Australian Property

By Leith van Onselen In the week ended 16 April 2015, the Core Logic-RP Data 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, rose by 0.47% – the eighth consecutive weekly rise (see next chart). Values rose across all major capitals except Brisbane (see next chart).

By Ross Elliott, cross-posted from The Pulse As Governments state and federal begin grappling with harsher budget realities and an electorate disinterested in listening when it comes to the necessity of budget cuts or asset privatisation, it becomes increasingly likely that Australia will follow the New Zealand path and raise the GST.

ABC’s The Business last night ran its second segment on Australian property, this time examining the banks’ $1.6 trillion exposure to residential property.

SQM Research has released its rental vacancy data for March, which registered a small 0.1% reduction in vacancies nationally with vacancies up 0.1% over the year (see next chart). As shown above, the fall in vacancies over the month was driven by Melbourne (-0.2%), Sydney (-0.1%), Brisbane (-0.1%), Adelaide (-0.1%), and Canberra (-0.1%).

From Westpac’s Matthew Hassan: Dwelling approvals surged higher over the 6mths to Feb, +12% in trend terms to a record annual pace of just under 225k.

By Leith van Onselen The speculator frenzy that has swallowed Sydney’s housing market marches on, with today’s Lending Finance data for February, released by the ABS, once again smashing all records, with both the value and proportion of mortgages going to New South Wales investors surging to another all time high.

ABC’s The Business aired an interesting segment last night – the first of a three part series – looking at the Australian housing bubble, with a particular emphasis on Sydney.

By Leith van Onselen The AFR’s Nick Lenaghan has revealed this morning that foreign companies are being set-up to specifically side-step Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) rules precluding non-residents from purchasing pre-existing Australian dwellings.

Click to view Core Logic-RP Data’s latest weekly housing market update, which provides a useful snapshot of the housing market as at 12 April 2015.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released housing finance data for the month of February, which registered a 1.2% seasonally-adjusted fall in the number of owner-occupied finance commitments over the month: The result disappointed analysts’ expectations, who had expected a 2.0% rise in owner-occupied finance commitments in February.

By Leith van Onselen LF Economics, a new Australian analytical and research firm, has produced an interesting report examining housing affordability in Australia, which it finds is in a dismal state.

By Leith van Onselen I have shown repeatedly that the escalation of Australian housing values since the late-1990s has been caused, primarily, by an increase in land values rather than construction costs (see below charts, which are current to June 2014).

By David Collyer, cross-posted from Prosper Australia: Rents always go up – don’t they?

By Leith van Onselen In the week ended 9 April 2015, the Core Logic-RP Data 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, rose by 0.28% – the seventh consecutive weekly rise (see next chart). Values across all major capitals rose (see next chart).

By Martin North, cross-posted from the Digital Finance Analytics Blog The vexed question of how many foreign buyers are in the Australian residential property market, continues.

By Leith van Onselen John Mulcahy, chairman of Mirvac Group, claims that Australian housing is not a bubble and is unlikely to experience a crash because home owners here cannot simply hand the keys back.

By Leith van Onselen Spruiker in chief for Domain (formerly Australian Property Monitors), Dr Andrew Wilson, is salivating at the prospect that the median Sydney house price could soon surpass $1 million.

“Mad” Adam Carr takes housing bears to the woodshed today at Dad’s Army: On the read of one, the current house price spike will come to an abrupt halt over the next 12 to 18 months, as the construction boom picks up and an oversupply takes hold.

By Leith van Onselen From The AFR’s Chris Joye comes his latest missive on the epic housing bubble developing in Australia: According to UBS, in March the ratio of Australian dwelling prices-to-disposable household incomes equalled – and is presently surpassing – the previous record of 5.3 times set back in September 2003.

By Leith van Onselen SQM Research has released its listings data for the month of March, which revealed a 1.8% rise in the number of for sale listings in March, with listings also up 1.6% from the same time last year (see below table).