Australians Borrow Less for Second Successive Month: ABS
HIGHER interest rates, and a winding-down of government grants for new homes, have contributed to a contraction of housing finance, for the second successive month in November, 2009 (released January 2010).
Strong population growth, pent-up demand, and re-interest in real estate, by investors, is expected to result in the RBA increasing interest rates when it meets next month – making it an unprecedented fourth straight interest rate rise since late last year.
It’s been speculated interest rates could rise between 1 and 3 per cent this year.
According to the recent ABS statistics, the number of housing finance approvals fell 5.6 per cent (seasonally adjusted) in November from October.
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ST KILDA West’s prominent “Pamela Anderson House” (pictured, right) has been relisted for private sale at $1.62 million after failing to sell after an Expression of Interest campaign that closed in mid-November.
MOSMAN, in Sydney, ranked as the suburb to record the highest dollar value of sales in the year to July 2010 – almost $851 million.
Sydney-based developer EG Funds Management has lodged plans to replace a rundown Kensington wool store (pictured, right) with a major residential village.
ACCORDING to the latest Shopping Centre News survey 2010, the Northbridge Plaza on Sydney’s north shore is the country’s best performer based on turnover per square metre.
SYDNEY based developer has opened its Stockland Highlands Shopping Centre in the outer northern Melbourne suburb of Craigieburn.
THE Reserve Bank of Australia has given mortgage holders an early Christmas present, by increasing interest rates just 0.25 per cent this week.
SIX developers have been selected out of 17 applications to redevelop the first stage of Sydney’s Barangaroo.
THE director of Australia’s largest, independent, residential land developer – Nigel Satterley – has been appointed by the Property Councl of Australia to head the divisions Residential Development Council.
THE biggest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere is about to undergo its highest profile redevelopment, some 51 years after it opened (pictured, right).
TWO major homemaker centres in east coast Australia have sold for a combined $87.5 million.
IT was designed to replace an eyesore – but Melbourne’s high profile Federation Square site, across from the Flinders Street station, has been dubbed one of the 10 ugliest buildings in the world, according to a Virtual Tourist report.
SURFERS Paradise’s Marriott Resort & Spa Hotel has sold to Indonesia’s Rajawali Group for about $75 million.
AFTER retaining it for five years, the Australian Unity Investments’ Healthcare Property Trust has sold an inner-city medical complex in a prime residential area to a syndicate of private investors.
AUSTRALAND has unveiled plans for its $160 million Kangaroo Point apartment project in Brisbane.
EXECUTIVES met at a big pile of dirt in the Sydney CBD, to mark the site which will become that city’s next major skyscraper.
THE state government’s development arm is poised to seize control of a highly-anticipated infill site within a south-eastern suburb that may soon have its own skyline.
A PROBLEMATIC city development site with a permit sold after auction on Thursday for an as-yet undisclosed price.
FORMER aged care facility Shalom Lodge is the victim of the medium-density apartment boom taking place around Kew, about six kilometres east of town.
ABACUS Property Group has reaped $78 million from the sale of 343 George Street, Sydney.
QUEENSLAND’s Bligh Government has identified Brisbane including Chermside, Indooroopilly and Cleveland as “high density development” areas, as part of a plan to stop urban sprawl.
ONE of the inner-city’s most distinctive art deco commercial buildings – on a gateway site connecting West Melbourne to the CBD – will be retained and form the entrance of a major apartment skyscraper.
FORMER AFL footballer Wayne Carey has listed for sale a newly built Broadbeach Waters mansion he was to have occupied with his ex-girlfriend.
A PENTHOUSE within Harry Seidler’s Sydney CBD apartment tower, The Cove, has hit the market with price expectations of about $15 million.
QUEENSLAND’s Dunk Island, and the smaller Bedarra Island nearby, have been sold to humanitarian group McCall MacBain Foundation for an undisclosed sum. 
THE massive Springvale Homemaker Centre has opened in Melbourne’s outer-south east.
DEE Why’s Grand Shopping Centre in Sydney has sold to a private investor for $68 million.
VICTORIAN planning minister Matthew Guy has approved the construction of a 26-level, 272 unit apartment complex near the frantic St Kilda Junction, in Melbourne’s inner-south.
SIXTEEN months after it was destroyed by fire – which was a month after it was permitted for demolition – the waterfront site where Phillip Island’s popular Isle of Wight hotel once stood is for sale.
THE Sydney CBD’s new Mid City Retail Arcade has secured Virgin Active as a major tenant.
PLANS to develop a $291 million office, retail and hotel development in central North Sydney, have been given the green tick by the New South Wales government.