Auctions fizzle out for 2018

EXPERT OBSERVER

 

Very cagey auction activity in Sydney, with a preliminary clearance rate of only 44.5 per cent (more like somewhere in the thirties come final). 

 

The median auction price of a sold house was well down from a year earlier at $1,285,000, reflecting reduced borrowing capacity (mainly for investors rather than homebuyers). 

 

For units the median price of property sold at auction was up from $900,000 a year earlier to $940,250.  

 

But still very muted activity levels overall.

Melbourne's clearance rate is also now well under 50 per cent. 

 

 

With the Coalition roundly punished by the electorate in the Wentworth by-election for their machinations and tanking to a minority government in the process, property market participants will need to weigh up the potential impacts of changes to negative gearing legislation.

 

I'll post an online workshop on this very subject this week, so keep an eye out for that. 

 

 

Thanks for the thousand or so Tweets, messages, and pingbacks about record underutilisation and the like - a pleasure as always! 

 

Yes, it's a problem.

 

No, it's not been getting worse.

 

Volume measures - reported quarterly on an original basis - have consistently improved year-on-year since 2014...through 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 year-to-date.

 

All publicly available information from the ABS:

 

 

Yes, there is more work to be done (literally so in this case!).

 

The Reserve Bank has noted the same patterns, but still believes that the unemployment rate is the key measure, and that's at the lowest level since 2012.

 

No, this won't be reported in left-leaning media, nor for that matter whichever 'recession' blogs you may care to mention.

C'est tout. 

 

Cheers!

Very low preliminary auction clearance rates this weekend, under 50 per cent for Melbourne, and just 44 per cent for Sydney.

It'll be a long, slow run into Christmas from here this year.