Australian Property

Amid the widespread media gushing over ‘tiny homes’, it is nice to finally read an honest appraisal on why they are a retrograde solution for chronic housing policy failures: Finally, an ingenious solution to a housing crisis that is sapping the quality of life of an entire generation: the humble van.

Because one year is a long time in Australian property.

Perth’s housing crash has been well documented on MB.

Via Gottiboff today: Relations between Australia and China have rarely been worse and there has been a sudden slump in the buying of Australian real estate by mainland Chinese—led by lower demand for Sydney apartments.

Some hope for new developments from Stockland: Still very mixed and quite weak.

CBA interest rate strategists, Jarrod Kerr and Adam Donaldson, claim that mass immigration is Australia’s “fountain of youth” and will prevent housing prices from falling.

The tidal wave of high-rise apartments built across the East Coast has left recent buyers of off-the-plan apartments drowning in negative equity, according to new research from CoreLogic.

Via Banking Day: The Australian Taxation Office can disclose tax debt information to credit reporting agencies, following the passage of a tax bill last week.

So say the excellent Damien Boey at Credit Suisse: RBA Deputy Governor Debelle has just delivered a “glass half-empty” speech about the housing construction cycle.

With Perth dwelling values having crashed by more than 21%: Property lobbies have met with the Western Australian Government to demand a housing stimulus package.

From CoreLogic’s head of research, Tim Lawless: Rising home values, low mortgage rates and comparatively attractive rental yields are bringing investors back into the housing market.

Instead, it will lower living standards.

In July, the Victorian Government launched a $600 million funding package to remove dangerous flammable cladding, the cost of which is to be split 50/50 by taxpayers and a new developer building levy.

Yeh, they’re onto it at last.

SQM Research has released its rental vacancy data for September, which revealed that vacancies nationally declined by 0.1% over the month and was flat over the year: Across the capital cities, vacancy rates fell across almost every market in September, whereas the situation over the year was mixed.

Via the ABC: Owners and residents of Sydney’s Mascot Towers have been advised existing cracks in the building have widened and new cracking has developed requiring urgent remediation works to avoid a “structural failure”.

CoreLogic has released its quarterly rental review, which reveals that rents fell for the third consecutive month, driven by sharp falls across Sydney: In fact, the only capital city to record strong rental growth in the year to September was Hobart, where rents rose by 6.2%.

We noted yesterday how the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA) have demanded additional first home buyer (FHB) subsidies to lift Perth’s dead market, including reintroducing the $7,000 First Home Owner Grant for established properties and increasing the stamp duty exemption threshold for FHBs.

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.