Tighter credit restrictions are continuing to hit buyers after another weekend of falling auction clearance rates.
For the third week in a row it looks like more than half the nation’s home auctions failed to sell.
The preliminary national clearance rate on the weekend was 50.7 per cent, down from 53.7 per cent the week prior.
Sydney real estate agent Maria margin is from Belle Property and told Australian Financial Review it’s the difficulty buyers are facing getting finance that is driving the slowdown.
“It’s credit,” she said.
“People are finding it very, very difficult to get credit across the line in time for an auction.”
AMP Capital economist Shane Oliver earlier this year predicted house prices to fall by around 15 per cent through to 2020 but now says he might revise those predictions even lower.
“The risks are skewing to greater than 5 per cent declines per year, which is what I’ve been assuming,” he said.
“I am thinking of revising down again.”
Here in Melbourne, the city recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 52.1 per cent on the weekend, from the 914 auctions that were scheduled.
As is often the case, the middle ring suburbs that lie 10-20 kilometres from the CBD are the ones under significant downward price pressure due to the flat demand.
Harcourts-Judd White auctioneer Dexter Prack spoke to Domain about the current property market.
“If there is not much competition, the buyers are not paying the price,” he said.
“Prices, for us, have definitely eased off by 10 per cent or 12 per cent.”
“Stock levels are lower and that usually means more demand. But buyer demand is flat as well.”
