This Month
- Updated
- Home loans
CBA’s Comyn backs APRA’s mortgage buffer rules amid intense criticism
The chief executive of the country’s biggest lender said critics – who say the regulations make loans unattainable – were looking for an easy but ineffective fix.
- Updated
- Michael Read and Lucas Baird
- Analysis
- Home loans
Buffer or blocker? Why APRA’s serviceability rule is so controversial
CBA boss Matt Comyn has defended APRA’s prudential settings from political attacks, saying housing policy must focus on supply.
- James Eyers
September
Jose was priced out of his inner-city home. So were 16,000 others
KPMG data shows rising costs are squeezing out much-needed workers from Sydney and Melbourne’s most sought-after suburbs.
- Campbell Kwan
Rail loop is housing, not just infrastructure: Labor
Pollsters say the Victorian government’s more explicit linking of the Suburban Rail Loop to its tackling of the housing crisis is a savvy but overdue political move.
- Gus McCubbing
Blame WFH – not foreign students – for the housing shortage
The major driver of Australia’s rental shortage is not a surge in foreign students, but a sharp rise in households with spare rooms and home offices, experts say.
- Michael Read
Apartments will boost housing numbers – if they’re viable
Conditions are improving and developers are dusting off plans and preparing new projects. But it’s not yet clear if they will all go ahead.
- Michael Bleby
This is why a Sydney unit costs $240k more to build than in 2018
It now costs 36 per cent more to build an average apartment in Sydney than it did in 2018, the NSW Productivity Commission has found. Here are three reasons why.
- Campbell Kwan
Angry about the lack of new home builds? Here’s what’s to blame
The state’s Productivity Commission has urged state and federal governments to stop spending so much money on public works to free up the construction industry.
- Campbell Kwan
- Exclusive
- NSW residential property
NSW declares it is not done on reforms to ease housing shortage
The state has already made significant changes allowing more dense developments. Now it wants to cut out complicated and often conflicting approvals processes.
- Campbell Kwan
- Exclusive
- Housing affordability
Lose ‘wedding cake’ look and build more flats: architects
Top architects including Nightingale boss Dan McKenna, Kerstin Thompson and Andrew Maynard say Victoria’s housing crisis means planning priorities must change.
- Gus McCubbing
‘More for a second-hand toothbrush’: Why EVs are on the nose
The most commonly held concerns about buying an electric vehicle related to upfront cost, charging facilities, and deterioration.
- Gus McCubbing
August
- Exclusive
- Off-the-plan market
NRL superstar tackles developer over off-the-plan homes letdown
Tom Trbojevic, known as Tommy Turbo, said he was devastated that his parents were now priced out of their dream home because of a loophole in conveyancing laws.
- Campbell Kwan
How long it takes workers in common jobs to save for a home deposit
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says the Greens and the Coalition are blocking crucial legislation federally, but the states could do more to ease the situation.
- Updated
- Tom McIlroy
Plan for 25,000 homes on racecourse site a ‘fantasy’: inquiry
Peter V’landys and Mark Latham clashed in a fiery hearing as the Australian Turf Club blamed a “high Indian population” for declining Rosehill racecourse crowds.
- Gus McCubbing
Deals in build-to-rent market ready for lift-off, says US giant
Build-to-rent housing is potentially a big contributor in efforts to plug the country’s chronic housing shortfall which has sent rents skyrocketing.
- Nick Lenaghan
Greens prepared to be flexible on housing demands
The Greens say their demands to curb the CGT exemptions and negative gearing deductions are not a condition of their support for housing bills in the Senate
- Phillip Coorey
July
Trim mortgage ‘risk weights’ to help first home buyers: Barrenjoey
Barrenjoey called on APRA to allow banks to reduce mortgage “risk weightings” for first-time borrowers and for ASIC to drop HECS debt from responsible lending.
- James Eyers
How building codes are crunching affordability
Energy efficiency demands and stringent accessibility rules are increasing the cost of building homes by tens of thousands of dollars.
- James Hall
Remote work fuelling higher housing costs: BIS
Housing inflation is proving particularly tough to tame, as landlords pass on rising mortgage rates to tenants and working from home adds to demand.
- Michael Read
- Exclusive
- Property survey
High costs choke supply of new homes: property experts
The cost of construction in capital cities has risen at a faster clip than house price growth, making it less economical to build new dwellings.
- Nick Lenaghan