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Australian Economy

Real Estate Investment by Foreign Residents : Top Secret

It was December 2008. Three months earlier Lehman Brothers had collapsed – credit markets have frozen over. Two months earlier, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announces the First Home Owners’ Boost, designed to save the housing market, or at least temporary, by encouraging first home buyers to bring forward their purchases

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Australian Economy

NSW repossessions rise 22.5% in 2011.

When the BBC last Thursday warned international markets about a 22.5 percent rise in mortgage repossessions down under in NSW, we thought the Australian media had swept this news under the carpet. Under the headlines of “Fears mount over health of Australia’s housing market”, the BBC reported on what is

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Australian Economy

House prices up in November

Real Estate Agents and Property Lobbyists have opened their new years’ bottles of Champagne early today as figures from the RP Data-Rismark home value index show house prices rose just 0.1 percent (noise) in November after the worst year for Australian real estate in more than a decade. Home price

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Australian Economy

More Stress Testing . . .

The Australian Banking Regulator has given Australian banks one week to stress test their resilience to the unemployment rate rising sharply to 12 percent, a 30 percent decline in residential house prices, a 40 percent decline in commercial property values and a contraction of GDP. It is believed APRA want

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Australian Economy

Negative gearing: time to rethink your approach

We have often warned that negative gearing is really only good when house prices are rising. Now the mainstream media is ringing the same bells. The Sydney Morning Herald writes: In a rising property market, negative gearing can be a good strategy to build wealth – but watch out when

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Australian Economy

RBA drops rates for the second month

Australia’s Central Bank has today cut the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.25 percent, effective tomorrow. This cut follows a 25 basis point cut last month and could suggest the economy is not as robust as initially thought, having been bash about by the Eurozone crisis. The

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Australian Economy

China’s manufacturing is contracting

With the European debt crisis effecting consumer confidence around the globe, HSBC’s China Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 47.7, a little bit weaker than last weeks preliminary flash figure. Values below 50 indicates the conditions are contracting and deteriorating. Today’s figure comes in at a 32 month low. The

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Australian Economy

Building approvals record double digit falls

Melbourne may need more than an endangered frog to stir up pent up demand if last months’ building approvals are anything to go by. Home approvals fell 10.7 percent in the month of October contributing to a 29.8 percent fall for the year. Apartments and units have lead the falls,

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Australian Economy

Sunrise : Top tips on real estate future

SQM’s Louis Christopher and Kochie featured on Sunrise today to talk about the future of Real Estate in Australia. Louis Christopher explained how auction clearance rates are actually calculated, while Kochie talked viewers through the credit crunch and how Australia has the most expensive property in the world. The video

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Australian Economy

Australian house prices could fall by 25% “OR MORE”

Television news and printed newspapers around the country has today reported on comments from the Economist Magazine warning the Australian residential property market could plunge 25 percent, triggered by the European Debt Crisis. The European debt crisis reached new highs this week when an auction of $8.26 billion 10 year

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Australian Economy

First home buyers prefer saving rather than buying

According to press release from the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia, “First time home buyers have little confidence in the Australian economy, as they baulk at property purchases and hoard their cash”. The press release detailed statistics from a recent Commonwealth Bank/Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia Home Finance

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Australian Economy

More Chinese expect house prices to fall

The last month have seen some large and dramatic changes in China’s property market. A wave of real estate agency closures in Beijing and Shenzhen and falling prices has many Chinese believing the real estate market has reached all time highs and is now finally correcting. Recent weeks have seen

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ABS House Price Indices

Australian housing correction accelerates into 9th month

The September update to Australia’s official house price index was released today showing house prices continue to fall in Australia. The weighted average of the eight capital cities fell 1.2 percent in the last quarter according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The ABS also revised down the June quarter

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Australian Economy

Is the Eurozone Crisis really over?

A plan announced on Thursday to address the Eurozone debt crisis has bouyed markets around the world. But questions remain if it will go anywhere near fixing the problem. Eurozone leaders have formed an agreement with private banks and insurers to accept a 50 percent loss on Greek’s bonds. Long

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Australian Economy

Prime Minister experiencing rental stress

According to a News Limited article with the headline “HOUSING STRESS: PM struggles to find a rental property”, Prime Minister Julia Gillard is having trouble finding a rental property in a difficult market. The number of rental vacancies around the country continue to increase as cost of living pressures force

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Australian Economy

Median rents going nowhere

In recent weeks we have heard claims from property management companies saying rents are surging and will continue to do so. One company even claimed double digit rises. The only trouble is, these claims are not supported by actual figures from Australian Property Monitors (APM). The median weekly asking rents