial Regulators (i.e. RBA, Treasury, APRA and ASIC) are actively looking at macroprudential tools to curb the mortgage/property market (listen from around the 34 minute mark): “The Council of Financial Regulators meeting last
Yesterday’s employment report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that Australia’s youth – defined as those aged 16 to 24 – continue to benefit from the closure of Australia’s international border. While overall youth employment is yet to return to its pre-COVID level, with total jobs still down 17,400 from their pre-COVID peak
The most revered economist in Australia, RBA governor Phil Lowe, has become the defacto best union official in the country, arguing for higher wage inflation for quite some time. In yesterday’s Keynote Address at the Australian Farm Institute Conference, Lowe concluded that “the Board wants to see the recent recovery transition into strong and durable
It’s official. Australia has lost 73,900 migrants since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Q4 population data released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS): As shown above, Australia has recorded three consecutive quarters of negative net overseas migration (NOM), specifically: -7,800 in Q2 2020 -41,200 in Q3 2020 -24,900 in Q4
In the week ended 17 June, the CoreLogic daily dwelling values index surged another 0.42%: Sydney’s led the way again, with dwelling values rising another 0.59%. All other major capitals except Perth also rose strongly in value: So far in June, dwelling values across the five major cities have soared 1.04%, led by Sydney: Quarterly
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Fed Pencils in Earlier Interest-Rate Increase – WSJ Fed officials see GDP, inflation rising higher in 2021 – The Hill How ‘Chaos’ In The Shipping Industry Is Choking The Economy – NPR Asian Central Banks Build Dollar War Chests as Buffer for Volatility – Bloomberg The Fed Cannot Control
Recent data from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), collated by Interest.co.nz, showed that Kiwis leveraged big time into property ahead of the Ardern Government’s investor tax reforms (announced in late March). The proportion of new mortgages taken out with debt-to-income (DTI) ratios above five soared over the March quarter, with all borrower groups
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its labour force report for May, which registered another 0.3% fall in the official unemployment rate to 5.1% off a whopping 0.9% increase in the number of jobs: Full-time jobs rose by 97,500 in May whereas part-time jobs rose by 17,700: The labour force participation rate rose
Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) has released its mortgage stress figures for May, which shows that around 41% of households remained ‘mortgage stressed’, up significantly from the pre-pandemic level of 32.9%: Martin North explains the rise in mortgage stress as follows: Our approach to measuring stress is unique in that we examine household cash flow –
A year ago, the Victorian government advised that the $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel project would not be completed in 2022 as originally intended, instead pushing the project back to 2023 over a dispute around the disposal of contaminated soil. Prior to this, it was revealed that the Victorian Government ignored expert advice on the
Yesterday, CBA’s head of Australian economics, Gareth Aird, released data showing that the coronavirus pandemic has reduced the number of non-resident workers in Australia from 521,000 in Q1 20 to 235,000 in Q1 21: In turn, this has driven unemployment and labour underutilisation down, which will soon likely result in stronger wage growth: According to
The ABS has just released its labour force survey for May, which reports cratering unemployment (to 5.1%) and underemployment (7.4%) on a whopping 115,200 monthly increase in jobs and a 1.4% increase in hours worked. The result smashed analysts’ expectations of a 30,000 increase in jobs and a 5.5% unemployment rate. Below are the key
In keeping with MB’s long running “lost decade” theme, a new report from the Productivity Commission (PC) shows that growth in per capita national output and income was significantly below the 60-year average during the 2010s. The PC’s latest Insights report has concluded that gross national income would have been $11,500 per person higher in
