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☆ Australia's budget is expected to target housing crisis as prices keep climbing
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Vivien Soo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Recent reports indicate that Australian home prices are set to continue their upward trend, driven by increasing migration rates and a shortage of housing supply. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is set to deliver the budget on Tuesday, which is expected to focus on addressing the nation's housing crisis. The Albanese government has already said it plans to allocate 88.8 million Australian dollars ($58.7 million) to train 20,000 local workers for the construction and housing sector. The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council (NHSAC) said Australia's limited housing supply has been further stretched by a number of factors, including "the resumption of migration at pace, rising interest rates, skills shortages, elevated construction company insolvencies, weak consumer confidence and cost inflation." She also said high housing prices have "ugly" long-term effects.

Persons: Andrew Merry, Eliza Owen, Jim Chalmers, Albanese, Peter Dutton, Owen, CoreLogic's Owen Organizations: Australia, Reserve Bank, Australian Bureau, Statistics, CoreLogic, ABS, Housing Supply, Authorities, Australian Bureau of Statistics Locations: North Bondi, Sydney, Australia, CoreLogic Australia

☆ Australia's tight rental market forces tenants to make tough choices
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-29 | by ( Stella Qiu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Reuters GraphicsNEARING THE PEAKMany tenants, particularly in the most expensive city Sydney, have already been priced out of houses. PropTrack data showing house rents nationally were unchanged at A$550 per week, or about A$2,380 ($1,508) per month, in the September quarter. Apartment rents nationally jumped 4% during the quarter, double the June quarter rate of increase, to an average of A$520 per week, making them almost as costly. Prices across Australia's entire rental stock rose 7.6% in the third quarter from a year ago, the largest increase since 2009, according to official data, and similar to gains seen in the U.S. where rental costs have also surged. ($1 = 1.5780 Australian dollars)Reporting by Stella Qiu; Editing by Wayne Cole and Jamie FreedOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Lara Weeks, Weeks, Cameron Kusher, Michele Bullock, Christian Postiglione, Tim Beattie, Beattie, Stella Qiu, Wayne Cole, Jamie Freed Organizations: REA, Reuters Graphics, Reserve Bank of Australia, Nationwide, ANZ, Housing, Thomson Locations: SYDNEY, Sydney, U.S, Bondi, Australia, Western Australia, Adelaide

☆ Australia home prices rise 5th straight month but pace slowing -CoreLogic
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Stella Qiu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

CoreLogic figures on Tuesday showed prices nationally rose 0.7% in July from June, slowing from a jump of 1.1% in the earlier month. Since finding a floor in February, national prices have risen 4.1%, following a 9.1% decline from their peak in April last year. Home price gains in Sydney slowed to 0.9% for the month compared with June, down from growth of 1.7%, the data showed. CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said sellers were becoming more active at a time that is normally seasonally subdued, with new listings added in Australia's main cities in July lifting by 3.9% over the previous month. Listings in Sydney jumped 9.9% from a year ago and were 18% higher than the average for the previous five years.

Persons: Tim Lawless, Lawless, PropTrack, Stella Qiu, Tom Hogue Organizations: SYDNEY, Reserve Bank of Australia, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Sydney, Australia's

☆ Australia's home prices rise again in sign of market bottom
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, May 1 (Reuters) - Australian home prices rose for a second straight month in April, in a further signal that the nation's property market may have hit a floor ahead of a central bank rate decision on Tuesday. Figures from property consultant CoreLogic released on Monday showed prices nationally rose 0.5% in April from March, when values were up 0.6%, indicating Australian home prices may have bottomed out after slumping 9.1% from May 2022 to February. We now expect home prices to rise by 3% in 2023 and forecast a further increase of 5% in 2024." Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP, also no longer expects a top-to-bottom fall of 15-20% in housing prices, citing "a far worse property demand and supply imbalance" with immigration levels surging and supply remaining tight. PropTrack data on Monday showed that home prices rose 0.14% in April, bringing the cumulative increase this year to 0.75%.

Relentlessly rising rents, eight consecutive interest rate hikes, surging living costs and devastating natural disasters in the past few years have inflamed what was already among the world's least affordable rental markets. In Demographia's International Housing Affordability report this year, Sydney ranked the world's second-least affordable market, behind only Hong Kong. Australia's worst floods on record in the east of the country earlier this year destroyed homes and forced about 40,000 people to evacuate, adding to the housing crisis. SEEKING SOLUTIONSProperty owners say rising costs are forcing them to raise rents. Trina Jones from Homelessness New South Wales said for the move to be successful, homes need to be representative of social and affordable housing, and not aimed at making profits.

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