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Tuesday, September 04, 2018

Australian home prices fall for 11th month in a row

Post to Facebook on 4/9/2018 at 9:11 AM
Commenting on “Housing slump set to be the largest in nearly 40 years”
https://www.theage.com.au/business/the-economy/australian-home-prices-fall-for-11th-month-in-a-row-20180903-p501e2.html


When the property market was still hot for the wrong reason, I was warning my blog readers about the downturn. Real estate article writers and agents continued to deny the presence of such signals, hoping that these were just hiccups. I specifically stated that from June 2017 all the news media would be slowly but steadily releasing the bad news that the market was on decline.

Many investors as well as developers are like ostriches and to certain extent, some become gamblers. They did not want to acknowledge or failed to recognise that all markets, not just real estate market, involve more than the two groups of players, namely the buyers and sellers. Other players are the local and overseas powerful people / politicians that have a say in the fiscal and monetary policies. The last but not least are the media who can create great hype as well as depress the market.

In May 2015, Australia government announced an amnesty of sorts for foreign investors who had breached Australia residential property law. Offenders had to voluntarily come forward to disclose their ownership by 1 December. Almost the same time followed by the Chinese government tightening outflow of money to foreign countries. Talking to some agencies, the first sign of retreat began in October 2015.

This is a difficult time for the lenders especially the banks which are in serious damage control after the Royal Commission for Banking Industry.

The RBA have kept cash rate constant for 20 months, but half-hearted to raise rate, creating a situation that the banks have no choice but to raise mortgage rate to recover loss margin.

If the media keeps publishing bad news like this, the real estate market will not see recovery soon, and the fall is likely to continue for another 9 months, until June 2019.

Thank you for reading.

Sunday, September 02, 2018

‘Spring hasn’t sprung yet’: Melbourne property market to challenge sellers and agents

Post to Facebook on 2/9/2018 at 10:59 AM
Commenting on “‘Spring hasn’t sprung yet’: Melbourne property market to challenge sellers and agents”
https://www.domain.com.au/news/spring-hasn8217t-sprung-yet-melbourne-property-market-to-challenge-sellers-and-agents-20180831-h14qn9-761109/


Domain Auction Result for Saturday 1st September 2018
Number Listed Auctions: 725
Number Reported Auctions: 553
Sold: 340
Withdrawn: 23

The clearance auction result reported is higher than what one can figure out from the supplied data.

At this time of the year, Spring season, it gives the real estate agents a good reason to encourage potential owners to sell their properties.

Without doubt, this is the time when the flowers bloom and the sun puts on its warm welcome for people inspecting the properties.

Nice flowers and garden means more maintenance in the future. Buyers should see beyond what the gardens would look if they are in the hands of "almost everything goes" owners.

Many exposed areas of the garden bed have new pine bark, red or coloured gum chips or pebbles is a telltale sign of trouble. Garden beds needs to be properly treated to remove weeds or seeds of weeds before these cosmetic close to useless items are put on.

House inspection only for structural issues, and therefore these future maintenance or additional outlay to keep them in tip-top conditions are your own responsibility.

Big trees around the house can post a lot of trouble to the house, especially the older houses. The roots can damage drain or sewerage pipes, and can land you thousands out of pocket.

Freshly painted house may have many hidden nightmare. I can't even convince people I know very well about this potential problem, and they have to "suffer" the consequence.

If you see a freshly painted bathroom or laundry, check the tiles whether they are "painted" over. The same applies to the bathroom basin, bath tub and shower floor. The original materials are not suitable for painting, and will peel in no time at all.

Crack ceiling board, rotten laundry floor, fascia can be nasty surprises. Before you waste your time and money to get professional to inspect the potential purchase, you must check the all the taps, air conditioning, heating, lights and switches, etc.

If you find something suspicious, ask and follow by an email to the agent. It is your hard-earn money, so make sure you get your money worth.

Happy house hunting.

Thank you for reading.