Australians Spending More On Property
News Posted On: 07 June 2012
Australians are spending more on property, as gross spending on housing finance reached $20.3 billion for February, an increase of $1 billion. It's thought this may be due to increased home loan affordability, as this is not only attracting more homebuyers, and also more investors.
Recent research has found home loans account for 32.9% of the family income. The same survey also found 33.9% of the property market is investor financed, and this sector is expected to grow due to rising rental yields.
The decline in house prices is also slowing down, as prices fell by 1.8% during May. However prices of apartments increased by an average of 1%. In Sydney apartment prices rose by 2.2%, while apartment prices in Adelaide rose by 4.7%, and by 1.5% in Perth.
These rises can be attributed to the increasing affordability of this sector, and this is attracting investors. Rental yields are higher than a year ago in every capital city, and in some cities such as Darwin in Perth, gross rental yields have increased by around 50 basis points.
Property prices in Australia have dropped by 7.6% since reaching a high in November 2010. Compared with many other countries this isn't a significant percentage, and the main reason for this is that Australia doesn't have an oversupply of homes.
There is only a certain amount of land available, and there are limits on the density of developments. Due to a shortage of funding, there is currently a housing shortage due to a lack of development over the last decade. The housing shortage is expected to exceed 600,000 homes in 20 years.
View property for sale in Australia
Written by Les Calvert
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