Australian Property

By Leith van Onselen You can’t keep the money grubbing rent-seeker down.

By Martin North, cross-posted from the Digital Finance Analytics Blog: Today we commence a short series on the results from our latest household surveys, as we examine the drivers of property demand by household segment.

Via Domainfax: Sydney and Melbourne house prices appear to be around 25 per cent to 30 per cent overvalued and housing market risks are concentrated in those cities, Capital Economics’ team says.

By Leith van Onselen Heather Shearer, a research fellow at Griffith University’s Cities Research Centre, is the latest to jump on the Tiny Houses fad, claiming they represent a solution to Australia’s housing affordability crisis.

By Leith van Onselen In this week’s SQM Research rental vacancies report, managing director Louis Christopher noted how rental supply would remain under pressure despite the recent record high dwelling construction levels: “Overall the current rental market is a moderate landlord’s market.

Via Moody’s: The proportion of Australian residential mortgages that were more than 30 days in arrears (30+ delinquency rate) increased to 1.62% in May 2017, the highest rate in five years. Higher delinquencies raise the risk of mortgage defaults and are therefore credit negative for Australian residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS).

SQM Research has released its rental vacancy series for July, which revealed a 0.1% fall in the national vacancy rate over the month as well as a 0.1% decline over the year: As shown above, rental vacancies fell or were flat rose across all capitals in August.

Via Reuters: China will strengthen its supervision of overseas investment risks and capital flows from insurance funds, the insurance regulator said on Monday, adding that it will urge companies to improve their risk monitoring systems.

Or so Domainfax tells you: Fairfax Media is ramping up plans for its spin-off of property classifieds and services group Domain, preparing to unleash management led by Antony ‘The Cat’ Catalano on prospective investors.

Via NZ: It was a rough night for most teams on The Block NZ – but contestants Ling and Zing possibly received the worst deal of all.

From CoreLogic today comes the mortgage leading index: Pretty weak given FHB grants running in the two big cities.

By Leith van Onselen Treasurer Scott Morrison has hosed a proposal to give tax breaks to managed investment trusts (MITs) that build homes for rent, claiming that it would be unfair to other investors.

By Leith van Onselen The news is grim for Brisbane apartment vendors, with a deluge of new apartments scheduled to hit the market over the next two years, putting further pressure on an already over-supplied Brisbane market.

By Leith van Onselen Potentially tens-of-thousands apartment owners of apartments over three storeys high are facing costly remediation bills to replace flammable cladding because of a legal loophole that prevents neither dodgy builders nor insurers from being liable.

Flufferfax asked on the weekend what’s next for house prices: After a five-year bull run, in which house prices have surged 75 per cent in Sydney and 56 per cent in Melbourne, the party may be over for those who have bet big on the property boom.

CoreLogic released its auction report yesterday, which reported a slight firming in the preliminary national auction clearance rate to 70.3% from 70.2% last weekend, but was well below the 76.2% recorded in the same weekend last year: Auction volumes nationally were 2,490 – above the 2,149 recorded in the same weekend last year.

By Leith van Onselen Via Martin North comes news that the Australian Treasury has released housing affordability measures following the 2017-18 Federal Budget: As part of the 2017-18 Budget, the Government announced it would be providing tax incentives to increase private and institutional investment in affordable housing.

Wish me luck as I wave you goodbye, Morgan Stanley: Our housing model, MSHAUS, declined to -0.9 in 2Q17 – marking a record-low in its 28-year history.

By Leith van Onselen BIS Oxford Economics has reversed its earlier call that Melbourne is facing an apartment glut following stronger than expected population growth.

From the Mortgage Professionals Australia: Bank’s claims about borrowers’ ‘liar loans’ criticised by industry over methodology and intentions The MFAA and FBAA have harshly criticised a UBS report which claimed 1/3 of mortgage applications were not entirely accurate (which they term ‘liar loans’).