Tag Archives: house
House prices growth flattens in Sydney, latest index shows
House price growth in Sydney has flattened and values in three other Australian capital cities fell in September, according to the latest residential index. Overall there was a 0.9% rise in capital city property prices over the month and a 4% rise in the September quarter, the CoreLogic RP Data home value index shows. However, across the capital cities, the month on month results ranged from a 2.4% rise in Melbourne to a 1.9% fall in Hobart while Sydney, posted a month on month gain of just 0.1% in September. During the September quarter, half of Australia’s capital cities posted a decline in dwelling values with Hobart down 2% over the three months. In Adelaide values slipped by 1.6%, in Perth they fell by 0.7% and Canberra values were down 0.4%. The most substantial capital gains over the quarter were achieved in Melbourne where dwelling values were up by 7.4% followed by Sydney at 4.6 %, Brisbane at 1.9% and Darwin up by 0.4%. Head of research Tim Lawless pointed out that the flat growth rate in Sydney comes after dwelling values increased by 16.7% over the past 12 months and they are 49.6% higher over the growth cycle to date. ‘The slower month on month reading across the Sydney market comes at a time when auction clearance rates have slipped to the low 70% range from week to week and the number of advertised properties has risen,’ said Lawless. ‘Vendors are still enjoying strong selling conditions, but it looks like buyers are slowly regaining some leverage in what has been a very hot market. Meanwhile, while half of Australia’s capital cities have seen values rise over the past quarter and year, the other half did not fare as well,’ he added. In Darwin, dwelling values fell by 3.9% over the 12 months to the end of September, while in Perth values were 0.9% lower over the year. Adelaide home values dropped by 0.3% and Hobart values are 0.2% lower. Weakening labour markets, slower population growth and less demand for housing is placing downwards pressure on prices to differing degrees across these markets, according to Lawless. Looking at which sector of the housing market is driving the highest capital gains, across the combined capital cities it has been the most expensive quartile of the market where growth has been the most substantial. Across the combined capitals, the top quartile of dwellings based on value has recorded growth of 12.3% over the past 12 months, while the most affordable end of the market has recorded a lower growth rate of 8.5%. ‘This trend holds true across Sydney and Melbourne, however in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth it is actually the most affordable end of the housing market that has recorded the best results,’ Lawless said. CoreLogic's analysis of houses versus apartments reveals some substantial differences in market performances across the capital cities. At a capital city level over the quarter, the results don’t show a great deal of difference with… Continue reading
Better planning and more land needed to meet UK housing targets
House builders across the UK say policy makers should boost resources for local authority planning departments, increase skills and training for the construction sector and step up the delivery of public sector land to help increase the supply of new homes. The House Builder survey from international real estate firm Knight Frank, which contains the views of builders and developers across the country, also suggests that two thirds believe that the maximum number of new homes that can be delivered per year is 180,000 or less with only 9% thinking the government’s target of 200,000 is possible. The report points out that while activity in the house building sector has continued to pick up over the last year, the supply of new homes is still falling well short of demand. Boosting supply, where new housing is most keenly needed, is a key priority if the UK housing market is to avoid long term distortion. However, while nearly 60% of respondents expect housing completions to rise over the next year, with 18% saying the rise could be between 10% and 25%, around half expect no change in the delivery of affordable homes over the next 12 months. Just 9% of respondents said that under current market conditions it would be possible to deliver more than 200,000 homes a year, every year. More than 90% of respondents are expecting construction costs to rise again over the next 12 months and two thirds expect that development land prices will rise again this year. Indeed, the report found that rising labour and build costs are expected to pose the greatest risk to the sector in the coming year and some 56% of respondents said that the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) was weighing on development volumes The biggest policy change that would help boost development volumes would be recruiting more people to Local Authority planning departments, according to respondents. ‘The imbalance between the demand for new homes and the number of units being built is well-recognised, by the industry and political parties alike. In the 12 months to April 2014, some 141,000 homes were built in the UK, up by 4% on the previous year,’ said Grainne Gilmore, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank. ‘However, official household growth projections suggest an additional 230,000 potential households a year in the UK. Below these headline figures, there is a recognition that the right type of homes must be built in areas where there is the most housing need, typically adjacent to existing urban areas,’ she explained. ‘This has led to tensions about the greenbelt, with a lack of consensus on how to expand accommodation in some of the UK’s most thriving towns and cities. Nearly one half of the respondents to the housebuilder survey said that rules around developing on greenbelt land should be loosened,’ she added. The report points out that policy makers from all political parties are keen to encourage development on brownfield land and the… Continue reading
Households across the UK positive about property price growth
UK house price sentiment remains positive with households in all regions believing that property prices increased in September, the latest index shows. Some 22.5% of households surveyed across the UK said that the value of their home had risen over the last month, while 3.8% said that prices had fallen, according to the index from Knight Frank and Markit Economics. The index, which is a bellwether for house price movements across the country, recorded a reading of 59.3 and has now had a reading above 50 for 30 months in a row. Any figure over 50 indicates that prices are rising, and the higher the figure, the stronger the increase. Any figure below 50 indicates that prices are falling. However there is a north-south divide with the average reading for the north of England in September at 54.9 and the south of England at 64.1. This is the second widest gap between the two readings this year. While households in all UK regions perceive that property prices rose in September, Londoners perceived the highest rate of house price growth over the course of the month, followed by those in the East of England. However, in Yorkshire and the Humber perceptions of house price growth eased notably in September after rising for the previous three months to reach 60.4 in August. While households in the region still perceive that prices are rising, they are reporting that the pace of increases has slowed, with a reading of 54 this month. The index also shows that households in all UK regions expect house prices to rise over the next 12 months, led by households in the East and South East of England while some 5.9% of households expect to buy a property over the next 12 months, while a further 6.4% said that they would purchase a house within one to two years. The future HPSI, which measures what households think will happen to the value of their property over the next year, rose in September to 70 from 69.5 the previous month. However, the future HPSI remains well below its peak of 75.1 achieved in May last year, the report points out. ‘UK price sentiment remains in positive territory, and has stayed broadly stable since the election in May. However the north-south divide is evident, with the average reading for the north of England in September at 54.9 and the south of England at 64.1,’ said Gráinne Gilmore, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank. ‘This is the second widest gap between the two readings this year. Overall, households expect prices to rise over the next 12 months, with eight times as many households anticipating a rise in the value of their home as anticipating a decline,’ she explained. ‘Sentiment is being underpinned by the improving economy, with positive employment data as well as wage growth boosting buyer confidence. At the same time a shortage of stock on the market is serving, in some cases,… Continue reading
