Australian homes worth $5 trillion - with an average price of $539,400

[Guest BurgessFamily]

The Bureau of Statistics housing finance figures for December show investors now account for 39.8 per cent of the value of home loans issued in December.

That is the highest proportion of loans going to investors since October 2003, during the height of Australia's largest recent housing boom

 

Looks like it's BOOM time in the property market according to the ABC (assuming they are a reputable news outlet). Better get in before you are locked out for ever, as it looks like first home buyers are on the brink of extinction.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-11/investors-at-decade-high-drive-growth-in-home-lending/5252294?section=business

 

Over 5 trillion, and that is only for residential properties. That is over three times current GDP of our economy.

 

the only way is up. let the good times roll (even without a manufacturing industry).

Edited February 11, 2014 by BurgessFamily

[Diane]

Do they mention how many of the investors are Chinese? I had read somewhere I'm sure that the Chinese are buying up a lot of land and property in Australia - particularly farms - to secure the future food needs of their population?

[Anne B]

With manufacturing going down the pan and the mining boom slowing down, what is there left to do in Australia? Buy property!

 

Some more reading on the Chinese issue:

 

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/02/chinese-are-speculating-in-australian-realty/

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/01/the-chinese-want-your-land-not-the-house/ (some of the comments are interesting)

 

and the value of housing

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/02/value-of-australias-dwelling-stock-hits-5-trillion/

 

and this from 6 months ago

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/07/australias-huge-property-market-gets-bigger/

Edited February 11, 2014 by Anne B

[zebedee]

Glad we've got ourselves on the property ladder again but I'm always concerned about this housing hype - booming house prices means huge burdens for future generations - that generated capital ultimately has to come from somewhere. Whilst it's the way of the capitalist world, basic human needs used as investment doesn't sit very comfortably with me - I must be a secret Marxist or something

Edited February 11, 2014 by zebedee

[Guest Guest12727]

I just heard a news story saying that Aus house prices are at their max and can't go any higher. Who to believe???

[Guest BurgessFamily]

Negative gearing allows for prices to go much higher. Investor driven, and the ultimate expense being picked up by tax payers.

 

It's a win-win (unless you are a tax payer of course).

[srg73]

The average price obviously includes Sydney etc which are beyond most peoples reach. We will still invest in a property even if only average value however we will be competing against Chinese investers who are certainly wealthier than us. In London at the moment, the building and housing market is saturated by foreign investment meaning there are large areas owned off shore and charging high rents. Unfortunately this is the open international housing market in action. UK is now to introduce taxation to discourage international investment.....if Europe allows!

 

S

[Guest BurgessFamily]

No wonder the Chinese are flooding the property market over here...

 

“The Chinese housing market is clearly oversupplied,” Gan told Tom Orlik, a Bloomberg economist based in Beijing. “Existing housing stock is sufficient for every household to own one home, and we are supplying about 15 million new units a year. The housing bubble has to burst. No one knows when.”

 

An astounding 90 percent of households in [a] nation of more than 1.3 billion people already owns homes. In the first half 2012, [Gan, a professor at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, Sichua] found, about 42 percent of demand for properties came from buyers who already owned at least one

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-30/china-can-t-afford-to-let-its-housing-bubble-pop.html

[jim and adel]

No wonder the Chinese are flooding the property market over here...

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-30/china-can-t-afford-to-let-its-housing-bubble-pop.html

 

There are more empty houses in China than there are people in the UK.