Australian Property

By Leith van Onselen With the ABS yesterday releasing its population data for the September quarter, it’s an opportune time to once again examine how dwelling construction is tracking against population growth at the national and state and territory levels.

This reeks of desperation: It is the sort of deal that would have any real estate investor salivating: Interest-free loans, and the ability to walk walk away from any losses if the price falls.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian property bubble has grown so absurdly large, and is so connected from the sad little economy beneath it, that it is consuming everything in its path.

Via the AFR: Lenders and developers are offering property investors lucrative incentives ranging from annual commission payments of $100,000, loan discounts of more than 100 basis points and cash incentives, a review of top deals reveals.

By Leith van Onselen I never thought I’d see the day that Australia’s real estate lobby – the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) – supports Australia’s anti-money laundering (AML) regime being extended to real estate gatekeepers, provided offshore sales offices and websites are also captured.

Via the AFR: It should not be surprising then that, when media started reporting Melbourne apartments being resold at substantial losses in early 2016, this was a cause for alarm among offshore buyers of “off the plan” Melbourne apartments.

From S&P today: Arrears Trends: The Big Picture The Standard & Poor’s Performance Index (SPIN) for Australian prime mortgages rose to 1.15% at the end of fourth quarter (Q4) 2016 from 1.14% in Q3.

By Leith van Onselen The ABS yesterday released its property price data for the December quarter, which valued Australia’s dwelling stock owned by households at a record $6.11 trillion dollars.

By Leith van Onselen Remember this chart?

By Leith van Onselen Yesterday, the NSW Government launched a new housing ponzi scheme where everyone’s a winner.

Specufestors.

By Leith van Onselen The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) has called on the federal government to allow first home buyers (FHBs) to access their superannuation to purchase a home.

It had to happen, via the AFR: Regulators are preparing to impose a fresh wave of constraints on the banks to slow investor lending growth, crack down on interest-only loans, and force buyers to stump up more equity on purchases as they scramble to manage a rampant property boom.

Via Domain: Treasurer Scott Morrison insists the federal government has no proposal to allow first-home buyers to tap their superannuation for a deposit.

By Leith van Onselen MB’s own Dr Cameron Murray gave a speech on Sunday at the Sustainable Australia party’s community forum, “Housing Affordability: An Honest Debate”, which was held in Sydney. Murray’s speech immediately followed former Labor leader, Mark Latham’s (posted yesterday).

By Martin North, cross-posted from the Digital Finance Analytics blog: In past years we have been highlighting the misaligned policy settings which have allowed home prices to balloon, household debt to soar, interest rates to slide and investors to gain more than a third of the market, higher than UK or USA.

Here it comes, via the AFR: “There remain pressures that have built up again over the last few months,” Mr Morrison said in Canberra on Monday.

By Leith van Onselen The proliferation of high-rise ‘shoe box’ apartments across Melbourne have long been denigrated for their poor design.

By Leith van Onselen Various experts have emerged to slam the Coalition’s proposal to allow first home buyers (FHBs) to access their superannuation to purchase a home.