Australian Property

Via the AFR, the failed float is mulling it options: It’s action stations at beleaguered real estate group McGrath.

Via the AFR today: For a pretty boring sounding phrase the “build-to-rent” model for housing is getting huge attention across Australia’s property investment community.

Australia’s most delicate housing bubble snowflake is at it again today: The dire state of housing affordability revealed earlier this week surely confirms the harm caused by Australia’s badly designed capital gains tax.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released dwelling approvals data for the month of July. At the national level, the number of dwelling approvals fell by a seasonally adjusted 1.7% to 18,299. The overall fall was driven by the volatile unit & apartment market (-6.7%), whereas house approvals were dead flat.

Don’t worry, there is a plan to save Australian housing.

Gottiboff today: This week I was yarning to one of Australia’s top five home builders and he just shook his head as he told me: “Land prices in outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne are rising to unsustainable levels”.

Via AFR: Many owners of the 1000 NSW buildings identified with possible non-compliant cladding won’t be able to claim against their developer or builder because the two-year window to make such claims will have passed, a property lawyer says.

Via UBS: Interest Only loans have fallen to 30.5% of Bank approvals APRA’s cap on Interest Only (IO) lending flow is starting to take effect.

Via LF Economics: Australia has experienced an astounding rise in housing prices over the last two decades which has rendered it one of the world’s most unaffordable.

APRA is out with its quarterly ADI housing exposures and there are some encouraging signs for macrprudential 2.0.

Hello, from the HIA: The HIA New Home Sales report – a monthly survey of the largest volume home builders in the five largest states – show that sales volumes declined by 3.7 per cent in July 2017 compared to the June 2017.

Lot’s of material today from CEDA on the bubble: Historically low interest rates, an unprecedented period of continuous economic growth and strong levels of migration have contributed to ever escalating real housing prices in Australia’s capital cities.

Chanticleer suggests we look to what APRA did to NAB following its forex travails in 2003: APRA conducted a review into that incident and delivered its findings to the NAB board which then released it publicly.

There are two angles on the rapidly falling Chinese housing bid.

Via the AFR: A Melbourne family  is set for a cash bonanza with a 153-hectare farm on the city’s northern fringe tipped to sell to developers for more than $100 million.

Leith will return next week so today we’ll have to rely on CoreLogic charts for house prices and sundry indexes: Last week was down.

Via CoreLogic: Auction activity increased across the combined capital cities this week, with 2,239 homes taken to auction; the largest number of auctions held since the first week of June.

Pretty weird stuff this at the AFR: At least 14 buyers who bought apartments off the plan in a tower in Sydney’s south-west are facing the loss of their investment after the developer defaulted on a loan from a British Virgin Island lender, backed by a Chinese bank.

Ah, Jess Irvine: The team at ABC’s Four Corners assembled a thrilling package about the Australian property boom last Monday.

From S&P: The number of delinquent housing loans underlying Australian prime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) fell to 1.15% in June from 1.21% in May, according to a recent report by S&P Global Ratings.

When Hong Kong doesn’t want to be Hong Kong.