Facing a voter backlash against the controversial changes to property ownership by foreign nationals the Rudd government has quietly reversed the changes that come into effect late last year that made it easier for temporary residents to purchase Australian real estate. There has been much anecdotal evidence of overseas buyers outbidding local families for property for established dwellings. The government will hope that reversing these changes will take some of the heat out of the housing market and improve housing affordability.
Archive for the ‘General real estate’ Category
Foreign investment rules reversed
Monday, May 3rd, 2010RBA raises official interest rates in April
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010the Reserve Bank has again raised official interest rates by a further 0.25 pts to take official rates to 4.25% as the RBA returns to a more normal monetary policy stance. Glenn Stevens has previously commented on his desire to contain property price growth and will have considered housing affordability along with the strength of the economic recovery in coming to today’s decision.
Average variable mortgage rates will now be around 7.0% and are likely to rise a further 1.0 pt to 8.0% over the next 12 months
Housing affordability set to worsen
Thursday, March 18th, 2010Stockland CEO Matthew Quinn has warned that housing affordability is set to worsen with the shortfall in homes increasing to 0.8m by 2020. Increased immigration combined with inadequate planning by state governments have resulted in a shortfall of 60K homes per annum. The imbalance of supply and demand has seen property prices rising sharply in all Australian cities.
The median price of a home in Sydney is $485,000 nearly ten times the average wage making Sydney 50% more expensive than the “over valued” UK market.