Borrowers’ uptake of fixed interest rate home loans rose by less than one percent of approvals over August despite lenders introducing large reductions to the cost of their fixed term loans, according to Australia’s largest independently-owned mortgage broker.Fixed rates accounted for 14.1% of Mortgage Choice’s home loan approvals last month, up only slightly from 13.3% [...]

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The Federal Government aims to introduce, by as soon as next year, mandatory energy star ratings for homes being sold or rented out.Under the favoured system, vendors and landlords would have to pay about $200 to have their property assessed, with a total cost to homeowners and property investors of $1.1 billion over the next [...]

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House prices are predicted to fall over the next 12 months, as the outlook for residential real estate weakens, but falls will be smallest in New South Wales, a survey shows.The National Australia Bank residential property index, which predicts houses prices, rents and real-estate market conditions over the coming year, said national home prices would [...]

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AUSTRALIAN institutional investors, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, are trailing their European counterparts in funding projects to tackle climate change because of delays getting a carbon price established.In a global survey of 90 firms – owning and managing assets of $12 trillion – Australian respondents said they were eager to develop an approach to [...]

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The price of luxury properties in Australia could fall for up to three years with some having seen drops of 20% since January as expensive suburbs become the poorest real estate market performers.The near double interest rate rise in November last year has hit Australian capital city property values which are down 1.2% in the [...]

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Melbourne and Sydney led house price gains across the country last year although the pace of the increase tapered off towards the end of the year, a real estate research group says.Among the major cities, Melbourne’s median house prices rose 8.4 per cent in 2010 and 1.1 per cent, seasonally adjusted, in the final three [...]

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Sydney’s home price gains may slow after rising 13 percent above their 2004 peak, according to real estate researcher RP Data. Prices in Australia’s biggest city have risen an average 9.1 percent in the 12 months ended Aug. 31 to A$580,000 ($582,000) for houses and A$450,000 for apartments, according to a RP Data study prepared [...]

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Not so long ago investors were hearing warnings to expect less spectacular returns from shares, but now the same warning applies to housing.After a decade of strong gains, including pre-tax returns averaging 21 per cent per annum for stocks in the S&P/ASX 200 in the five years to December 2007, investors were being warned routinely [...]

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AUTHORITIES in Victoria aim to avoid house-hunters having their hopes for their dream home dashed because of lower-end price quotes in property ads. Real estate agents in the state will be banned from using “price-plus” advertisements, to stamp out under-quoting. The use of terms such as “$500,000-plus” will be outlawed and agents will instead have [...]

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The rise in residential property prices in Australia is expected to slow in the last three months of this year and into 2011, according to a new survey.   Real estate price growth over the last year has ranged between 10% and 12% nationally, according to varying measures of the market. Only the major markets of [...]

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