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Industry Market Wrap

Friday, August 14, 2009

This week we saw three key data releases that all suggested the Australian residential property market should continue to provide modest improvements over the coming months. Housing finance commitments again trended up, with the value of housing loans taken out in June at their highest level since June 2007. Investor activity is also ramping up, with investors now comprising one quarter of housing finance commitments. Both business confidence and consumer confidence also continued to rise with both indicators now above the all important 100 point mark where optimists outweigh pessimists. Consumer confidence is now at its highest level in two years. Business confidence hasn’t been this high for almost two years.

This new data falls in line with rpdata.com information which shows the national weighted average auction clearance rate is nudging 80 per cent and property values have increased by 4.5 per cent over the first half of 2009 according to the RP Data-Rismark Home Value Indices. Other leading indicators from rpdata.com are suggesting the market will remain healthy. The national ‘vendor discount’ (the average difference between the original listing price and final selling price) has fallen from 6.8 per cent last year to just 5.5 percent and the average number of days on market is down to 35 days (47 days at the same time last year).

Many prospective vendors have been holding their property off the market until selling conditions improve. We are now seeing a higher level of vendor confidence and surging agent activity on rpdata.com. One of the most important leading indicators is the number of CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) reports being produced at rpdata.com. On average, a property is sold within two months after the first CMA report is conducted. The last month has seen a record number of CMA reports conducted by real estate agents on rpdata.com. The surge in CMA reports suggests the market is already gearing up for what is likely to be a very active spring selling season this year.

- RP Data Property Pulse

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