Buying trends shift
Mid winter chills have finally seen a slowdown in the Sydney property market. Sydney recorded its lowest clearance rate so far this year with just 80 per cent of homes falling under the hammer. Meanwhile a white paper from LJ Hooker has found a shift in buying trends for people under 30. The report identifies ‘rentvestors’. Young people who love their lifestyle and can’t afford to buy in the area they live so they buy in a more affordable part of the city and rent that property out while continuing to rent in the area they wish to live.
Real Estate figures
Rental prices are starting to rise with Sydney reporting the biggest annual jump in house rent in five year. The median house rent was up 3.9 per cent in the past 12 months to the highest ever level of $530 per week. The rent was up 1.9 for the June quarter. Darwin remains the most expensive place to rent with median weekly rent of $600, Canberra is at $450 per week Perth is now at $430, Brisbane at $400, Melbourne $390, Adelaide at $350 and Hobart comes in as the cheapest capital city to rent a house with a median price of $330.
Housing finance took its biggest fall in five years for May despite the Reserve Bank cutting interest rates. The ABS reported that home loan approval dropped in every state with the largest fall in the Northern Territory down by 8.8 per cent for the month. Owner Occupier loans were down by 5.3 per cent nationally, meanwhile investor loans were down by 3.2 per cent.
Commentary
FNN spoke to Jessica Darnbrough from Mortgage Choice about what this fall says about the state of the housing market.
“It’s not surprising what’s happening with the drop in lending to owner occupiers as there have been some significant changes made by our banks in recent weeks. A lot of those changes while they’ve been made directly to investment lending are also working across the board so they’re also affecting owner occupiers and this is pushing a lot of people back onto the sidelines.”
Australian auction results
Looking at this week’s auction results across Australian capital cities - Sydney recorded a 80 per cent clearance rate from 474 properties for auction, Melbourne cleared 79 per cent from 556 properties, Brisbane had a 52 per cent clearance rate from 78 properties listed and Adelaide cleared 68 per cent from 42 listed auctions.
Commercial property sector
Growthpoint Properties Australia
(ASX:GOZ) has purchased a new industrial property in South Australia from Australand for $20.8 million.
Investa Office Fund
(ASX:IOF) may see a shake up behind the scenes with China Investment Corporation looking to close to sealing a deal to buy Investa Property Group.
Lend Lease Group
(ASX:LLC) says its Commonwealth Bank Place at Darling Quarter is the first Australian property to win a 6 Star Green performance rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.
