L67 Property Operators and Real Estate Services

Housing lot defaults hit 25 per cent as finance hard to secure

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Larry Schlesinger
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 31 : 7-Feb-19

Satterley Property Group CEO Nigel Satterley says the default rate among buyers of housing lots in Melbourne is now 20 to 25 per cent, compared with just five per cent in late 2017. He adds that Perth and Sydney boast default rates of around 35 per cent and 15 per cent respectively. Satterley attributes the high level of defaults to factors such as tightened access to credit for both local and overseas buyers. Simonds Group CEO Kelvin Ryan notes that there has been a spike in the number of housing lots that are been offered for sale on the secondary market.

CORPORATES
THE SATTERLEY PROPERTY GROUP PTY LTD, SIMONDS GROUP LIMITED – ASX SIO, OLIVER HUME REAL ESTATE GROUP PTY LTD, RED23 PTY LTD, GUMTREE.COM AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Apartment approvals hit four-year low

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Michael Bleby
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 5-Feb-19

Official figures show that just 53,590 units in apartment towers of at least four storeys were approved in 2018, which is about 12 per cent lower than 2017. The number of approvals for stand-alone dwellings fell slightly, to 119,668. Overall, a total of 212,316 apartments, houses and townhouses were approved in 2018, which is the lowest level in four years. JLL has forecast that just 16,000 apartments will be completed across Australia in 2019.

CORPORATES
JONES LANG LASALLE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BIS OXFORD ECONOMICS PTY LTD

Banks, rules to blame for house prices

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Michael Bleby, Su-Lin Tan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 1-Feb-19

Chris Richardson of Deloitte Access Economics claims that both the banks and regulators are to blame for the current decline in house prices. He says that regulators were too slow to realise that record low interest rates were causing the housing market to overheat, while the banks suddenly went from being too generous with their credit to being too stingy. Figures released by the Reserve Bank on 31 January show that lending to owner-occupier borrowers grew by just 6.5 per cent in 2018, the weakest annual rate since 2014.

CORPORATES
DELOITTE ACCESS ECONOMICS PTY LTD, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC

Stockland, Mirvac and Lendlease face settlement risk

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Ben Wilmot, Samantha Bailey
The Australian – Page: 17 & 23 : 31-Jan-19

UBS says settlement risk could be a problem for Mirvac, Lendlease and Stockland in coming years as a result of the downturn in Australia’s apartment market. US believes that Mirvac is most vulnerable to settlement risk; however, such concerns have been downplayed by the head of Mirvac’s residential division, Stuart Penklis. Meanwhile, Dominic Lambrinos of Chifley Securities says some developers could be forced to sell development sites at a discount.

CORPORATES
UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, MIRVAC GROUP – ASX MGR, LEND LEASE GROUP LIMITED – ASX LLC, STOCKLAND – ASX SGP, CHIFLEY SECURITIES, CORELOGIC AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, CREDIT SUISSE (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED

Vicinity write-down hints at retail cycle’s turn: Citi

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Nick Lenaghan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 32 : 29-Jan-19

Shopping centre landlord Vicinity Centres advised in the week ending 25 January that it had reduced the value of its portfolio by $37 million. Although the write-down represented only a 0.2 per cent reduction in the value of Vicinity’s portfolio, Citi analysts have heralded it as being "symbolically significant" in a research note. Citi has stated that retail is its least preferred property option, and that recent news regarding the retail property sector suggests that conditions are declining more quickly than had previously been thought.

CORPORATES
VICINITY CENTRES – ASX VCX, CITIGROUP PTY LTD, SCENTRE GROUP – ASX SCG, GOODMAN GROUP – ASX GMG

Housing faces year of downturn

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Turi Condon
The Australian – Page: 17 : 25-Jan-19

National Australia Bank now expects dwelling prices in Sydney and Melbourne to fall by 15 per cent from peak to trough. NAB’s latest survey of property industry professionals shows that respondents generally expect New South Wales and Victoria to incur the biggest fall in housing prices over the next several years, although prices are also tipped to fall or remain flat outside of the two largest capitals. NAB’s separate survey of consumers shows that they are more upbeat about the outlook for the housing market than property professionals.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, CREDIT SUISSE (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED, CORELOGIC AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AMP CAPITAL INVESTORS LIMITED

Prices of big city houses to fall 25pc

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Melissa Yeo
The Australian – Page: 26 : 24-Jan-19

Shane Oliver of AMP Capital says residential property prices in Melbourne and Sydney could fall by up to 25 per cent from peak to trough. Oliver had previously flagged a potential fall of up to 20 per cent, and he has warned that the downturn in the housing market could impact on Australia’s economic growth. Oliver also expects the Reserve Bank to reduce the cash rate by 25 basis points in August and November, although he says weak economic data could prompt it to move sooner.

CORPORATES
AMP CAPITAL INVESTORS LIMITED, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, CORELOGIC AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, DEMOGRAPHIA

Investors eye modest REIT return in 2019: Citi

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Nick Lenaghan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 32 : 24-Jan-19

Citigroup has forecast a total return of five per cent for Australian real estate investment trusts in 2019. The sector delivered an overall return of 2.9 per cent in 2018, although Citi analysts note that the spread between the best and worst performers was the widest since the global financial crisis. Citi is bearish about the outlook for retail REITs, although the firm has upgraded its rating on several residential REITs to a ‘buy’.

CORPORATES
CITIGROUP PTY LTD, DEXUS – ASX DXS, STOCKLAND – ASX SGP, LEND LEASE GROUP LIMITED – ASX LLC, ABACUS PROPERTY GROUP – ASX ABP, GOODMAN GROUP – ASX GMG, CHARTER HALL GROUP – ASX CHC, WESTFIELD CORPORATION, UNIBAIL-RODAMCO

The great Aussie dream severely unaffordable

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Ben Wilmot
The Australian – Page: 17 : 23-Jan-19

Demographia’s latest International Housing Affordability survey shows that residential property in Australia’s five largest capital cities remains expensive, relative to income. Sydney now ranks third behind Hong Kong and Vancouver among the least affordable housing markets of the 91 that were surveyed; Sydney’s median house multiple is 11.7, ahead of Melbourne with a median multiple of 9.7. Gladstone and Rockhampton are now the most affordable housing markets in Australia, with median multiples of 3.2 and 3.9 respectively.

CORPORATES
DEMOGRAPHIA

36,000 home hangover for Melbourne market: SQM Research

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Nathan Mawby
news.com.au – Page: Online : 9-Jan-19

SQM Research has reported that there were over 36,000 homes still up for sale in Melbourne at the end of 2018. This represents an increase of 25 per cent when compared to the end of 2017, when around 29,000 homes were on the market. SQM Research head Louis Christopher says the increase in unsold homes shows that sellers are not prepared to accept "low-ball" offers for their homes. He says that quite a number of vendors have withdrawn their homes from the market altogether, and that these sellers would put their houses back on the market in 2019.

CORPORATES
SQM RESEARCH PTY LTD