Buying New v Buying Established Webinar Replay
Hotspotting
Everyone seeking real estate in desirable locations has the same complaint: the lack of stock. Home buyers, investors, buyers’ agents and selling agents are all being frustrated by the shortage of listings of properties for sale – particularly quality options. Leading national buyers’ agency Adviseable says a partial solution for buyers is to consider building from scratch rather than buying an established property. The tactic has many advantages – and one or two problems as well. Alex Dutt of Adviseable says deciding whether to buy an established property or to go down the new...
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Think Twice: Negative Gearing Myths
Hotspotting
In my experience, most people who have a loud view about scrapping negative gearing are people who can’t explain what it is, how it works, why it’s bad and how ending it would solve all the problems in the housing industry. Mostly, what’s in play with this issue is THE POLITICS OF ENVY – that nagging feeling some people have, that others are doing better than they are, or are receiving benefits that they are not, and therefore need to be squashed. As a famous Indian guru once observed, some people try to be tall by cutting off the heads of others. Contrast that with the views that are...
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Rising Rents, Real Reason
Hotspotting
Politicians and journalists love to scapegoat and demonise, particularly with issues impacting housing markets – with property investors always a popular target. Australia’s love of scapegoating is one of the reasons the nation seldom resolves any of the key issues it faces. Politicians hold press conferences, they stage inquiries, they bring on royal commissions, they make announcements – but the recurring theme is looking for someone to blame and to vilify – preferably someone other than themselves. In real estate, investors and related issues like negative gearing are blamed for all...
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Rental Crisis Deepens
Hotspotting
How long could we reasonably expect governments to take, to sort out a problem like the rental shortage? I ask the question because we have had the problem of a shortage of options for tenants in Australia – and the consequent steep rises in rents - for a very long time. And it keeps getting worse, not better. The latest data from SQM Research shows that, nationally, the vacancy rate got a little worse last month, dropping from 1.3% in August to 1.2% in September. Three of our capital cities have vacancies well below 1%. And in six of the eight capital cities, vacancies stayed the same...
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Stop the Distraction: Negative Gearing Isn’t the Real Issue
Hotspotting
There is one thing that Australian politicians are really good at – possibly the only thing - and that is diverting attention from the real issues and scapegoating others for the problems that they, the politicians, have caused. Right now, the core issues impacting Australian households include the housing shortage, the high cost of creating desperately needed new homes, the chronic rental shortage and the reality that rents keep on rising. It’s noteworthy that the recent AGM of the Commonwealth Bank reported that they have had to provide emergency payment arrangements to 132,000 customers...
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Albo's Housing Hypocrisy
Hotspotting
Australia is struggling with a number of crisis situations – a cost-of-living crisis, a housing affordability crisis and a rental shortage crisis. Our beloved Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared on many occasions how much he cares about the plight of ordinary Australians in dealing with these issues. But, as the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words – and that is particularly relevant to our elected representatives who love to stand before the media cameras and declare their concern for the people but fail to match their words with appropriate actions. So, let’s look...
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Why Affordable Outshines Prime in Real Estate
Hotspotting
Residential real estate abounds with fallacies and misconceptions, mostly created by dishonest politicians, biased journalists and economists who don’t understand property. One of the biggest is the one that claims that so-called prime property shows the best capital growth. A year ago I attended a national conference for real estate professionals at which a keynote speaker expressed the view that you had to buy “prime” to get good capital growth – and indeed proclaimed that if you couldn’t buy prestige property you shouldn’t buy at all – or at least wait until you could afford...
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Politicians Are Making Aussie Homes Unaffordable—Here’s How
Hotspotting
There’s endless commentary about housing affordability in Australia but very little awareness that the fundamental issue is the high cost of creating new homes – and that our politicians are the cause of the problem. The value of dwellings across the nation is underpinned by the cost in building new ones – and, in Australia, that cost is incredibly, ridiculously high. And it’s high because of the policies of our elected representatives, at all levels of government, but particularly state government politicians. Right now, after massive increases in building costs in recent years, you...
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Is Population Growth Misleading for Property Investors?
Hotspotting
How relevant is population growth data for people choosing where to buy? According to the theories espoused by some, the best places to buy are the ones with the highest population growth. But the evidence suggests otherwise. For example, take a look at the latest data on population growth across Australia, published by the ABS recently. It shows that one of the states with the highest population growth has been one of the worst performers recently on price growth, while one of the states with the lowest population growth has been one of Australia’s best performers on price growth. For the...
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Home Approvals Drop as Australia Faces Housing Shortage
Hotspotting
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data has recorded a decline in the number of dwelling approvals across the country. Total dwelling approvals saw a drop of 6.1 per cent in the month of August, at a time when Australia needs to be building a lot more homes. According to ABS head of construction statistics, Daniel Rossi, private dwellings excluding houses were the main contributor to the decline – in other words, there has been a big decrease in approvals for attached dwellings like units and townhouses. This has resulted in a 16.5 per cent fall in approvals for those types of...
info_outlineAdelaide’s property market, one of the nation’s strongest in the past two years, has strengthened further recently.
ales volumes shows that market activity in the June quarter was the highest for Greater Adelaide since mid-2022.
The June Quarter sales levels represented a 25% increase on the March Quarter and were 10% higher than the same time last year.
This is despite the reality that listings of homes for sale across Adelaide are the lowest at any time in the past 15 years, according to SQM Research figures.
This continues Adelaide’s track record as a market with consistently high performance and helps to explain why it has been a challenger to Perth as the market with the highest price growth in the past two years.
Adelaide’s median house price rose 15% in the 12 months to August 2024, while the median unit price increased 12%, according to PropTrack data.
Only Perth has recorded higher annual price growth.
Across the Greater Adelaide market, suburbs with positive trends with sales activity outnumber those with negative ones by a factor of three to one.
The Greater Adelaide area has standout markets across all price ranges, including affordable municipalities like Playford and Salisbury, middle market areas including Marion and West Torrens, and more upmarket locations such as the Unley, Holdfast Bay and Charles Sturt LGAs.
The Playford LGA, which contains Adelaide’s cheapest suburbs, is the most popular precinct for buyers, with over 800 dwelling sales in the June Quarter. That was 31% higher than the same time last year – and a 53% increase on the March Quarter.
Most Playford suburbs have positive sales trends, either rising or consistent, with Blakeview and Davoren Park in particular standing out for their consistent buyer demand. The median house price for Blakeview has risen 16% to $550,000 in the past 12 months, while Davoren Park is up 33% to $440,000.
Davoren Park had a median house price of just $175,000 three years ago.
The neighbouring Salisbury LGA, another precinct targeted for its affordable homes, is also a strong performer with sales levels considerably higher than the March Quarter and also the same time in 2023. Rising markets in the City of Salisbury are headed by standout suburbs like Ingle Farm and Mawson Lakes.
The median house price for Ingle Farm was $380,000 three years ago and is now $655,000, after 19% growth in the past 12 months.
Another outer-ring location with outstanding numbers is the Mount Barker LGA, which has recorded the highest quarterly sales numbers in more than three years. The suburbs with strongly rising sales activity include Nairne and Mount Barker. Nairne’s median house price has risen 17% to $750,000 in the past 12 months.
Among the middle market areas, the West Torrens LGA is a notable performer with a significant increase in sales activity in the June Quarter – the highest levels since late in 2021. There are no suburbs with negative trends in West Torrens, while rising markets are headed by Underdale, Torrensville, Plympton and Fulham.
The Port-Adelaide Enfield LGA has numerous suburbs with positive ratings, with sales activity overall much higher in the June Quarter compared to the March Quarter and the same time last year. Notable rising markets include Lightsview and Blair Athol.
The City of Marion has recorded its highest quarterly sales numbers since mid-2022 in a market dominated by suburbs with positive sales trends, including rising suburbs Warradale, Hallett Cove and Edwardstown. The median house price for Hallett Cove has risen from $470,000 to $800,000 in the past four years.
Some of Adelaide’s more upmarket precincts are also travelling well. Ten of the suburbs in the Charles Sturt LGA are ranked as rising markets, headed by Flinders Park, Findon and Bowden.
Sales activity has been rising steadily in the Holdfast Bay municipality in the past four quarters. A standout feature is that the unit markets in both Glenelg and Glenelg North are classified as rising markets in our latest analysis.
The upmarket City of Unley has a particularly strong June Quarter, with sales numbers up almost 50% on the March Quarter. Rising suburbs include Parkside (median house price $1.3 million), Clarence Park ($1.27 million) and Myrtle Bank ($1.6 million).
The overall conclusion is that the Adelaide market continues to pump strongly and is likely to be a national market leader on price growth for the foreseeable future.