August 2024 Property Update

Interest rates are a hot topic of conversation at the moment. The RBA met this month and opted to keep interest rates on hold for the 6th consecutive meeting.

Whilst the RBA considered raising the Interest rate in August, thankfully for those with mortgages, they left on hold. The Commonwealth Bank and others anticipate the RBA will lower rates in November with others predicting a December rate drop. Banks have already started cutting rates on their term deposits.

Australian property prices continue to rise, with Australian property prices up 1.7% over the past 3 months and 7.6% over the past 12 months.

Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth are at their record highs.

Brisbane has now overtaken Melbourne as the 2nd most expensive city in Australia, with Adelaide and Perth to soon also overtake Melbourne.

In July, Sydney was up 0.3%, Brisbane up 1.1%, Adelaide up 1.8% and Perth up 2%. Perth is leading the charge with growth of 24.7% over the past year.

We are now starting to see more listings come to market, up 1% on this time last year.

Rental growth is slowing, however is still up 7.8% for the past 12 months.

Again, Perth and Regional WA is leading with the highest growth.

We are seeing an increase in lending to investors, however I suspect many of those are opting to continue to rent themselves (or rentvestors) or buying now with plans to move into that property at a later date.

First homebuyers comprise 29.2% of owner-occupier finance nationally.

As we approach spring, I expect to see house prices end the year higher, so if you are considering a property purchase, please get in touch.