We hope lockdown hasn’t been too bad for everyone, but we have some news from the week that might be of interest to you.
There has been a lot of focus on rental market prices this week as they’ve surged along with the real estate housing boom. Rents have grown at their greatest pace in 12 years! According to CoreLogic’s national rent index, national rents have reached their highest annual growth since 2009, having risen 6.6% in the 12 months to June 20.
This figure has been driven further up by regional rents experiencing their largest annual rise ever with an amazing 11.3% growth.
In the capitals, the figure is half of that of regional Australia but has still reported a 5% increase in annual growth.
If renting isn’t what interests you and you’re looking to sell a property, we here at It’s Simple Finance found something interesting about auction days. Most people would assume that a Saturday morning is the best day for an auction but according to Ray White, auctions held on Tuesdays at 5pm attract the most buyers at 5.9 bidders per auction. This is well over the average 3.2 bidders per auction.
This doesn’t always translate to a higher clearance rate, however. According to Ray White, the best day for clearance rates is actually Friday at 1pm. This time slot has the highest clearance rate of 91.2%, with Saturday at 8am comes in a close second at 90.5%.
For business owners, however, the news is not great. Consumer spending has been declining since June, even before the Sydney lockdown. For June, consumer spending fell 1.8% overall with the main falls being felt in Melbourne (-3.5% due to lockdown at beginning of June) and Sydney (-2% as social distancing measures were put in place at the end of June). All industries except food retailing saw sales fall in June.
It isn’t all bad news according to a senior economist at ANZ, Catherine Birch, who said, “It’s important to note that consumer confidence is still a lot stronger now than it was at the worst of the pandemic last year, or even during the extended lockdown in Victoria last year. So confidence is still not too far below the long-run average. History does show that as soon as restrictions start to ease we should see confidence rebound pretty quickly.”
For those businesses struggling here is a friendly reminder of the grants available to you. Business owners can receive a minimum of $1,500 per week and a maximum of $10,000 per week. Sole traders and anyone without employees will receive a set of $1,000 per week.
Micro-businesses earning more than $30,000 but less than $75,000 will receive a backdated $ 1,500-fortnight payment from week one of the lockdown if they have seen a 30% reduction in turnover.
Please check out the government website to check what size grant you are eligible for.
For workers, anyone who was working over 20 hours a week before lockdown can receive $500 to $600 per week. Anyone who worked less than 20 hours a week can receive $375 per week.
To check if you are eligible and apply for these loans click here.
