Weekly Property Market update - August 6, 2018
By | 5th Aug 18

Your weekly Property update by award winning Buyer’s Agent Frank Valentic

Melbourne’s property market continued its consistent performance with a 60% clearance rate from 464 auctions, although there were a number of passed in auctions that our Buyer Advocates attended over weekend.  Melbourne prices have become unaffordable over this last six-year housing cycle and a recent study showed that 29% of people are now renting compared to 24% back in 2001.

This is demonstrating that more people are unable to secure the great Australian dream of owning their own property and are in rental accommodation instead.

There has definitely been a slowdown in the investor market as investor loans were down 27.5% compared to late 2014, prior to APRA tightening their lending criteria. This has become much harder for investors to get funds to purchase investment properties and they are also paying higher rates. It has had a negative effect on our investors as well as the broader investor market. 

The government is proposing to make 130 amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act in Victoria in Parliament this week. The REIV and agents and many other property groups are opposing the changes which be unbalanced towards tenants and landlords will be very much disadvantaged by these changes.

See the proposed changes below and an online petition that can be signed to oppose these changes;

https://reiv.com.au/news/library/news-policy/media-release-reiv-to-fight

Petition: 'Rentfair' is unfair

It was exciting to see The Block start again for the 10th Melbourne series and we look forward to being involved in our 10th consecutive series.  This renovation will definitely transform that end of Fitzroy Street which has become quite slow in the retail trade and we have seen many closedowns in restaurants. We feel sorry for The Gatwick hotel residents that are no longer able to live there, but The Block will definitely have a positive effect on the retail and property markets in the area.