Source: Ian Neil, McCarthy Durie Lawyers Although the issues concerned an Accountant's expert report in Queensland Supreme Court civil litigation1, the Court's consideration of the issues are no doubt relevant to experts' reports in the Planning & Environment Court and Land Court jurisdictions. Indeed, it is probably fair to say that many expert reports in those jurisdictions, possibly for reasons of complacency in instructions provided or the expert's frequent engagem...

Source:  Australian Property Journal AUCTION clearance rates and sale volumes have continued to decline as the market shows signs of cooling after a heated month of March. National Sale volumes dipped below the $1 billion mark on the weekend for the first time since 27 February when the market began to pick up in the lead up to Easter. According to Domain, there were 1,721 listings, 1,223 auctions and 981 sales were reported, resulting in a preliminary clearance rate of 80.2%. ...

Source:  CoreLogic The pace of capital gains across Australian housing markets has been close to record breaking, with the national growth rate in March the fastest since 1988. Such exuberant conditions have been driven by a multitude of factors including record low mortgage rates, a stunning surge in consumer confidence as the economic recovery beats expectations, a range of additional stimulus measures which have incentivised home buying and building, and persistently low adverti...

Source:  Australian Property Journal QUEENSLAND set its highest sales settlements since 2007 in the first quarter of the year, as confidence soars in the north-eastern property market. According to recent analysis by PEXA, national sale settlements in the first quarter were up 30% compared to the same period in the previous year, with nearly 200,000 properties being settled. In Queensland sales settlements were up 40% year-on-year, with 51,771 properties settled in the quarter.&n...

Source:  Brisbane Times Brisbane is booming as babies are born and southerners began to flee lockdowns for the Sunshine State's (usually) COVID-free lifestyle. Brisbane's population grew by 1.9 per cent during 2019-20, recording the highest growth rate of all capital cities, according to new Australian Bureau of Statistics data. ABS demography director Phil Browning said Brisbane was closely followed by Perth, with a population growth rate of 1.8 per cent. Third was Mel...

Source: First National Real Estate According to CoreLogic, Australian home values surged 2.1% higher in February; the largest month-on-month change in the national home value index since August 2003. A combination of record low mortgage rates, improving economic conditions, government incentives and a significant shortage of inventory has created a broad-based boom across the housing market nationally.

Values rose in every capital city, and throughout each state regionally, confirmin...

Source:  Corelogic Housing values continued to rise through the first month of 2021 with CoreLogic's national home value index up 0.9% over the month.  The January movement takes Australian home values to a fresh record high. Housing values have surpassed pre-COVID levels by 1.0%, and the index is 0.7% higher than the previous October 2017 peak. Every capital city and broad rest-of-state region recorded a rise in housing values over the month, ranging from a 2.3% surge acr...

Source:  REIQ With an unprecedented year, came an unprecedented rental market. From tight vacancy rates through to increased median rents, we conclude 2020 with a prediction that Australia will experience the largest rental boom in history. We delved into the latest Queensland Market Monitor to capture the top 2020 rental market insights and spoke to Propertyology Head of Research, Simon Pressley, to understand what we can expect in 2021. A 2020 WRAP UP Demand for rental properties h...

Source - Corelogic There has been a high level of interest as to whether the pandemic has spurred housing demand in regional markets of Australia. Housing market data is partially suggestive of this, especially across the largest capital cities. Rental value increases are positively correlated with greater distance from the CBD for the largest capital cities. The latest CoreLogic indices show growth across regional housing markets is higher than the capital cities in both quarterly and ...

Source:  Courier Mail A ban on immigration could make the next few months a great time to buy a house, with COVID-19 sparking conditions not seen in 40 years. A COVID-19 induced ban on immigration is set to see Australia hit a giant population slump, the likes of which we have not seen in four decades, according to market experts, Fitch Ratings. In a research note, Fitch Ratings predicted Australian house prices would fall by 5 to 10 per cent in the next 12 to 18 months as a resu...