Australian housing off the peaks: Pete Wargent
Pete WargentDecember 17, 2020
EXPERT OBSERVER
The latest available ABS figures show Australian capital city house and apartment prices 1.4 per cent below their December 2017 peak, albeit they've actually increased in Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, and Hobart.

One market - Sydney - did experience a wild buying frenzy in the first quarter of 2017, forcing some (required) action from the regulator, since which time house prices have declined by 4 per cent and apartment prices 3 per cent on the ABS index, with further declines set to follow in H2 2018.
I was an agog observer at some of those Q1 2017 Sydney auctions, and concluded at the time that the successful frenzied bidders could only be cash buyers or downsizers, as there's no way the bank vals could've passed otherwise.

Very few leveraged buyers would've bought in that narrow window before the froth was blown off, then, but if there's a cohort that will feel the pain of the market responding the tighter lending standards signal it's off-the-plan buyers of new CBD apartments.
Although not overly familiar with Western Sydney I also witnessed some wild prices being paid for weatherboard renovators and fibro shacks, although all that seems to have calmed down now.
PETE WARGENT is the co-founder of AllenWargent property buyers (London, Sydney) and a best-selling author and blogger.
Pete Wargent
Pete Wargent is the co-founder of BuyersBuyers.com.au, offering affordable homebuying assistance to all Australians, and a best-selling author and blogger.
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