Australian Property

From The Australian: A string of vendors throughout Sydney and Melbourne are clamping down on settlement terms on multi-million-dollar deals as volatility in China’s ­financial markets raises doubts about Chinese buyers’ capacity to pay.

By Leith van Onselen Mortgage Choice has released its latest investor survey, which reveals that first home buyers (FHBs) continue to flock to investment properties: According to Mortgage Choice’s latest Investor Survey, 36.6% of investors were first time buyers – significantly higher than the 21.1% recorded this time last year.

By Leith van Onselen The June quarter consumer price index (CPI) data, released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), revealed continued weak rental growth at the national capital city level.

From Sydney Morning Domain: Australians might think Chinese investors have pushed up property prices, but “we ain’t seen nothing yet”, according to Colonial First State Global Asset Management chief economist Stephen Halmarick who is tipping the liberalisation of China’s capital markets will inflate asset prices acrosss the globe.

By Leith van Onselen This blog has written a lot about the upcoming economic storm approaching Western Australia as the state comes out the back of the biggest commodity price and mining investment boom in history, along with the likely crashing of dwelling investment as its population growth plummets.

Cross-posted from The Conversation: Negative gearing is a very controversial issue.

Click to view Core Logic-RP Data’s latest weekly housing market update, which provides a useful snapshot of the housing market as at 19 July 2015.

According to Alan Kohler: The problem, in short, is that Australian house prices are not in a bubble, and are, instead, in a ‘new normal’ and are not going to come down on their own.

By Leith van Onselen BIS Shrapnel is warning of a imminent housing glut by 2018, which it argues will hit Melbourne’s and Perth’s markets most severely.

Core Logic-RP Data released its auction market report last night, which revealed a slight improvement in the national auction clearance rate.

By Leith van Onselen ABC Radio this morning ran a segment on how Australia’s real estate agents are making out like bandits selling homes to Chinese nationals: Bridget Brennan spoke with Sydney developers and agents overhauling the way they do business.

By Leith van Onselen Robert Gottliebsen (“Gotti”) has penned an article this morning claiming that Sydney and Melbourne house prices have come “off-the-boil”: It is clear that lower migration has helped take the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets off the boil.

By Leith van Onselen In the wake of the RBA’s call to have negative gearing and the capital gains tax (CGT) discount reviewed, former Treasurer, Peter Costello, yesterday denied that the tax lurks had pushed-up property values.

By Leith van Onselen In the week ended 16 July 2015, the Core Logic-RP Data 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, jumped another 0.68% – the fourth consecutive week of strong rises (see next chart). Values rose across all major capitals except Adelaide (see next chart).

By Ross Elliott, author of The Pulse: Much has been written about the ageing of our population but less is known about the implications for housing and caring for them.

By Leith van Onselen After admitting in May that superannuation reform was inevitable in the interests of budget sustainability, Treasurer Joe Hockey has once again ruled-out ever changing superannuation tax settings.