Daily Buzz: Tuesday, 30 April

PropertyBuzz, your daily dose of property news.

New Rezoning rules released for New South Wales transit hub suburbs; Skilled labour shortages set to hamper 1.2 million home target, and the preliminary Clearance Rate remains above 70 per cent for auctions.

Welcome to Property Buzz! I’m Grace Ormsby

Today is Tuesday, 30 April.

And the first stage of a state plan to update planning rules around key transport hubs has been implemented in New South Wales, with the potential to create 170,000 new homes in mid-rise dwellings over 15 years.
– The new policy will be rolled out across zones surrounding 37 metro and rail stations, with the first 18 locations already under the new rules.
– Planning controls include increased permissibility for residential flat buildings, updated floor space ratio, increased building height, parameters for lot size and width, and a mandatory 2 per cent affordable housing contribution.
– NSW Minister for Planning and Public Space, Paul Scully, called the reforms a critical part of the plan to address the housing crisis, despite some controversy and lack of cooperation from some councils.

Elsewhere, a new report reveals a persistent shortage of skilled trades in Australia, despite a slowdown in building activity.
– Non-residential projects have absorbed many skilled trades workers, causing trade prices to rise by more than 6 per cent in the year to March 2024.
– HIA’s senior economist, Tom Devitt, suggests incentivising apprentice training and allowing access to overseas skilled labour to meet the demand for building 1.2 million homes over the next five years.

And taking a look at auctions over the weekend, a total 1,900 homes went under the hammer, a lift in volumes from last week.

It did cause a drop in the preliminary clearance rate, to just under 73 per cent.  

Melbourne played host to the most auctions at 848, recording a clearance rate of just under 70 per cent. Sydney’s clearance rate was far higher, at over 78 per cent.
Looking ahead to May, and Corelogic is predicting a moderate rise in auction volumes over the coming week, with 2,200 homes set to go under the hammer.


That’s Property Buzz for today.

See you again tomorrow, 01 May, for your daily dose of Property Buzz.

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