Invest
Affordability issues stifling housing turnover
Housing affordability is starting to affect house sales in Australia, with recent data showing a trend of low sales in the last year.

Affordability issues stifling housing turnover
Housing affordability is starting to affect house sales in Australia, with recent data showing a trend of low sales in the last year.

Over the last 12 months, every state and territory has recorded low demand, even in high-performing suburbs, according to research company CoreLogic’s latest Property Pulse.
Cameron Kusher, an analyst at CoreLogic, said that with this data, it is important to not rely solely on median house prices.
“With such a small fraction of housing actually transacting over a given period, median prices can be biased,” Mr Kusher said.
“Furthermore, median prices may not be reflective of the whole market. When making a comparison between periods, they may compare two very different bundles of housing types and quality.”
Real Estate Institute NSW president John Cunningham said this data should be signalling “warning bells for the housing industry”, which indicates a small number of housing transactions over the last year.
“We know from a variety of property data sources that stock levels are steadily declining and a key reason why the affordability issue presents a bigger picture problem, particularly for Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr Cunningham said.
“When we have stock on market, it keeps the property market competitive and in balance. Without stock, we see less vibrancy and activity across the market and much more buyer competition taking place as opposed to activity between properties.”
He adds the result of this will damage the entire supply and demand chain.
The state or territory with the highest percentage of total houses sold was Tasmania at 5.6 per cent. Following this were NSW, Queensland and South Australia at 5.1 per cent, then the Northern Territory at 4.6 per cent, Victoria at 4.5 per cent, Western Australia at 4 per cent, and the ACT at 3.9 per cent.
Mr Kusher said this low housing turnover is due to several reasons.
“Advertised stock levels remain low across those cities where capital gain conditions are strong. Additionally, high transactional costs, which are based on a percentage of the selling/purchasing price, have become a larger disincentive across those markets where values have shown a material rise.”
Out of the highest performing suburbs for housing turnover, Mr Kusher points out that they have been selling less than half of their stock.
Many of the high-performing suburbs currently have, or had, large amounts of new housing stock, such as new housing estates.
“Housing turnover in any given year reflects only a small proportion of the total housing stock. It further highlights that taxes on transactions, such as stamp duty, are heavily reliant on collection from only a small pool of overall housing stock,” Mr Kusher added.

Property
House price surge to cause ‘social and political problems’: ANZ
Rising house prices spurred on by low interest rates are “raising eyebrows” and could create “real social and political problems”, ANZ’s CEO has warned. ...Read more

Property
How important is a buyer’s agent in a rising market?
In a hotly contested seller’s market, investors are being alerted to the importance of a good buyer’s agent. ...Read more

Property
First home buyers guide: Grants and assistance in each state and territory
The federal and local governments have launched several grants and assistance programs to help their citizens achieve the great Australian dream of owning a home. ...Read more

Property
Transition period announced ahead of tenancy moratorium end
With the end of the moratorium on evictions in sight, the NSW government has announced a new measure aimed to assist the residential tenancy market transition back to pre-COVID conditions. ...Read more

Property
First home buyers brace for strengthening headwinds
While Australian first home buyers dominated the market in 2020, increasing their market share by 50.4 per cent in the past year, they're likely to face strengthening headwinds as prices soar. ...Read more

Property
Australia’s most popular rental suburbs revealed
Tenants should brace themselves for rental price hikes as tightening vacancy rates continue across the country, new research has revealed. ...Read more

Property
Australian home values rise at fastest rate in 17 years
Overall, Australian home values surged 2.1 per cent higher in February, the largest month-on-month change in CoreLogic’s national home value index since August 2003. ...Read more

Property
Housing finance records continue to tumble
Australian housing loan commitment has reached another record high in January, rising by 10.5 per cent in the last month alone, official figures show. ...Read more

Property
House price surge to cause ‘social and political problems’: ANZ
Rising house prices spurred on by low interest rates are “raising eyebrows” and could create “real social and political problems”, ANZ’s CEO has warned. ...Read more

Property
How important is a buyer’s agent in a rising market?
In a hotly contested seller’s market, investors are being alerted to the importance of a good buyer’s agent. ...Read more

Property
First home buyers guide: Grants and assistance in each state and territory
The federal and local governments have launched several grants and assistance programs to help their citizens achieve the great Australian dream of owning a home. ...Read more

Property
Transition period announced ahead of tenancy moratorium end
With the end of the moratorium on evictions in sight, the NSW government has announced a new measure aimed to assist the residential tenancy market transition back to pre-COVID conditions. ...Read more

Property
First home buyers brace for strengthening headwinds
While Australian first home buyers dominated the market in 2020, increasing their market share by 50.4 per cent in the past year, they're likely to face strengthening headwinds as prices soar. ...Read more

Property
Australia’s most popular rental suburbs revealed
Tenants should brace themselves for rental price hikes as tightening vacancy rates continue across the country, new research has revealed. ...Read more

Property
Australian home values rise at fastest rate in 17 years
Overall, Australian home values surged 2.1 per cent higher in February, the largest month-on-month change in CoreLogic’s national home value index since August 2003. ...Read more

Property
Housing finance records continue to tumble
Australian housing loan commitment has reached another record high in January, rising by 10.5 per cent in the last month alone, official figures show. ...Read more