Strong housing market holds ground again in Australia

According to The Australian Financial Review recently, strong auctions and new apartment sales in Sydney and Melbourne have reaffirmed the continued strength of the housing market.
Following Corelogic RP Data's release of stronger May house prices last Tuesday, Sydney achieved a 76.7 per cent auction clearance rate, compared with 73.2 per cent the previous week, while Melbourne cleared a flat 71.4 per cent.
Both Sydney and Melbourne have been hovering around 70 per cent since February, Corelogic's Kevin Brogan said but stock levels were fuelling the higher prices.
There were 1953 auctions held over the week, down from 2480 previously.
The Corelogic price index for May shows a rise in house prices in May – particularly in Sydney at 3.1 per cent – has pushed house prices back up into a double-digit price growth of 10 per cent for the year to May 2016 after slowing to 7.4 per cent in December last year.
Lower interest rates, a pre-election rush and low stock motivated the numbers, property experts said.
"But there is no new boom [in Sydney] … and it is not like what we had last year when the market was in an absolute frenzy," property research SQM Research's managing director Louis Christopher said.
Mr Christopher held on to his prediction of no more than 9 per cent growth for Sydney house prices, and 13 per cent for Melbourne by the end of the year.
New home buyers and downsizers were busy on the weekend, flocking to off-the-plan sales in Sydney and Brisbane.
Both Brisbane and Adelaide's clearance rates also improved, up at 55 per cent and 67 per cent respectively, from 42 per cent and 53 per cent in the previous week.

Ref: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/strong-housing-market-hold-ground-again-20160605-gpbw1l
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If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
http://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/8724968
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