Australian Property

Via the AFR: Victoria’s plan to raise $80 million over four years by taxing vacant homes is likely to be just the start of a push by the state to collect more revenue from property owners, industry insiders and experts say.

By Leith van Onselen Australia’s real estate treasurer, Scott Morrison, appears to have taken a liking to the ‘shared equity’ home ownership scheme announced by the Victorian Government, suggesting some similar scheme might be included in the upcoming Federal Budget under the cloak of ‘housing affordability’.

From the Shadow RBA today: Stronger than expected economic growth provides welcome news to the Australian people.

By Leith van Onselen The Turnbull Government continues to give mixed messages about housing affordability, in the process showcasing why it does not understand the issue and has no genuine solutions to fix the problem.

By David Collyer, cross-posted from Prosper Australia: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced a range of housing affordability measures Sunday, some of which will help.

From Domain: Philip Lowe has some high-powered backing if he leaves interest rates on hold Tuesday as widely expected.

By Leith van Onselen After years of believing in Aussie exceptionalism, The AFR has suddenly realised that Australian property is one giant bubble.

By Leith van Onselen The Victorian Government has unveiled several policy measures to relieve pressures on first home buyers (FHBs) arising from Melbourne’s runaway housing market.

By Martin North, cross-posted from the Digital Finance Analytics Blog: The latest data from our households surveys highlights the core problem facing many Australian households at this time.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian’s Adam Creighton has today joined the attack on the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority’s (APRA) pathetically weak 10% speed limit on investor mortgage lending growth: Australia’s home-lending market is a little out of control.

By Leith van Onselen Treasury Secretary, John Fraser, has given some useless advice to first home buyers (FHB), effectively telling them to ‘suck eggs’.

By Leith van Onselen The first 61 days of 2016 have seen immense pressure build on the Turnbull Government to reform negative gearing and/or the capital gains tax (CGT) discount.

From the OECD 2017 Australia report: Indicators suggest there is some risk of downturn (Box 2), with several potentially destabilising events possible (Table 2). Threats to stability from overheating in terms of output or inflation has lessened in recent years (Figure 12, Panel A).

We reported recently that Vancouver has a staggering 70k residences now sitting empty thanks to Chinese land-bankers, even as young folks struggle to get into the housing market.

By Leith van Onselen Yesterday’s dwelling approvals data for January from the ABS reported another big trend downturn in unit & apartment approvals (see next chart).

By Leith van Onselen Like a wind vane, “Aussie John” Symond has flipped again, this time cautiously backing negative gearing reform.

From APRA head Wayne Byers today in parliament: I will just start with a short statement of a few key issues currently on APRA’s plate.

By Leith van Onselen In the wake of yesterday’s revelation that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has charged Westpac for irresponsible lending practices and will immediately commence civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court, ASIC has revealed that it is investigating 11 lenders for dodgy practices.

Anyone recall this from Australia’s number one rent seeker Stockland CEO and head of the (PCA), Mark Steinert, from The AFR last year: “At the end of the day, house prices are unlikely to adjust so much that it would really change that affordability equation anyway,” Steinert says.