Australian Property

Via S&P: Australian prime home-loan arrears fell in August. That’s according to S&P Global Ratings’ recently published “RMBS Arrears Statistics: Australia.” The Standard & Poor’s Performance Index (SPIN) for Australian prime mortgages declined to 1.41% in August from 1.49% a month earlier.

Good stuff here from Martin North: This very much reminds me of the 2003 Sydney bust.

From CoreLogic’s quarterly auction report: Over the 3 months to September 2019, the clearance rate across the combined capital cities came in at 69.9 per cent across 16,730 auctions, the strongest quarterly clearance rate seen since the June 2017 quarter (71.7 per cent).

Thursday’s Lending to households and businesses release from the ABS revealed that total mortgage lending (excluding refinancings) rebounded strongly in August: As regular readers of MB will know, we consider the flow of housing and investor finance commitments to be premier indicators for dwelling value growth.

If there’s one iron clad truth in property, it’s that land values appreciate while structures depreciate.

The Real Estate Institute of New South Wales (REINSW) has released its September quarter rental vacancy report, which reveals a material tightening in the city’s vacancy rate: Sydney’s rental vacancy rate fell from 3.6% in August to 2.9% in September – the lowest reading since October 2018.

It’s never enough bubble for Joshy Recessionberg: The big four banks will be ­officially investigated for their repeated failures to pass on the full extent of central bank rate cuts to consumers under a government-launched probe into home-loan gouging.

There have been times when Chris Joye has made good sense.

Spring is usually a time of surging property listings.

With this week’s release of dwelling commencements and completions data for the June quarter, it’s once again time to examine how Australia’s dwelling supply is tracking against population growth.

Via the ABC’s Michael Janda: As house prices start taking off again, especially in Australia’s two biggest cities, many first-time buyers are wondering how they can break into the market.

Via New Daily: The company that built Sydney’s Opal Tower is embroiled in another safety scare at a different city apartment block.

The ABS yesterday released dwelling construction data for the June quarter, which recorded a dead cat bounce in both commencements and completions.

According to the SCMP, there has been a notable lift in Hong Kongers applying for Australian business visas.

The ABC has published an interesting profile on the outer-Western Melbourne suburb of Tarneit, which is fast morphing into a modern migrant slum nightmare: When the Bahadur family moved into their new home in Melbourne’s booming outer west four months ago, they dreamed of suburban bliss.

In 2017, MB coined the phrase “shrinkflation” to describe the unusual phenomenon where housing transaction volumes fall at the same time as dwelling values rise strongly.

Peter Koulizos, chairman of lobby group Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA), claims that investors are set to storm Australia’s housing market: Peter Koulizos… said there had been a surge in buyer sentiment in recent months, with corresponding price increases in Sydney and Melbourne.

The federal government has identified a number of legislative priorities when Parliament resumes on 14 October.