Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog
"Intelligent Insight"
From Of Two Minds Blog. A hot housing market is hot for reasons beyond low mortgages interest rates. It is explained by islands of concentrated capital, GDP growth and talent which combined act as magnets that attract global capital and talent, even as prices notch higher. Though this is a US example, similar arguments are … Continue reading “A Tale of Two Housing Markets: Hot and Not So Hot”
Today we start a short series which will review the property market in 2016, and then look forward to 2017. We will start by looking at demand for property, then look at property and funding supply, before examining the risk elements in the market for both property owners, lenders and the broader economy. Remember that … Continue reading “The 2016 Property Market In Review”
From AAP. The government is bringing in changes to foreign investment rules to protect developers who are left in the lurch when a settlement falls through. The changes will allow foreign buyers to purchase an off-the-plan dwelling when another foreign buyer has failed to reach settlement, meaning developers won’t be left out of pocket. It … Continue reading “Foreigners can buy failed off-the-plan”
From The New Daily. Go into the city at night and turn your eyes upward. The dark eyes of city apartment towers stare back. Night after night, it’s the same – some windows never brighten. Nobody is there to flick the light switch because the apartments are empty. Water usage statistics confirm it – 7 … Continue reading “Why an apartment bust could prove calamitous”
Westpac has lifted the maximum LVR for investment loans to 90%, up from 80% (which was below many other lenders). With the largest share of investment loans they trimmed back their lending to the sector last year in order to get under the regulators 10% speed limit. Now the brakes are off, and with refinance … Continue reading “Westpac Turns The Property Investment Lending Tap On”
Continuing with data from the latest edition of the Property Imperative, today we look at first time buyers. Our latest survey identified about 319,000 households who are first time buyers. The majority are seeking to purchase, or have recently purchased an owner occupied property (80%), the remainder preferring an investment property. Only 9% of these … Continue reading “First Time Buyers Still Want Property”
The sudden talk of bubbles in the property market, by the regulators and treasury, looks like an attempt to talk the housing market down whilst not really doing that much in reality, and leaving space for more rate cuts in the cash rate as broader economic activity slows. The RBA’s low rate strategy is partly … Continue reading “Bubble Smuzzle”
The ABS Housing Finance data for February 2015 was released today. The trend estimate for the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 0.8%. Owner occupied housing commitments rose 1.0% and investment housing commitments rose 0.4%. This is the first time growth in owner occupied loans has exceeded investment loans for … Continue reading “Is The Housing Finance Worm Turning?”
The Government is seeking views on proposed reforms to strengthen Australia’s foreign investment framework, particularly around residential real estate and agriculture. DFA welcomes this, as we know overseas investors are impacting the market, and evading current light touch regulation. The proposed reforms include: increasing compliance and enforcement activities around foreign investment in residential real estate … Continue reading “Government Consulting On Foreign Investment Reform”
In the just release IMF World Economic Outlook, as well as revising down growth estimates, they discuss macroprudential, highly relevant in the light of RBA comments. The main observations are: there is evidence that macroprudential can assist in manage house price growth, and credit growth. Different settings should be applied to different types of purchases, … Continue reading “IMF On Macroprudential – It Works!”