Australian Property

From Morry Schwartz’s Parasite Herald comes Simon Pressley, Managing Director of Propertyology: Far from being the ‘bad guys’, property investors actually keep the Australian economy afloat, according to Propertyology managing director Simon Pressley.

By Leith van Onselen In the wake of the towering inferno that engulfed London’s Grenfell Tower, killing at least a dozen people, questions are being asked regarding the use of similar combustible cladding across Australian high-rise buildings.

Via CoreLogic: The Westpac and Melbourne Institute’s consumer sentiment index for June 2017 was released earlier this week.

By Leith van Onselen It appears that the towering inferno that engulfed London’s Grenfell Tower, killing several people (picture above), may have used cheap combustible cladding that enabled the fire to spread quickly up the apartment’s exterior walls.

By Leith van Onselen With the release of the ABS’ housing finance data for April, it is an opportune time to once again plot CoreLogic’s dwelling price series against the total value of finance commitments (excluding refinancings) as measured by the ABS.

Via Domain: Soon after the New South Wales government announced it was doubling the tax for foreign home buyers earlier this month, calls started flooding in to Sydney-based real estate agent Shan Lin.

Via Macquarie today: Rations are getting smaller In our view, housing lending credit standards are continuing to tighten as banks are responding to the macro prudential requirements and buffers imposed by the regulator.

By Leith van Onselen Check out this video from Sunrise, which has the property lobby calling the bottom of the Perth housing market and predicting the city’s dwelling prices and rents will soon start to rise.

I don’t bother with Twitter much given it’s so limited but this was brought to my attention today: Does anyone remember what life was like before MB when these property parasites ran amok without fear of accountability?

By Leith van Onselen The property lobby’s opposition to the Federal Budget’s modest changes affecting foreign buyers of residential property continues in earnest, with the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) now complaining that the changes affecting capital gains tax (CGT) will increase real estate agents’ workloads.

Via Banking Day: These are “sobering times” in the banking sector, David Carter, chief executive officer, banking and wealth at Suncorp says.

By Leith van Onselen Young Australians don’t appear to have bought-in to the ‘growth record’ mantra that’s doing the rounds, with many instead very concerned about their futures.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) has released an interesting new report entitled Housing prices, household debt and household consumption, which examines the relationship between increasing housing prices (or housing wealth) and the increased consumption expenditure of households from before the GFC and afterwards.

By Leith van Onselen Who would have thunk it! The NSW Government’s recent decision to grant major stamp duty relief to first home buyers (FHBs) is set to flow to vendors, who are planning to jack up prices.

Pressure is clearly mounting in Brisbane, via The Australian: Singapore’s Banyan Tree has slashed the price of entry-level apartments in its Australian flagship development by more than $100,000, as stresses show in the Brisbane unit market.

Via Free Mortgages for All: The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has been castigated by brokers for its nationwide “sledgehammer” crackdown on interest-only loans, which have been labelled as “myopic” and “devastating” for regional Australia.

Let’s recall what the Budget said was going to happen to wages: The entire Budget repair agenda hangs on this recovery.