{"id":31318,"date":"2021-03-22T07:23:07","date_gmt":"2021-03-21T18:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertynoise.co.nz\/au\/?p=31318"},"modified":"2021-03-22T07:23:07","modified_gmt":"2021-03-21T18:23:07","slug":"australias-real-estate-market-seems-quite-odd-even-the-experts-are-finding-it-hard-to-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertynoise.co.nz\/au\/australias-real-estate-market-seems-quite-odd-even-the-experts-are-finding-it-hard-to-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s real estate market ‘seems quite odd’. Even the experts are finding it hard to read"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOTO: Australia is made up of many different housing markets, even within cities.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the eve of Victoria’s last lockdown, Peter Mares was feeling cautiously optimistic.<\/p>\n

He was about to bid on behalf of a friend for a two-bedroom apartment in Princes Hill, in inner Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Listed as an “impeccably maintained retro”, Mares describes it as the best-situated flat in an ugly block of dark brown brick walk-ups dating from late 1960s.<\/p>\n

When it came to price, he\u00a0tells ABC RN’s Saturday Extra, he had a buffer of $100,000 above the advised price range.<\/p>\n

“I was authorised by my friend to bid up to $780,000, but I didn’t get to put my hand up because it sailed past that and went to $845,000,” he says.<\/p>\n

A few streets away, another friend of his had just moved into a similar apartment to take advantage of falling rents. It was a lighter, better place than her previous house, and much cheaper.<\/p>\n

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It’s easy to find rentals in some CBD areas, but harder in many regional centres. (ABC News: Kathleen Dyett, File Photo<\/cite>)<\/cite><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Theoretically rent is an indication of the value of housing,” Mares, a journalist\u00a0who has researched the Australian housing market,\u00a0<\/em>says.<\/p>\n

“The rental return should rise with the value of housing. But if you see prices going up in one place and rents going down in another, it seems quite odd.”<\/p>\n

It may seem odd, but it’s consistent with data showing\u00a0rents for Melbourne and Sydney apartments fell steeply last year\u00a0and remain low due to a lack of international students and the effects of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

“It’s a reminder that we don’t have one housing market, we have numerous housing markets, not just between cities but within cities,” Mares says.<\/p>\n

Regional rentals disappearing<\/h2>\n

Then there are what Mares describes as the “boom conditions” in regional areas, particularly those close to the capital cities.<\/p>\n

Chief economist at the Regional Australia Institute, Kim Houghton, researches the drivers of sale price growth, housing availability and rental shortages in regional Australia.<\/p>\n

READ MORE VIA ABC<\/a><\/p>\n

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