Australian Property

The relentless symbiosis between property developers and Australia’s massive immigration program has been illustrated again, with Indian migrants taking control of Melbourne’s house-and-land market.

From CBA chief economist Gareth Aird: The value of all housing‑related lending (excl. refinancing) rose by a large 5.1% in July. The value of housing loans to owner‑occupiers (excl. refinancing) was up by 5.3% while the value of loans to investors (excl. refinancing) rose by 4.7%.

New Grattan Institute research to be presented at the UNSW Social Policy Conference in Sydney today shows that restoring the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) won’t help because NRAS was expensive, inefficient, and poorly targeted.

Via Herald Sun comes post-Hayne Royal Commission banking: Home loan applications with the big banks are being assessed offshore in countries including India and China without customers’ knowledge, startling new findings have revealed.

There was a time when Chris Kohler was the hot young talent of Australian business journalism.

Auction clearance rates boomed over the weekend, with the preliminary rate nationally rising into the high-70s%, driven by the two biggest markets: The preliminary national auction clearance rate rose to 77.0% versus 73.6% last weekend.

Via Mr Joye: …as we look ahead, the RBA now knows that it can safely continue to chisel interest rates lower under the protective veil of APRA’s powerful suite of counter-measures that have a proven history of cauterising financial stability concerns.

Via the AFR: Over recent weeks [Shadow Treasurer Jim] Chalmers has been busy travelling the country consulting caucus colleagues as part of the policy process one described as a review but “not with a capital R”.

Companies involved in the certification of building products state that they often come across fraudulent certificates.

Earlier this week, chief mortgage broker rentier, Aussie John Symond, “urged the government to intervene to ease the pressure on banks over how stringently they must check customers’ living expenses” because borrowers were supposedly running scared: [Symond is] pushing for regulators to take a more “realistic” approach to banks.

Last week’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).

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.