Property Market – Page 11 – Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog

As More Households Are Crushed, Bankers Talk Their Own Book On Easing Mortgage Lending Rules!

Guess what, Bankers are looking at ways to ease lending standards to pump the market some more, as bank margins are under pressure at a time when lending growth is already strong, and more households are already in financial difficulty.

The value of new housing loans have risen by 17.9% since March 2023, to $27.6 billion dollars and were up 3.1% in March, according to the ABS.

The ABS also released their latest estimates of real living costs for households, they said Employee households recorded the largest annual rise in living costs of all household types with a rise of 6.5 per cent,

No surprise then that the DFA surveys for April showed a further rise in mortgage stress, to more than half of mortgaged borrowers, with many first-time borrowers and young growing families most exposed. In addition, rental stress remains very high, underscoring the pressures created by bad policy over many years, making housing unaffordable. On my live show coming up on Tuesday, we will look at this is more detail, and do a further post code deep dive.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver says there might be scope to reduce buffers for people refinancing — the banks already have some room to do that — but cautions against significant changes to lending laws.

“We’ve gone through a very difficult time in the economy in terms of the massive rise in interest rates, and we’ve come through — so far anyway — at a relatively low level of arrears,” he notes.

“That partly reflects the responsible lending that the banks have been undertaking over the last few years. If we had to take a dramatic easing in lending standards, and the rules around that, the risk is that the next cycle could be far worse.”

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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

Government Housing Targets An Impossible Dream As Building Approvals Shrink!

The ABS released data on the total number of dwellings approved in February recently. They say that despite growth in private houses in the month, the total number of dwellings approved fell 1.9 per cent in February (seasonally adjusted), after a 2.5 per cent fall in January. The trend estimate for total dwellings approved fell 3.0%, following a 2.7% January decrease.
Specifically, approvals for private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 24.9 per cent in February in seasonally adjusted terms, driven by a fall in the number of approved large apartment projects. In contrast, approvals for private houses rose 10.7 per cent in February.

This continues to confirm the massive gap between the Government aspiration of 1.2 million new homes over the next 5 years. On a straight-line basis, this translates to a target of 240,000 each year – which by the way is still way under the number needed to house the surging migrants and fill existing shortfalls.

So why not tackle the root cause issue here, too high migration? Entrepreneur Dick Smith fears today’s young people will have no savings and be forced to live in Chinese-style high-rise apartments unless immigration is urgently slashed, according to an article in the Daily Mail.

The veteran businessman and philanthropist says they need to understand the connection between a surging population and climate change. The entrepreneur, who turned 80 last month, fears homes with a backyard in Australia’s capital cities will no longer exist by 2050.

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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

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