Tag Archives: australian
New home lending remains steady in Australia
New home lending activity in Australia remained healthy at the start of the new financial year, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Although the number of loans to owner occupiers purchasing or constructing new homes slipped by 0.8% in July, over the three months to July the number of these loans continued their upward momentum with an increase of 1.9%. Also, compared with a year earlier, the number of loans in the latest three months is 8.8% higher. ‘In an encouraging sign for new home building, lending activity for much needed new housing appears to be consolidating the recovery of the previous financial year, said Diwa Hopkins, Housing Industry Association economist. ‘Lending to investors constructing new homes made a strong recovery throughout the 2013/2014 financial year and this data reinforces the strength of that improvement. The value of this investment lending component in the three months to July 2014 is 10.5% higher than in the same period in 2013,’ she explained. ‘The figures show that current credit conditions are having the desired impact on residential construction, with both investors and owner occupiers taking advantage of the favourable conditions to add to Australia’s stock of housing, which will aid housing affordability across the spectrum of the housing market,’ she added. She pointed out that policy makers at all levels of government must be acting and coordinating to address existing barriers to further growth in the new housing stock. Examples include excessive taxation, zoning and approvals delays. ‘These impediments need be addressed in order for new home building to gather a further leg of recovery in 2015,’ she said. A breakdown of the figures show a 9% rise in the number of owner occupier loans for new housing in New South Wales. But the number of new home loans fell by 2.8% in Victoria, by 2.9% in Queensland, by 4.2% in South Australia, by 7.6% in Western Australia, by 7.7% in Tasmania, by 14% in the Northern and by 8.4% in the Australian Capital Territory. Over the three months to July 2014, however, lending increased in six out of the eight jurisdictions. Continue reading
More than 50% of UK tenants have problems with landlords and letting agents
Over half of UK tenants have problems with landlords and letting agents and two thirds don’t consider if their letting agent or landlord is licensed, new research has found. The research from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) also found that the top issue is the time it takes to fix problems and on average tenants wait just over a month for issues to be resolved. For those who didn’t consider whether their landlord or agent was licensed, some 54% said it didn’t even cross their mind to check, while 23% did not know that letting agents or landlords should be licensed and 12% wrongly assumed that all letting agents and landlords were licensed and therefore do not know the difference in standards they can expect. This lack of knowledge around the industry may be the reason for many problems which arise during a tenancy, according to ARLA. The research also found before they’d signed on the dotted line, 22% of tenants had concerns about their landlord or letting agent, doubling to 43% amongst Londoners. The most common problems faced by would be tenants at this stage were lack of clarity around fees (8%), agents not knowing enough about the property (6%), being pushy (6%) and not turning up to appointments (6%). Whilst 45% haven’t had any problems with their landlord or letting agent over the last five years, 55% of the tenant population have experienced at least one problem. The most common issue which affected 31% was the amount of time it had taken to fix any problems such as boilers, heating and electricity. Once a problem was flagged, tenants had to wait 36 days on average for the issue to be resolved and an unfortunate one in seven never had their problems sorted. The next most common problem was landlords not replacing old items such as kitchen cupboards and worn carpets, affecting 18% of tenants. For 14% the biggest problem was that they felt their complaints fell on deaf ears. ‘Our home is our castle, and there is no reason for it to not be fit for a King. Just because you rent a property it should not impact your levels of enjoyment, especially as there is such a high price to pay for renting,’ said ARLA managing director David Cox. ‘For anyone looking to rent, there are basic boxes to tick to ensure you receive the best possible end result and this starts with choosing your letting agent and landlord. Choosing an unlicensed letting agent could leave tenants with a long list of problems,’ he added. The research also revealed that for 37% of tenants, the problems they experienced with their landlord or letting agent led to them being stressed and 16% admitted to having sleepless nights. As well as emotional results, many tenants were also left out of pocket, with 14% spending a lot of their own money, and 9% moving out of the property and unfairly losing their deposit. ‘While problems can of course arise during a… Continue reading
Australian new home approvals at high levels, but uneven across states
New home approvals in Australia bounced back in July and remain at very high levels by historic standards, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). During July 2014, a total of 16,320 dwellings were approved, a 2.5% increase on the previous month. Compared with the previous three month period, approvals were also up by 2.5% and over the 12 months to July new home approvals totalled 195,227. The increase in building approvals nationally during July was driven largely by a 23.1% increase in Western Australia in seasonally adjusted terms. In Queensland approvals were up by 0.9% but there were significant declines in other states, led by a 7.7% fall in Tasmania, followed by a 5.7% decline in New South Wales, a 4.6% decline in Victoria and a smaller fall of 1.9% in South Australia. In trend terms, new home approvals increased by 16.7% in the Northern Territory but fell by 9.3% in the Australian Capital Territory during July. ‘These figures mean that Australia’s home building industry has broken yet another record this year. Total seasonally adjusted new home approvals over the past 12 months are the highest since records began back in 1984. Having broken through the 195,000 threshold for the first time, new home building approvals is now at an even higher level than during the 1994 building boom,’ said Housing Industry Association senior economist Shane Garrett. However, he pointed out that despite this achievement, there have been signs of slowdown in new home building approvals over the past six months. ‘It is also worth bearing in mind that the bulk of the July increase was driven by an exceptional large expansion in Western Australia,’ he said. ‘The key is to ensure that a number of markets, like Sydney for example, achieve sustainably healthy levels of new home over the coming decade which far outweigh what has been built over the last ten years. Numerous government policies across all tiers stand in the way of this objective being achieved,’ he added. Other ABS figures show residential building work done continued to strengthen in the June 2014 quarter, following healthy growth in March. There was $13.4 billion of residential building work done, some 2.2% higher than in the previous quarter and 9.6% higher than in the June 2013 quarter. ‘These preliminary figures indicate that new home building activity is likely to represent a positive contribution to overall GDP growth in the national accounts figures to be released next Wednesday,’ said HIA economist, Diwa Hopkins. She explained that a closer look at these preliminary results shows that the detached house segment was the key driver of growth in residential building during the June 2014 quarter, compared with the March quarter when multi-unit building led the charge. In the June 2014 quarter, new house building work contributed 1.6% points to the 2.2% growth in total residential building work done. ‘These developments are largely in line with what… Continue reading
