EDWARD Chancellor, the man who predicted the global credit led economic downturn in 2007, has referred to Australia as being amidst an “unsustainable housing bubble” with values potentially more than 50 per cent above their fair market value.

Mr Chancellor, who is employed by US investment bank GMO, said Australia is in the middle of a once-in-a-40 year event, adding the bubble could burst at any time.

“If house prices were to revert to their historic long-term average (ratio of average price to average income) they would fall quite considerably,” Mr Chancellor said of values.

THE see-saw property market that is Perth, may be set for another battering.

A week after a controversial super-tax threatens to end many West Australian mining projects, comes news office rents in the city have collapsed 27.4 per cent over the past year.

Average rents are now $696 per square metre, per annum, according to CB Richard Ellis, which issued the report on occupancy cost drops across 176 global markets.

OFFICE vacancy levels across Australia have increased to a five-year high, but some markets are performing much better than others.

The latest Property Council of Australia Office Market Report, which measures stock and vacancy levels for major office markets (like North Sydney, the Sunshine Coast, and the Melbourne CBD), reports the national vacancy level rose to 8 per cent.

A flood of new office stock totalling 560,000 is set to be developed in major office markets over the next six months – making it the biggest office building boom since 1992 (when vacancy in some office markets surged over 25 per cent).

LAST year was the weakest year for rental growth since 2002, and the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, according to a new report by Australian Property Monitors.

The latest APM report shows a 2 per cent national increase for rents, down on the rate of 12 per cent, during the “boom” 2007 and 2008 conditions.

The winding down of the first home buyers grant, better employment prospects, strong house price growth and low vacancy rates will all contribute to a stronger year for rental growth in 2010, The Australian reports.

VENDORS have many reasons why they should give themselves as much time as possible to prepare their outgoing houses for sale.

As well as allowing enough time to properly repair niggling interior and exterior works, there may be legal or title issues that need to be resolved; a big structural problem might take longer to fix than first anticipated; or plans to subdivide your block, or obtain a development permit to attract the interest of developers, might take time to co-ordinate.

Alternatively, your choice of decor, or garden, could risk turning buyers off and might need to be redesigned.

FIGURES released this week by the Housing Industry Association show Victoria’s biggest builders have managed to increase their market share despite the bleak economic backdrop.
 
The HIA said of the 41,818 home starts in Victoria for the 2008-2009 financial year, the state’s biggest 20 builders built 13,282 dwellings, compared with 11,727 dwellings in the previous year, when a similar number of new homes were constructed.

The HIA said Victoria’s top 20 builders now have a 32 per cent share of the market, compared to 28 per cent last year.

Australia’s largest builders have grabbed a bigger share of the new home market thanks to the tripling of the First Home Owner Grant.

Despite a 6.5 per cent slide in new home starts by the largest builders, the rest of the market fell by a much harder 17 per cent, enabling the HOUSING 100 to boost their dwelling starts to 38 per cent of Australia-wide commencements in 2008-09, up from 34 per cent the previous year.

HOUSE hunting is about to become a lot easier, after internet giant Google launched a free property listing service for property sales and leases.

The new feature aggregates listings from real estate agents, and other people marketing their homes, and displays them as pins on Google maps. Web users can enter details such as property type, number of bedrooms, and price, and then search using an interactive map.

Findings from a Macquarie Direct Property financial adviser survey released this week, show commercial property in Europe will present the best growth opportunity for property investors in 2007.

A suburb from each of the city, coast and country was represented in the list of Victorian suburbs, to record the strongest growth in property values last year.