5 things I learned this week that you should also know

A lot can happen in one week in our property markets, can’t it?

So here’s a look back at some of the things I read or learned this week, that I believe you should also know.

2. Housing boom sets 17-year sales record

Not only have property prices taken off over the past year, but the number of homes changing hands has also hit the highest level since 2004.

Corelogic estimates there were almost 598,000 house and unit sales across Australia over the year ending August 2021.

This is a 42% lift on the annual sales of the previous 12 month period and 31% above the decade average and 24% higher than the 20-year average.

3. Rate hikes are further away than you think

A number of the regular property pessimists are doing the rounds of the media chasing headlines telling us how many Australians will fall into mortgage stress when interest rates go up; and that this will occur sooner rather than later.

However, Governor Lowe once again asserted that this won’t happen any time soon.

He said he finds it difficult to understand why the market is pricing in rate action 2022 and 2023 and confirmed that interest rate will only rise when inflation hits the target of between 2.5% to 3% and stays there for some time.

“ …the Board has said that it will not increase the cash rate until actual inflation is sustainably within the 2–3 per cent target range. It won’t be enough for inflation to just sneak across the 2 per cent line for a quarter or two. We want to see inflation around the middle of the target range and have reasonable confidence that inflation will not fall below the 2–3 per cent band again.”

RBA Gov Lowe: Delta, the Economy, and Monetary Policy

Clearly, our rising house prices are not going to affect the RBA’s interest rate decisions.

4. Queensland is in danger of being ‘loved to death’

More than 30,000 Australians relocated to the Sunshine State in 2020, a 15-year high.

In the three months to last December, almost 5000 moved north just from Sydney and Melbourne.

With a population of roughly 3.7 million, Queensland’s southeast corner is already the nation’s fastest-growing zone.

Forecasts suggest it will top five million by the middle of the next decade.

Brisbane’s median house price of $678,000 is less than half of Sydney’s and on par with that for Adelaide and Hobart.

Yet by the time the 2032 Olympic Games come to town, the figure is likely to be $1.5 million.

5. Lift off for new listings, as Australia’s spring selling season begins in earnest

While new listings have since lifted by 9.8%, the number of new listings is currently -21.6% lower than the recent high in March and -3.9% below the five-year average for this time of year.