Happy New Financial Year! We hope that tax time is not proving to be too tedious for you and you’re looking forward to getting a great tax refund this year. We’ve had loads of refinance and investment related queries lately, so this month’s newsletter is focused on property investment.

First, let’s start with the interest rate situation. At its July meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to keep the official cash rate on hold at 2.0 per cent. This decision was widely expected by analysts and we should be able to look forward to stable interest rates for the remainder of the year. However, the situation in Greece is affecting global markets and we will have to wait and see how this influences the RBA with regard to our monetary policy moving forward.

Winter is here and property markets around the country have slowed as a result. Even the Melbourne and Sydney markets are showing significantly reduced auction numbers. However, the combined capital city clearance rate was still 78.1 per cent, which was the strongest result since the beginning of June, showing us that property buyers are still in the market and activity is still quite high for this time of year.

Around the country, there were only 1,273 reported auctions last week, mostly due to the winter weather in southern/eastern states and school holidays. This compares to 2,249 auctions the week prior, so you can see how much market activity has slowed.

Sydney held the highest number of auctions at 566 recorded results, with a clearance rate of 84.5 per cent which is very high. Melbourne followed with 527 auctions with a clearance rate of 76.7 per cent. The next highest number of auctions was Brisbane which held 74 auctions with a clearance rate of 68.9 per cent, then Adelaide with 57 auctions and a clearance rate of 75.4 per cent. Perth held just 20 auctions with a clearance rate of 20 per cent. Canberra held 57 auctions with a clearance rate of 75 per cent.

Home values are up across the board for all capital cities, except for Perth and Darwin. Sydney home values were up by 2.75 per cent over last month and up by 16.23 per cent over this time last year. Melbourne is also doing very well, with home values rising by 2.92 per cent over the last month and 10.24 per cent over this time last year.

As expected, growth in other markets has been slower, but quite steady in most cases. Brisbane/Gold Coast home values were up by 1.76 per cent for the month and 3.51 per cent for the year. Adelaide was up by 0.39 per cent for the month and 4.46 per cent for the year. Canberra home values were up by 0.58 per cent for the month and 2.44 per cent for the year and Hobart home values were up by 1.79 per cent for the month and 0.85 per cent for the year.

Perth’s home values were down by 0.35 per cent for the month and 0.86 per cent for the year and Darwin showed a decline in home values of 3.93 per cent for the month and 2.93 per cent for the year. Reference CoreLogic.

Auction number projections are showing that property market activity should increase again after the school holiday period has ended. So if you’re in the market to purchase a property, now is a good time to talk to us. The start of the new financial year is also a great time to get your annual home-loan-health-check, so please give us a call today.