Property
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Property Insider
Cost of selling prohibitive Nearly 50 per cent of home owners who wanted to sell in 2016 said the costs involved stopped them from selling their homes. A survey by LJ Hooker of 2,700 home owners showed that 44 per cent of home owners decided against selling because of the transactional costs involved, such as stamp duty, agent and solicitor fees. A further 35 per cent said they would not be able to find another home to buy/rent to move into, and 11 per cent said prices had risen too much meaning they cannot afford to buy another home. ‘As stamp duty is pegged by the state governments to property prices, we’ve seen transactional costs rise exponentially. In Sydney, the sale of a median priced property costs a buyer around $40,000.’ The LJ Hooker report states
that CoreLogic data shows that across Australia listings were 8.9 per cent fewer in 2016 compared to the previous 12 months. The number of sales transactions also dropped by 9.2 per cent over 2016. Of those who decided not to sell, 57 per cent said they had decided to renovate instead, 29 per cent hold on to the property for now and list later, and 14 per cent would rent it out. The report said in conclusion that there need to be incentives, options and policies in place to ensure that people who want, or need, to sell can do so without costly restrictions. It added that governments at all levels need to work together to ensure that tax, superannuation and planning regulations are integrated and ensure they don’t deter the supply of new or existing properties from coming onto the market for sale.
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The latest housing finance figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) confirm that finance approvals for investor housing is moderating, according to the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA). ‘The value of investment housing commitments decreased by 0.3 per cent in March 2017 in trend terms. This is down from its 2015 peak,’ Malcolm Gunning, REIA president said. ‘It needs to remembered that this is before the actions in May by the regulators and banks to limit bank lending in an attempt to dampen investor demand for property in Sydney and Melbourne and the Budget initiatives to limit deductions for investment property. ‘Overall the figures for March 2017 show, in trend terms, that the number of owner-occupied finance commitments decreased by 0.1 per cent. If refinancing is excluded, in trend terms, the number of owner-occupied finance commitments increased by 0.5 per cent following a rise of 0.7 per
cent in February. ‘Increases were recorded in New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory with the Northern Territory having the largest increase of 1.8 per cent. Decreases were recorded in Queensland and Western Australia with the largest decrease in Western Australia at 1.0 per cent. Victoria remained flat. ‘In trend terms, the number of established dwellings purchase commitments decreased by 0.1 per cent while new dwelling construction increased by 0.4 per cent and the purchase of new dwellings increased by 0.2 per cent. ‘The proportion of first homebuyers, as part of the total owner-occupied housing finance commitments, increased to 13.6 per cent in March 2017 from 13.3 per cent in February 2017 and the number of first home buyer commitments increased by 20.5 per cent and is the highest since November 2016. ‘The March figures show that the market is adjusting.
Australasia’s top office!
First National Byron Bay has been awarded their No 1 Sales Office in Australasia! CEO James Young accepted this outstanding accolade at the First National Real Estate Awards held at the Intercontinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa on Friday 26th May. With more than 400 offices in the network, this is a huge win for the Byron Shire office, highlighting the strength of their sales, property
management and administrative staff. The exceptionally strong culture of the organisation and exemplary customer service are two of the main reasons they are now Australia’s top office. The BBFN team are honoured and excited with this achievement and incredibly thankful to the local community for their support and to their valued clients who helped make this happen.
We will need to closely monitor the cumulative impact of recent actions by the regulators, banks and the federal Budget initiatives to ease demand by
property investors and ensure that they don’t threaten economic growth through reduced construction activity’, Mr Gunning concluded.
mcgrath.com.au North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
The Byron Shire Echo May 31, 2017 19