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Australia’s unemployment rate has hit an eight-year low, giving the Reserve Bank more breathing room to wait for a bounce in economic growth and hold off on interest rate cuts. The jobless rate dipped to 4.9 per cent from 5 per cent, driven by more part-time employment growth and a drop in the number of people seeking work. “Normally we’d be talking about a rate hike given the unemployment rate has just broken through 5 per cent,” CBA economist Gareth Aird said, “But it’s clearly a different world these days with inflation still low, wages pressures muted, house prices falling and consumers saddled with debt. “Today’s data essentially validates why the RBA has said that the next move in interest rates could be up or down.” Economists expected the overall jobless rate to remain unchanged at 5 per cent figure with many forecasting the unemployment rate to start climbing as early as next month. However others such as Professor Warren Hogan and HSBC’s Paul Bloxham  have argued that despite slower economic growth, employment figures are actually pointing to better economic conditions….

Australia’s largest and most expensive housing markets, Melbourne and Sydney, have remained among Asia’s healthiest investment destinations despite steep price falls and declines in building approvals and activity over the last year. According to a new report from PwC, the Australian property market has remained the “most appealing” location for those shopping within the Asia Pacific market thanks to sound fundamentals, high yields and increasing rental prospects. The report which has measured the current outlook on real estate investment and development trends throughout the Asia Pacific region has highlighting emerging markets and sectors to watch. Amid an impending trade war, rising interest rates, tighter access to credit, and buyer fatigue at sky-high prices for both commercial and residential properties, PwC’s survey respondents have pointed to new opportunities particularly in markets such as Vietnam and India which are “ripe for development projects”. City Investment & Development Prospects for 2019 “With increased competition for assets in gateway cities, investors are increasingly more likely to look further afield, with emerging markets offering potentially higher rewards through higher-yielding plays,” the report says. Slow-but-steady returns…

Westpac銀行及旗下子公司剛更新住宅按揭政策包括延長一些補充文件的發行有效期。 Westpac 集團及旗下銀行如Westpace、St. George、Bank of Melbounre及Bank SA都更新了住宅按揭政策。 上個月的公告表示銀行可接受的文件發行有效期由六星期延長至兩個月，並將包括了一系列新文件。 Westpac 及旗下銀行分別由23及25號起，以下文件將由發行起兩個月內有效： 包含租金收入細節的地產公司帳單 地產公司發行的租金意見 由持牌物業經理所發行的信 當他們要進行收入及儲蓄審查時，都會要求提交上述文件。 除此之外，Westpac集團還宣布已更新其收入審查政策，以便持有香港護照的中國公民都在「可接受的國家和貨幣名單」之內。 來源: https://www.theadviser.com.au/breaking-news/38915-westpac-group-updates-residential-lending-policy

I’ve just completed a suburb-by-suburb analysis on Canberra for the Price Predictor Index and have found that this market is strengthening.  I’ve examined price data since the start of this century and I note that while Canberra is only a short distance from Sydney, usually its property market is doing something quite different to Sydney’s. Canberra didn’t follow Sydney into a major property boom and now that Sydney is falling, Canberra is steadily on the rise. This, my research tells me, is situation normal. Right now, Canberra has more growth markets than at any time since Hotspotting began its quarterly location-by-location surveys four years ago. The norm now in Canberra is suburbs where median prices have grown by more than 5% in the past 12 months, while only a handful have falling prices. In this latest survey, I’ve have identified 26 suburbs where demand is rising, as well as 37 others where demand is steady and consistent. Unlike Sydney, the Canberra market has no suburbs classified as declining markets or as danger markets. It is undoubtedly one of the steadiest…

Australian cities are changing. You see that change in our newest outer suburbs and former country towns that now make up our commuter belt, where a third of the nation’s population growth has taken place over the past eight years. Here, up to 70 kilometres from the CBD, is where many have realised their dreams of home ownership, only to find the transport, hospitals, schools and other facilities Australians expect are lacking. All levels of government have a role to play in driving infrastructure improvements. However, for nearly one fifth of Australia’s population, the federal government’s piecemeal approach to infrastructure investment is impacting their daily lives. More than 1 million Australians have moved to the outer suburbs of our major cities since 2011. Yet despite accommodating 35 per cent of Australia’s population growth since then, the outer suburbs received just 13 per cent of federal infrastructure spending. The rate of investment has neither caught up nor kept pace with population growth. A major study commissioned by the National Growth Area Alliance, comprising 21 councils on our major cities’ urban fringes,…

Tenants hoping the property downturn would spur rents to drop across Melbourne have so far been left disappointed, with new data showing weekly asking prices for houses have continued to climb to record levels while unit rents have flattened. As the rental market enters its busiest fortnight of the year, the latest Domain Rental Report has found the citywide median weekly house rent increased 2.3 per cent over the December quarter to reach a record high of $440. Units remained stable over the quarter at $410 per week. The inner south region recorded the biggest annual jump, with asking prices for houses surging from $600 to $650 per week. Meanwhile, the region’s median rent for units increased $20 per week to $420, translating to an extra $1040 a year. Median weekly asking rents for houses in Melbourne  Region December 2018        December 2017        QoQ       YoY        Inner $610 $600 1.7% 1.7% Inner East $590 $560 1.7% 5.4% Inner South $650 $600 3.2% 8.3% North East $400 $400 0% 0% North West $400…

Here’s hoping third time’s a charm. After royally screwing up the first two modern resources booms — first the one that saw house prices go berserk (2003 to 2008), then the one that made coffee prices go berserk (2010 to 2014), WA has a chance to get this one right. It is going to be a lot easier this time, for a few reasons. First, at $75 billion, the outlay, while huge, is more modest than last time when Chevron single-handedly spent that much on its two money-pit LNG projects. Second, the State’s infrastructure is much better prepared. There’s no chance of three-star hotels commanding $450 a night. Third, a broke WA Government is busy selling copies of Big Issue rather than competing with private industry building a stadium, Elizabeth Quay and several massive hospitals. Fourth, industry has no time for the build-it-at-any-cost mentality that prevailed when execs got drunk on iron ore prices of $180 a tonne and $120-a-barrel oil. The Chamber of Minerals and Energy’s Paul Everingham is softening expectations, telling FIFO workers eyeing new jetskis that “the…

An Australian city has outstripped Singapore and Tokyo as the best prospect in the Asia Pacific region for both investment and development. Here’s why: Melbourne has narrowly outstripped Singapore and Sydney as the best prospect in the Asia Pacific region for both investment and development, according to new data. A real estate forecast jointly published by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PwC — called The Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2019 — shows Melbourne’s ascent in the rankings is because its office supply pipeline is more constrained than in Sydney. The report says that with vacancies shrinking rapidly, this is likely to provide upward momentum to rents in both locations. Melbourne was the top ranked in both investment and development, with experts saying the Victorian capital offered a constrained office supply pipeline, a good yield spread over the cost of debt and sovereign bonds, a deep, liquid, core market and good prospects for rental growth. An improvement in Singapore’s city office market has seen the city come in second overall (second in investment, eighth in development). In…

WA’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in more than a year on the back of a surge in full-time employment. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported this morning that the WA jobless rate fell to 5.7 per cent in October, down from 6 per cent in September. It is the lowest unemployment rate for WA since September 2017. The more stable trend measure also fell below 6 per cent, the first time this year it has been that low. The result was driven by full-time employment which jumped by 10,700 through the month to reach its highest number since early 2015. WA has added 44,700 full-time jobs since March. Nationally, the country added 42,300 full-time jobs through October, which was partially offset by a 9500 drop in part-time employment. The jobless rate held steady at 5 per cent after a slight increase in the number of unemployed Australians. NSW’s unemployment rate was steady at 4.4 per cent while it edged down to 4.5 per cent in Victoria. Tasmania’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.3 per cent though it…

Premier Daniel Andrews easily won Saturday’s election following a surge to Labor in a swag of seats across the state, including marginal electorates held by the Liberals. Here’s a simple guide to the policies and promises made by Daniel Andrews. Roads Policies:  1. Labor has promised to build the North East Link, the so-called “missing link” between the Eastern Freeway and the M80 Ring Road at Greensborough, saying it will put the $16.5 billion project out to market within its first 100 days of office 2. Work is already underway on the West Gate Tunnel and Monash Freeway upgrades 3. It has promised to have removed 75 level crossings by 2025, an escalation of its 2014 election pledge to remove 50 of Melbourne’s “most dangerous and congested” railway crossings. Public Transport: 1. Labor is promising to build the suburban rail loop, to connect most of Melbourne’s existing train lines via a 90-kilometre underground line from Cheltenham to Werribee, including 12 new stations. The project is expected to take until at least 2050 to complete, with an estimated price tag of…

Negotiations between Australia and Hong Kong on free trade agreement were concluded on Thursday, paving the way for the deal to come into force next year and ensuring Australia will have FTA’s withseven of its top eight export markets. The eighth is the European Union with which an agreement is being negotiated. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham, who is in Papua New Guinea for this weekend’s APEC summit, finalised the deal with his Hong Kong counterpart Edward Yau. Australia exported $12 billion in goods and $3 billion services to Hong Kong last year. Hong Kong does not currently apply any tariffs on Australian exports but could choose to do so at any time, especially on key imports of coal, gold, zinc, ore, liquefied natural gas, as well as agricultural products. It will also guarantee certainty of access for guaranteed certainty of access for Australian suppliers of education, professional, financial, transport, construction, tourism and recreational services, he said. Senator Birmingham said the FTA would make zero tariffs a permanent feature of the trade relationship, increasing certainty for exporters and presumably boosting business to Hong…

BOOM times could soon be back in WA. That’s the verdict from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA’s latest consumer confidence research, due out today. It found West Australians are increasingly optimistic about the State’s economic prospects — with consumer confidence hitting a five-year high in the September quarter. The only survey of its kind in WA, the research canvasses the views of Perth and country households. Short and medium-term confidence are both at their highest level since March 2013, and it is also the first time since 2013 that more West Australians believe the economy is strengthening than those who think it is weakening. “West Australians are seeing more job openings, they’re seeing more optimism among their friends and family and they’re slowly, but surely, more confident about the future of the WA economy,” CCI chief economist Rick Newnham said. The survey found: FOUR out of five consumers expect the WA economy to improve or remain unchanged over the coming quarter, a rise of 2 per cent since last quarter. CCIWA chief economist Rick Newnham.Picture: Alicia Perera ALMOST half of consumers…