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Borrowing Activity Smashes Past Records

June 8, 2013

1102982_swiss_coins_1 The Australian Finance Group (AFG) has processed mortgages worth $3.6 billion in May. An article on the AFG website reveals that the May figures are a neat 13% above the $3.2 billion recorded for April. It is worth noting that mortgage sales in April had already smashed all past records and so further improvement in May is certainly a cause for delight.

Borrowings have risen across all demography. Western Australia leads the pack with an upswing of 17.7%. It is followed by Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. FHBs, investors and owner-occupiers are all getting into the game.

Trends worth pondering over:

Phenomenal increase in borrowing activity since Feb
Loan size reported to be the same as last year
Loan to Value Ratio trading close to the long term average
Fixed rate loan activity has dipped slightly

You can read the original article here.

Nine quick tax tips for property investors

June 6, 2013

1173741_houses To be on the right side of law and the taxation system, you need to be diligent about planning and paying your taxes. Ken Raiss for the Property Update gives a few tax tips for the property investors.

Take the Pain out of Moving Homes

June 5, 2013

Home owners find the experience of moving homes highly stressing. This is partly because they are programmed to see it this way. With meticulous preparation and some common sense, you can make it an enjoyable adventure, writes Andrea Morgan for the London Property News. Morgan asks us to follow these simple tips:

Start packing as soon as you anticipate a shift (even a whiff from somewhere). Throw away anything that has no utility value even if it is high on nostalgia.
Use boxes, bubble wraps, sharpies and notepads before you start the packing process.
Make a list of everything.
Clean your new home before you move into it with your furniture. Clean the old home too so that you don’t feel ashamed in handing over its keys.
Start being a control freak. The more you are in control, the richer you will make the moving experience.

You can read the full article here.

Have you recently moved homes? What is your best tip for making it a better experience?

Inflation-adjusted home value is the true indicator of growth

May 31, 2013

1421405_old_house While the nominal or non-inflation adjusted home value will give you a rough idea of growth, the true picture is only reflected once you take inflation into account and adjust home values against it. Cameron Kusher for The Property Observer says that this is the ‘Real’ home value- a significant insight for those investing in the property market.

For instance, prices over the capital cities showed a cumulative hike of 2.8% over the first quarter of 2013, yet in real terms, the growth should only be considered 2.4% (little below) as there was a hike in Consumer Price Index by 0.4% too.

Over the last 17 years, calculating upto the March 2013 quarter, home value has increased roughly 3.4 times whereas the real value has increased only 2.2 times. This then is the effect of inflation, something that cannot certainly be ignored. Kusher smartly illustrates the falls in home values across the capital cities (including both the cases in his argument: inflation-adjusted home values and the non-inflation adjusted ones).

Home value spurts in recent future will keep very close to inflation; may be a notch higher due to the low cash rate environment prevailing now.

You can read the full article here.

Do you know the difference between your real and nominal home value?

Weakening Aussie dollar may boost foreign investment

May 30, 2013

1388612_market_movements_2 A weakening Aussie dollar could be a real cause of merriment for the foreign investors. It might even bring the expats back to Australia. Patrick Stafford for the Property Observer writes that a bottoming out currency would mean more purchasing power for the foreign investors and they would not like to miss out on this opportunity of investment.

The Aussie dollar is presently trading at US96 cents. In a year, it is expecting to come down to 85% of the US dollar’s price in exchange rates.

The expected recovery of the American economy would mean the US dollar getting buoyant and in its wake it will weaken the Aussie dollar further. Thus, we might see a lot more money coming to Australia through tourism, but also into local property. Sydney of course is one of the main attractions for foreign investors.

Already, the auction clearance rates are throwing up pretty good numbers across the country. Sydney and Melbourne are doing particularly well, closing almost 15%-20% above the figure for April-May last year.

You can read the full article here.

Sydney and Melbourne report very high auction clearance rates

May 25, 2013

1398763_hammer What can possibly match this great combination- high auction listings and equally high auction clearance rates? Not many things! Nicola Trotman for the Property Observer reports that 1,541 auctions are slated for this week. Though a trifle lower than the figure for the last week, this number is just as phenomenal. Compare it with 1,300 auctions recorded over the same week last year in Australia and you will get the difference.

The auction clearance rate across the capital cities was as high as 69.2% last week, a jump of 3.6% from the figures of the preceding week. The clearance rate was only 53.5% for the same period last year.

Melbourne posted a very tidy clearance rate of 72.7% a week ago while Sydney’s figure of 75.3% was simply exhilarating. Both the top capital cities have done commendably in comparison to last year.

You can read the full report here.

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