Australian Property

By Leith van Onselen The chairman of the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), Brian Wilson, has all but admitted that FIRB has failed in policing foreign purchases of established homes, endorsing the transfer of surveillance and compliance functions to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

By Leith van Onselen The New South Wales Government continues to cash in on the Sydney property bubble, where home prices have risen by around 35% in less than two years, according to RP Data (see next chart).

Last week CBA, NAB and ANZ all capitulated to APRA on its 10% line on the sand for property loan portfolio growth.

From old man Gotti at Dad’s Army today: All the ingredients are in place for a dramatic escalation in dwelling prices in both Sydney and Melbourne over the next 15 years.

By Leith van Onselen ABC’s 7.30 Report aired a segment on Friday, claiming that there is a push underway within the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to debate negative gearing at its national conference in July.

Click to view Core Logic-RP Data’s latest weekly housing market update, which provides a useful snapshot of the housing market as at 24 May 2015.

The national auction clearance rate rose over the weekend, continuing the strongest run of results for around six years.

By Leith van Onselen In the week ended 21 May 2015, the Core Logic-RP Data 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, fell by 0.30% (see next chart). Values fell across all major capitals, except Perth (see next chart).

By Leith van Onselen Several analysts have come forward arguing that Australia’s dwelling construction boom is on borrowed time and will likely peak over the next 12 months.

From Banking Day: Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Bankwest has imposed a loan-to-valuation ratio cap of 80 per cent on investor mortgages, as it tightens its lending standards to meet regulatory pressure to limit the growth of investment property lending.

From the AFR: Real estate king pin John McGrath plans to sell down a meaningful stake in his business as part of a mooted $200 million initial pubic offering.

By Leith van Onselen In an encouraging development, Treasurer Joe Hockey has backed South Australia’s plan to abolish stamp duties for home buyers in exchange for a broad-based land tax that includes the family home.

From The Pascometer today, which has truly malfunctioned now: The 2015 Sydney housing boom has achieved the dubious distinction of bubble status, replete with rampant FOMO (fear of missing out) and key parts of the market departing from gravity as values rise by hundreds of thousands of dollars in a few weeks.

By Leith van Onselen SQM Research has released its rental vacancy data for April, which registered a 0.2% increase in vacancies nationally with vacancies also up 0.1% over the year (see next chart).

By Leith van Onselen Like clockwork, the Housing Industry Association’s (HIA) Harley Dale has promptly played down concerns by ASIC chief, Greg Medcraft, that Australian housing is a bubble.

From Jonathon Shapiro at the AFR: Friday’s $1 billion sale of mortgage backed bonds by Firstmac is a big deal for more reasons than one.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) last week released taxation statistics for the 2013-14 calendar year, which provided a key insight into why state budgets have generally been improving.

Here’s a new doomsayer at large, from the AFR comes Greg Medcraft ASIC chief: History shows that people don’t know when they are in a bubble until it’s over,” Mr Medcraft told The Australian Financial Review.

Click to view Core Logic-RP Data’s latest weekly housing market update, which provides a useful snapshot of the housing market as at 17 May 2015.