As a property investor, staying informed on any changes or statistical indicators relating to the property market is vitally important.
With this in mind, we’ll be providing a monthly property market update which summarises some of the most relevant real estate and finance industry news to assist you to succeed on your investment journey.
Property values
For the month of August, a 1.1 per cent rise in home values was recorded according to the latest CoreLogic Hedonic Home Value Index.
Sydney remains the capital city with the highest median dwelling price, currently sitting at $780,000, followed by Melbourne with a median dwelling price of $576,000. In both of these cities, dwelling values have continued to increase month-on-month by more than 1 per cent, with cumulative growth over the cycle (June 2012 to date) reaching 64 per cent in Sydney and 44 per cent in Melbourne.
Hobart remains the most affordable capital city with median values sitting at $306,000.
Rental rates
The latest CoreLogic report on rental rates, released in August, showed that rents across the combined capital cities fell by 0.3 per cent during July.
Rental rates decreased in all cities except Melbourne and Hobart, which have experienced a 0.8 per cent and 3.9 per cent increase over the past quarter respectively.
Sydney is still the most expensive city to live in, with a median average weekly rent of $595, compared to a combined capital city median rent of $483, which came in at its lowest level since December 2015.
Hobart is the cheapest capital for tenants to live in, with a median average weekly rent of $359.
Rental vacancies
Figures from SQM Research released at the end of August revealed that the number of national residential vacancies rose during the month of July. A vacancy rate of 2.5 per cent was recorded with 79,300 properties vacant.
Of the capital cities, Perth recorded the highest vacancy rate during July of 5.2 per cent. The report showed 10,738 vacancies in total and an increase of 1.4 per cent for the year-to-year vacancy rate. The city also recorded the highest monthly increase in rental vacancies of 0.2 per cent during the month of July.
Building approvals
The latest data on building approvals from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicates that there has been a surge in apartment approvals of 23 per cent during the month of July.
There were 11,393 apartment approvals during the month, a result which was 16 per cent higher than the number approved during the same month one year ago.
Despite this increase, house approvals declined by 0.5 per cent during the month, with approvals almost 3 per cent lower over the year.
Finance and interest rates
As predicted by most Economists leading up to yesterday’s board meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to keep rates on hold at 1.5 per cent.
The recent changes made by the RBA during August and May have encouraged many first-home owners and particularly property investors to take advantage of low interest rates and enter the property market.
Recent data released by the nation’s big four banks also highlighted that those with existing home loan debts have been able to reduce their home loan debts, with the nation’s largest lender, The Commonwealth Bank, confirming that three out of every four customers are thirty three mortgage repayments ahead on average
Auction clearance rates
Property sales for spring were off to a strong start, as the preliminary capital city clearance rates recorded a year to date high of 78.4 per cent according to CoreLogic.
A total of 1,858 homes went to auction for the weekend ending the 4th of September 2016, however was a decrease compared to the 2,153 auctions recorded during the previous weekend and the 2,297 auctions recorded one year ago.
Of the capital cities, Sydney achieved the strongest preliminary clearance rate of 83.9 per cent.