Tag Archives: australia
New home sales in Australia on the up again, latest HIA data shows
New home sales in Australia experienced a modest rise in October after remaining flat the month before, according to the latest report from the Housing Industry Association (HIA). Total seasonally adjusted new home sales increased by 3% and growth was driven by a growth in the sale of detached houses in Victoria and Western Australia. HIA chief economist Harley Dale pointed out that after a relatively sharp decline of 5.7% in July, driven by both detached houses and multi-units, total new home sales have mounted a modest recovery ‘Sales are still off their cyclical peak reached back in April this year, but the overall volume of new home sales is still at an elevated level. That augurs well for healthy new home construction activity persisting into 2015,’ he explained. ‘Australia is on track to commence a record number of homes this year. While undesirable lags in the availability of Australian Bureau of Statistics data prevent confirmation of this outcome until well into next year, the fact is that 2014 is drawing to a close,’ he said. ‘We now want to be seeing evidence pointing to a healthy prognosis for new home building activity in 2015. In this regard we have positive signals coming from three key leading indicators. HIA new home sales and ABS building approvals are past their peaks but remain at elevated levels. Lending for new housing is still trending higher and doesn’t appear to have peaked yet,’ he added. A breakdown of the figures show that detached house sales increased by 4.7% in Victoria and by 24.8% in Western Australia but fell by 3% in New South Wales and were down by 7.8% in Queensland and 1.7% in South Australia. Over the three months to October 2014 detached house sales increased by 3.7% in New South Wales, by 1.2% in Queensland and by 1.7% in Western Australia. They fell by 13.4% in Victoria and by 6.3% in South Australia. Continue reading
UK estate agents report a better balance between buyers and homes for sale
A better balance between the number of homes for sale and the number of registered home buyers in the UK is emerging, according to the latest report from the National Association of Estate Agents. The October Housing Market survey found that member agents reported an average of 53 properties for sale per branch, some 15% higher than the monthly average for the rest of 2014. It is the highest number recorded on books since October 2013 and compares with an average of 51 properties was recorded per branch in September. While supply showed signs of an increase, the number of house hunters registered per NAEA member branch fell, from 406 in September to 380 in October, easing the balance between the number of available homes and demand. The survey data also shows that the average number of homes sold during the month remained static on September figures, at average of nine sales per NAEA member branch. The number of first time buyers recorded fell, down 6% in October compared to the previous month’s figures, to 24% of total sales from 30% of total sales in September. ‘There is a better balance emerging between the level of demand and supply, as the number of registered house hunters falls for October, while the average number of available properties registered per branch rises to accommodate those looking to buy,’ said NAEA managing director Mark Hayward. ‘However, both supply and demand is still seasonably low for October. The decrease in buyer demand and in particular the decline in first time buyers, along with a relatively static sales market, could be a direct result of the stricter lending criteria which came into play six months ago at the end of April this year, making it harder for house hunters to access mortgage finance. This has certainly been reported as one possibility by our NAEA member branches,’ he added. When asked if the new MMR rules had led to a direct decrease in the overall number of home buyers since it was introduced six months ago, some 79% of NAEA member branches agreed it had affected the current number of buyers. With the exception of September 2014, in which 406 home buyers were recorded on average per branch, the number of house hunters registered per member branch had shown a decrease on figures recorded in April 2014 when it was 392 home buyers in the month MMR was introduced. NAEA member branches also said they believed the MMR had particularly affected demand among first time buyers with 70% of member branches reporting the implementation of MMR had led to a decrease in the number of first time buyers since it came into force. ‘First time buyers will be especially more cautious about making a purchase due to the stricter lending criteria now in place, which makes it harder to secure finance,’ explained Hayward. ‘In addition, prospective… Continue reading
UK property transactions up 3.2% month on month, HMRC provisional data shows
The number of seasonally adjusted property transactions in the UK increased by 3.2% in October and are up 4.3% compared to a year ago, according to the latest data published by HMRC. The pattern since the beginning of 2013/2014 has been of a general month on month increase in transactions for the seasonally adjusted data until February 2014, then a gradual decrease followed by a flattening out of transaction numbers. The data also shows that August 2014 saw a peak for recent non-seasonally adjusted transactions, the highest level since November 2007. In October 2014, the number of non-adjusted transactions has risen compared with September 2014, for residential properties. However, the rise was smaller than in previous years, so the seasonally adjusted figure for October 2014 is lower than in the previous month but higher than in October 2013. The seasonally adjusted estimate of the number of non-residential property transactions increased by 0.1% between September 2014 and October 2014. This month’s figure is also 8.0% higher compared to the same month last year. Seasonally adjusted transactions of non-residential property have been fairly stable over the last year. Non-seasonally adjusted transactions had a large drop in the first two months of 2014, but increased sharply in March. There were also dips in May and August, with month on month growth since then. Meanwhile, the latest transaction data from the Land Registry shows that it completed over 1.5 million applications from its customers in October. This includes 1,464,352 applications by account customers, of which 382,966 were applications in respect of registered land (dealings), 662,153 were applications to obtain an official copy of a register or title plan, 205,537 were searches and 102,912 were transactions for value. The South East topped the table of regional applications with 349,858 and Birmingham topped the table of local authority applications with 23,528. Continue reading
