Australian Property

Via the ABC: The owners of a Sydney apartment complex locked out because of toxic land concerns look set to be barred from entering their homes until at least the end of the year.

Estimates of the cost of rectifying Australia’s high-rise apartment faults continues to soar.

Westpac senior economist, Andrew Hanlan, has responded to today’s GDP shocker with the below sombre (but accurate) analysis: The economy lost considerable momentum from mid-2018, led by the turning down of the housing sector and by the consumer.

Sometimes the rule of unintended consequences is super, via Domain: The number of properties offered on Airbnb could be slashed thanks to a NSW government proposal to impose stringent new fire safety rules on homes being let short-term.

SQM Research’s managing director, Louis Christopher, released a report claiming that Sydney’s housing market remained 21% overvalued when measured against GDP.

Amid the media glee surrounding Australia’s rebounding property market, spare a thought for Townsville, whose market crashed in 2008 and has yet to recover.

The floor has sunken under Melbourne’s off-the-plan apartment market, with buyer concerns about flammable cladding and building faults leading many to drop out of purchases and shun the sector.

Via Investor Daily: AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver says the latest resurgence in property prices will be tempered by weak economic conditions and lending constraints.

Friday’s mortgage credit data from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) revealed record low mortgage growth on both a quarterly and annual basis (see below charts).

Auction clearance rates softened over the weekend, with the preliminary rate nationally falling to the low-70s%, driven by retracements across the two biggest markets: The preliminary national auction clearance rate rose to 73.6% versus 79.6% last weekend.

Via Chris Joye today: Pity the perma-bears, because the great Aussie housing boom is back.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released dwelling approvals data for the month of July. At the national level, the number of dwelling approvals crashed by a seasonally adjusted 9.7% to 12,944. The overall slump in approvals was broad-based with both houses (-3.3%) and units (-18.4%) falling.

Dan O’Brien is the head of Cladding Safety Victoria, a newly established cladding rectification body.

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has reported that one in 10 consumers who take out a home loan via a mortgage broker are finding it hard to meet their repayments within 12 months.

It’s horrible to watch as APRA’s head zombie regulator, Wayne Byers, shuffles along after a revving house price Ferrari.