Daily Buzz: Tuesday, 17 October
By
PropertyBuzz, your daily dose of property news.
Revealing the untapped potential of granny flats. Is the Northern Territory keeping the nation’s dream alive?; And Melbourne’s market returns to full health.
Welcome to PropertyBuzz, I’m Juliet Helmke. Today is Tuesday the 17th of October.
Our top headline for today reveals new research into the potential of ancillary dwellings or quote-unquote granny flats to help solve supply woes. Analysis from CoreLogic suggests that building granny flats in Australian backyards could help increase housing supply and overcome some of our biggest building challenges such as land availability as well as community backlash against high-density development. The research identified potential for ancillary dwellings in Sydney, Melbourne and in Brisbane with Sydney having the most opportunities with around 242,000 suitable properties that could easily host a two-bedroom stand-alone flat. Over a third of the identified sites across these three cities were within two kilometers of a train or light rail station and 17% were near a hospital making them desirable locations and potentially beneficial for healthcare workers. CoreLogic estimates that adding a granny flat could increase a property’s value by approximately 32%. That being said, there are a lot of rules around building and renting granny flats. Victoria, for example, prohibiting them from being let to anyone other than a dependent. The state also specifies that only one person can occupy a granny flat at any one time. Still, experts agree that while this is far from a silver bullet, governments could do well to incentivize granny flat construction as an element to contribute to housing supply.
In other news, the Northern Territory’s Chief Minister, Natasha Files, has established the Northern Territory Housing Alliance with the stated aim of making it the easiest place in Australia to buy and build a home. The alliance will include senior leaders from various sectors who will be asked to identify land sites to increase dwellings, provide recommendations for investment initiatives and advise on policies and supply chain issues relating to housing delivery. When introducing the alliance, the Chief Minister described it as a necessary element for not only solving the Territory’s housing challenges, but she hinted that it could help the countries as well. She stated that she was making sure that the Australian dream was still achievable in the Northern Territory, even as it seemed out of reach everywhere else.
And finally, Melbourne’s inner, middle and outer suburbs have all experienced positive quarterly growth in both house and unit prices for the first time since June 2021, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria. The city’s outer suburbs drove the increases, with house prices rising 1.3% and units 1.8% in the three months to September. The top-performing suburbs were Keysborough, Rye and Ringwood East. Melbourne’s east also saw strong price growth, with Upway entering the million-dollar club. The median unit price in the city rose 1% to $633,500, led by Tourac, where prices jumped 39%. REIV’s new president, Jacob Koehn, believes the results are unsurprising and indicate a good time for buyers to enter the market. He also expects price growth to continue into 2024. That’s Property Buzz for today. Thank you for joining me. See you tomorrow for your daily dose of property news. 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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