In The Press

                                                                             Edition 2

News Flash !!
Australia's population exceeds 22 million

Australia's population reached 22,066,000 as at 30 September 2009, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This is an increase of 451,900 people over the previous year, keeping the growth rate high at 2.1%.

Interest Rates Rise 

The big news this week of course is that official interest rates increased for the fifth time in the space of seven months bringing the cash rate up to 4.25%. Based on the latest rise and statements from the major banks that they will move in line with the cash rate, we can expect the average standard variable mortgage rate to reach 7.15% (about 10 basis points lower than the decade average). The latest increase will add around $50 to the monthly repayments on a $350,000 mortgage. The Reserve Bank will be hoping the latest rise takes some heat out of the Australian housing market, where values have risen 12.7 per cent across the combined capital cities over the twelve months to February 2010. Interest rates are a very blunt tool and are likely to have a dampening effect on both the over performing markets such as Melbourne and Darwin as well as underperforming cities like Perth, Hobart, Brisbane and Adelaide, not to mention markets outside the capital cities where housing values have generally not recorded large gains over the past year.

In other key data released this week, the rate of unemployment remained unchanged at 5.3 per cent with almost 20,000 new jobs created over the month. Importantly, the rise in employment was driven by a rise in full-time employment (up 30,100 workers) offset by a fall in part-time employment (down 10,600 workers). The unemployment rate peaked at 5.8 per cent in July last year and fell to 5.2 per cent in January this year.

Reports of Property Boom and Rent increases


Property prices, rents to soar as housing shortage hits 500,000 in 2020

Growth in property prices may be easing in the short term, but investors are poised to reap big gains over the next 10 years as housing shortage continues to worsen according to a new report.

The Housing Industry Association (HIA) estimates that by 2020, taking into account of the current population projections and home building trends, Australia will see a cumulated housing shortage of 466,000.

"If we don't get a comprehensive supply response to the accumulating housing shortage, then the lack of affordable and appropriately located rental properties will only worsen, while pressures on existing home prices will continue at an undesirable rate, placing avoidable upward pressure on interest rates..

Rents are also expected to sky rocket as a result of this chronic undersupply. Over the last two financial years, rents have grown across Australian capital cities by 14.2% or about 10% higher than the cost of living.

$90 billion worth of resource projects on the books is expected to demand an additional 136,000 direct and indirect jobs, placing further constraints to the low housing supply, supply of labour and materials in non-resource regions.

A most severe undersupply is found in and around Sydney and Brisbane, but it also occur in just under half (295) of the 669 Local Government Areas across Australia.

"Many of the LGAs with the largest housing shortage are also the same regions with the highest level of demand. Again, it's the growth areas in the greater Sydney area and in South East Queensland where demand will be among the highest in the nation,"

National Home Values

City home values continue to climb despite rate rises... while growth in non-capital city markets much slower.

F ebruary results, dwelling values in Australia’s capital cities continued to rise by 1.4 per cent over the month following on from 2.0 per cent growth in January. In the 12 months to end February, Australian capital city home values have increased by 12.7 per cent after values fell by circa 3 per cent in 2008.

Interestingly, capital gains have been much more subdued in the Rest of State markets with just 7 per cent growth in house values over the 12 months to end February 2010.

T his recent growth in capital city home values needs to be placed in context. Based on the latest ABS National Accounts data, the per capita disposable household incomes grew by 6.0 per cent per annum over the five years to December 2009. At the same time, Australian capital city dwelling values increased by almost exactly the same amount (6.2 per cent per annum) despite the strong growth registered in 2009. That is, dwell ing values have tracked per capita incomes with a ratio of almost 1:1.

 

 

                                                                                                        Edition 1

Surfers Paradise Property Prices ???

The media have been very active with latest reports on the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise property prices headlining many outlets.

The Sunday Mail have released their Property lift out “What Your House is Worth”. Surfers Paradise recorded a suburb median price of $667,500 for the final Qtr of 09. The median house price for 2009 was recorded as $1,238.00 which fell 30.3% compared to 2008 of $1,775.00.

The Weekend bulletin March 13-14 recently profiled how the coasts units and townhouse sales have bucked the states trend for last qtr of 09. It states that the coasts sale prices increased 3.3% over this period compared to a fall of 29% across Qld. This is a sign that things are on the up and confidence is returning with steady growth predicted. It also recorded Surfers Paradise Unit & Townhouse sales have increased 9.2% over the past 5 year period.

Units have outstrip house sales for 2009 according to Rpdata coastal market wrap. More apartments changed hands than houses on the Gold Coast it reports with 9091 unit sales compared to 7038 house sales for the year to November 09. Of the 29 coastal regions studied the Gold Coast was the best performer in terms of volume sales. It also states that even though prices in coastal markets had struggled during the global economic uncertainties it is believed to pick up over the next 12 months.

The Weekend Bulletin March 13-14 reported from Lucy Ardern that Surfers Paradise locals and tourists could soon be stepping into a different world when council vote on new rules. The Surfers Paradise Heart of the city committee has backed naming the area as “special precinct”. Increasing fines for littering, parking and public urinating are considered. Cleaning up the suburb and it’s current image and restricting the number of night clubs was high on the list. Changing peoples perception that Surfers was dirty, unsafe and just a tshirt and nightclub suburb will be on the marketing agenda. Other improvements will be street signage, public spaces for utilising arts and culture. The whole proposal is to make Surfers Paradise widely appealing. The proposal goes to council end of March.