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Australian Economy

Sydney: Massive job losses loom, taskforce says

SYDNEY could lose 87,000 jobs if a massive drop in building approvals recorded in the September quarter was sustained over a full year, developer lobby group Urban Taskforce said. Chief executive Aaron Gadiel said an analysis of the figures showed the impact on jobs would be “startling”. » Massive job

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Australian Housing

Mirvac halves its earnings estimate

Empty homes built by Mirvac litter Newbury Estate Mirvac, NSW’s largest home builder has dramatically revised its earnings estimates down almost 50% as confidence continues to slide in the new home market. Managing director Nicholas Collishaw told investors the revision reflected “a conservative assessment of forecast residential settlements and sales

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Australian Housing

Pressure on banks to become landlords

The Federal Government is calling on the major banks to have a good look at their hardship provisions as more Australians default on their mortgages. One option under serious consideration in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States is for banks to become landlords. With the global financial crisis

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ABS House Price Indices

Australian house prices fall 1.8% : ABS

The Official House Price Index released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today show Australian house prices have fallen 1.8% for the September quarter 2008. The biggest fall was experienced in the Brisbane, with prices heading south by 3.3%. Canberra was just behind at -2.5%, followed by Melbourne -1.9, Sydney

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Australian Housing

Perth house price falls hit double digits.

The Perth medium house price is now 10 percent lower at $426,000, down from $472,000 in December, the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA) reported today. With falls of this magnitude, the increased capital contribution from the FHOG announced by the government will disappear in a month and a

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Australian Housing

Housing prices not safe – Rudd

In an Interview for 60 minutes, Prime Minister Mr Rudd has indicated the current downturn will effect the Housing Market. With Australian Housing costing 7.5x the average wage, one of the highest multiples in the world, a downturn in the Housing Market is probably something Rudd doesn’t need to guarantee,

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Australian Economy

Crisis worse than first thought: Smith

THE government’s cabinet budget committee will meet later today to take any action deemed necessary from key meetings of the International Monetary Fund and Group of 20 finance ministers in Washington today. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said there was a growing realisation that the international financial crisis was worse than

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Australian Housing

Expert expects property boom in 2 years

To even all the boom & gloom up, Gold Coast property analyst Bill Morris is predicting a property boom in 2 years time. But he does come bearing bad news. He claims : the value of million dollar homes has halved since 2006 and prices for more modest properties have

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Australian Economy

Bank crisis hits Adelaide house values

It’s not even a month since the Adelaide Advertiser printed an article Get ready for the big property boom where it suggested “THERE are increasing signs that South Australia’s next property boom will be its biggest yet.” Today, it’s now printing : ADELAIDE property prices have taken a hit from

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Australian Economy

Brace for economic misery

The US national debt ticked over $US10 trillion for the first time last night. There is no more significance to this number other than it being a big, bad, round symbolic figure. Though it does serve to illustrate one of the concerns over the $700 billion ($900 billion) bail-out package,

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Australian Housing

Australian Property prices slump

August data for houses – an asset that “only goes up”, is starting to look a little bleak. The RP Data Rismark Hedonic Index would suggest house prices fell in every state and territory, although it seems Hobart got missed out. House prices are falling the fastest in QLD, followed

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Australian Housing

Mortgage Insurance Claim Concerns

The ABC’s lateline featured a story on Mortgage Insurance Claims in Australia. It seems they have been accelerating at great pace. One of the leading indicators of the health of Australian property market is the rate of mortgage insurance claims. Mortgage insurance pays out to lenders when their clients default

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Australian Housing

City of five million, just 739 homes for rent

It’s not even a week since turmoil gripped world stock markets in what is said to be the biggest financial crisis since the great depression and fueled by the biggest housing and credit bubble in history, but the Real Estate Sprukers are at it again. SYDNEY’S rental squeeze has hit

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Australian Economy

40pc of companies cutting jobs: Sensis

And here come the job loses : A survey has found that four out of every 10 businesses have cut their workforce since May because of the deteriorating economy. » 40pc of companies cutting jobs: Sensis – The ABC, 28th August 2008.

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Australian Economy

Melbourne : Boon for buyers as house prices tumble

HOUSE values are bleeding up to $7500 a week as a downturn in the property market hits home. Top-end properties are selling for $200,000 less than they achieved late last year, while the average $400,000 home has lost about $40,000. » Boon for buyers as house prices tumble – The

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Australian Economy

Housing bubble ‘set to burst’

News Limited Journalists have crafted up an article today which originally was titled Housing bubble ‘set to burst’. HOUSE prices could fall sharply if a global slowdown continues to hit the domestic economy, forcing up unemployment and causing repossessions to soar. However in continuing with their Reserve Bank bashing, the

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Australian Economy

Australia facing housing slump

Well what a week it has been. You could be mistaken for thinking every single Australian is pessimistic about housing. We have now got to the stage there is so much bad news it’s impossible to reference even a small subset of it all. It’s now interesting to look beyond

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Australian Economy

Australia faces worse crisis than America

First the U.S., then the U.K.; Now the International spot light is on Australia : Gabriel Stein, from Lombard Street Research, said Australia could prove vulnerable once the global commodity cycle turns down. It has racked up a current account deficit of 6.2pc of GDP despite enjoying a coal, wheat,