Australian Property

Worth excerpting from the Westpac survey this morning: Sentiment around housing collapsed in April with assessments of both ‘time to buy’ and ‘price expectations’ plunging to the most negative levels since the GFC.

You would have thought the coronavirus lock down would have spelled the end of tiny house propaganda.

Via CoreLogic: Across the combined capital cities, a very subdued 636 homes were scheduled for auction over the Easter week.

Australia’s army of economically useless landlords is covering itself in ignominy.

CoreLogic’s research analyst, Eliza Owen, has examined the latest available employment data, which she believes points to difficulties for Australia’s housing market: On April 7th, the ABS released new survey results on the impact of COVID-19 on businesses.

Vai Martin North: Nine News asked me to run some analysis on potential forced property sales, which they ran in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney yesterday.

Via the AFR: Residential property landlords are facing a new setback as insurers refuse to cover shortfalls resulting from agreements with tenants to reduce weekly rental payments, despite pleas from the federal government for negotiated agreements.

Just before the coronavirus derailed the economy, the Australian housing market was running red hot.

Via Banking Day: Canstar reports that CBA has cut the basic variable rate by 18 basis points for owner occupiers paying either principal and interest or interest only and with loan-to-valuation ratios below 70 per cent.

Via Domain: …a rent strike campaign is targeting up to 100 real estate agents across Victoria and NSW with letters from tenants, threatening a total freeze on rent payments.

SQM Research has released its stock on market data for March, which recorded a sharp universal rise in listings over the month, but universal falls year on year: According to SQM Managing Director, Louis Christopher: “Residential property listings are starting to increase and accumulate.

Via The Australian: Commercial landlords will be required to reduce rent proportionate to a business’s fall in turnover in a mandatory code of conduct unveiled by Scott Morrison and the national cabinet.

I noted yesterday how the NSW Government is using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to relax planning rules and turbo-charge development across Sydney.

Via Domain: Landlords are slashing rents by hundreds of dollars a week and some are even temporarily cutting asking prices in half, in a bid to get tenants through the door as demand slows amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As predictable as the dawn, via Domain: Lenders are revising their lending criteria, with a focus on borrowers considered to be in high-risk industries.

Perhaps we could commission CSIRO research to answer the question, via New Daily: Real estate agents across the country are swapping tips on how to keep their renters paying top dollar, including tricks to drive them in circles when they ask for rental relief.

The ban on traditional auctions, and the shift to online, has decimated the nation’s auction markets, generated clearance rates not seen since the lows of the 2018 bear market.