Australian Property

Via S&P: Australian prime home-loan arrears rose in April, according to a recently published report by S&P Global Ratings. The Standard & Poor’s Performance Index (SPIN) for Australian prime mortgages, rose to 1.53% in April from 1.51% a month earlier.

Via the ABC: Developers are offering special deals like paying 12 months of a buyer’s mortgage, $50,000 “bonuses” and even furniture vouchers in a bid to help clear Sydney’s apartment glut.

By Leith van Onselen Back in April, Alucobond supplier Halifax Vogel Group (HVG) and its manufacturer 3A Composites were targeted in a class action by apartment owners in a Sydney building.

Via the AFR: From Monday, NAB said it was introducing new guidelines for Bank of Mum and Dad that “complements the law and, in some areas, sets higher standards”.

Via CoreLogic comes the leading mortgage index: The post -election rebound still looks firm if not tearaway.

From CoreLogic comes a spruik about granny flats as a solution to Australia’s housing affordability woes: More than half a million home owners across Australia’s eastern seaboard have enough space on their property to build a granny flat, which could boost home values by 30 per cent and add around 27% to rental income.

MB’s call for a royal commission into Australian construction standards and practices has received support from Martin North, John Adams and Edwin Almeida, who discussed the issue in detail last night.

From Westpac’s Matthew Hassan: Given the intense focus on Australia’s housing markets at the moment and in light of our recent commentary around the best way to interpret auction market results (see here) we are now putting out short previews each Friday and summary updates the following Monday setting out how results should be viewed.

Nothing makes my blood boil more than “tiny homes”.

By Leith van Onselen On Christmas Eve, all residents at Sydney’s 392-apartment Opal Tower were evacuated after serious cracking was discovered.

CoreLogic has released its preliminary auction report, which reported a sharp rise in the national clearance rate driven by Sydney and Melbourne.

Via the excellent Jonathon Mott at UBS: We estimate the RBA rate cuts and APRA’s removal of its interest rate serviceability floor may improve maximum borrowing capacity by around 14%.

By Leith van Onselen New South Wales Planning Minister Rob Stokes says he hopes to ensure that all local councils in the state adopt the ‘missing middle’ scheme by the end of 2019.

Via Cameron Kusher at CoreLogic: In the lead-up to the recent Federal election the Coalition announced the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme.

McGrathmaggedon  not sounding too hot on housing bounce either: But McGrathmageddon himself was so bullish only two months ago: Firstly, I pointed out that in Sydney (and Melbourne), the 5–10% drop we’ve seen so far followed a growth cycle that added 60–100% to property values overall.

By Leith van Onselen As summarised earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its labour force report for May, which registered a solid 42,300 increase in total employment but a flat headline unemployment rate (still 5.2%),  driven by a 0.11% rise in labour force participation.

By Leith van Onselen Academic researchers, Rachel Ong and Gavin Wood, warns that the number of mature age Australians carrying mortgage debt into retirement is soaring, endangering Australia’s retirement system.