Australia’s residential market appears to be shifting gears after more than a year of steep growth, however short supply and economic strength should help sustain prices. Australia‘s population is on the rise, and a major housing shortage threatens the country. Meanwhile developers are complaining about bureaucratic delays stalling their development efforts. See the following article from Property Wire for more on this.
Residential property prices in major Australian cities have increased by almost 20% in the last 12 months, according to the latest figures to be released.
The data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows average quarterly growth to June of 3.1% and an annual increase of 18.4%.
The data shows growth of almost double that of the private sector RP Data/Rismark index released last week which showed national city dwelling values up 10.5% in the same period.
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In Melbourne house prices increased more than 24% in the last year while in Sydney they rose 21%, according to the ABC figures. Canberra saw a 19.6% price increase, Darwin 14.6%, Perth 13%, Adelaide 11.l6%, Hobart 10.8% and Brisbane 8.5%.
The data reveals that the rate of growth in capital cities peaked at 5.5% in the December quarter last year, after rising from negative territory during the economic downturn, and is now steadily falling.
In the second quarter of the year prices increases slowed considerably. In Sydney they increased by 4.9%, by 3.6% in Melbourne and by 3.2% in Adelaide. Darwin saw a 2.8% increase, Canberra was up 2.1%, Perth 0.4%, Brisbane 0.3% and Hobart 0.1%.
Last week’s RP Data index showed average house prices had fallen slightly after 17 months of consecutive gains, as economists agreed the market was at a turning point. In a note ANZ economists said while growth was expected to slow further this year, prices would be supported by the underlying housing shortage and a buoyant outlook for the Australian economy.
It comes as analysts warn that Australia is facing a housing crisis and that the national shortfall of 190,000 dwellings will widen to 466,000 by 2020, amid expectations of a rapidly growing population.
Developers claim that a shortage of land and a lengthy planning process is hampering construction. HIA chief economist Harvey Dale said it takes an average of seven to eight years for a greenfield site to reach completion, an unnecessarily long period that pushes up costs and reduces supply.
‘At the end of the day, the lack of adequate, affordable land supply is at the heart of the problem. The number of processes a development must go through is higher now than was the case 10 years ago. We are regressing rather than progressing in terms of the bureaucracy involved in building a new home,’ he said.
This article has been republished from Property Wire. You can also view this article at Property Wire, an international real estate news site.
