Australian Property

By Leith van Onselen Treasurer of the Property Council Scott Morrison’s recent housing affordability speech pinned the blame for Australia’s housing affordability woes solely on supply not keeping-up with demand.

The Aussie realty-corrupted press jabbers on today, at The Australian: Chinese buyers are still coming to the Victorian capital as the mystery buyer of former Toll Holdings chief Paul Little’s $60 million Docklands twin towers development has been revealed as Shanghai-based Mid-Universe.

By Leith van Onselen Wednesday’s dwelling approvals data for October from the ABS reported a big downturn in unit & apartment approvals after the recent double-top (see next chart).

By Leith van Onselen It’s Groundhog Day once more with the Treasurer for the Property Council of Australia, Scott Morrison, making misleading claims that Labor’s plan to unwind negative gearing would force-up rents.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released dwelling approvals data for the month of October.

By Leith van Onselen CoreLogic’s dwelling price results are in for November, with a 0.12% rise in values recorded over the month at the 5-city level (see next chart). It was the 12th monthly rise in home values in a row (see next chart).

By Leith van Onselen On Friday, the Coalition erupted into civil war when NSW Planning Minister, Rob Stokes, threw a hand grenade at the Turnbull Government’s housing policy, arguing that changes to negative gearing are necessary to make housing more affordable.

From the HIA: The Housing Industry Association’s monthly survey of Australia’s largest home builders indicates that new home sales dropped to a two-year low during the month of October.

From the ABC: Thousands of Chinese property investors who bought apartments in Australia are still scrambling to save their investments, six months on from a bank clampdown on foreign lending.

By Leith van Onselen The Greens’ hypocrisy is on full display once more.

It’s a government that operates in near complete paralysis, except when it comes to protecting property, from the AFR: The federal government has announced it will make it easier for foreigners to buy new apartments amid concerns of a looming glut that will drive down prices.

By Leith van Onselen Angus Taylor, the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister with responsibility for cities, is the latest Coalition MP to badly miss on the issue of housing affordability.

By Leith van Onselen Residex has released its house and unit price results for October, which registered a jump in values over the month as well as a rebound of annual price growth.

CoreLogic released its preliminary auction market report yesterday, which posted a small rise in the preliminary national auction clearance rate.

Goodness he’s moving fast to do nothing today, fresh from the AFR: Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull told Melbourne radio 3AW “we haven’t got any plan to review the policy we took to the election”.