NEWS

WBP market wrap

Buyer warning: don’t be lured into a false sense of security…the frenzy is coming.

The weekend saw an estimated 910 residential properties auctioned in Melbourne, 71% or 646 of which sold.

There was almost double the amount of houses auctioned, when compared with units, with comparable clearance rates achieved for both property types.

While this is a strong result overall for such a high number of auctions, the market was patchy and results were a mix of strong prices and some surprising instances of properties passing in.

The high number of auctions held at the weekend and in the coming week is thought to be the main driver of this inconsistency. These high volumes give buyers a sense of choice and reduced pressure to secure a property. Read more

Australia is officially the world’s most desirable place to live …..according to a survey of nearly 28,000 people from 11 countries.

Boston Consulting Group recenly carried out the survey, where 34% picked Australia as the country they would most like to live (besides their own). Canada came second, USA third and Switzerland fourth.

The selection criteria included economic opportunity, education and standard of living. Participants in the survey came from the USA, Canada, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, India, Brazil and Australia.

The Boston Consulting Group survey isn’t the only one to rank Australian living standards as being the most desirable on earth. Australia topped the OECD’s “Better Life” index for the past three years, thanks to high levels of income, good employment prospects, standards of education and sense of community.

Overall, Australians are more satisfied with their lives than the OECD average. 84% say they have more positive experiences in an average day than negative ones, while the average is just 80%.

So, I guess the survey confirms what we Aussies have known all along – there really is NO place like home!

Melbourne has been crowned the globe’s most liveable city for the third time in a row, nudging out Austrian capital Vienna.

In the review of 140 cities, Victoria’s capital was given perfect scores for health care, education and infrastructure. “Improvements to infrastructure in Australia, where the federal government initiated an ambitious long-term road-building programme in 2010, prompted rises in some cities in 2011,” a reporter said.

Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Robert Doyle called it “a great result for Melbourne, for tourism and for our international education reputation.”

Can’t be bad for State property prices and potential equity increases either!

mfc clients often ask about property: when’s the right time to buy, when to sell, what’s happening in the market, have we bottomed out yet?

The latest index from RP Data reflects a really mixed bag, showing capital-city house prices fell by 1.2 per cent last month – disappointing given the Australia Reserve Bank’s rate reduction to an all time low of 2.75 per cent at the start of the month. Read more

Lenders have cut interest rates for the most popular type of fixed-rate mortgage to their lowest levels in more than two decades, amid bets the cash rate will fall to a record low as early as next month.

As Westpac recently cut its rate on two-year fixed loans below 5 per cent , figures showed the average cost of a three-year fixed home loan has fallen to its lowest level in 23 years, at 5.53 per cent.

Greg Morton says “it’s now cheaper for the banks to offer these mortgages because of growing market bets the Reserve Bank would cut the cash rate from 3 per cent. Read more

Many city cranes are involved in commercial and residential projects.

The number of cranes on Melbourne’s horizon is increasing in defiance of the weaker conditions in the construction sector.

The latest figures from the Australian Construction Industry Forum show modest growth is expected in construction activity over the next two years. Read more

The median Melbourne house gained $22,500, or 4.8 per cent, and rose to $495,000 between September and December, according to newly-released figures from the Valuer-General’s office.

The data released this week also showed solid improvement for units in Melbourne, which rose by $8600, 2 per cent, in the same time frame.

The impressive lift in house values brought both medians to their highest level in the preceding 12 months. Read more

The embryonic housing market recovery has stumbled, with home values falling in most states last month. But while values slumped, sales of new dwellings ramped up.

New home sales bounced back in March, rising 4.2 per cent after falling in February, Housing Industry Association figures show.

But dwelling values contracted by 0.5 per cent over April after posting a solid 2.8 per cent gain over the first three months of 2013, according to property analysts RP Data. Read more

Deep concern about the high Australian dollar has driven the Reserve Bank to cut its cash rate to the lowest level on record, a cut quickly passed on by all but one of the big banks.

The board acted on Tuesday without waiting to know what was in next week’s budget after being told that the mining investment boom might have peaked and there was insufficient activity elsewhere in the economy to take its place. Information supplied to the bank by mining companies suggested the peak “may well be upon us”. Read more