Housing commentators have warned that more rate rises are to come after the central bank increased the cash rate on Tuesday .

And if banks pass on the full rise, homeowners can expect to pay an extra $47 each month on an average $300,000 mortgage, they say.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raised the cash rate by an expected quarter of a percentage point to 4.00 per cent, the highest since February 2009.

Mortgage Choice senior corporate affairs manager Kristy Sheppard said more rate rises were likely this year.

“Look at this increase as a taste of things to come for 2010,” Ms Sheppard said in a statement.
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Mortgage broker Loan Market Group has welcomed the central bank’s decision to leave the official interest rate unchanged but says mortgage holders can still expect rises in the months ahead.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) left the cash rate unchanged at 3.75 per cent after its first board meeting of the year on Tuesday.

Most financial market economists had expected a rise of 25 basis points to four per cent.

Loan Market Group executive chairman Sam White said the decision would allow the RBA to examine the impact of the three rate rises made late last year.

“What they’re trying to do is assess the impact of the previous rises,” he said.

“Australians are also coming back from holidays.
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There has been wide public debate around how the cost of Australian housing has changed over time.

Media commentators frequently reference “house-price-to-incomeratios” produced by overseas groups to gauge whether Australia’s housing market is over- or under-valued.

These measures typically suffer from a range of shortcomings, including the fact that they ignore non-capital city regions (around 40 per cent of homes are located outside of the capitals), often only examine wages as opposed to “household incomes”, and frequently restrict their analysis to detached houses when one quarter of all homes are semis, terraces, and apartments.

To better examine these issues, Rismark International (”Rismark”) has developed a new housing affordability index that compares Australian dwelling prices across all metroand non-metro regions (including all property types) with the RBA’s definition of national “disposable household incomes” over time.
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RP Data Ltd says improving consumer confidence is driving a rise in property sales deals, even though affordability remains low.

The listed property information provider also said that while it would not give any earnings guidance for 2009/10, it expected to gain market share as the economic recovery gathered pace.

“The company continues as a market leader and as such will be in a position to gain market share as the general market improves and real estate activity increases in line with the market,” chairman Ian Fraser told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday.

Mr Fraser said RP Data saw several positive signs that market conditions are improving.
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RP Data CEO Graham Mirabito today commented on the announcement by the ACCC where they are proposing that heavy fines be imposed on real estate agents and vendors who consciously mislead buyers

Supporting the move by the ACCC, Mr Mirabito said that RP Data (rpdata.com) has long been an advocate of transparency within the real estate industry.

“RP Data (rpdata.com) fully supports the proposal by the ACCC to provide a formalized and national level of regulation for the real estate industry. There is currently a great deal of variation between the states with regards to the level of transparency and diligence a real estate agent or vendor must conform to when selling a property.”

“A national set of rules will provide standardization across the industry which will assist in boosting the credibility and consistency of the real estate industry as a whole.”
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People trying to sell their homes are having to substantially lower their initial price aspirations to get the property away, new data shows.

A report by property information provider RP Data shows that vendors are having to cut the original sale price by almost eight per cent in capital cities amid the tough economic climate.

Some coastal areas recorded discounts close to 20 per cent.

The report on property discounting measures the initial advertised price of a property against its ultimate sale price.
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The million-dollar suburbs are dropping off the map as the recession hits property values in some of the nation’s most prestigious areas.

New research has found the past 12 months has seen a slump in the number of Australian suburbs with a median property price of $1 million or more, property information service RP Data says.

In the year to February, the number of million-dollar suburbs slipped from 151 to 134, with NSW experiencing the greatest slump as eight of its suburbs dropped out of the list.

“With people’s share portfolios having halved over the past 12 months, it’s come time to sell those high-end houses, and not a lot of people are looking to spend $1 million on property at the moment,” RP Data senior research analyst Cameron Kusher said.
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Property information services company RP Data Ltd it faces greater challenges this financial year, as housing sales and mortgage volumes fall.

The group reported a net profit of $10.13 million for 2007/08, up from $2.68 million in the previous year.

“The 2008/09 year will clearly present greater challenges in an increasingly uncertain economic climate,” chairman Ted Pretty told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting today in Brisbane.
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