Brisbane's housing affordability improves in June quarter for hard-strapped buyers: HIA

Nicola TrotmanAugust 27, 2013

The cyclical improvement in housing affordability has continued for buyers in the June 2013 quarter.

Housing affordability in Australia is 16.7% higher than it was in mid-2012, after an increase of 4.4% to 72.8%, according to HIA.

In the June 2013 quarter, the HIA-CBA Housing Affordability Index increased in all seven capital cities.

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The strongest quarterly increase occurred for Brisbane, with a rise of 10.4%.

Outside of the capital cities, affordability improved in the June 2013 quarter in all six non-metro regions.

The strongest quarterly increase was for regional Queensland with a rise of 9.6%.

“A synchronised increase across the capital cities and non-metro areas drove the further improvement in the June 2013 quarter,” says HIA chief economist Dr Harley Dale.

“These are certainly encouraging results for those entering the market at this time in the cycle,” says Dale.

Dale says the considerable reduction in interest rates is more than offsetting recent dwelling price increases.

“Current improvements in housing affordability do not represent structural shifts in Australia’s affordability, rather, they represent the dominant impact of cyclical changes in lending rates which will of course be prone to reversal at some point.

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“Genuine, structural improvements to affordability are contingent on a stock of housing supply that grows commensurately with the population and its housing needs,” says Dale.

Dale says the Federal Government needs to lead a policy reform in order to drive a sustained improvement to residential construction and to address the housing affordability challenge in Australia.

“A relative new house affordability advantage has emerged for Sydney and Western Australia in recent quarters.

“These are the areas of Australia where, not coincidentally, a clear new home building recovery is underway,” says Dale.

Nicola Trotman

With a penchant for the written word, Nicola has built a career doing just this – now Creative Director at thriving Melbourne-based PR agency, Greenpoint Media.

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