The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released its latest Construction Work Done figures for the December quarter. Not surprising, residential housing activity looks to have peaked and should soon begin to decline. Broadly speaking, it’s fair to say that the story we have been telling on house prices hitting the... Show More
On Tuesday the ABS released December quarter property price data revealing that established house prices across the nation's capitals fell by 5.5% throughout 2018, faster than any twelve month period - including during the GFC. Our wire in December (‘How far is housing from fair value?’) analysed a few different valuation... Show More
Let's take a step back from the monthly housing data and ask ourselves: What's happening in the market and are we seeing a bottom in prices - or are there further falls to come? Show More
Given the notable rise in residential values over recent years, the sector has drawn an increased amount of attention as a real estate investment class. Australia’s real estate sector as a whole has benefited from accommodative interest rates and strong population growth. Despite these similarities, the characteristics of the residential... Show More
Excess in the Australian housing market has been widely discussed by investors and commentators for a number of years. Underpinned by cheap money, house prices have risen significantly resulting in extreme valuations (house prices are nearly 9x average incomes). Show More
I distinctly remember one investor telling me how lonely he felt undertaking the task of running his super. Alone with lots of information and no one to speak with or use as a sounding board. I’d never really thought about it until this man described the challenges of making important... Show More
With the housing market continuing to make news, we examine nationwide house prices relative to changes in income, lending rates and a measure called ‘hypothetical borrowing power’, to assess how they compare to 'fair value'. Show More
Sydney property prices are now off more than 10% according to Corelogic data. While painful for property owners and investors, the effects go far wider than that. Speaking at a recent event held by IRESS and Livewire, Ben Griffiths from Eley Griffiths Group looked at the wider impact. The downturn has... Show More
As a provider of asset allocation advice to fund managers and advisors, Brad Matthews provides an expert view of the big picture for each asset class. Weeks before 'Red October', Brad gave Livewire readers an explicit early warning in his wire offering ‘Three reasons to lighten your equity exposure'. Show More
Asset quality is more than just an attractive building. Most properties are valuable because of something else entirely. Show More
With Labor tipped to win the next election, and franking credits in their sights, here are eight reasons we believe conservative investors looking for sustainable income over the long term should consider AREITs for their portfolios. Show More
If house prices are falling as rapidly as some headlines impute, can we expect this to impact AREIT investors? Let’s begin by looking at the facts, rather than the headlines. Housing demand and supply ebbs and flows. Because of the lower barriers to entry there’s often volatility in residential housing. Show More
The June property market became a little like the movie Groundhog Day, with repetitious news reports on conditions and auction outcomes along with an overall funk in the market that was hard to shake. Show More
In the last decade, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth have become home to an additional 3 million people*. The rate of growth is unlikely to abate, either. Infrastructure Australia estimates population growth of 11.8 million people over the next three decades, much of it focused on Sydney and Melbourne, the... Show More
A lot has been written about financial market volatility and the impact on investor sentiment. Volatile markets are characterised by wide price fluctuations and large trading volumes. Simply put, volatility is the amount of price change experienced over a given period. Low volatility means that a security's value does not... Show More
Australia remains a nation of car lovers. Some of us enjoy the engineering and craftsmanship, others have fond memories of lazy Sunday drives and long holiday road trips. In reality, many of us have little choice. Our low population density and poor public transport means most of us are car-dependent. Show More
Australian capital city home prices fell 0.2% in March, their fifth monthly fall in a row. This has brought annual growth down to 0.8% from 11.4% in May last year. Most of the recent weakness relates to Sydney and to a less extent Melbourne. Show More
Commercial and residential real estate developments in the United States are probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Hollywood and Hawaii. Show More
In my AFR column I explain the consequences of Labor leader Bill Shorten's proposed new taxes for shares, property and hybrids---it's worth noting that even the Greens appear to have a problem with the notion of king-hitting prudent retirees with the Greens' leader vocally criticising Shorten's desire to deny retirees... Show More
Labor leader Bill Shorten is certainly bold when it comes to assaulting the financial heartlands of Australian housing, equities and super. Show More