Tag Archives: africa
Latest data reveals home building boom in New Zealand
Residential and building construction along with infrastructure has reached a new all-time high in New Zealand, reaching $17.8 billion, new figures show. The building consent data from Statistics New Zealand reveals that 28,387 homes were consented in the past year, the highest number in 11 years, and the 9,434 consented in Auckland is continuing the strong growth over the past four years. The 732 for May is also the highest in 11 years. The growth in Auckland for the residential construction centre was 26%, a total of $4.3 billion, and is about as fast as a sector can grow, according to Nick Smith, Building and Housing Minister. He pointed out that this is treble the rate of $1.4 billion since his party came to office and the growth has been particularly dramatic in the past few years, since the Government entered into a Housing Accord with Auckland Council. ‘The construction sector is booming, with strong residential and commercial building activity across the country. The level of residential building activity in Auckland of $4.3 billion and nationwide of $11.4 billion is an all-time high in actual and inflation-adjusted terms,’ he explained. ‘This continues the longest and strongest period of growth in residential construction in New Zealand history. We are on track for 85,000 new homes to be built nationwide in this term of Parliament, up from 60,000 last term. Auckland is heading for an all-time record of 36,000 homes, the largest in any Parliamentary term,’ he added. ‘This record investment in residential construction is welcome because supply is the most important answer to New Zealand’s housing challenges. The Government is working on further initiatives to ensure this growth is maintained,’ he concluded. Continue reading
Pace of rental growth in UK slowing
Rents across the UK continued to rise during June, but the first half of 2016 has been characterised by a slowing in the pace of rental increases, the latest rental index shows. Rents agreed on new tenancies across the UK, excluding London, increased by 3.5% in the second quarter to £773 per month compared to a year ago and by 3.9% to £1,575 in London over the same period. However, this is down compared to the UK wide figure for May which was 4.4% and 6.2% for London, according to the data from the June HomeLet rental index. Rents continue to rise in almost every area of the country, with 10 out of the 12 regions surveyed seeing an increase over the three months to the end of May. The index report says that the more modest rental increases seen in June are a continuation of a trend that has developed throughout the first half of the year, with rents rising across much of the UK each month, but at a slower pace than was the case throughout most of 2015. Last June rents were rising at an annual rate of 7.8% and 10.1% in London. The data suggests the private rental sector has responded to the needs and concerns of landlords and tenants alike during the first half of the year. Landlords were hit by higher stamp duty charges on purchases of new property in April, which led to a rush to complete transactions before then and a spike in the supply of rental property thereafter. Meanwhile, tenant demand for property has remained strong, particularly given rising house prices and squeezed mortgage availability, and projected growth in the UK’s population suggests this will continue, the report points out. It explains that official projections suggesting this growth will come from both the British born population and net migration. Nevertheless, the slowing in the pace of rental increases may reflect landlords’ recognition that an affordability ceiling is approaching. The outlook for the sector will depend in part on the fall-out from the UK’s decision to leave the European Union in June’s referendum. Some economists expect the referendum result to act as a brake on construction in the housing sector, which could exacerbate the current imbalance between demand and supply in the rental market. It is also possible that demand may increase as would be house buyers opt to wait and see how house prices are affected over the next 12 months and beyond. HomeLet’s data also suggests that the average length of a tenancy, as measured by how long tenants had occupied their previous rental property, has begun to come down over the past three months. The figures underline the important role that the private rental sector plays in providing a wide range of housing options to those who have not purchased a property. According to Martin Totty, chief executive… Continue reading
Chinese emerge as enthusiastic buyers of property in the US
The volume of property sold to overseas buyers in the United States has declined slightly but Chinese people are buying more real estate, exceeding the amount of other top international buyers. Research from the National Association of Realtors suggest that waning economic growth in many countries and higher home prices along with a strengthening US dollar was responsible for the slight overall fall. However, the data, covering sales to overseas buyers between April 2015 and March 2016, reveals a significant fall in buying from non-resident foreigners. Sales to overseas buyers amounted to $102.6 billion of residential property, a 1.3% decline from the $103.9 billion of property purchased in the previous year’s survey. Overall, a total of 214,885 residential properties were bought by foreign buyers, up 2.8%, and properties were typically valued higher at $277,380 compared to the median price of all US existing home sales at $223,058. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the figures highlight the tremendous appeal US real estate still has on many foreign nationals despite the price of property becoming less affordable. ‘Weaker economic growth throughout the world, devalued foreign currencies and financial market turbulence combined to present significant challenges for foreign buyers over the past year,’ he explained. ‘While these obstacles led to a cool down in sales from non-resident foreign buyers, the purchases by recent immigrant foreigners rose, resulting in the overall sales dollar volume still being the second highest since 2009,’ he pointed out. He also pointed out that overall foreigners, especially those from China, continue to see the US real estate as a solid investment opportunity and the country as an attractive place to visit and live. According to the survey, sales to non-resident foreign buyers pulled back by approximately $10 billion to the lowest dollar volume since 2013 when it was $35 billion. The decline was largely caused by the decrease in the share of non-resident foreign buyers to foreign residential buyers to 41%, down from the almost even split between the two in previous years. ‘Both the increase in US home prices, up 6% in March 2016 compared to one year ago, and the depreciating value of foreign currencies against the US dollar made buying property a lot pricier last year,’ said Yun. The research shows that at least eight countries, including China and Canada, saw double digit percent increases in the median sales price of a US existing home when measured in their country’s currency, led by Venezuela at 45% and Brazil at 24%. For the fourth year in a row, buyers from China exceeded all countries by dollar volume of sales at $27.3 billion, which was a slight decrease from last year’s survey at $28.6 billion, but over triple the total dollar volume of sales from Canadian buyers who were ranked second at $8.9 billion. Indeed, Chinese buyers purchased the most housing units for the second consecutive year at 29,195 but this was down from 34,327 in 2015, and also typically bought… Continue reading
