Domain

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<p><span>Nine Entertainment's digital and print real estate media business Domain Holdings is set acquire the Commercialview.com.au website.</span></p>

<p><span><span>For starters Domain will spend $2 million in cash to secure the commercial property digital listings platform, which had most of its footprint in Melbourne and Sydney.</span></span></p>

<p>CommercialVIEW.com.au is a stand-alone commercial real estate advertising portal that is industry owned, directed by Ben Cooper, Stephen Gorman, Malcolm Gunning and its CEO Daniel Bignold. Its issued capital is given as $3.8 million, with nine million ordinary shares on issue and 310,000 redeemable preference shares.</p>

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<p><span>During the past year the board exercised its power to change the option terms with t</span>he exercise price of the options reduced from $0.50 to $0.00.</p>
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<p>It was established in 2012 under the stewardship of Petra Sprekos and Enzo Raimondo of the REIV.</p>

<p>In 2016 Bignold made a rare public comment on the state of the website.</p>

<p><span>Bignold said the dominant players in the market had been able to press prices higher, putting pressure on commercial property agents. </span></p>

<p><span>"We have a price point that’s very fair and reasonable, and is less than our competitors," he noted. </span></p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2018/12/17/CommView.jpg"></p>

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<p><span>Domain Holdings Australia Limited </span><span>announced its commercial real estate business, </span><span>Commercial Real Estate</span><span> entered into a three stage agreement with shareholders of Commercialview.com.au Limited </span><span>to acquire 100% of the issued share capital in CommercialView.</span></p>

<p><span>The acquisition will occur through a subsidiary of Domain, Commercial Real Estate Media Pty Limited (“</span><span>CREM</span><span>”), which is currently approximately 70% owned by Domain and 30% owned by members of the commercial real estate industry.</span></p>

<p><span>The consideration for the proposed transaction is anywhere between $4.2 million and $17.2 million, contingent on targets relating to the future financial performance of the CREM and CommercialView businesses. </span></p>

<p><span>The on-target consideration is $10.2 million, which is equivalent to four times the projected increase in EBITDA from the transaction for calendar year 2020, including synergies.</span></p>

<p><span>The maximum consideration for the acquisition is $17.2 million of which a maximum of $2 million is payable in cash. The remainder is payable in newly issued shares in CREM.</span></p>

<p>Domain Group CEO Jason Pellegrino said there had been unanimous support for the transaction from CommercialView shareholders.</p>

<p><span>The commercial property website recently reported another loss in its annual results which gave its revenues as $1.6 million.</span></p>

<p><span>It was segmented into $440,000 subscription revenue, $150,000 banner advertising and over $1 million in depth revenue.</span></p>

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<p><span>The 2018 financial year loss of the company after providing for income tax amounted to $8,500 compared to its $428,000 loss in the prior year.</span></p>

<p><span>Its directors, who noted it was a high demand/low supply commercial property market, slashed marketing expenses from $386,000 to $255,000. </span></p>

<p><span>"For a portal, this is a difficult market to extract revenue as not only stock levels are low, but when stock is listed it generally move fast and doesn’t require large ongoing advertising budgets. </span></p>

<p><span>"Total new listings that hit the CVIEW portal in FY18 compared to FY17 were down 21 percent and listings for sale were down 29 percent yoy. </span></p>

<p><span>"This creates a large void for listing upgrade opportunities particularly investment stock which generally attract a larger advertising budget."</span></p>

<p><span>The revenue focus for the year was seeking upgrade opportunities for remaining sales stock and also to leverage the larger proportion of leasing stock in the market.</span></p>

<p>The business has had a "clear strategy" of tightening up on expenses without negatively impacting the operations, which resulted in a 22 percent reduction in expenses and $150,000 positive full year EBITDA and an $88,000 increase in cash balances for the year. Its assets included $474,000 in cash and $193,000 in trade receivables.</p>

<p>Its deferred tax assets sit at $700,000 plus.</p>
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<p>Completion of the proposed transaction is targeted to occur on 21 December 2018.</p>

<p><span>The consideration is payable in three tranches, partially contingent on targets relating to the future financial performance of the CREM and CommercialView businesses, as follows:</span></p>

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	<p><span>a payment of $4.2 million to be paid at completion as a combination of cash and CREM shares, amounting to approximately a 3.7% equity interest in CREM;</span></p>
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	<p><span>a second payment payable in early 2020, in the range of $0 to $5 million to be paid as a combination of cash and CREM shares; and</span></p>
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	<p><span>a third payment in early 2021, in the range of $0 to approximately $8 million payable in CREM shares.</span></p>
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jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

Commercialview.com.au sold by estate agents to Domain

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<p>GUEST OBSERVER</p>
<p>When Australian media company Fairfax reported its recent results, the improved performance of its online real estate business, domain.com, appeared to violate a widely held “law” of the digital economy - that digital creates a winner which takes all markets.</p>
<p>After a number of years trailing behind News Corp Australia owned realestate.com.au (REA), domain.com appears to have narrowed the gap with its major rival and its aggressive strategy of growing its user base is translating into improved revenue.</p>
<p>Closer examination however suggests this result might just be a temporary pause in a much more profound transformation taking place for digital in the residential real estate industry. One that is likely to see the emergence of a new set of players.</p>
<h2>Can there only be one?</h2>
<p>It’s become commonplace for observers of the digital economy to claim that digital creates “winner takes all” markets. The classic example is Google’s dominance in the search market. Estimates suggest Google accounts for more than 75% of search, and almost 90% of organic search traffic, with its major rivals, Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo struggling to get out of single digits. This effectively places Google in a monopoly position and allows it to create enormous revenues through products like paid search and adwords.</p>
<p>Using this example it would be tempting to conclude that REA, having established a healthy lead over domain.com in terms of unique visits and exclusive listings, would pull away from its Fairfax rival and come to dominate the Australian residential real estate market.</p>
<p>Instead, Domain is closing the gap on its rival. In part this reflects domain.com’s aggressive strategy of driving traffic to its site, one that ironically parallels the approach taken by News-owned carsguide.com.au in its battle with caresales.com.au. It also suggests that domain.com’s focus on the user experience is beginning to pay off.</p>
<p>Unlike REA, which has made a virtue out of outsourcing all its development, Domain has retained inhouse development expertise and this has given it the ability to more rapidly add new features that enhance the user experience, such as its mapping functionality.</p>
<p>While there are important lessons here for business about not giving up and continuing to focus on the customer, viewed in longer perspective, it’s hard not to conclude that domain.com’s improved performance might just be a temporary reversal of a much more significant transformation taking place in the domestic real estate market.</p>
<p>There can hardly be a market more ripe for disruption than residential real estate. Australian residential housing stock is worth an estimated A$5 trillion and the market is riddled with the type of information asymmetries and inefficiencies that emerging technologies are ideally suited to address. While REA and domain.com have displaced the listing of properties in newspapers, they have hardly transformed the industry. Rather they seem to offer a digital version of traditional real estate listings with a few additional bells and whistles. Both are underpinned by largely similar revenue models.</p>
<h2>Reinventing the market</h2>
<p>It’s worth remembering that before Google, search was dominated by Yahoo, Alta Vista and Netscape. Google transformed search by developing an algorithm based on relevancy that improved the results users gained from searching the web and by rethinking how it monetised search. Rather than try to keep users on its page and bombarding them with advertising, Google directed users away from its page and towards the pages they were looking for. It’s reasonable to expect that the residential real estate market is likely to undergo a similar transformation over the next few years.</p>
<p>It’s interesting to compare the very traditional approach of realestate.com and domain.com with the radically different business models that are emerging in startups looking to disrupt the residential real estate market.</p>
<p>A good example is openagent.com.au, an Australian-based startup founded by two young women who started their careers in consulting. Recognising the highly localised nature of real estate markets and the importance of agents, openagent.com.au takes advantage of publicly available data sets and user reviews to provide sellers and buyers with reviews and metrics on agents in their local areas.</p>
<p>Rather than attempt to charge users for accessing the information, or agents for better listings, openagent’s revenue comes from the referral fees payable by agents who get listings as a result of the reviews on the site. This is a much purer digital play than either REA or domain.com. By providing them access to data in a usable form openagent.com.au seeks to empower buyers and sellers and increase transparency in this very opaque market.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most important lesson Fairfax could draw from the performance of domain.com is not that the winner takes all logic of digital markets is reversible, but that they should have the courage of their convictions and go all in on digital, in the residential real estate market. Rather than just try to close the gap on REA it should be seeking to build a business that will do away with the need for businesses like domain.com at all. It might just find that if the solution it develops is good enough, the law of winner takes all will reassert itself.</p>
<p><em><span class="fn author-name">Nick Wailes is a</span><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">ssociate dean Digital and Innovation, UNSW Business School, UNSW Australia and author for The Conversation. He can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/nick-wailes-108369" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></em></p>
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Domain versus REA shows it’s time Fairfax went all in on digital

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<div>Moves by banks and their regulators to curb investor lending, combined with a drop in overseas buyers, has seen national capital city house prices decrease 2.9 per cent over the year to $781,787, according to the latest Domain Home Price Report.</div>
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<div>The report found unit prices have fallen by 1.4 per cent over the year to $549,163.</div>
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<div>Over the quarter, houses in Hobart and units in Adelaide have been the only market segments to buck the national downward trend.<br><br>Domain senior research analyst, Dr Nicola Powell said "it’s a development that will no doubt be welcomed by Australia’s first-home buyers - property prices across almost all capitals continue to fall.</div>
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<div>"In many markets throughout Australia, gaining entry has become a greater possibility."</div>
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<div>Key findings concerning houses were that Sydney house prices are now at late-2016 levels, while Melbourne house prices haven't fallen as far and are now at 2017 levels.</div>
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<div>Canberra house prices increased over the year but were flat over the quarter, similarly Brisbane and Adelaide were also up over the year, but down slightly over the quarter.</div>
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<div>Hobart was the standout and continued to grow strongly, recording double-digit annual growth.</div>
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<div>Key findings concerning units were that units in Sydney and Melbourne continued to outperform houses, while in all other capital cities houses outperformed units.</div>
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<div>Unit prices fell over the September quarter and year across all capital cities, apart from a minor quarterly improvement in Adelaide, and annual growth in Melbourne and Hobart. As a result all capital cities are now under performing relative to last year, except for Perth and Darwin.</div>
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<div>National unit prices have continued to weaken, with annual growth declining for two consecutive quarters.</div>
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<div>“There are opportunities for buyers in all property cycles — the key is to be ready when opportunities arise,” Dr Nicola Powell concluded.</div>
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

Sydney house prices down 6.5 percent, double Melbourne's drop: Domain

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<p>Rental prices across Australia’s capital cities largely remained flat over the September quarter with Brisbane the only city to record growth in median unit rents.</p>
<p>Sydney and Hobart reported a decline in unit rents, according to <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/group/agent-news/domains-rental-report-june-2018/" target="_blank">Domain’s Quarterly Rental Report</a>.</p>
<p>Hobart was the standout performer over the year, reporting the highest annual rent growth for houses and units, followed by Canberra.</p>
<p>House rental yields improved annually in Sydney, Perth and Canberra.</p>
<p>Unit rental yields improved annually in all capital cities but Hobart.</p>
<p>"Availability of rental stock, investor activity and migration flows have created varied markets across the country. Looking just at the September quarter, house rents remained flat in every capital city," said Domain Senior Research Analyst, Dr Nicola Powell.</p>
<p>"While annually, growth has slowed relative to the year prior, primarily driven by stalling Sydney and Melbourne markets.</p>
<p>"Hobart continued to outperform other Australian capital cities, recording double digit annual rental growth for houses and strong growth for units. Canberra also saw substantial growth, with house and unit rents increasing 8.4% and 7.1% respectively. This growth has meant Canberra house rentals are now as expensive as Sydney. </p>
<p>"While unit rents in Sydney have started to decline, house rents remained at an all time high. However, if market conditions continue with increased supply, we could however see some relief for tenants."</p>
<p><a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2018/10/10/DOMIAN%20NATIONAL%201.jpg" target="_blank">Click here to enlarge:</a></p>
<p><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2018/10/10/DOMIAN%20NATIONAL%201.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>Sydney median unit rents declined over the quarter and year, as rental supply hit an all time high. </p>
<p>Melbourne house and unit rental prices held steady for the quarter, slowing the pace of annual growth to an almost four-year low for houses and three-year low for units. </p>
<p>Brisbane was the only capital city that had unit rents increase over the quarter and year, while median house rents remained flat. </p>
<p>Canberra house rents remained on par with Sydney, making the two cities the most expensive for tenants. House and unit rents experienced the second strongest annual growth of all capital cities. Unit gross yields reached a record high. </p>
<p>Hobart was the strongest performing capital city, with a 10.8% annual increase in house rents and 9.4% increase in unit rents. </p>
<p>Perth house and unit rents experienced no change over the year. This was the first time in almost five years house rents did not decline annually. Unit rents have now remained flat for a year and a half. </p>
<p>Perth remained the most affordable city to rent a house, and shares the title with Adelaide for the most affordable unit rents. </p>
<p>Adelaide house and unit rents remained flat for the quarter but continued to record annual growth.  </p>
<p><a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2018/10/10/DOMIAN%20NATIONAL%203.jpg" target="_blank">Click here to enlarge:</a></p>
<p><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2018/10/10/DOMIAN%20NATIONAL%203.jpg" alt=""><br><br><strong>Rental Yields</strong><br><br>Rental yields have increased nationally by 0.4% over the past 12 months to 3.76% for houses. Units also increased 1.5% over the year to 4.29%.<br><br>For investors, Hobart continued to provide the best gross rental yield for houses at 4.94%, and Darwin and Canberra provided the highest gross rental yields for units at 6.08% and 5.95% respectively.</p>
<p>Sydney and Melbourne continued to record the lowest gross rental yields for houses and units, although have begun to improve given the softer sales market.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2018/10/10/DOMIAN%20NATIONAL%202.jpg" target="_blank">Click here to enlarge:</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2018/10/10/DOMIAN%20NATIONAL%202.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2018/10/10/DOMIAN%20NATIONAL%202.jpg" alt=""></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2018/10/10/DOMIAN%20NATIONAL%204.jpg" target="_blank">Click here to enlarge:</a></p>
<p><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2018/10/10/DOMIAN%20NATIONAL%204.jpg" alt=""></p>
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Brisbane only capital with quarterly rise in unit rents: Domain

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<p>Nine Entertainment has suspended publication of its newspaper insert, <span class="markvpefbl5nw" data-markjs="true" data-ogac="" data-ogab="" data-ogsc="" data-ogsb="">Domain, </span>forcing staff to take leave.</p>
<p>As real estate vendors withdraw properties from sale, the Nine managing director of publishing Chris Janz told staff at newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review there had been “significant advertising cancellations that would force sections and magazines to be suspended to secure the future of our business”.</p>
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<p>“Unfortunately we are not immune from the unprecedented economic and advertising downturn caused by the crisis,” he said.</p>
<p><span>“These temporary measures will be continually reviewed and the sections will be reinstated as conditions improve.”</span></p>
<p>“While subscriber numbers are building, the growth does not offset the significant number of advertisers cancelling or reducing spend,” Mr Janz said in an email to staff.</p>
<p><span>News Corp Australia (publisher of The Daily Telegraph and The Australian) announced last week that it will be reducing pagination and this week announced it was cutting local newspaper production.</span></p>
<p>It will affect the print publication of 60 community titles across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia with the titles paused from April 9.</p>
<p>The Mansion magazine in the Weekend Australian is set to be published in April.</p>
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Domain has suspended its print publications in coronavirus crisis

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<p>Domain Group trading in the FY20 March quarter saw a small revenue increase of 1% for the quarter, and 10% in the month of March.</p>
<p>Digital revenue also increased, 3% for the quarter and 15% for the month of March despite the shutdown being introduced.</p>
<p>Domain has strengthened its liquidity position by reaching agreement with its banking group for a new debt facility of $80 million, with a term of 18 months.</p>
<p>The facility is in addition to the $225 million facilities announced to the market on 8 November 2019, with terms of three and four years.</p>
<p>Domain’s banking group has also agreed to a waiver of the group’s financial covenants as at June and December 2020. Domain’s net debt at 31 March 2020 was $149.5 million compared with $147.9 million at December 2019.</p>
<p>Domain has launched a voluntary staff program to deliver a 20% reduction in staff costs, while retaining employee talent and business momentum for the long term.</p>
<p>Employees were offered the opportunity to participate in a Share Rights program whereby they could receive a percentage of their salary package over the next six months in share rights (Rights), or alternatively elect to reduce working hours.</p>
<p>Both options have the effect of reducing staff costs over the next six months.</p>
<p>The plan has been overwhelmingly supported by Domain employees, with the majority electing to take a percentage of their salary in Rights.</p>
<p>Domain’s Leadership Team has elected to participate at higher rates: 30% for executive leaders and 50% for the CEO and Board members. The plan will take effect for six months from May 2020.</p>
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Domain has announce surprise March revenue growth

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<p>Greater Brisbane house prices fell by $8,000 over the June quarter, the first quarterly fall in a year and the steepest in almost nine years.</p>
<p>Unit prices also declined by just over $16,000 in the June quarter.</p>
<p>A two-speed property market has developed across Brisbane; with Brisbane City, Moreton Bay, Scenic Rim and Somerset house prices falling over the quarter, while Ipswich grew, and Logan remained stable.</p>
<p><img src="https://mcusercontent.com/b16c0b957ea98f662ab985606/images/dd2bb747-bdfd-4fd8-9ecb-60529f175ce2.png" width="597" height="199" data-imagetype="External"></p>
<p><em>June 2020 QoQ change for Brisbane house and unit prices</em></p>
<p>“Greater Brisbane house prices fell 1.4 per cent over the June quarter. This is the first quarterly fall in a year and the steepest in almost nine years. However house prices remain higher compared to last year, marking seven-and-a-half years of annual capital growth. A two-speed property market has developed across the LGAs with Brisbane City, Moreton Bay, Redland, Scenic Rim and Somerset house prices falling over the quarter, while Ipswich grew, and Logan remained stable.”</p>
<p>“Prior to COVID-19, there was promising growth in prices for Greater Brisbane. Although this has reversed in the June quarter, the fall in prices to date has been minimal considering the economic aftermath of border closures and shutdowns. An initial pull back in seller and buyer activity during the lockdown acted to underpin prices, government financial support has kept distressed or urgent sales minimal, and incentives have encouraged buying journeys to begin.”</p>
<p>“The outlook for residential property has improved vastly in recent weeks. Sentiment towards housing and the purchase of a home has bucked the overall more negative sentiment around the broader economy. Nationally the time to buy a dwelling pushed to a six-month high according to the Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment. Affordability is clearly front of mind, with the biggest jumps in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.”</p>
<p>“Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast housing values outperformed Greater Brisbane over the June quarter. Gold Coast houses pushed to a new record of $660,000 following a 1.5 per cent quarterly growth, while houses on the Sunshine Coast nudged marginally lower. Unit values held across both cities over the June quarter, with Sunshine Coast units at the record achieved last quarter. Despite the devastating impact of the bushfires and the coronavirus pandemic housing values are steady illustrating the desirability of coastal lifestyle regions,” said Domain Senior Research Analyst, Dr Nicola Powell.</p>
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Brisbane house prices see their steepest fall in 9 years: Domain

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<p>Adelaide was one of only three cities to record house price growth over the June quarter.</p>
<p>It pushed the city’s house prices to a record high of $553,036.</p>
<p>Unit prices did, however, slip by almost $10,000 over the June quarter. </p>
<p><img src="https://mcusercontent.com/b16c0b957ea98f662ab985606/images/ac4c1516-3aa3-40b4-a686-21aec5bae5f9.png" data-imagetype="External"></p>
<p><em>June 2020 QoQ change for Adelaide house and unit prices</em></p>
<p>“Adelaide was one of only three cities to record house price growth over the June quarter, along with Hobart and Canberra. While it was a modest 0.2 per cent lift, this has pushed house prices to a record high of $553,036. This is a better outcome than the other capital cities that plunged into declined, reinforcing the stability of the Adelaide housing market even amid the economic fallout of COVID-19. However, unit prices slipped 2.9 per cent over the June quarter, reversing part of the strong growth recorded over the first three months of the year, to $319,266.”</p>
<p>“Low interest rates, unprecedented government stimulus and extended mortgage repayment relief measures have sheltered house prices from any substantial falls to-date. A pullback in buyer and seller activity throughout the height of the lockdown also helped. Economic headwinds could still disrupt Adelaide’s market stability, with weak employment prospects a persistent thorn in the economy which will heighten due to health crisis. However South Australia is less reliant on international tourism than other states and more reliant on interstate tourism. Once borders reopen, the state could benefit from the increase in Australians taking holidays locally.”</p>
<p>“The outlook for residential property has improved vastly in recent weeks. Sentiment towards housing and the purchase of a home has bucked the overall more negative sentiment around the broader economy. South Australia had one of the biggest improved sentiment towards the time to buy a dwelling which reached a six-month high nationally. Affordability is clearly front of mind of mind for prospective buyers, with Adelaide offering one of the lowest purchase prices of all the capitals as well as offering buyers a great lifestyle. Demand could be increased by Australia’s success in dealing with the global pandemic compared to other countries, making it an attractive destination to reside, particularly towards lifestyle regions,” said Domain Senior Research Analyst, Dr Nicola Powell.</p>
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Adelaide house prices reached a record high this quarter: Domain

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<p>Melbourne’s house and unit prices declined over the June quarter, the market’s first fall since early 2019 and the deepest quarterly fall of all the major capital cities.</p>
<p>With Inner Melbourne, the inner east and inner south seeing price declines, opportunities are growing for prospective buyers to enter the market</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="https://mcusercontent.com/b16c0b957ea98f662ab985606/images/54036863-9430-4062-a6a1-a416e52344a5.png" data-imagetype="External"><br><em>June 2020 QoQ change for Melbourne house and unit prices</em></p>
<p>“Melbourne’s record high house price achieved last quarter was short-lived: prices tumbled 3.5 per cent over the June quarter. House values have fallen $32,000 and units $9,000 over the first quarter to show the impact of COVID-19. Prior to this, Melbourne house prices had made a full recovery from the 2017-19 slump. This quarter marks the first fall since early 2019 and is the deepest quarterly fall of all the major capital cities. Affordability appears to be front of mind for buyers, with more substantial falls in the city, the inner east and inner south, while the outer areas remain stable or have risen. Units have held up better than houses, falling a more moderate 1.7 per cent over the June quarter. It is the opposite trend for Melbourne units, with the price slump concentrated in the affordable areas of the south east and west.”</p>
<p>“Home owners have been provided with a lifeline during this economically challenging time through the intervention of the banks and government: the JobKeeper subsidy as well as a more generous JobSeeker payment which have both been extended, along with the banks offer to pause mortgages. These will minimise the number of urgent or distressed sales, which will in turn support prices. The risks become far greater once these initiatives cease. That said, evidence suggests further price weakness - in June 13.4 per cent of sellers reduced their asking price, five times higher than the same time last year.”</p>
<p>“Melbourne’s property market outlook has adjusted in recent weeks as the city enters its second lockdown. The full impact of the first economic shutdown was clearly evident in the June quarter. Sales activity, listings and clearance rates fell in April. However the rebound was swift as restrictions eased, confidence lifted from the April lows, vendors returned, and more buyers decided it was a good time to purchase - nationally rising to a six-month high. The second lockdown will stall this momentum temporarily,” said Domain Senior Research Analyst, Dr Nicola Powell.</p>
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Melbourne property prices hit hardest in June quarter: Domain

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<p dir="ltr">The time it takes for first home buyers to save 20 per cent deposit for an entry-level house has risen in the last 12 months, according to date released by Domain.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The Domain First Home Buyers Report, which is based on a couple aged 25-34 years old, found first home buyers of houses in Sydney and Melbourne had to save over six years for a house deposit of 20 per cent, up 2.6 per cent on last year.</p>
<p dir="ltr">That's an extra two months for each capital.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Melbourne prospective buyers of a $600,000 entry level house price would take six years, Sydney six and a half for their entry level price of $680,000.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The biggest jump since the same report last year came in Canberra, closely followed by Hobart.</p>
<p dir="ltr">It would take five and a half years in Canberra for a 20 per cent deposit on a $606,500 house, up 5.6 per cent from last year.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Hobart's surging house prices has seen a 6.4 per cent jump in amount of time needed to save since last year, equating to an extra three months.</p>
<p dir="ltr">An entry level home, now $380,000, would take four years and two months to save for in the Tasmania capital.</p>
<p dir="ltr">First home buyers in Perth and Darwin Perth and Darwin have a shorter journey to save for a deposit, with the average time taking less than three and a half years</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2020/9/24/Time%20to%20buy%20houses%20Domain.png" alt=""></p>
<h1 dir="ltr">Units</h1>
<p dir="ltr">The length of time to save for an apartment has also jumped across most of the capitals, although Perth, Darwin and Brisbane saw their time slashed.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Brisbane's entry to buy an apartment is now -4.9 per cent less than it was last year, now three years and three months, with an entry level unit costing $328,000.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Melbourne and Sydney's time to save increased by a month over the year, Sydney now at five years and seven months and Melbourne at four years and three months.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2020/9/24/Time%20to%20buy%20units%20Domain.png" alt=""></p>
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