INDUSTRY NEWS
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A second bathroom adds six-figures to a sale price: REIV
In the year to June 30, two bathrooms added the greatest value to the sale price of two-bedroom apartments in Stonnington, achieving a median of $920,000 – $312,000 more than homes with only one bathroom. Two-bedroom units with a second bathroom also fetched considerably more in Hobsons Bay with a median price of $650,000. This was $184,000 higher than the…
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Juwai.com appoints a Chief Growth Officer
Juwai.com is the number one Chinese international property portal and Ms Adams’ early focus in the role will be setting up a Southeast Asian business divisions where new roles will be created. She will be based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With over 20 years of experience in sales and leadership, she is an executive in real estate and media, including…
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Investors finally get the APRA message; RateCity
The most recent round of bank rate hikes have pushed would-be investors over the edge, resulting in a sharp drop in investor housing commitments, according to RateCity. ABS Housing Finance data released last week shows the value of investment housing commitments in July fell by $460 million or 3.9 per cent from the previous month, according to the seasonally adjusted…
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WA State Budget a positive for property investing, say Momentum Wealth
The WA Labor government have delivered their first state budget, and as Treasurer Ben Wyatt and Premier Mark McGowan have previously indicated, the burden of amending the State’s financial situation will be indirectly shared by all West Australians. However, from a property investment perspective, the budget was relatively positive as there were no direct increases to property costs for residents…
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Government Policy Drives First Home Buyers
“First Home Buyers are returning to the market in NSW and Victoria off the back of enhanced Stamp Duty concessions in these markets,” stated Tim Reardon, HIA’s Principal Economist. “In July 2017 – the first month that these concessions took effect – the volume of First Home Buyers in NSW jumped to its highest level since 2012, increasing their share…
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Preliminary clearance rate holds above 70 percent however final results tell a different story
National auction clearance results for the week ending 10/09/2017 courtesy of CoreLogic It will be interesting to see what the final clearance rate looks like on Thursday once the remaining records have been captured. Auction volumes increased week-on-week with 2,225 properties taken to auction this week, up from 2,074 last week, and higher than this time last year (2,062). Across Melbourne, preliminary…
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Core Logic Property Pulse September 8: Housing market putting on the brakes
CoreLogic’s Accumulation Index looks at the total returns from the housing asset class factoring in the change in the value of the dwelling and the gross rental return from the property. The figures show that nationally, the total returns from the housing asset class over the 12 months to August 2017 were 13.2%. Because the return is calculated from value…
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Master Builders Association calls for better regulation of the building industry’s use of cladding
“It’s completely understandable that fires at the Grenfell Tower in the UK and the Lacrosse building in Victoria have highlighted the importance of a regulatory system that has the confidence of both the community and the building industry,” she said. “As Master Builders has consistently said, the challenge is to make more effective the extensive and robust regulatory regime that…
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REIQs most capped Auctioneer wins again
Mr Nickerson, who has won the REIQ title a record-smashing four times (2013, 2016, 2017, 2018), is the first Australian and only the third auctioneer in history to win back-to-back Australasian titles, after New Zealand’s Mark Sumich (2007, 2008) and Daniel Coulson (2012, 2013). “This is unbelievable, it’s just incredible,” a dazed Mr Nickerson said immediately following the announcement. “This…
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Home renovations boost GDP growth
The ABS released the Australian National Accounts yesterday which reported that GDP increased by 0.8 per cent during the quarter to be 1.8 per cent higher than a year ago. “Solid growth in home renovations activity contributed to a pick up in the pace of economic growth in the June 2017 quarter,” Housing Industry Association’s senior economist. Shane Garrett said.…
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Housing loan affordability declines, rental affordability improves.
The latest REIA Housing Affordability Report found the proportion of median family income required to meet average loan repayments increased by 0.2 percentage points to 31.4 per cent. REIA President Malcolm Gunning said at the same time, the total number of loans and the number of loans to first home buyers increased by 9.6 per cent and 14.0 per cent respectively,…
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Perth’s stable house and rent medians good news for the market: REIWA
REIWA President Hayden Groves said it was encouraging to see the median price remain firm across both sectors of the Perth property market. “The stable medians are good news and indicate that seller’s and landlord’s expectations are matching those of buyers and tenants,” said Mr Groves. According to the latest reiwa.com data, listings for sale have continued to trend marginally…
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RBA rates decision September 2017
The decision was widely anticipated and it is the 13th month in a row the cash rate has not moved from 1.5 per cent. In a statement accompanying the decision, RBA Governor Philip Lowe said the construction boom seems to have reached its peak. “Residential construction activity remains at a high level, but little further growth is expected,” Dr Lowe…
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@realty director says agents need to shift their practices as technology changes
Technology means the real estate industry is shifting and the digital capabilities of running a real estate business needs to catch up. That’s according to James ‘JJ’ Taylor, director of @realty which uses digital technology to give agents the freedom to work remotely while being under a brand. With a growing number of agents nationally, @Realty enables real estate agents…
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Auction volumes fall with the clearance rate clinging to 70 percent
National auction clearance results for the week ending 03/09/2017 courtesy of CoreLogic The final clearance rate across the combined capital cities has been sitting in the mid-high 60 percent range since June and it is likely that this will be the case again on Thursday when our final results are published. All but two of the capital cities saw the clearance rate…
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Core Logic Home Value Index August 2017
Using the upgraded hedonic index methodology, the CoreLogic August home value index results for the month confirm a slowdown in housing market conditions in Sydney, while Hobart emerged as the country’s best performing capital city based on growth in dwelling values over the past twelve months. National dwelling values remained flat during August, with capital city values edging 0.1% higher.…
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Where are the most popular places to retire in Australia: CoreLogic
With only 2,904 residents, the small council area of Queenscliff on the Bellarine Peninsula in southern Victoria, recorded the highest proportion of retirees aged over 65 years (40.3%) according to the ABS data. The small council area of Quairading in Western Australia’s Wheat Belt region enjoyed the greatest house value growth over the year (+21.5%), followed by Shoalhaven in New…
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BresicWhitney named in Top 50 Places to Work
BresicWhitney was born in 2003 from the vision of founders Ivan Bresic and Shannan Whitney to create an agency that led change and transformed the real estate experience for consumers and its employees. With a belief in collective leadership and a willingness to not only embrace but to create and lead change, the firm has just been named in Australia’s…
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Vacant land lot prices increasing and creating housing affordability issues: HIA
“Land price increases in Australia are unrelenting,” HIA Senior Economist Shane Garrett said. “The substantial increase in the price of residential land continues to be the single biggest factor behind recent deteriorations in housing affordability,” Mr Garrett said. The HIA-CoreLogic Residential Land Report shows that a typical vacant lot of land for housing increased in price by 2.1 per cent…
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REIQ Host Real Tech 2017 and launch Agent.ID
The REIQ Real Tech 2017 Conference was created to fill a gap in the Queensland market – a conference that was solely dedicated to bringing only relevant technology to the real estate practitioner. REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said the idea sprang out of her recent trip to Inman Connect in New York. “It was an inspirational event and I realised…
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Finalists announced for Annual REA Excellence Awards (AREAs)
The AREAs celebrate success and achievements across the real estate and media industries in the categories of Innovation, Service and Marketing and Community and will be held in Melbourne on November 16. For the first time, the competition will include a Gold AREA – Agency of the Year award, which will recognise agencies who work hard to set themselves apart…
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Raine & Horne predicts strong spring selling season for NSW regional markets
Angus Raine, Executive Chairman of Raine & Horne, said these towns offer lower house prices and better rental returns than Sydney properties. “The much-hyped growth in Sydney’s median dwelling price – which has risen almost 16% in the last 12 months to $856,000 – is driving demand for property in some of NSW’s major regional cities,” Mr Raine said. “Towns…
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Education hot spots driving house price growth: REIV
Homes zoned for some of Melbourne’s top performing public schools are delivering six-figure dividends for property owners, compared to neighbouring homes outside the catchment. In the year to June 30, the largest price difference was recorded for homes located within the catchment area for South Yarra Primary School. Homes within the zone had a median price of $2 million while…
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New Home Sales Continue to Ease from Record Highs
“July’s result was driven by a 15.7 per cent decline in multi-unit sales and a more measured reduction in detached house sales. The large drop in multi-unit sales this month is in contrast to strong sales volumes late in 2016 and early 2017,” outlined Mr Reardon. The HIA New Home Sales report – a monthly survey of the largest volume…
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Perth’s 10 cheapest suburbs within 10km of the CBD revealed
REIWA President Hayden Groves said there was great opportunity for Perth home buyers close to the city. “Buyers in Perth really are in an enviable position. It’s unheard of in other parts of Australia, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, for buyers to be able to purchase a house close to the city for less than $530,000. “We are very lucky…
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Banks shut the door on new interest-only borrowing
APRA’s June Quarterly ADI Property Exposures data released today shows a 7.0 per cent drop in interest-only terms for new lending from the previous quarter. The drop comes despite a 10.6 per cent rise in new lending in all categories since March 2017. RateCity.com.au Money Editor Sally Tindall said today’s APRA data showed banks had responded to the regulator’s demand…
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Corelogic launches new generation Hedonic Index
CoreLogic, has launched its new-generation Hedonic Home Value Index using updated methodologies and processes to provide insights into housing market conditions across the regions of Australia. The upgraded Index, which will continue to be published on the first business day of each month, combines a property’s key attributes, such as land area, number of bedrooms, bathrooms and car spaces, with…
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Auction volumes at their highest levels in 12 weeks
National auction clearance results for the week ending 27/08/2017 courtesy of CoreLogic Over the corresponding week last year, the clearance rate was 74.5 percent and 2,153 auctions were held. It is expected as more results are collected that the final auction clearance rate will revise lower to remain within the high 60 percent range, where clearance rates have been tracking since early…
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Greens’ rental policy threatens rental market: REIQ
According to a statement last week, the REIQ have criticised the rental policy platform by The Greens, saying it would see landlords’ rights decimated in favour of tenants’ rights with no thought to the future health of the state’s rental market. One-third of Queenslanders rent and the overwhelming majority of those rent from private landlords, therefore, the continued participation of property…
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Affordable housing south of Perth is key to real estate turnaround: Raine & Horne
That’s according to Craig Abbott, General Manager WA, Raine & Horne, who says the availability of affordable homes south of Perth with good rental yields will assist in getting the market back on track. “There is plenty of news suggesting that Perth’s real estate market is in a rebalancing phase,” Mr Abbott said. “I think it’s too early to call…
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Bouris invests in virtual estate agent Property Now
Mr Bouris and his ASX-listed investment and mortgage broking firm Yellow Brick Road have taken a 5 per cent stake in PropertyNow, joining BRW rich-lister Jeremy Same as shareholders in the privately-held company. PropertyNow founder and director Andrew Blachut said three years of courting Mr Bouris paid off when he bought into PropertyNow earlier in this month. “The business is…
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REIQ calls on state government to deliver on mandatory CPD promise
The Real Estate Institute of Queensland has called on the State Government to introduce mandatory CPD to the real estate profession. REIQ Chairman Rob Honeycombe said they want the State Government to honour its more than two-year-old promise to introduce mandatory CPD. “Queenslanders are staring down the barrel of another election and before our politicians start wheeling out more promises,…
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realestate.com.au study reveals Australians not so neighbourly
The study surveyed Aussies’ regard, or lack of, for their neighbours. More than 15 per cent admitted they go out of their way to avoid speaking to a neighbour, while one in five revealed they’d previously had a dispute with someone living in their street. realestate.com.au Executive General Manager of Residential, Andrew Rechtman, said the findings showed that for the…
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REA Group appoints Val Brown as Executive General Manager – Consumer Experience
REA Group has appointed Val Brown to the role of Executive General Manager of Consumer Experience. She will be part of the company’s Executive Leadership Team, reporting to REA Group Chief Executive Officer, Tracey Fellows. Ms Brown is responsible for driving the Group’s consumer product strategy for realestate.com.au and Flatmates.com.au. With a specific focus on personalisation, her product, design and…
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DA Approved Properties launches for residential and commercial listings
The Director of DA Approved Properties, Lachlan Martin, says the site is Australia’s only devoted portal for featuring DA-approved properties for sale. “It’s a platform where agents can come to find properties that have already been DA approved. The site makes it easier for developers to scroll through and find their next projects,” Mr Martin said. This website accommodates both…
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