Loans to investors and first-home buyers picked up in February according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The figures show a 1.5% increase in mortgage commitments across the board during the month to the value of $26.4 billion. Investor loans rose by 1.2% in February and first-home buyer loans increased by 4.8% in the month. Both are 21% higher than at the same time last year. There were 9,377 loans to first-home buyers during February. ABS head of finance statistics, Mish Tan, says investor loans made up more than half of the growth in total new loan commitments in the p ..read more

Regional house prices are experiencing the highest growth since March 2020, according to new PropTrack data. PropTrack Senior Economist Eleanor Creagh says coastal and regional areas benefited most from affordability advantages and a pandemic-induced preference shift in recent years. She says four years since the start of the pandemic regional home prices have outperformed their capital city counterparts in every state except Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The best-performing regional market in the past four years was Regional Queensland with prices up 66.5% since March 2020, w ..read more

Millennials and Gen X were behind more than half of property investment purchases in the past year, according to a new analysis by the Commonwealth Bank. It says 46% of new property investors in 2023 were millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) followed by Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980) who accounted for 37% of all new investment property purchases. It says the typical property investor is now 43 years old with an average loan size of just over $500,000. Commonwealth Bank executive general manager of Home Buying, Michael Baumann says about one-third of millennial property investors bough ..read more

The capital cities are tipped to outperform regional markets this year according to the annual Canstar’s Rising Stars Report. The report, powered by Hotspotting, analysed Australia’s key 14 property markets – eight capital cities and six regional areas – to identify the markets primed for property price growth in 2024. Canstar ambassador Effie Zahos says while the regions have certainly experienced strong price growth in recent years it is now time for capital cities to shine. “The allure of urban living is piquing our interest again,” she says. She says that’s not to say there aren’t regiona ..read more

Rising property prices have substantially lifted the value of Australia’s household wealth. Australian Bureau of Statistics figure for the December 2023 quarter, shows that household wealth is up for the fifth consecutive quarter. It rose 2.8% ($419 billion) during the quarter, stronger than the June 2023 quarter when it rose by just 2.3%. The ABS says residential land and dwellings are the largest contributors to the rise of total household wealth (1.2%), which rose to $15.7 trillion – 7.8% higher than at the same time in the previous year. ABS head of finance statistics Mish Tan says domest ..read more

Buyer behaviour shows they are ready to get into the market with figures from Loan Market showing a spike in pre-approval applications. In the past month it has recorded 1117 pre-approvals compared with 650 at the same time last year. Buyers are already returning to the auction market after the Easter break with a national clearance rate of 76% last weekend – the highest since early February 2024. CoreLogic figures show Sydney had the highest clearance rate of 82%, followed by Adelaide 77%, Brisbane, 75% and Melbourne 71%. Clearance rates were lowest in Canberra, 62%. Almost 2000 properties w ..read more

A new scheme aimed at boosting housing supply has now opened. The Federal Government’s $500 million Housing Support Program is open for applications from state, territory and local governments for projects that will boost the planning required to increase housing supply. The first stage is focused on projects that will build the location’s planning workforce and therefore improve the efficiency of the planning process so construction can start sooner. Property Council of Australia, Chief Executive Mike Zorbas says everything that can possibly done to meet the Federal Government’s housing ..read more

Unit values are increasing at a faster pace than house values throughout Australia. Data from CoreLogic shows the growing demand for units is driving prices higher than houses in more than half of all Australian suburbs. CoreLogic research director, Tim Lawless, says with houses proving to be unaffordable for many buyers and supply drying up, demand is becoming even stronger for units, particularly from first-home buyers and investors. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more suburbs where units outperform house price growth from here onwards because of affordability and supply constraints,” h ..read more

Regional Australia still has plenty to give investors despite significant price gains during the pandemic years, according to a new analysis by PRD Real Estate. Its latest Roaring Regions report shows regional towns are some of the best places to invest. It analysed regional LGAs in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, assessing affordability, rental yields and vacancy rates, infrastructure development and unemployment rates. PRD Real Estate chief economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo says the regional areas generally had higher rental yields than their capital city counterparts and either equal ..read more

Australian property prices rose once again during March, chalking 14 straight months of growth. CoreLogic’s national Home Value Index was up by 0.6% in March, a similar increase to February. In dollar terms that represents about a $72,000 increase in values. Darwin was the only capital city to record a decline in value during March (-0.2%). CoreLogic research director, Tim Lawless, says the more affordable capital cities performed the best during the month with Perth up by 1.9%, Adelaide, 1.4% and Brisbane, 1.1%. The ACT was up by 0.4%, Sydney, 0.3% and Hobart, 0.2%. Values did not change in ..read more