Demand-for-more-homes
As Australia experiences a population growth,
more and more stress is put on housing
across the nation
It looks like the housing supply situation is likely to worsen based on these most
recent figures. Housing commencement figures were released from the Australian
Bureau of Statistics this week showing the number of homes that started construction
over the June quarter fell by a seasonally adjusted 7 percent, the fourth consecutive
quarterly fall. According to the REIA, vacancy rates remain at historic lows across
the capital cities – a situation that is not likely to improve until more homes start
to come on line. The decline in housing commencements comes at a time when
Australia is experiencing peak population growth which creates demand for more
homes.
The decline was mainly due to a dramatic decline in the number of units that
started construction which was down 23 percent over the quarter, a reminder
of the stress being felt within the residential development sector. Houses are
taking a shorter period of time to sell, with the average Australian house
taking about 40 days to sell compared with 53 days to sell at the same time
last year.
The average market discount for homes across the nation is now 5.4%
compared with 6.9% last year. That means for a house listed at $400,000
it will on average, finally sell for $21,600 less than the asking price compared
with $27,600 less at the same time last year. The level of vendor discounting
and time it takes to sell a property has improved significantly compared with
last year.
Locally there is still a great undersupply of homes for sale. Anything new to
the market is seeing buyers snap them up very quickly. The idea of negotiating
on asking price is becoming harder and harder for many buyers. The rental market
is still in hard times with vacancy rates of zero.
Mant tenants are finding hard to secure properties as the ones they currently
occupy are being sold by many landlords at this time.
18/09/2009