Australia's Housing Bubble Finally Popped?

West Australia property investors are suffer as the mining slump lingers. Nearly One-Third Losing Money on Resale.

A report from property research firm CoreLogic shows one-third of investors in Perth property lost money on resale in the December quarter.

The figure of 33.6 per cent was equal with Darwin as the highest proportion of loss-making resales nationally.

In regional WA, the situation was even worse — 47.5 per cent of resales by investors made a loss in the quarter.

80% of Gladstone Homes Sell at Loss

Five years ago, investors from all over Australia scrambled to snap up a property in Gladstone. Today, you have to pay to get out. More than 80 Percent of Gladstone Homes Sell at a Loss.

SITTING at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, and famed for being one of the nation’s industrial powerhouses, is the central Queensland city of Gladstone.

Four decades ago, Gladstone was a tiny port town best known for its fishing industry and boasting easy access to the southern reaches of the reef.

A decision to build a liquefied natural gas plant was made — encouraging thousands of construction workers to fly into the already prosperous town in an attempt to score a piece of the plant pie. By 2012, the LNG plant was built, the construction workers were getting laid off and the city started to experience a severe downturn. Six years later and things are no better.

In the last December quarter, more than 80 per cent of Gladstone homes sold at a loss, according to new data released by CoreLogic. That rate is the highest in Queensland and second highest in Australia, based on the average home price more than halving in the past five years.

Most of the places in the top 20 are linked to the mining resources sector in Queensland and Western Australia. Pegs Creek in Western Australia is the only suburb to beat West Gladstone, with 92.3 per cent of its properties selling at a loss.

In 2012, when the city was still on a construction high, Ms. Kerry Connor [Gladstone Real Estate] said working as a real estate agent was exciting. “People came from all over the world to try and buy a Gladstone property. We’d advertise on realestate.com.au and in a few days, the property would be sold. “It was the most amazing time to be a real estate agent and it was mad — everything was happening very, very fast.

In January 2013, houses in the centre of Gladstone were selling for an average of $595,000 but by January 2017, the average was down to $330,000. Gladstone is also one of the top 10 postcodes in Australia for people behind on their mortgage payments, according to S&P Global Data.

Ms Connor confirmed this figure, admitting most of Gladstone real estate’s sales are repossessed homes — most of which were bought by investors in the 2011-2012 boom. “A very high percentage of sales in Gladstone are repossessions. It’s quite scary actually,” she said.

​Cracks in Sydney

The Sydney Morning Herald reports Sydney house prices fall for the first year since 2012.

Cracks are showing in the Sydney property market, with prices now falling for the first time over a 12-month period since the boom began.

The median property value now stands at $880,743, after the first 12-month decline since 2012.

Over the three months to February, Sydney prices dropped 2.4 per cent. This was the weakest result in the country.

Melbourne also showed continued signs of a slowing housing market, with prices up a solid 6.9 per cent over the year but down 0.4 per cent for the last three months. Its median dwelling price is now $723,334.

CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless said the overall softening in the market was becoming “more evident” with interest rate increases on the horizon.

“With high levels of household debt and dwelling values now starting to fall as well as tighter credit policies and a prospect of higher mortgage rates down the track, it is reasonable to expect that borrowers will be taking a more cautious approach to taking on debt,” he said.

This is a miniscule down payment on what is ahead.

Any further gains in places like Sydney will just add to the pile of future losses.

Want to know what it's like selling in the midst of a slump? Look at Gladstone.