Home approvals get a boost but still below target

Original article by Michael Bleby
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 24 : 3-Sep-24

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that dwelling approvals rose to an 18-month high of 14,797 in July. Housing approvals also rose to an eight-month high of 165,443 in the year to July; approvals for detached houses increased by 0.3 per cent, while there was 34 per cent growth in approvals for apartments, townhouses and semidetached homes. JP Morgan economist Jack Stinson says sustained growth in approvals for apartments and other attached homes will be needed if the federal government’s target of building 1.2 million new homes over the next five years is to be achieved.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, JP MORGAN AUSTRALIA LIMITED

$1.5bn loss as Lendlease transforms

Original article by Ben Wilmot
The Australian – Page: 13 & 17 : 20-Aug-24

Property developer Lendlease has reported its latest annual results, with the company posting a headline $1.5 billion loss, which includes $1.38 billion of impairments and charges on businesses it is selling off. LendLease had announced in May that it was abandoning its global ambitions after pressure from a number of activist shareholders that included Tanarra Capital and HMC Capital, and that it would be returning around $4.5 billion in capital to Australia, where it hopes to secure projects with high returns.

CORPORATES
LENDLEASE GROUP – ASX LLC, TANARRA GROUP PTY LTD, HMC CAPITAL

Melbourne in box seat for next housing upturn

Original article by Nila Sweeney
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 30 : 24-Jul-24

AMP’s chief economist Shane Oliver expects all capital city housing markets to benefit when the Reserve Bank eventually starts to reduce the cash rate. However, he says Melbourne’s housing market may rebound the strongest, given that it has underperformed for some time. Data from CoreLogic’s daily home value index shows that a sharp rise in listings saw home values in Melbourne fall by 0.2 per cent over the first 19 days of July, and by 0.6 per cent over the last three months. Tim Lawless of Corelogic says Melbourne home values are likely to fall further in coming months, given the volume of new listings.

CORPORATES
AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, CORELOGIC AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

‘Bad enough now’: Property investor tax breaks soaring to $22 billion a year by 2035

Original article by Matthew Elmas
The New Daily – Page: Online : 2-Jul-24

Parliamentary Budget Office data has revealed that property investors received $85 billion in tax breaks over the decade between 2014-15 and 2023-24. The PBO also found that the cost of negative gearing and capital gains discounts will jump to $165 billion over the next decade, with tax breaks to property investors to be worth $22 billion a year by 20235. Australia Institute senior research fellow David Richardson claims that property tax breaks will continue to push up property prices, with Richardson noting things are "bad enough now; he notes the cost of a median house in Sydney is around 13.5 times annual average weekly earnings.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. PARLIAMENTARY BUDGET OFFICE, THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE LIMITED

Australian capital cities rank among world’s least affordable markets to buy a home

Original article by Clint Jasper
abc.net.au – Page: Online : 14-Jun-24

The Chapman University Frontier Centre for Public Policy examined housing markets in 94 cities in eight countries in terms of their affordability for middle-income buyers. Hong Kong, Sydney and Vancouver were rated as the most unaffordable markets for those buyers, while Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth all sit in the least affordable 25 per cent of cities The study concluded that the leading cause of unaffordable housing in the cities it studied were land use policies that artificially restrict housing supply, pushing up land prices, while it pointed to Singapore’s success in transforming a "desperate housing situation" in the 1960s to one of the most affordable markets in the report.

CORPORATES
CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY

House prices bounce in prestige suburbs

Original article by Nila Sweeney
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 31 : 22-May-24

Data from CoreLogic shows that house prices in some of the more expensive suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne rose by up to seven per cent in the three months to April. The median house price in Sydney’s upper north shore suburb of Gordon increased by 7.1 per cent, after falling by 1.4 per cent in the previous three months. Melbourne suburbs that recorded strong price growth include Kew East, Brighton and Camberwell. Tim Lawless from CoreLogic says it is not surprising that house prices in premium suburbs have risen, given that they have fallen in recent months.

CORPORATES
CORELOGIC AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Labor to crack down on dirty money for homes

Original article by Campbell Kwan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 31 & 32 : 7-May-24

The federal government is set to expand money-laundering reporting obligation laws to cover real estate agents, lawyers and accountants, with the potential that 100,000 extra entities will have reporting obligations if the legislation is passed. However, the Real Estate Institute of Australia claims that expanding money-laundering obligations to cover real estate agents would impose an overwhelming burden on them, and that the legislation should instead expand the reporting obligations of land registry bodies. It contends that not all real estate transactions are handled by real estate agents.

CORPORATES
THE REAL ESTATE INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED

Labor to crack down on dirty money for homes

Original article by Campbell Kwan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 31 & 32 : 7-May-24

The federal government is set to expand money-laundering reporting obligation laws to cover real estate agents, lawyers and accountants, with the potential that 100,000 extra entities will have reporting obligations if the legislation is passed. However, the Real Estate Institute of Australia claims that expanding money-laundering obligations to cover real estate agents would impose an overwhelming burden on them, and that the legislation should instead expand the reporting obligations of land registry bodies. It contends that not all real estate transactions are handled by real estate agents.

CORPORATES
THE REAL ESTATE INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED

Brisbane on track to be second-most expensive city

Original article by Mackenzie Scott
The Australian – Page: 3 : 1-May-24

Data from PropTrack shows that the median house price in Brisbane rose by nearly three per cent to $818,000 in the first four months of 2024. Brisbane now boasts Australia’s third-highest median house price, and Eleanor Creagh from PropTrack says the Queensland capital is likely to surpass Canberra if the current momentum in house price growth is sustained. Creagh notes that Brisbane has been one of the strongest housing markets since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. She says factors such as interstate migration and a limited supply of homes on the market have contributed to the price growth.

CORPORATES
PROPTRACK PTY LTD

First-timers, low earners in housing crunch

Original article by Nila Sweeney
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 31 : 17-Apr-24

A report from the ANZ Bank shows that the average proportion of income that is needed to service a new mortgage rose to 48.9 per cent nationwide in the March quarter; this compares with 43.1 per cent during the same period in 2023. The ANZ Housing Affordability report also reveals that it now takes an average of 10.3 years to save enough money for a house deposit. Meanwhile, ANZ found that the average renter must now allocate 32.2 per cent of their income to rent; this rises to 54.3 per cent for low-income earners.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ