CoreLogic has released its preliminary auction results for the weekend, with the preliminary clearance rate again coming in above 80%, with almost every market showing strength. The national preliminary clearance rate was 81.9%, up from a final clearance rate of 73.9% in the same weekend last year. Australia’s second biggest auction market, Sydney, again led
The Australian mortgage market has continued its record run, according to new data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Total mortgage commitments (excluding refinancings) rose another 10.5% in January to be up a whopping 44.3% year-on-year. This growth was driven by owner-occupiers, where mortgage commitments rose by 10.9% over the month to
The Guardian’s Greg Jericho has posted an article claiming that the Liberal’s economic agenda is built around “lower taxes for companies and the wealthy, and lower wages for everyone else”. Jericho’s thinking goes like this: The Morrison Government has refused to lift JobSeeker to a subsistence level; It has introduced a new hotline for employers
One interesting aspect of the current boom in Australian property prices is the absence of overseas buyers, especially Chinese. During the 2013 to 2015 house price cycle, Chinese buyers made up a significant proportion of demand, especially across Sydney and Melbourne. However, over the past several years, this demand has waned, as illustrated by the
International students have accounted for around 25% of Australian universities’ revenue in recent years. Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge used a speech on Friday to argue that this business model is unsustainable in the post-pandemic environment, and that COVID-19 has given the nation’s universities an opportunity to shift their focus to educating Australians: “These disruptions
CoreLogic yesterday released its 5-city dwelling values index for 28 February 2021, which has allowed me to calculated price growth over the month of February. Turns out February 2021 was the strongest month for dwelling values since September 2003, with values across the five major markets soaring by 2.1% (see next chart). Sydney led the
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Today’s credit aggregates data from the Reserve Bank of Australia reported an acceleration of mortgage growth; although it remained soft on a historical basis. CBA’s head of Australian economics, Gareth Aird, expects housing credit to remain low, eliminating the need for the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) to tighten macro-prudential curbs on mortgages: We expect
Earlier this week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) named South East Queensland (SEQ) as its preferred host for the 2032 Olympic Games. It is believed the IOC could formally award SEQ the games as early as July. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the IOC is impressed that it already has up to 90% of the needed
Last month, the Queensland Government hatched a plan to shift quarantine from Brisbane hotels to a regional mining camps in Gladstone and Toowoomba. However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison stupidly scuttled the plan claiming resources workers could become infected and thus hamper Australia’s economic recovery. Now Queensland has attempted to hold the federal government to ransom
The Senate passed a motion yesterday attacking NBN Co for paying almost $78 million in pandemic bonuses in the second half of 2020, describing the payments as “excessive, unreasonable, and lacking in justification”. The motion passed 32 votes to 30, with Labor, the Greens, Centre Alliance, PHON and independent Senator Rex Patrick all backing it.
Superannuation Minister Jane Hume has recently stated that super funds should be forced to offer new retirement income products so that retirees use more of their super rather than save it. According to The AFR, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will echo these comments when he speaks to a retirement income forum today, saying that people should
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has released mortgage growth figures for January, which continued to strengthen on the back of owner-occupiers. Quarterly mortgage growth rose to 1.14% in January – the 6th consecutive monthly increase – and is now experiencing its strongest growth since September 2018 (see next chart). Owner-occupiers continue to lead the
Since the coronavirus pandemic struck last year, shutting Australia’s international border, we have heard incessant pleas from farmers to allow migrant fruit pickers into the country. We are told that without these migrant workers, fruit will shrivel on the vine and vegetables will rot on the fields, leaving farmers deeply out of pocket financially and
On 1 April, Australia’s 1.3 million JobSeeker recipients will receive a $100 a fortnight reduction in their incomes. This is because the $150 a fortnight Coronavirus supplement will be abolished, replaced by a $50 a fortnight permanent increase in the JobSeeker allowance to a measly $44 a day. The changes will push the JobSeeker allowance
Eliza Owen, Head of Research Australia at CoreLogic, has released new research examining the likely impact of the end-March withdrawal of the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement on Australia’s property markets. Owen provides a fairly sanguine assessment, noting that JobSeeker has already been tapered significantly since late September without any detrimental impact on the property market. To
One of the most notable aspects of the current property boom is the absence of investors. Despite the lowest mortgage rates on record, investor mortgage demand remains well below its 2015 peak while owner-occupier demand has surged to record high levels. This is illustrated clearly in the next chart, which tracks ABS data on new
Australia’s property boom has gone from strength to strength, with CoreLogic’s 5-city daily index surging another 0.70% in the week ended 25 February, which follows the prior week’s 0.55% rise. As shown in the next chart, the past two week’s increase in values were the strongest in years, easily surpassing the late 2019 boom: Sydney
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Yesterday’s labour price index (LPI) data from the ABS revealed that Australian wages grew by a measly 1.4% in calendar year 2020 – a fraction above the all-time low recorded in the September quarter: Today, the ABS has released Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) data for the November 2020 half, which recorded a sharp 1.9% decline
CoreLogic has released its final auction clearance rates for last week, which hit a fresh six year high of 79.6% – up from the 72.7% final clearance rate recorded in the same time last year. As usual, clearance rates were driven by Melbourne (77.4%) and Sydney (83.4%), which dominate the nation’s auction market; although results
The Trans-Tasman Travel bubble, which promised to allow unrestricted two-way travel between Australia and New Zealand, has been dealt a fatal blow with Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria each imposing new restrictions on Auckland arrivals following new community virus transmissions across the city. Overnight, New South Wales and Victoria reclassified Auckland as a virus
Deloitte has released its 10th biannual CFO Sentiment survey covering the second half of 2020. The survey shows that CFO sentiment has surged to a decade high on the back of the economy’s “V-shaped” recovery, including the strong rebound in employment and decade high consumer confidence. 72% of CFOs are now feeling optimistic or highly
In 2016, the Turnbull Government bizarrely announced that France’s Naval Group had won the $50 billion bid to build 12 extremely large submarines in Adelaide. It was later revealed that the decision was arrived at to pork barrel the seat of former Defence Minister Christopher Pyne by ‘creating’ 3,000 jobs. Since then, the project has
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that 126,974 certified deaths were recorded nationwide between January 1 and November 24, down from a baseline average of 127,872 over the past 5 years. In particular, there were only 42 deaths from influenza during this period, although all but two occurred before 22 April. Australian
Gareth Aird, head of Australian economics at CBA, has written a new note examining the outlook for Australian commodity prices in 2021. Aird sees commodity prices “remaining well supported in 2021” on the back of “momentum in the global economy”. This will keep Australia’s terms-of-trade elevated in 2021, thus supporting national income as mining profits
It is hard to deny that the Morrison Government’s HomeBuilder subsidy has given a much needed ‘shot in the arm’ to Australia’s housing construction industry. Under Homebuilder, the federal government provided $25,000 grants to underwrite the construction of new homes or major renovations for contracts signed before 31 December 2020. The scheme was later extended
The Melbourne City Council continues to plead with the Victorian Government to order workers back to the CBD to boost economic activity and support business. At a council meeting earlier this week, Lord Mayor Sally Capp said “our city businesses are absolutely crying out for the return of city workers” and claimed that “every city
Jacinda Ardern’s 2017 election promise to fix New Zealand’s housing affordability crisis has been put to the sword by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), which has tipped 22% house price inflation in its latest Statement on Monetary Policy, which was released yesterday. The next chart shows the RBNZ’s projection, with New Zealand house
