The most liveable Australian city has been revealed and Adelaide has taken the top spot, followed by Canberra, Hobart and Newcastle. According to a survey from the Property Council of Australia Darwin was on the bottom of the pile, with Sydney coming in just above it. The Property Council saysthe survey is the people’s verdict on their own city – a report card for governments on how liveable our cities are.
Looking across the property sector this week and the Reserve Bank of Australia kept the key cash rate on hold at 3 per cent again, with commentators warning it will take more time for the impact of the cuts to show themselves in Australia’s property market. In the residential property market there have been conflicting indictors of growth while in the commercial property sector divestments have been in the headlines.
Real Estate figures
There was some more conflicting data this week as to the health of the residential property market:
Building approvals slipped against expectations for the second consecutive month in January. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the number of buildings approved fell 2.4 per cent to 12,920, below analyst expectations of a 2.8 per cent rise.
However, new home sales improved at the beginning of this year, according to Housing Industry Association’s New Home Sales report. HIA reports new home sales increased by 4.2 per cent while multi-unit sales rose by 4.9 per cent in January.
Commentary
FNN asked Macquarie Group Limited’s
(ASX:MQG) Global Head of Economics, Richard Gibbs, about the impact of the Reserve Bank’s 2012 interest rate cuts on the property market this year:
“Well they haven’t had much impact to date those cuts and that’s problematic, it suggests that I suppose traction of monetary policy has lost some momentum in that sense. It also suggests there’s more leakage in terms of the Reserve Bank setting the cash rate and that being translated through the monetary mechanism to mortgage lending rates. I suspect that if we see some further cuts then ultimately we’ll start to see some pent up demand starting to come through.”
To watch more of the interview click
here.
Australian auction results
Sydney recorded a 69 per cent clearance rate from 325 properties for auction, Melbourne cleared 66 per cent from 264 properties, Brisbane had a 40 per cent clearance rate from 8 properties listed and Adelaide cleared 36 per cent from 26 reported auctions.
Commercial property divestments
Property and construction giant Lend Lease Group
(ASX:LLC) is selling thirty aged care facilities to private equity firm Archer Capital for $270 million.
Property developer Australand Property Group
(ASX:ALZ) says several companies have expressed an interest in buying either all or parts of its business which are valued at about $2 billion.
Building products maker James Hardie Industries
(ASX:JHX) has reduced its full year earnings forecast despite swinging to a $31 million quarterly profit as Australian conditions remain subdued.
Property developer Leighton Holdings Limited
(ASX:LEI) has sold a major office tower development in Melbourne for $462 million to Investa Office Fund
(ASX:IOF) and Investa Commercial Property Fund.
