INVESTORS are the only source of growth in the housing market, and rising stocks of unsold houses suggest the outlook for house prices is souring. The level of demand for housing by owner-occupiers remains weak, with the number of new mortgages taken out in May dropping by 0.7 per [...] [...more]
Victorian Government announced the updated Victorian $12 billion Transport Plan. The plan includes a metropolitan train tunnel as well as a regional rail link, road tunnel and truck action plan for the gridlocked western suburbs. Shocked residents in areas of Melbourne’s west were left to guessing whether their homes would be snatched in the State Government’s [...] [...more]
Last month, Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) President, Mr David Airey appealed to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to take the state of the housing market into consideration when making their decision regarding official interest rates. “Fortunately, the Reserve Bank have once again made a considered and accurate assessment [...] [...more]
Canberra residential property prices are beating every other state in Australia. According to figures provided by RP Data-Rismark, housing prices in Canberra have soared by 3.7% for the 3 months to May 2010, with the median price today being $508,500. The ACT government have started selling land via a “virtual” ballot after buyers camped out for [...] [...more]
Australia’s No1 portal realestate.com.au has announced a partnership with leading online marketplace eBay.com.au. The deal, which went live today, means more and more property seekers will be able to access the popular property site via eBay’s real estate channel, providing an additional touch point to help house hunters find that dream home faster. Henry Ruiz, General [...] [...more]
According to the latest Global Property Guide, Australia recorded the fourth-largest price increase during the year to March beating many of the world’s best and biggest cities of 16.6 per cent. Most Asian and Pacific countries also outperformed their European counterparts this year, with Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan taking out the top three spots. Britain [...] [...more]
Westpac Chief Economist Bill Evans and his team produce this bite-sized roundup of the week’s economic news and events, with clear analysis and insight plus the outlook for the week ahead. [...more]
ANZ will start selling a new transactions account next week, offering a raft of banking and non-banking extras for an $18 monthly fee. Banks have given away a lot of revenue on retail transaction banking since dropping or reducing overdrawn account, late payment and other exception fees last year. ANZ, which charges a flat rate of [...] [...more]
ANZ National will be out of pocket by NZ$45 million after the bank and ING NZ reached a record settlement with the Commerce Commission over two “income funds” managed by its wealth arm ING. ING froze the ING Diversified Yield Fund and the ING Regular Income Fund in late 2008. The Commission’s investigation related to the [...] [...more]
Mr David Airey, REIA’s President has criticized comments by GMO’s chief strategist Jeremy Grantham – that Australia is in the midst of an unmistakable housing bubble. According to David Airey Australia experiencing normal property growth for house prices. “If Australia was in the midst of a so-called housing bubble, then we have been there for some [...] [...more]
