While an enormous number of homes are currently being built, the number of new homes being sold is trending down, according to the Housing Industry Association. The HIA has reported that new home sales in October were 22.8% lower than the month before. HIA chief economist Tim Reardon said that was due to rising interest […]
The home building boom is “coming to an end” Read More »
Annual wage growth has now increased for seven consecutive quarters, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. After falling to a record low of 1.4% during 2020, annual wages growth has steadily climbed to 3.1%: * Dec 2020 = 1.4% * Mar 2021 = 1.5% * Jun 2021 = 1.8% *
Wages growth rises to 3.1% per annum Read More »
Many borrowers are well ahead on their mortgages and determined to stay that way, according to new research from the Reserve Bank of Australia. The RBA found that, in the September quarter, owner-occupiers with variable-rate loans had a median buffer of around 1.7 years of scheduled payments. In other words, many borrowers have been getting
Variable borrowers have built big mortgage buffers Read More »
Domain has crunched the numbers to find out the share of suburbs around Australia in which it would be cheaper to buy than rent. The answer is 13.8% of suburbs for houses and 21.0% for units. Domain’s calculations were based on comparing the cost of renting a home with servicing a mortgage, and assuming buyers
First-home buyer activity is slightly above its historical average, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Owner-occupiers took out 26,979 new loans (i.e. excluding refinancing) in September. Of those, 8,485 were for first-home buyers, which means their market share was 31.5%. Since the ABS started measuring loan numbers for owner-occupier first-home
First home buyer market share at 31.5% Read More »
The way to make housing more affordable is to encourage the building of new homes, as higher supply leads to lower demand and therefore lower prices. However, the number of residential building approvals has been trending down. A total of 16,455 building approvals were issued in September, which was 5.8% lower than the month before
Building approvals fall 13.0% year-on-year Read More »
Where did all the people go? To Queensland, apparently. That was one of the key findings in Census data that has just been released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Between the 2016 and 2021 Census periods, Queensland enjoyed Australia’s largest net interstate migration gain, with 107,549 more people moving to Queensland from other states
Aussies flocking to the Sunshine State Read More »
The federal government’s First Home Loan Deposit Scheme has supported a large number of responsible buyers to enter the market ahead with ultra-low deposits, according to a new report from the National Housing Finance & Investment Corporation. Since the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme was introduced in January 2020, about 40,000 first home buyers have
First home buyer scheme working well Read More »
The rental market has turned even further in favour of property investors, with the vacancy rate falling to an astonishing new low. The vacancy rate declined from 0.9% in September to record-low 0.8% in October, according to Domain. That means only 8 out of every 1000 rental properties were vacant across Australia during October. Domain’s
Vacancy rate falls to 0.8% Read More »
Buyer activity is trending down but remains significantly higher than the long-term average, according to new home loans data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australians committed to $25.1 billion of mortgages in September, which was lower than the year before ($30.8 billion) but well above the long-term average ($18.5 billion). Part of the reason
