Across the suburbs, they’re lining up for home inspections.
With COVID-19 restrictions, only a handful are allowed in at a time.
The queues, for units in particular, stretch down the stairwells and spill outside.
In some regional areas, particularly coastal locales, the situation has reached fever pitch.
Prices in some areas are up by more than a third in the space of a year as cashed up buyers fleeing the cities head for the country with dreams of permanently working from home.
Regional prices rose 1.6 per cent in January, more than double that of the main capital cities.
Auction clearance rates are hurtling towards a perfect score in some cities.
Canberra recently clocked up clearances in excess of 90 per cent while Sydney has pushed way above 80 per cent; rates that indicate extremely tight conditions.
When Corelogic tallied the final numbers on Friday, the previous weekend’s national auction clearance rate hit a six year high at 79.3 per cent.
The preliminary results from Saturday indicate an even stronger performance at more than 86 per cent.
A fortnight ago, Australian real estate prices lurched back into record territory — and there is no end in sight.
With interest rates locked in at a whisker above zero — and with Reserve Bank assurances they’ll stay put for the next four years — it’s little wonder buyers are scrambling for a piece of the action.
Add in the imminent removal of responsible lending laws and the stage is set for a sustained real estate boom.
Even accounting for the hyperbole usually employed by the industry, this note dropped into your diarist’s inbox over the weekend from a local agent summed it all up.
“In my 25 years of working in the industry, conditions have never been stronger.”
Nothing to see here
In ordinary circumstances, we’d be at the point where a rational Reserve Bank governor would be expressing concerns, perhaps even warning would-be home buyers that prices don’t always rise, and that caution is warranted in such a frenzied environment.
Behind the scenes, you’d expect contingency plans being formulated on how to deflate the real estate bubble without hurting the broader economy.
Not this time. Instead, our monetary mandarins are doing the opposite. They’re stepping aside, more than happy to let prices rip.
“There’s a lot of focus at the moment on the fact that housing prices are rising again, and the stock market has been strong,” RBA Governor Philip Lowe said recently.
“Well, the national house price index today is where it was four years ago … and the equity market, we’re back to where we were at…
Go to the news source: Why Australia’s property prices will continue to soar
