Daily Buzz: Monday, 23 October
By
PropertyBuzz, your daily dose of property news.
Another WA government property initiative; an auction market preview; and is the Australian home ownership dream really dead?
Welcome to Property Buzz. I’m Phil Tarrant. Today’s the 21st of October and it’s Saturday. It’s auction day. Hope you’re out in the road checking out property.
New research indicates home ownership could soon be out of reach for most Aussie first-home buyers. Canstar’s analysis, which we’ve just received, reveals annual property price growth of 5.8% could be enough to push home ownership out of the reach for prospective first-home buyers. Prices are going up. The research found such an increase would make the average monthly savings an Australian first-home buyer requires of roughly $1,600 redundant, with buyers in Sydney and Melbourne most at risk. These are the numbers that we’ve been using as a benchmark up until this point. Does this indicate the Australian home ownership dream is now unavailable? It’s unrealised for some people? Perhaps not. According to Canstar’s Effie Zohers, who’s been around property for many years, she believes there is a new wave of first-home buyers who are still able to jump into the market. They’re probably the ones doing their sums, their budgeting, they’re getting it right.
Lengthy construction delays have inspired the Western Australian government to extend its land tax exemption to people constructing or refurbishing their homes. This is people doing new stuff or renovating. Eligible homeowners building their primary residence who do not own another property can now receive a land taxes exception for the first three assessment years that their residence was being constructed. This is trying to stimulate activity. We need more building. And in some circumstances, such as when a builder has gone into liquidation, they’ll be granted a fourth year of tax reprieve to get their homes move-in ready. Homeowners who are eligible for the temporary exemption and have already paid land tax, which you should have if you’ve already had your property for a little while, will still be able to get a refund. And in a rare case of a government making a rule, this is a really rare case actually where they get a result of returning money to residents. So no doubt people will be happy with that. But for those who have set their sights on home building into the future, but haven’t yet put pen to paper and done a contract, they’re out of luck as the rule only applies to property owners who signed their building contract between the 1st of July 2020 and 30th of June 2023. So it’s looking backwards rather than forwards.
Finally, an auction market update. CoreLogic is predicting a 10.3% increase in auction activity across Australia’s combined capital cities this week, making it the third busiest auction week of the year. They call this the spring selling season. Melbourne is expected to be the busiest city with 1,126 homes scheduled for auction. That’s up 9.7% from last week, while Sydney will see 944 properties go under the hammer. The smaller capitals will also see increased activity, 178 auctions in Adelaide, 165 in Brisbane, 80 in Canberra, 14 in Perth and one in Tasmania. I think a lot of Perth stuff’s going off way before auction. Next week is expected to be an even busier weekend with a super Saturday with planned for 28th of October, which was predicted to bring the total number of home auctions to over 3,500 for the week. That’s Property Buzz for today. I hope you’re well. I hope you’re out there enjoying the sunshine wherever you are in Australia. It is the spring selling season as we speak right now. We’ll see you again next week for your daily dose of Property Buzz. The information featured in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into consideration your financial situation or individual needs and should not be relied upon. Before making any investment, insurance, tax, property or financial planning decision, you should consult a licensed professional who can advise whether your decision is appropriate for you. Guests appearing on this podcast may have a commercial relationship with the companies mentioned.
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