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First-home buyers

November

Home ownership rates have fallen to historic lows, and individuals without access to the Bank of Mum and Dad are finding it increasingly difficult to get a mortgage.

Tweak lending rules to tilt the scales for first home buyers

Reforms to prudential regulation will be a solution for many Millennials and Gen Zs missing out on the Australian dream.

  • Andrew Bragg
It’s an upgrader’s market with softer prices and more properties on offer.

Upgraders dominate the housing market as prices slow

People seeking bigger and better properties have edged out first home aspirants as the most active buyers for the first time this year, valuers say.

  • Nila Sweeney
Affluent niche: sales of apartments targeting downsizers are booming.

The suburbs where apartment price growth is blitzing houses

Unit values are rising faster than houses in almost two out of three suburbs nationwide as housing affordability worsens.

  • Updated
  • Nila Sweeney

High-income households locked out of half of the housing market

The latest data shows an income of $172,000 is only enough to buy half of the homes on offer in Australia. Four years ago, it would buy 80 per cent of the market.

  • Updated
  • Nila Sweeney
The two-bedroom, ground-floor apartment with no car parking at 2/1 Brookfield Court in Melbourne’s Hawthorn East sold by private treaty for $523,000.

TikTok video sells $523,000 unit, avoiding fees for official listing

A social media walk-through gave potential buyers a real feel for this apartment, without the gloss – or cost to vendor – of advertising on a property portal.

  • Michael Bleby
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October

Major banks have split on prudential policy settings.

Banking regulator rejects calls to cut home loan interest rate buffer

APRA chairman John Lonsdale has hit back at the Australian Banking Association at a parliamentary hearing on Friday.

  • James Eyers

CBA, Westpac split with other big banks and back borrowing rules

The country’s largest home lenders say that the current buffers, which make it more difficult for first home buyers to access loans, are a prudent safety net.

  • Lucas Baird and James Eyers
The lobby group for the banks says a lower serviceability buffer will allow first-time buyers to borrow more.

Calls to reduce 3pc home loan bank buffer test

The Australian Banking Association says more people will be able to access the property market if the prudential regulator is more flexible.

  • James Eyers and John Kehoe
Mortgage brokers say NSW payroll tax claims will impact access to finance for first time buyers.

Mortgage brokers go to war with NSW over tax grab

Moves by the state to levy payroll tax on aggregators connecting mortgage brokers with lenders will force some of them to quit the industry.

  • James Eyers

Why nobody’s biting in these buyers’ markets

Buying conditions have dramatically improved, but buyers are shunning markets that are oversupplied with investor units from the last boom.

  • Nila Sweeney

September

Something’s got to give: But quick-fix measures to boost housing construction will only push up prices, industry figures warn.

Why Australia’s home-building outlook just got worse

As the country struggles to increase production of new housing, the minister responsible says the federal government will play a more active role.

  • Michael Bleby

Why spring property is turning in favour of Sydney buyers

For the first time in years, house buyers have an edge. The fear or missing out has eased with prices moderating in Sydney and falling In Melbourne.

August

The two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with car park at 12/20-24 The Parade in inner-western Sydney’s Russell Lea sold at auction for $1,063,000.

The $1m apartment downsizers wouldn’t touch

It had stairs – lots of stairs – faced south and needed a ton of work. But first home buyers fought hard for it.

  • Michael Bleby

The Sydney suburbs where rents are falling

Asking rents have fallen in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. It’s not the end of the rental crisis but could mean the worst increases are over.

  • Nila Sweeney
The two-bedroom, semidetached home on 158 square metres at 12 Redmond Street in inner-western Sydney’s Leichhardt sold by private treaty for $1.43 million.

Vendor goes for ‘bird in hand’ to sell terrace for $1.43m

In a market with two camps of buyers, those on the rebound are acting faster than those thinking the market might slow more.

  • Michael Bleby
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Lendi’s data showed that it took a big four bank about 20 days to discharge a mortgage.

Investor borrowing picks up to a two-year high

Vacancy rates have risen and rent growth is slowing, but Australia’s tight housing market is attracting investors, especially as confidence about interest rates grows.

  • Michael Bleby

July

The three-bedroom, single-garage townhouse at 7/72-78 Flora Street in southern Sydney’s Kirrawee sold before auction for $1,281,000.

First home buy costs $1.28 million – and 858km

Affordability is pushing rookie property purchasers to look more widely than before. But they’re often also older, and have more money to spend.

  • Michael Bleby

June

Not just severely unaffordable but now ‘impossibly’ so: Sydney is the world’s second-least affordable city for housing, according to the latest Demographia report.

‘Impossibly unaffordable’ housing a social risk: report

The level of housing price relative to incomes poses an “existential” risk and demands a rethink of urban growth boundaries, a new global report says.

  • Michael Bleby

This council is mulling doubling rates for landlords

A Greens-led Melbourne council is mulling charging landlords rates four times higher than owner-occupiers to help more first home buyers into the market.

  • Gus McCubbing
More for buyers: SA Treasurer Stephen Mullighan, left.

SA removes stamp duty for first home buyers on all new builds

The pre-budget announcement is a concession that soaring house prices have sabotaged the effectiveness of last year’s more modest exemption.

  • Michael Bleby

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/first-home-buyers-1mri