En Australia ha caído el precio de la vivienda 5% este año
La mayor caída de la historia, desde que existen registros. Semos los mejores. Aquí Metrovacesa, cual terra eso sí, "tangible", diciendo que ha ganado un chorro de millones. Cuando en realidad malvive con créditos sindicados. Y la bolsa pillando a mas "terra"tenientes... Ya estoy viendo el titular aquí, en Australia el mercado se mantiene fuerte. Viva el ladrillo!
Harder they fall: Sydney's biggest housing slump
By Jessica Irvine
September 2, 2005
Sydney home prices have suffered their sharpest annual fall on record as the property market continues to slump - and experts are tipping the slide to continue for the next few years.
The price of an average established home in Sydney fell 5 per cent last financial year, the biggest drop since the Bureau of Statistics began keeping records two decades ago.
The results are a far cry from the 20 per cent growth rates during the peak of the property boom, with prices now falling faster than during the recession in the early 1990s.
For Sydney, it is a case of the bigger they come the harder they fall, economists say.
With home prices in the city still about seven times the average annual wage - well above historic ratios of five times typical pay - economists are predicting more falls over the next five years.
Kieran Davies, an analyst with ABN Amro, said: "Given prices are so out of line with wages, it wouldn't be a surprise to see prices remain flat to down for quite a long time - for some five years or longer."
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The figures published yesterday also show the state's housing slump has begun to drag down the rest of Australia. The national average home price fell for the first time in almost a decade, by 0.1 per cent last financial year.
But the commodity-fuelled good times continue to roll in Western Australia, Perth home prices continuing to grow at an annual rate of 11.7 per cent.
Sydney's housing downturn represents a threat to the NSW economy, economists say.
An ABN Amro analyst, Felicity Emmett, said the price correction would continue to hamper growth in NSW, which already lags the national average.
Sluggish population growth also continues to limit demand for properties in the state.
NSW attracts a total of just 10,000 migrants from interstate and overseas a year, compared with an extra 50,000 who flock to Queensland, Commonwealth Bank figures, also published yesterday, show.
Recent price falls have already dragged some Sydney suburb median house prices below the $1 million mark, according to research by the housing analysis firm Residex, including Waverley, Narrabeen, Strathfield and Yowie Bay.
But other "upper socio-economic areas" such as the inner west, lower north shore and north-western suburbs continue to show signs of resilience.
The governor of the Reserve Bank, Ian Macfarlane, warned last month of an affordability crisis for young Sydney homebuyers, adding that a further fall of prices was likely.
The director of Residex, John Edwards, said yesterday that negative commentary was scaring off buyers. "There has been a lot of press about how unaffordable Sydney is, but in actual growth rate terms it's actually been very mild," he said.
"We're not in the middle of a depression - interest rates aren't rising. We should be having a correction."
Separate figures have shown a jump in business investment of 7.3 per cent in the June quarter to $15.6 billion, driven by a large surge in spending on equipment, plant and machinery.
"The clear message is that corporate Australia is flush with cash and ready to spend," said an economist with CommSec, Craig James.
Figures due next week are expected to show GDP growth struggling to top 2 per cent.
http://smh.com.au/news/national/harder-they-fall-sydneys-biggest-housing-slump/2005/09/01/1125302684200.html