It’s a buyer’s market out there!

PROPERTY NEWS


By Sally Scott

Australia’s rapidly rising population will lead to a huge demand for property – so we’ve been hearing and reading over the past 12 months. But it seems this hunger to acquire somewhere to call your own is slow in coming, given the latest statistics that indicate Australia’s housing market is not as undersupplied as most commentators believe.

Research findings from Matusik Property Insights show a rise in properties for sale this winter, and in Melbourne and Brisbane particularly. Michael Matusik says: “In Brisbane, there are now about 25,500 houses and apartments for sale, up from 18,250, or 40 per cent, this time last year ... it is estimated (across the country) that by the time we get to spring, there could be as many as 400,000 dwellings for sale.”
Matusik also points to The Economist findings, which last month dubbed the Australian housing market “the most overvalued” of the 20 it studied. The upside of his findings, Matusik says, is that it is a buyer’s market and sellers need to be aware of this.
“A good offer, early, may be the best you will get in the current environment,” he says.

Rents stabilising

And it seems tenants in Brisbane can breathe a little easier with the latest data predicting rents to stabilise over the next few months. The RP Data rental review for the June quarter showed advertised rental costs for houses across the country had increased by an average of just $10 in the previous 12 months. And Brisbane rents for both houses and apartments recorded no change in the past quarter.
Michael Matusik sets out reasons why this trend is likely to continue, at least in the short term, in his July property report, Snapshot. In it Matusik backs the RP Data findings, saying that the amount of rental stock available is not only greater than most realise but it is also getting larger.
“Total listings are growing by around 17 per cent a month, which is quite fast, yet new listing are up 26 per cent over the month before, suggesting an accelerating supply of dwellings available to rent,” his report states.
“This trend is evident across most of the country.”
Quoting from further data from the Queensland Government’s Office of Economic and Statistical Research, Matusik points out that the rental vacancy rate across the state is now over 5 per cent, up one percentage point on March this year, and is 5.5 per cent in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Inner Brisbane suburbs are more in demand with a 3 per cent vacancy rate. Such figures should be a cautionary tale to landlords, who might be considering lifting rents in the near future.
In the words of Matusik: It often pays to keep a good tenant at the same rent, rather than risk losing them for a few dollars more a week.