Let's Check In On Australia

Desperate Offers to Attract Tenants

Hmm. It seems we have a problem. Rents are Going Down: Landlords Make Desperate Offers to Attract Tenants.

Desperate landlords are offering tenants up to four weeks free rent just for signing new leases amid a rise in vacancies and drop in rental prices.

The offers have followed a surge in new housing construction that oversupplied parts of Sydney with housing, with nearly one in 10 rental homes sitting vacant in some areas

Additional data from CoreLogic showed median advertised weekly house rents have fallen by an average of more than $100 in parts of the north shore, northwest and Sydney’s far west.

Vacancies

• Kellyville had the highest level of vacancies, with 9.2% of homes currently empty.
• In Epping, where developers have started a mass of unit projects for the opening of the Sydney Metro Northwest rail line next year, 6.6% of rental homes remain vacant.
• Gordon’s vacancy rate was 7.7%.

$1 Million Discount "Bargains"

Also consider Sydney’s Biggest Real Estate Bargains: Homes at Discounts of Up to $1 Million

Sydney’s cooling real estate market is delivering buyers hefty discounts that would have been hard to believe even six months ago.

A string of properties across the northern beaches, eastern suburbs and north shore are currently listed at up to $1 million below their original prices after languishing on the market unsold for months.

The deals have followed an 8 per cent drop in Sydney’s median home price over the past year and a 17.4 per cent lift in the number of homes listed for sale.

Compounding this, Sydney’s existing pipeline of new housing projects is forecast to increase the current supply of housing by 9.5 per cent over the next two years. And it’s all at a time when buyer demand is falling as purchasers struggle to get financing from increasingly cagey lenders.

Worse than Global Financial Crisis

Let's round out our trio of Australia housing reports with this grim assessment: Real Estate Prices Drop at Fastest Rate Since Global Financial Crisis.

CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless said he expected the current downturn to last significantly longer than the one recorded in 2008.

“Back then the market was hit by an economic shock but it quickly recovered because of heavy stimulus from government,” he said.

Damn!

What the hell happened to that big housing shortage?

And where the heck are the government and the Central Bank when you need them?

Wait a second. Didn't the government and central bank combine to create this problem?