Victoria overtakes NSW, sitting second to Qld in distressed listings
Nationally advertised distressed property offerings are possibly on the decline.
The number of distressed sales in the March quarter was down by 25% on the same quarter in 2012, according to the Landmark White report.
The report noted residential project offerings were at "an untypically low 19% of the total," with the highest numbers of distressed listings in the March quarter coming in the agricultural sector, accounting for 23% of the total number, in part, as a number of farming aggregations were being broken up and sold off individually by receivers.
The latest mortgagee rural sale is the 5440-hectare Goondiwindi Queensland offering, the irrigation stations, Mobandilla and Kingumbilla (pictured below) which has a May 23 expressions of interest closing date through Ray White Rural.
Across the other sectors industrial and leisure offerings sat at 16% and retail at 15% in the Landmark White report.
As usual the smallest number was provided by the office sector, with only 4% of the nationally advertised receiver sales.
Over the full 12-month period, the residential sector (mainly development opportunities) suffered from a higher ratio of receivers’ listings than any other - with almost one in two (48%) assets in distress when it came to nationwide sales marketing campaigns collated by LMW.
The vast majority of receivers’ stocks advertised for sale were in regional (80%) rather than metropolitan (20%) areas, in the quarter which wasn't that dissimilar to the full year split at 78% to 22%.
For the fourth time in six quarters, more than 50% of all distressed nationally advertised listings were in Queensland, with the Sunshine State making up 54% of the national total during the first quarter of 2013 and 53% across the last 12 months.
The New South Wales share of distressed listings fell significantly in the March quarter; accounting for only 9% of the total, versus 22% across the full year.
The growing share of receiver sales found in Victoria continued in 2013, as 15% of all advertisements placed by receivers and mortgagees were located in the Garden State in the March quarter. This was up from 11% in the December 2012 quarter and 10% in the year to date.
New South Wales had the the most positive change, as only 7% of all properties advertised in that state were listed by a receiver or mortgagee - a record low. By comparison, the proportion in the same quarter of 2012 was 31% and the next lowest was 17% in the September quarter of 2012.
Although the distressed ratio in Queensland dropped by 6%, the report noted it remains stubbornly high at 39% of all advertisements. Victoria saw the smallest improvement in the distressed ratio, with a drop from 20% to 19%, which meant that for the first time in the series, Victoria had a higher ratio than New South Wales.
The report noted the overall national distressed ratio was at its equal lowest of the past 18 months, at 23%.
"Both of which are certainly positive indicators," the Landmark White report noted.
However they noted with just 343 properties advertised for sale (distressed or otherwise), there were fewer new listings in the March 2013 quarter than during any time in the series so far.
They also noted the first quarter of the year was typically quieter than the other quarters due to the Christmas break.
The low number of distressed sales nationally – listed by either a mortgagee, receiver or liquidator –surprised the LMW research manager Ross Horsley, who compiles the data using sales advertisements listed in the national commercial property press.
But Mr Horsley suggests anecdotal evidence suggested that a lot of distressed property remained on banks’ books.
