According to The Australian Financial Review, real estate transactions involving Japanese investment in Australia boomed last year, making up one in every five deals, as Japan’s push to find new markets coincided with Australia’s increasing need for capital, Herbert Smith Freehills’ Japan-Australia Investment Report 2024 shows.
The sector chalked up 14 of last year’s 72 transactions – up from a total 53 in 2023 and the most of the eight annual reports to date. It will remain the hottest this year as a new generation of investors, having learned from mistakes of the 1980s and 90s, focuses on quality property assets, the law firm’s latest report says.

https://www.afr.com/property/commercial/real-estate-now-takes-1-in-5-japanese-deals-and-it-s-growing-20250330-p5lnpw
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, Japanese property giant Daibiru Corporation has snapped up a Sydney office block for more than $600 million, as investors from that region show increasing interest in Australian real estate.
It is the largest office property deal to be finalised so far this year. The transaction was struck on an investment yield of about 6 per cent, a key benchmark for valuing city office towers.

https://www.afr.com/property/commercial/japan-s-daibiru-picks-up-sydney-office-tower-in-600m-deal-20250401-p5lo38
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, selling prices of apartments in Australia’s largest cities jumped a record 24 per cent in the December quarter as building costs, labour shortages and a shift towards owner-occupier-grade stock pushed the average over $19,000 a square metre, new figures from Urbis show.
The leap was the biggest in a decade of data the consultancy has collected. The average price of presales and under-construction projects across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Gold Coast was also up 34 per cent year-on-year and was driven by demand in Brisbane, where off-the-plan prices leaped 33 per cent from the third quarter to $23,000, Urbis said.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/apartment-prices-in-record-jump-to-19-000-per-square-metre-20250331-p5lo26

According to The Australian Financial Review, a $1.5 billion apartment tower has been proposed for one of central Melbourne’s most prominent sites, opposite Crown Casino, in a much-needed boost to the city’s lacklustre development prospects.
Developer PDG, led by Vince Giuliano, is behind the proposal for the landmark building on the Yarra’s southern bank overlooking the CBD. It has just lodged plans for a 67-storey tower.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/melbourne-s-southbank-to-get-1-5b-high-rise-with-nearly-500-apartments-20250325-p5lmib

According to The Australian Financial Review, the supply of housing could substantially miss the national target of 1.2 million new homes over five years by one third or even more as builders and developers grapple with high construction costs and a sluggish planning system, according to industry analyses.
Based on forecasts by industry lobby group the Urban Development Institute of Australia in a new report, the delivery of new homes will fall 393,000 dwellings short of the target for the combined capital cities alone by 2029.
Two years ago, the federal and state governments agreed a target of 1.2 million new homes to be delivered over the five years from mid-2024, known as the National Housing Accord.
But the UDIA analysis shows the production rate of both greenfield homes and apartments has slowed dramatically below average. It forecasts an 11 per cent decline in new dwelling production in 2025, a slowdown that will ultimately put upward pressure on prices for all kinds of housing.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/new-homes-to-fall-400-000-short-of-national-target-report-20250317-p5lk1z

According to The Australian Financial Review, Melbourne’s housing market is poised for recovery in the coming months with home buyers becoming more bullish after the rate cut, real estate agents and mortgage brokers say.
Home buyer sentiment rebounded to outright optimism in Victoria in March, with the Westpac Consumer Sentiment Index showing a 15.3 per cent jump to 106 points. This followed an 11 per cent gain last month, which was the biggest across all states.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/melbourne-s-home-buyers-turn-bullish-after-rate-cut-20250312-p5lixa
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, Australia’s apartment slump has passed the worst, economists declared after new figures showed approvals of new apartments, townhouses and semidetached homes turning positive on a yearly basis for the first time in almost 2 ½ years.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data show attached housing approvals – driven by apartments, rather than medium-density homes – picked up to 63,648 over the 12 months to January, up 1.5 per cent from a year earlier and marking the first such positive reading since July 2022.
Geographically, NSW – where the ABS noted approvals of large apartment towers had boosted the total over the past two months – accounted for most of the recent gain, although Victoria and WA are also picking up.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/the-development-tide-has-turned-on-apartments-20250306-p5lhdf

According to The Australian Financial Review, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to cut the interest rate by 0.25 of a percentage point to 4.1 per cent will put a floor under house prices in the country’s two biggest housing markets, but is unlikely to spark a surge in prices, economists and property analysts say.
Paul Bloxham, HSBC’s chief economist, said the RBA’s hawkish cut would start to stabilise house prices in Sydney and Melbourne, which have been falling for four months and 10 months respectively.
Since peaking in September last year, Sydney’s home values had dropped by 1.7 per cent, while Melbourne declined by 7 per cent since its March 2022 high.
“I don’t think we’re going to see a big upswing in prices stimulated by either the cut that’s been delivered or the guidance the RBA provided,” Bloxham said.
“We’re unlikely to get another one for a little while, so we should expect some stability rather than a surge in house prices.”

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/rate-cut-to-boost-buyer-sentiment-but-not-house-prices-20250213-p5lbxa

According to The Australian Financial Review, hopeful home buyers are preparing for lower interest rates as early as next week by arranging financing in larger numbers, with real estate agents hoping the Reserve Bank of Australia will unleash a surge in transactions after a slow start to the year.
The number of mortgage applications, a forward-looking indicator, rose 2.7 per cent in the past three months of 2024, according to Equifax, an analytics company that tracks credit and borrowing data.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/home-buyers-ready-for-rate-cut-but-there-won-t-be-a-rush-20250210-p5lazr

According to The Australian Financial Review, Home builders are consolidating as the post-pandemic disruption subsides. They are looking to better tap the growing demand for detached homes and to gain strength in the low-margin, cyclical sector, which accounts for almost two-thirds of new homes.
ASX-listed Simonds Group last week said it would pay $10 million to buy the contracts and designs of rival Dennis Family Homes. Simonds executive chairman Rhett Simonds told The Australian Financial Review the deal would boost revenue of the country’s 10th-largest builder by a third as demand improves.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/home-builders-consolidate-ahead-of-next-bull-run-in-housing-demand-20250131-p5l8kd