It feels strange to finally say this, but one of the banks has banned lending to ‘foreign buyers’. I wonder if this is driven by the noise from buyers being ‘pushed out of the market’ or based on their risk mitigation practices, but AMP has now said ‘NO’.
It may be expressed as a sympathy for buyers but it could be more than that – it does send a strong message though.
There is still chatter about the potential end of negative gearing, pending the outcome of the election and due to this, there is speculation that the Auction Clearance Rate may be spurred on by this fear.
With Clearance rates staying high, there must be something to blame. As in, there MUST be something to blame, every outlet seems to NEED to have something to blame. Are you getting me?
The Clearance Rate was 73% by most reports with 599 properties listed for Auction which is still a high number of property. 402 were reported to have sold under the hammer and 43 withdrawn for whatever reason.
The BIG news was the median sale price for property that did sell which was high at $1,270,000 showing that there is not only a lot of property going to Auction, it is of a high calibre.
What is interesting, is that Sydney Auctions have now become a bit of a spectacle. With talk previously of Auctions not proving to be a solid indicator of where the market is, Some companies are now looking to expand their audience by broadcasting live Auctions.
I would say, eventually these ‘Live Auctions’ will become an income stream to certain outlets as they look to monetise the experience with either advertising, or admission.
We are all watching.
Once again, it is interesting to follow the market into the colder months and watching it tracking high – I guess there does need to be something else to blame because it is certainly not the weather.
Thomas Merriman.
Thomas Merriman 