Its Edwin’s Monday Evening Property Rant!

As we count down to the end of the year, Edwin and I discuss the idea that Government wants to keep property prices ever higher, look at a disaster of a building survey as a warning for those who trust vendor surveys, and spot areas where prices are well down from 2017 levels, despite all the hype.

Plus we consider the problem of not enough skilled construction workers to meet targets in Australia and the UK, and the underlying reasons why property is largely unaffordable.

Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

Property Winners And Losers…

Core Logic released their annual Best of the Best report, and they say that while at first glance, the Australian housing market was surprisingly resilient through 2024, it can be characterised as having stronger conditions ‘out of the gate’, which slowed over the course of the year under waning demand, rising levels of advertised supply and a changed outlook for inflation and interest rates.

There were significant variations across property types and locations, with significant rises and falls, and units doing better than houses.

Melbourne dominated the list of the worst-performing house and unit markets, underscoring the city’s weak showing this year. House prices in Chelsea, Doncaster, Dromana and Bonbeach slumped between 9 per cent and 10.2 per cent, while unit values in Sunshine, Frankston South, Carnegie, Murrumbeena and Caulfield South dropped by as much as 13.8 per cent.

Sydney suburbs Zetland and Cronulla were among the weakest house markets in the country, with values dropping by 9.7 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively. And that’s the point really, because the truth is, values are all over the shop at the moment, with the likelihood of further falls in some areas, unless or until we see significant rate cuts. Given what we saw yesterday reflected in the lower unemployment rate, the RBA won’t be cutting soon, so 2025 will be “interesting”….

Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

Revealed: The Politics Of Housing And The Intergenerational War!

You can smell an election coming soon as Australia’s housing minister has declared that the Anthony Albanese government doesn’t want house prices to fall – despite them being very unaffordable for the young.

Clare O’Neil made the admission on Triple J’s youth-orientated Hack program recently, when she was hit with a barrage of questions about the housing market being ‘stacked against young people’.

‘We want to bring house price growth into something sustainable – so we’re not trying to bring down house prices,’ Ms O’Neil said.

That prompted a surprised host David Marchese to ask: ‘Why don’t you want to be seeing house prices drop? ‘If you’re looking to get into the market, if you’re a young person looking at what’s ahead of you, you definitely want to see house prices come down.’

O’Neil rejected the argument – saying ‘That may be the view of young people – it’s not the view of our government,’ she said.

Data keeps rolling out showing how unsustainable the current housing market policy path is, with the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA)’s latest Housing Affordability report for the September quarter showed average loan repayments amounted to 48.6 per cent of the median family income of $2501 a week.

This is the greatest proportion since the REIA began monitoring housing affordability in 1996.

Mind you we saw similar political confusion from the UK Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Minister who in a weekend interview managed to say both there was a housing shortage, and no housing shortage, despite high migration in the same interview. Again it shows the political back-flips polys are prepared to do.

For truth though Kudos to Adrian Orr the New Zealand Reserve Bank Governor, who said last week in an interview that the property market was a real mess. Can you imagine the RBA or Senior Politicians in Australia speaking such truth. No, because politics trumps housing policy rationality. High migration wins over bringing prices back under control. And Boomers win over younger Australians again.

Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

DFA Live Q&A HD Replay: Your Property Questions Answered: With Veronica Morgan

This is an edited version of a live discussion with Veronica Morgan, as we dive into a bunch of questions from our Audience. Is the market really turning? How do you avoid buying a dog of a place? Are there still good deals to be done?

Veronica Morgan is co-founder of Home Buyer Academy, co-host of Your First Home Buyer Guide podcast & The Elephant in the Room property podcast, co-founder of Suburb Help, co-host of Foxtel’s Location Location Location Australia & Relocation Relocation Australia, principal of Good Deeds Property Buyers, and author of “Auction Ready: how to buy property at auction even though you’re scared sh!#less”. She is a Licensed Real Estate Agent, Buyers Agent and Qualified Investment Property Advisor.

https://veronicamorgan.com.au

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/dfa-one-to-one/ for our One to One Service.

Its Edwin’s Monday Evening Property Rant!

It has been another eventful week, for property insider Edwin Almeida and I to get our teeth into. What is the true state of the property market? How stuffed in Australia and Australians? And does crypto offer an alternative? Find out in our latest edition.

Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

Its Edwin’s Monday (Wednesday) Evening Property Rant!

A belated rant this week, as Edwin piles into the auction games people play, we discuss the next migration wave, and why property statistics are rubbish.

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

Find more at https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/ where you can subscribe to our research alerts

Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

Have A Very “Squeezy” Christmas!

More households are feeling the pinch in the run up to Christmas according to our latest research and as demonstrated in the results to the end of November 2024, which we look at today.

We start with an overview of “financial stress”, defined in cash flow terms, then look at mortgage, rental, investor and overall stress across the country, as we dive into the top postcodes and consider the future scenarios for interest rates.

If you want a deep dive into a specific post code, drop it into the comments below, and I will make a subsequent show including the granular data I hold.

The full detailed set of data is available via our Patreon programme: https://www.patreon.com/DigitalFinanceAnalytics

Details of our one to one service are here: https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/dfa-one-to-one/

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

Find more at https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/ where you can subscribe to our research alerts

Property Market Takes An Early Break, As Prices Ease…

The latest auction clearance rates data confirms what we already knew, the traditionally busy spring selling season is ending with a whimper as it falls to the lowest this year amid weak buyer demand. Of course, clearance rates are a poor proxy for property market health, but the low quality of many listed properties, combined with over aggressive pricing are part of the story.

Add in expectations of higher for longer interest rates with ANZ pushing out a rate cut to May 2025, “We are shifting our view on the start of the RBA’s easing cycle from February 2025 to May 2025. We now also only expect two 25 basis point rate cuts in total [down from three],” said ANZ Bank’s Adam Boyton on Friday.

In addition expected falls of say 5 per cent in house prices in Sydney and Melbourne next year are reinforcing the trend. Borrowing capacity is also continuing to be crimped.

Also, costs of living pressures are hitting home, with an article over the weekend covering a Red Bridge survey which said that more than one third of Australians have delayed medical treatment because of the costs of living crisis, while almost half have put off buying a home, car or other purchase. 28 per cent of those polled say economic conditions have caused them to put off having children, while 20 per cent say they have delayed their decision to get married.

As the AFR says, this week was a big test of demand, with more than 1000 auctions scheduled in Sydney and Melbourne, and over 2600 scheduled nationally. However, just 63.4 per cent of homes sold under the hammer, based on preliminary auction numbers tallied by CoreLogic, down from 65.3 per cent last week. This matched the result of the first week of November, which was the lowest early clearance rate of the year. Once all the results are collected, it is expected that the final clearance rate will be below 60 per cent for the seventh consecutive week. “The auction market ended the spring selling season with a whimper,” said CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless.

Domain preliminary results also mirror the decline in clearances, mirroring price falls in some markets especially in Melbourne and Sydney, and on Monday, CoreLogic will release its monthly Home Values Index, which will show further declines in house prices in both Cities.

The two leading indicators for housing prices – auction clearance rates and the amount of stock on market – suggested price drops in those cities would persist, SQM’s Louis Christopher said.

Bottom line is the property market is taking an early holiday, and 2025 looks pretty shaky especially in the major markets.

Renegade Seminar: you can join the The World Economic Renegade Summit where Leading economist Harry Dent, Tom Panos and myself will explore what is really going on, and how you can take control of your financial future.

This event starts next Wednesday Sydney time at 7pm

You won’t regret taking the time, and by the way there is $5,000 worth of Gold for one lucky attendee. You can secure your place via the link here:
mesiti.com/north

Note Edwin’s RANT will be on Wednesday this week!

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

The Build To Rent Solution Won’t Solve The Real Problem!

Part two of the government’s stalled housing legislation finally passed federal parliament on Thursday. The Build to Rent tax reform bill aims to boost investment in apartment blocks designed and constructed for rental occupancy and retained in single ownership.

Other than as purpose-built student accommodation, this form of development remains rare in Australia.

At the same time, Build to Rent does not inherently contribute to affordable housing.

At least in its initial form in Australia, it is typically a “premium product”, mainly in well-connected locations and targeted at moderate to high income earners.

And it might suck construction activity away from other projects too!

Oh, for some joined up thinking!

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

DFA Live Q&A HD Replay: Property Investing: Nightmare Or Great Deal?

This is an edited version of a live discussion about the conundrum of property investing. Some are selling as quickly as they can, others are piling in. We look at the latest data to figure out what is going on. The key is a realistic assessment of net investment yield, which varies across locations and property types.

You can ask a question live!

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/dfa-one-to-one/ for our One to One Service.