It seems that COVID hasn’t managed to slow down the property market one bit as Australian house prices are rising at their fastest rate in more than 17 years. According to CoreLogic, prices increased a further 1.6% across the whole of Australia, which means that there has been a 16.1% increase over the past year. This is the fastest annual growth in house prices since Feb 2004.
CoreLogic research director Time Lawless said that buyer demand has been stoked by the record low interest rates and the possibility that those interest rates will stay that way for quite some time.
Lawless continued, “With buyer demand so strong and active listings well below average, prospective buyers are likely feeling a sense of urgency due to the level of competition in the market.”
While Sydney did experience a reduction in prices with monthly capital gain falling from 3.7% in March to 2% in July, the annual growth rate is still at 18.2%.
In Melbourne, house prices lifted 1.3% in July, making it 10.4% higher than July last year.
Brisbane saw prices rise by 2% in July, making it 15.9% higher over the past 12 months.
Surprisingly, Darwin recorded the highest annual growth rate of 23.4%.
Overall, it should be no surprise that house prices are rising faster than unit prices. House prices are up 18.4% over 12 months to July while unit prices have only risen 8.7%.
Remember, if you are a worker and have lost 20 hours or more of work, you will receive $750 a week instead of $600. If you have lost less than 20 hours of work, then you will receive $450 instead of $375. These new adjustments mean that the new amounts match the original JobKeeper scheme.
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 payment 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.
