May 1, 2024

The One Thing Most Property Investors Ignore

There is an endless variety of metrics used to explain the property market. Vacancy rates, building approvals, population growth, annual price growth – the list goes on. All with varying popularity, each of these measures help to describe supply and demand in different ways, which in turn helps us to forecast the direction of a market. Of course, prices are created by that intersection of supply and demand (the fancy term for this mechanism is ‘price discovery’).
May 1, 2024

Why The Path To Rate Cuts Is Complex?

You may have noticed that the narrative surrounding interest rates has begun to shift slightly. For the first few months of this year, the overwhelming consensus was that we’d see some action on rate cuts within the latter half of 2024. We even released an article back on the 11th of March, summarising and commenting upon the big four banks’ predictions for interest rates.
April 19, 2024

Is Melbourne Oversupplied With Property?

Like any market, property prices are a consequence of supply and demand. For many months now, we’ve heard a similar refrain concerning the ‘chronic undersupply’ of housing across the market. Housing Australia has even forecast a national shortfall of 100,000 homes in just four years’ time. This being true, how is it possible for Melbourne to be oversupplied with property? Based on CoreLogic figures, Melbourne saw 90,000 total property listings across 2023, alongside just 81,203 total sales.
April 10, 2024

31st March 2024 – Property Market Update

In an impressive display of resilience, March has seen Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide continue to break records in the property market. The buoyancy in these cities is particularly noteworthy against a backdrop of national housing market softening in other areas. This month, Perth has continued its ascendant trajectory with a 1.2% growth, contributing to a 5.6% quarterly rise which is the highest across all state capitals. Brisbane, not far behind, has witnessed a 1.1% growth over the month, aligning with a broader trend of property value increases in Queensland. Adelaide, however, steals the spotlight with a 1.4% rise in dwelling values, the highest monthly growth recorded, and an impressive 3.3% increase over the quarter.
April 9, 2024

Could Darwin Property Spring Back to Life?

Looking at the latest capital city property figures from CoreLogic, Australian real estate has one obvious outlier. Right now, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide remain at record high prices, while other cities like Hobart, Canberra and Melbourne are feeling the serious impact of rate hikes, still below their 2022 price peaks. However, astonishingly, Darwin remains 6.6% below its record property market, a level it hasn’t exceeded since May of 2014 – almost a decade ago!
April 3, 2024

Strong Job Figures – Good News for Property?

Informational asymmetry, where one party in a transaction possesses more or superior information than the other, is a concept well-documented in economic theory. It can be a big problem, and its effect is felt uniquely within the real estate market – far more than in other asset classes like stocks, commodities or cryptocurrencies. Compared to many of these alternative investments, traded in vast quantities across highly regulated and transparent markets, with no informational lag, real estate is inherently unique.
March 26, 2024

Informational Asymmetry – The Property Market’s Fundamental Problem

Informational asymmetry, where one party in a transaction possesses more or superior information than the other, is a concept well-documented in economic theory. It can be a big problem, and its effect is felt uniquely within the real estate market – far more than in other asset classes like stocks, commodities or cryptocurrencies. Compared to many of these alternative investments, traded in vast quantities across highly regulated and transparent markets, with no informational lag, real estate is inherently unique.
March 19, 2024

What Are Valuers Predicting For Property Markets?

Recently, real estate firm CBRE released the results of their residential valuer survey for Q1 of 2024. The results of this survey offer some valuable insights into the observations of ~190 CBRE valuers around the country. In today’s article, we’re taking a look at some of the key results, and offering some brief commentary of our own: According to CBRE’s report, 6x as many valuers are expecting ‘strong to very strong’ demand, Australia wide, as opposed to ‘soft or very limited’ demand. Valuers note also that demand has been the most significant in a few key markets, namely – Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.
March 11, 2024

When Will Interest Rates Come Down?

If you're among those seeking relief from the burden of high home loan rates, there might be a glimmer of hope on the horizon. By now, we’ve all heard that inflation has been coming down. As it stands, a return to target inflation isn’t far away, but perhaps a more pressing concern for the RBA is unemployment and productivity.