Home value declines spread sharply across Australia’s housing market through winter, with home values falling across 93% of capital city suburbs and every capital city except Darwin recording a decline over the past three months. Cotality’s national Home Value Index fell 0.9% in August, marking a fifth consecutive month of decline and taking national home…
Does it feel like your money isn’t working as hard as it used to? Costs are up, growth has stalled, and the “just wait and it’ll go up” strategy has gone quiet – you’re not imagining it. We may not be staring down a repeat of the 1970s, but we are living through the same…
If you only looked at today’s monthly housing costs, it would be easy to conclude that buying a home in Australia no longer makes financial sense. After all, new research from Compare the Market shows that in every Australian capital city except Darwin, renting is cheaper than buying, and in some cities the difference is…
As the weather starts to warm, green shoots typically begin to emerge in the property market. The spring and summer season historically sees vendor activity rise, with a surge in new listings and an increase in auction volumes following the winter lull, particularly in the southern states. This spring could prove to be cooler than…
For most people who buy a home, a mortgage represents the single largest debt they will take on in their lives. But what happens if the market value of a property you’ve bought falls below the amount you still owe on your home loan? This situation is called “negative equity”. In Australia, decades of house…
Australians are increasingly voting with their feet when it comes to choosing a home loan, with a growing number of borrowers turning to non-bank lenders. A non-bank lender provides credit products, like home loans, but doesn’t hold an authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) licence, meaning it can’t take customer deposits. According to Money.com.au analysis of the latest…
Australia’s housing debate has become dominated by ambitious targets, planning announcements and promises to unlock more land. However, the latest evidence suggests we may be focusing too much attention on the number of homes being approved and far too little on the number that can actually be built. Of course, that distinction matters because an…
Over the past week, all four of Australia’s biggest banks have reported falls of between 12% to 20% in new home loan applications since the May federal budget. After announcing it would keep interest rates on hold, the Reserve Bank confirmed demand for new home loans has “declined noticeably”. For anyone currently in the market…
We Australians are very good at finding fault with the cities in which we live. We complain about congestion, expensive housing, crowded trains, planning delays and infrastructure that often seems to arrive years after it is needed. Sure, many of those concerns are justified, but every so often an international comparison allows us to step…
Higher interest rates and uncertainty over the Federal Government’s proposed property tax changes are clearly taking some heat out of Australia’s property market, with new mortgage lending falling sharply in the June quarter. According to the latest ABS lending indicator data the total value of new housing loans settled in the June quarter was $97.6…
