Daily Buzz: Tuesday, 5 March

PropertyBuzz, your daily dose of property news.

An agent’s injury serves as a warning to property owners and real estate professionals alike, revealing WA’s new planning system, and auction results stay strong

Welcome to Property Buzz! I’m Juliet Helmke. Today is Tuesday, 05 March.

An incident involving a property owner’s pet in Broome has served as an unfortunate reminder to be careful when dogs are being kept on a property.

Tony Hutchinson, principal of Hutchinson Real Estate in Broome, was severely injured in a dog attack while conducting a property appraisal after being asked to visit the property by the owner. 

Describing the event as “extremely traumatic” Mr Hutchinson was set upon by two of three dogs that were on the property while conducting the evaluation, leading to serious injuries that have so far confined him to a wheelchair while he recovers.

The agent was not informed of the animals’ presence, nor were there signs posted warning of guard dogs. He is urging all dog owners to be responsible about managing their pet’s behaviour in the presence of visitors to the property.

– More news out of Western Australia, and the Cook government has launched an upgraded planning system for the state that  includes a new website to streamline housing delivery and reduce red tape.

– The new system, which is part of the federal government’s National Planning Reform Blueprint, includes an online portal for lodging and tracking applications, as well as changes to Development Assessment Panels.

– The new Significant Development Pathway (SDP) that has been introduced will fast-track projects valued over $20 million in Perth and $5 million in regional areas.

– And preliminary auction results for the week ending 3 March 2024 showed that while clearance rates have softened slightly since early February, success rates are still a far cry from the dampened market of 2023.

– Last week’s preliminary clearance rate of  71 per cent from a total 2,556 auctions, was a slight drop from the 73.5 per cent preliminary clearance rate recorded the week prior, but “remains well above late last year when preliminary clearance rates were in the mid 60 per cent range and finalised results were settling in the mid 50 per cent range,” CoreLogic reported.

– Melbourne and Sydney both saw a 0.5 per cent drop in the preliminary clearance rate over the most recent week compared to the week prior, with Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate sitting at 77 per cent from 878 auctions, while Melbourne’s sat at 70 per cent off the back of 1,283 auctions. Up in Brisbane, 148 homes went under the hammer, leading to a clearance rate of 65 per cent.

As the final numbers shake out, CoreLogic predicts the final clearance rate will come in around 65 to 66 per cent, based on strong performances from previous weeks.

That’s Property Buzz for today. 

See you again tomorrow, 06 March, for your daily dose of Property Buzz.

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