Mine town property still stars

QUEENSLAND'S mining towns still dominate property values with staggering growth, but it's the cheap and cheerful suburbs which have performed best in suburban Brisbane.

Mining towns Dysart and Moranbah top the statewide list for growth in house prices, with medians rising a monster 3992 per cent and 1919 per cent cent between 2002 and 2012.

Homes in Ipswich suburbs featured strongly among the best performers in the Brisbane statistical division.

According to RP Data figures, the change in median house prices in Willowbank, about 55km southwest of Brisbane, between 2002 and 2011 was 339 per cent.

Other strong performers were Darra and Carole Park, where medians rose 292 per cent and 290 per cent respectively.

Many of the suburbs to record strong median house price growth over the 10-year period were in outlying suburbs and still had relatively affordable median house prices.

In the unit market, towns close to the mining action once again did the best with Gladstone, Woree and Gladstone City topping the list.

In the Brisbane region, it was once again the outer western suburbs which performed well. Redbank Plains had the highest growth in its median unit price - up 398 per cent.

RP Data research director Tim Lawless told a Realestate masterclass this week that the Brisbane market was underperforming but starting to head in the right direction.

"Transaction volumes remain well below average,'' he said.

Source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/realestate/buying/mine-town-property-still-stars/story-fndbpo91-1226510606148

First-home buyers in severe mortgage stress

ALMOST a fifth of first-home buyers are facing the prospect of losing their homes within months, according to an alarming new survey.

The Australian Mortgage Stress Analysis of 26,000 households found the number of young people in severe mortgage stress is set to escalate, with countless families at risk of being driven by lenders to sell their homes.

Almost 16 per cent of the nation's first-home buyers are in severe mortgage stress. Those in Tasmania are leading the crisis with 17.2 per cent falling behind in repayments, being driven to refinance or pressured by banks to sell. This was closely followed by Northern Territory (17 per cent), New South Wales and South Australia (both 16. 4 per cent), Victoria and Queensland (both 16 per cent), ACT (15.2 per cent ), and Western Australia (14.4)

Rising household costs and budget mismanagement are the key precursors landing first-home buyers on struggle street at such alarming rates, according to research firm Digital Finance Analytics (DFA), which conducted the report.

DFA director Martin North said half the first-home buyer households canvassed in the nationwide survey had no proper budget formulated to cope with expenses.

"They don't know what their incomes are or their outgoings are and they don't have the money to maintain their lifestyles," Mr North said.

Credit card use was the highest among first home buyers, the survey found.

"Most people don't realise that the average loan size is twice as big as it was in 2005 so many people are still mortgaged to the hilt,'' DFA director Martin North said.

"The second driver is that overall costs of living are still going up but especially for middle suburban Australians.''

The number of suburban homes in the severe mortgage stress category will rise by 4000 from 43,600 by June 30 next year, the survey shows.

The findings come after Australia's largest financial comparison website, ratecity.com.au, has seen an increase in high loan-to-value ratio loans which appeal to those with smaller deposits.

The number of home loans offering higher LVRs rose to three per cent of all home loans in the past two months - the highest level since August 2011.

There are also fewer loans requiring buyers to have amassed 20 per cent of the value of the property.

The proportion of 80 per cent loans fell from 8 per cent last month to 6 per cent of all mortgages - the lowest proportion since January.

The figures come as banks are under increasing pressure to find more home loan customers, with bureau of statistics figures showing 35 per cent of all housing loans written in the past 12 months were borrowers refinancing their existing mortgages with another lender.

Last month, a study by Fitch Ratings, the credit ratings agency, found Queensland remained the worst-performing state for mortgage defaults, while sea-change areas and first-home buyer belts in New South Wales were also at worryingly high levels.

The worst-performing suburbs in Australia, judged by the value of mortgage-holders behind in their repayments, are Nelson Bay (NSW), Hoxton Park (NSW), Surfers Paradise (Qld), Eagle Vale (NSW), Budgewoi (NSW), Arncliffe (NSW), Rooty Hill (NSW), Cessnock (NSW) and Helensvale (Qld).

Queensland has six out of the 10 struggling regions led by Ipswich, Gold Coast east and west, Logan City, Caboolture Shire and the Sunshine Coast.

Eleven of the 20 worst performing suburbs are in NSW, seven of them in western Sydney.

Source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/realestate/first-time-buyers-at-risk-of-home-loss/story-fncv6x1p-1226477993222

Real estate market shows recovery signs

Home buyers are expected to become more active over the next three years as conditions in the property market improve, a report says.

The Residential Property Prospects, 2012 to 2015 report from economic forecaster BIS Shrapnel says NSW and the resource-rich states of Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory are already showing signs of recovery.

However, the rest of the country - Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory - will lag behind because of what the report says is an emerging excess of housing.

BIS Shrapnel senior manager Angie Zigomanis said the number of first-home buyers in the market, which fell after the temporary boost to the federal government's first-home owners' grant ended, were slowly returning to normal levels.

Mr Zigomanis said lower interest rates and more overseas migrants coming to live in Australia were also indications that some of the negative factors that pushed house prices down in 2010 and 2011 were beginning to turn around.

"The recovery is expected to eventually gain traction through 2013 as continued growth in resource investment spending eventually flows through to other sectors of the economy," Mr Zigomanis said in a statement.

"With the local economic and employment outlook becoming more positive, and some stabilisation and improvement overseas, purchasers are forecast to wade back into the market in greater numbers, translating to greater sales volumes and a pick-up in price growth over 2013/14 and into 2014/15."

Perth and Brisbane were forecast to record the highest growth in median house prices over the next three years at 22 per cent and 20 per cent respectively, with Sydney just behind at 17 per cent and Darwin at 15 per cent.

This compared with a forecast nine per cent increase for Adelaide, five per cent for Hobart, three per cent for Melbourne, and just one per cent for Canberra.

Source: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/-/national/14029272/real-estate-market-shows-recovery-signs/