Australian Property

By Leith van Onselen RP Data’s price results are in for April, with the daily index recording a 0.85% rise over the month at the 5-city level, driven again by strong price growth in Sydney, with Adelaide also registering strong growth (see next chart).

By Leith van Onselen The AFR is has reported new data from quantity surveyors Rider Levett Bucknall on crane use across Australia’s cities, which highlights the epic apartment construction boom across the East Coat of Australia: Some 76 new cranes have come onto Sydney residential sites in the last six months.

By Martin North, cross-posted from the Digital Finance Analytics Blog: The ABS released updated data for housing finance for February 2015 today.

By Leith van Onselen Domain Group (previously known as Australian Property Monitors) has released its March quarter house and unit price results (below), which recorded a 1.8% increase in house prices over the quarter at the national capital city level, and a 0.4% rise in national capital city unit prices.

By Leith van Onselen According to a new story at Fairfax, the total values of negative gearing losses claimed in 2012-13 fell some 31% from the previous financial year, courtesy of a sharp decline in mortgage rates from 6.15% to 5.35% over that period.

By Leith van Onselen Chris Stott, chief investment officer of Wilson Asset Management, has entered the housing bubble debate, arguing that there is no bubble because of the chronic undersupply of homes that has not kept pace with the growing population.

Lenders mortgage insurer Genworth has just released its Q3 update and boy is its business shrinking: To be clear, that’s a 17% year on year fall in new business.

By Leith van Onselen Despite being schooled last month by the Grattan Institute’s John Daley and last week on this blog, Treasurer Joe Hockey continues to ignore the evidence on negative gearing.

By Leith van Onselen Moody’s Investors Service has released its housing affordability report on Australia, which revealed that affordability in the two major capitals – Sydney and Melbourne – has deteriorated despite lower interest rates, although the picture nationally is unchanged.

By Leith van Onselen Social Services Minister, Scott Morrison’s claim (here and here) that negative gearing is used primarily by ‘battlers’ has received more punishment today, with new research from The Australia Institute (TAI) revealing that more than half the tax concessions from negative gearing are flowing to the richest 10% of households.

Australia’s last benign oligarch standing fights on today, David Murray from the AFR: Mr Murray is insistent that the banks, which rely on foreign funds, are undercapitalised and pose a risk to the Australian economy.

By Leith van Onselen The spectacular investor-driven Sydney property bubble is a frequent theme this blog, with home prices there rising by around 35% since June 2013, according to RP Data (see next chart).

The national auction clearance rate set an all time record over the weekend, although volumes were low on account of Anzac Day.

Congratulations to the AFR for headlining LVO’s demolition of Joe Hockey’s negative gearing lies this afternoon: Economist Leith van Onselen disputed both Mr Hockey’s claim about rents and Mr Morrison’s argument that negative gearing helped build housing supply.

By Leith van Onselen It’s Friday and it has been a long week, so it’s time for a good laugh.

By Leith van Onselen Despite being schooled last month on Q&A by the Grattan Institute’s John Daley, Treasurer Joe Hockey has once again come out in defense of negative gearing, repeating the lie that rents would increase significantly if negative gearing was unwound.

Ah yes, we’re definitely approaching some sort of peak.

By Leith van Onselen In the week ended 23 April 2015, the Core Logic-RP Data 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, rose by 0.17% – the ninth consecutive weekly rise (see next chart). Values rose across all major capitals (see next chart).

By Leith van Onselen Victoria’s Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure (DTPLI) has released March’s data on the number of housing transfers and mortgage lodgements/discharges, which confirmed that Victoria’s (read Melbourne’s) housing market has continued to strengthen after appearing to have peaked in November.