Following another interest rate hike and higher odds for more tightening, the residential property market’s recovery may be cut short. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) hiked by another 25 basis points on Tuesday, taking the cash rate to 4.1 percent, and kept its options wide open to keep going if deemed necessary. While interest…

The pace of falling house values saw signs of slowing in February, underpinned by low levels of advertised stock, but experts say it is still too early to declare the downturn over. Property researcher CoreLogic reported that its home value index saw the smallest monthly fall in February since rates began rising in May 2022….

New laws to set up a Housing Australia Future Fund aren’t expected to save people from tipping into housing stress or homelessness. “The Commonwealth has gone from an F on housing to a C-minus, and they should be aiming for an A,” Joel Dignam, executive director at advocacy organisation Better Renting, told AAP. Australians have…

Australia’s property downturn has again picked up pace, but Melbourne is the only capital city getting close to erasing the entirety of its pandemic upswing. Home prices fell another 1.1 percent in December, CoreLogic data shows, amounting to a 5.3 percent total decline in 12 months. The notable drop follows a few months of more…

The expected end of interest rate hikes could soon see the property market rebound. The residential property market has been cooling off from the lofty heights reached in the late stages of the pandemic, falling 2.3 percent in the year to November. Capital city prices have led the drop-off, falling 5.2 percent in 12 months,…

The Greens party have accused the federal government of hustling Australians after an analysis by the Parliamentary Library alleged that only 2.02 percent of the one million homes promised under the National Housing Accord would be affordable. The National Housing Accord, announced on Oct. 25, by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, is a landmark agreement between the…

Successive Australian governments at the federal and state level have placed too much emphasis on stimulus measures to help first-home buyers enter the property market, according to a new report. The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute’s study said housing policy for the last two decades had focused too much on “demand-side” levers while doing very…

Commentary The Australian election campaign has seen a flurry of new proposals for dealing with the problem of housing affordability. There are some good elements, but mostly these proposals are bad. The most promising idea is the Coalition’s proposal to allow first home buyers to borrow up to 40 percent of their superannuation balance. The…

Both major parties are dealing with Australia’s housing affordability issues with short term responses that will only drive up the cost of homes, according to the chief economist at the Centre for Independent Studies, Peter Tulip. Tulip’s comments come after the federal opposition Labor Party announced its housing affordability strategy on May 1. The centre-left…

Australia may experience a housing shortfall of over 160,000 dwellings in the next decade, according to new modelling by an independent commonwealth housing entity. On Friday, the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) published its flagship research report, “State of the Nation’s Housing 2021-22,” providing critical housing data and projections. NHFIC CEO Nathan Dal…