House And Unit Value Disparity At All Time High
Unit values have continued to underperform.
2 min
Market desire for space has seen the price gap between houses and units accelerate to a new record high.
According to CoreLogic’s new monthly Unit Market Update, the disparity between Australia’s house and unit values has reached 28.3% in January the highest ever level.
House prices across the country have seen the highest growth rates since 1989 — up 24.8% —however units have increased only 14.3% in the 12 months to January.
Report author and CoreLogic research Analyst Kaytlin Ezzy said houses do typically outpace units, albeit not at the market current place.
“The annual performance gap between houses began to narrow in the final three months of last year — in part due to the lifting of lockdowns and border restrictions, as well as increasing affordability constraints diverting demand towards the medium to high-density sector,” Ms Ezzy explained.
“However, in January we saw that annual performance gap start to widen again, which could, in part, be explained by the disparity between advertised house and unit supply.”
Unit values have continued to underperform, however, there are shifting tides in some capital cities. Canberra (5.6%), Darwin (2.6%), regional Victoria (5.7%), and regional Tasmania (9.2%) all recorded stronger unit growth over the last quarter compared to houses.
Hobart’s unit market has in the past 12 months been the nation’s strongest performer with median prices up 32.8% over the year compared to 26.3% capital gain for houses.
Sydney’s unit values have also sharply ascended 15.4% with the median price to $837,640 which is the highest in Australia.
Over the same period, capital city house listings were down 12.5% compared to this time last year and 32.7% below the five-year average.
Yet, despite the threat of interest rates rising, Ms Ezzy said unit markets could see increased demand this year.
“It is likely affordability constraints will gradually pull some demand away from houses towards more affordable units and with international borders opening this month, Australia may gradually see a return to pre-COVID levels of migration.”
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
Americans now think they need at least $1.25 million for retirement, a 20% increase from a year ago, according to a survey by Northwestern Mutual
A new digital real estate site promises a full view of the housing sector, even those places not on the market
2 min
Hot on the heels of the launch of View Media Group last year, Australia’s newest proptech digital media company has gone live with its consumer-facing real estate site, view.com.au.
The new site offers a ‘freemium’ model allowing vendors to list their properties for free while having the option of further upgrades for agents looking to enhance their listings.
VGM executive chairman Anthony Catalano said the model was a ‘game changer’ in the digital real estate space.
“While VMG is much more than a portal play, it’s critical that we have a consumer-facing brand that will act as the front door to attract consumers and in turn allow us to offer products and services in a range of verticals across the property ecosystem,” Mr Catalano said. “Our plan is to create a digital real estate superstore under the new View brand that will play in the $300 billion adjacency categories rather than solely focus on the $1
billion of digital property advertising.”
“We’ve listened to the industry and the time is right for an offer to come to market with an alternative model that addresses the real estate industry’s concern at the continually
escalating price of advertising.”
The View portal is available through app stores and will include properties across the country, not just those on the market right now.
“That means view.com.au will showcase more than 11 million properties in Australia compared to some of the portals which feature around 140,000 properties for sale,” Mr Catalano said. “From Day 1 we will provide consumers with a complete view of the market.’’
View has worked with mapping partner Nearmap to create the ability to have a comprehensive overview of all properties.
“We’ve had a look globally at best practice search for property and we’ve consumer tested a range of options and without doubt the preferred experience is map-based search,” View CEO Toby Blazs said. “So unlike others in the market who default consumers to a list view, we’ll default our search results via a map.”
Mr Catalano said the innovative site was designed to be a true disruptor in the proptech sector.
“VMG continues to grow and tick off the key parts of its strategic plan,” he said. “We are well on the way to forming a global-first conglomerate of proptech assets including portals, ad tech, lead generation, lead management solutions, media planning and buying, AI services, data and connections all under the one roof.”
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
Americans now think they need at least $1.25 million for retirement, a 20% increase from a year ago, according to a survey by Northwestern Mutual
