Australian Property

It’s the background buzz that never dies.

Uh oh. AMB: A second major lender has decided to remove SMSFlending from its services. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has said it is “streamlining” its product offering and as such will no longer offer the ability for self-managed super fund (SMSF) trusts purchase investment property with their fund.

By Leith van Onselen The backlash against short-stay apartment rentals through portals like Airbnb continues to fester after a series of wild parties were reported across Melbourne’s high-rise apartment complexes.

By Leith van Onselen 60 Minutes last night aired an alarmist special on Australia’s budding housing ‘crash’ entitled “Bricks and Slaughter”.

Via the AFR comes the bank’s worst nightmare, jingle mail: In moves set to further shift the lending dynamic from “buyer beware” to “seller beware”, Maurice Blackburn is preparing to sue the banks over interest-only lending, mortgage fraud and how household expenses were calculated prior to approving loans.

CoreLogic released its auction report yesterday, which reported a sizeable fall in the preliminary national auction clearance rate to 55.0% from 59.1% last weekend (later revised down to 55.3%).

The AFR records a cautionary tale today: An investor who purchased an off-the-plan “dream home” in Brisbane from cold-calling property spruikers lost more than one-third of its value when he resold, despite several years of booming residential property markets.

By Leith van Onselen The Howard Government’s decision to allow self-managed super funds (SMSFs) to leverage into property and other investments was a mistake.

Via The Australian: Surging commercial property values will not end in a bust but companies need to be ready as the cycle turns, according to Mirvac chief executive Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz.

Via Banking Day: The remaining three Big Four banks are reportedly getting ready to join NAB as participants in the new CCR regime.

Via Oxford Economics today: The elevated level of global house prices is showing signs of weighing on prices, with potentially negative implications for growth.

By Leith van Onselen Domain’s research analyst (formerly from Residex and CoreLogic), Eliza Owen, has penned an article on the shocking state of housing affordabiliy, despite recent price falls: Affordability has improved in all capitals where property prices have started to decline.

Via MPA: While Asia and Europe enjoyed the highest Chinese investment growth in 2017, Australia and New Zealand experienced significant drops, according to Juwai.com’s Chinese Global Property Investment Report.

Via the ABC: Westpac could be sued by its customers, funders and investors after admitting it breached responsible lending laws and a separate finding that it lacked appropriate lending controls.

By Leith van Onselen Back in November, The AFR reported that first-home buyers (FHBs) were desperately fighting for land in Melbourne as the city’s population soars.

By Leith van Onselen News.com.au is pushing an idiotic policy ‘solution’ to fix Australia’s housing affordability woes: offering a government-backed low deposit home loan scheme: THIS could be the model to solve the first homebuyer crisis in Australia.