It happens every year. The TV show “The Block” inspires a new wave of investors keen to get involved in renovating and “flipping’ properties. Just to make things clear “flipping” is where you purchase a property and then sell it within a short period of time for a higher price, usually having added value…
What’s behind the recent slump in home building approvals? For two consecutive months now, approvals to build new dwellings have fallen, with the most recent Building Approvals release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing that there has been a 2.4% decrease month-on-month in the number of dwellings that have been approved. Digging deeper, the…
There’s been a great deal of talk about whether repeated and prolonged lockdowns will impact housing prices, but the fact remains that the two “lockdown” cities have experienced recent price booms, while those with the weakest price performance have been lockdown free. Since the onset of the COVID-19 virus with all those lockdowns and restrictions…
The remarkable house building boom of the past year continues unabated with another record month of activity and no sign of easing any time soon. The ABS reports that the number of capital city house building approvals surged again over March to a new record monthly total of 10,075. The March result was 12.6% higher…
The federal government advised last week that over 121,000 people had applied for grants under its $2.5 billion HomeBuilder scheme, which closed at the end of March. It is estimated that around 80% or just under 100,000 of these grants we issued for new builds. The government has now given builders until 30th September 2022…
House building activity continues to soar off the back of the now-defunct federal government HomeBuilder initiative. Latest ABS data reports that capital city building approvals for houses increased by 36.4% over February to a new record monthly high of 8,697. Over the first two months of this year, approvals for new houses have skyrocketed by…
Let’s take a moment to acknowledge that the political sphere has generally stepped up during 2020. I concede that the usual argy-bargy of party politics is on display. You only have to look at the long running commentary being batted back and forth over the Victorian lockdown to see the acrimony on full display. But…
There have been changes to the taxation legislation to limit deductions that can be claimed by property investors for holding vacant land. These changes received royal assent on 28 October 2019 and apply to costs incurred to hold vacant land on or after 1 July 2019, even for land held before that date. But since many investors…
The announcement of the HomeBuilder stimulus from the federal government in early June has been met with a mixture of excitement and criticism. The scheme grants $25,000 dollars for new home builds and renovations where: The recipient is an owner occupier; The recipient earns no more than $125,000 per annum as a single applicant or…
With insolvencies at an all-time high, and the continued risk of constructing high-rise unit blocks, it is essential developers focus on the ‘missing’ middle ring, employ a sustainable business model and address imbalances in the property market. This has never been more important, as figures show building approvals, especially in Sydney, are on the increase….
