Mortgage Broker Bateau Bay

"Start of Recovery" for Central Coast Houses (March 2024)

The March Herron Todd White "month in review" report is out, and the #CentralCoast HOUSE market remains in the "Starting to Recover" stage of the property clock. This is arguably a good time in the cycle to invest.

Interestingly, the unit and house segments of the Central Coast residential property market are in the same cycle stage. https://htw.com.au/month-in-review/

Units vs Houses on the Central Coast (March 2024)

This chart shows that house asking prices are trending higher than unit asking prices.

Units have remained steady for the last two years. House asking prices are now climbing higher after a brief fall.

The 'All Units' data shows the median asking price was $452,842 in March 2020. Four years later, it is $653,752, a 44.80% growth in four years.

The 'All Houses' data shows the median asking price was $774,072 in March 2020. Four years later, it is $1,309,548, a 69.17% growth in four years.

This chart shows that the proportion gap between unit and house prices was steady between 2009 and 2016. Unit prices were roughly 65% of house prices. As of March 2024, unit prices are now 49% of house prices.

We at Mortgage Choice Erina can only speculate why this has happened, but the supply of new houses has been limited, and the supply of units is accelerating. There are also some indicators that Sydney house seekers are being priced out of their market and looking for more affordably pastures on the hashtag#CentralCoast.

Please call us if you would like to discuss your property-buying plans. The property buying process starts with understanding how much you can borrow.

Asking Rents continue to rise on the Central Coast (March 2024)

This chart continues our focus on housing affordability. The #CentralCoast is experiencing a rapid rise in asking rents due to a flow of Sydney tenants seeking more affordable housing.

Our prior chart showed rental vacancy rates are approaching record lows during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

This chart shows the impact of increasing tenant demand and limited rental dwelling supply. Rents are rising rapidly.

If you would like to discuss your housing or investment options, please call us at Mortgage Choice Erina.

Units come into the Central Coast Picture

The extraordinary increase in #CentralCoast house prices over the last five years has shifted our attention to more affordable options. And I'm not talking about Queensland.

Units and townhouses are now in focus, particularly for first-time home buyers, investors (looking for cash-flow-positive options) and downsizers.

First-home buyers in Sydney have always seen units as the obvious entry point into the market. This is now a more common reality for Central Coast first-home buyers.

One of Australia's biggest residential valuation firms, Herron Todd White, produces a monthly infographic that utilises their valuers to estimate the stage of the local property cycle.

The Central Coast unit market moved from the "bottom of the market" to the "start of recovery" phase.

If you would like to discuss purchasing a unit or townhouse, please call me about establishing a pre-approval.

Big Bank RBA Cash Rate Forecasts (March 2024)

The big bank research teams occasionally provide us with their RBA cash rate forecasts. We have listed their most recent opinions below:

CBA (08/03/24): "We don't anticipate any further increases to the cash rate in this cycle". "Our central scenario sees the RBA commencing an easing cycle in September 2024".

WESTPAC (11/03/24) - The current forecast is a 0.50% reduction by the end of 2024.

NAB (06/03/24): "Today’s result does not have large implications for the RBA, and NAB continues to see it on hold until November."

Please note that these are only predictions and are subject to regular changes.

The ASX futures implied yield curve also predicts a gradual reduction in the RBA's cash rate (see the 11/03/24 chart below).

Please feel free to give us a call or send us an email if you would like to review your mortgage or your property plans.

Compare your Interest Rate (February 2024)

Our Mortgage Choice Erina interest rate chart has been updated for February 2024.

We recommend you compare your mortgage interest rate to this chart and call us if your rate looks too high.

Central Coast Rental Vacancy Rates (February 2024)

Very few charts demonstrate the impact of "The great Sydney Covid escape" like this one.

Right before COVID-19, the Central Coast had approximately 1,000 vacant investment properties. When the lockdowns became a reality, those vacancy numbers quickly dropped to a record low of 200.

As the lockdowns receded and Sydney employers required on-site attendance, people began to move back to Sydney. Over the next 18 months, around 500 additional dwellings became vacant.

Interestingly, the rental vacancy rate has risen for the last 12 months. There are now approximately 300 vacant dwellings. We suspect this has a lot to do with Sydney's deteriorating housing affordability levels. Higher interest rates and dramatically higher rents again force people away from the big smoke.

If you want to discuss your investment property options, please call me at Mortgage Choice Erina.

Central Coast Rental Vacancy Rates (April 2023)

This chart showing the Central Coast residential investment property vacancy rate is very interesting.

Rental Vacancy rates are a result that we often quote to our customers here at Mortgage Choice Erina. This statistic gives us a window into supply and demand volumes that are so important to property investors.

As you can see from this chart, the beginning of Covid in early 2020 saw the Central Coast rental stock fill up. Less than 1% of our rental properties were vacant. A similar sudden scarcity of rental properties occurred in 2009, which may have been the result of the GFC at that time.

Now that Covid is well behind us, rental vacancy levels have risen quite sharply, we suspect that some of the Sydney demand is heading south.

If you would like to discuss the implications of these and other market changes to your plans, please give us a call.

Average Big 4 interest rate chart (April 2023)

Our "Mortgage Choice Erina" monthly average interest rate chart has been updated for April 2023.

As you can see, the average 3-year fixed rate and the average 5-year fixed rate have stabilised and even slightly reduced.

The massive increase in variable interest rates by the Reserve Bank of Australia is hopefully coming to an end very soon.

Most of the major bank economists are predicting one or two more 0.25% increases, however, the ASX futures market is predicting that we may have peaked.

Our Central Coast economy would benefit enormously if people ensure they are not paying too much to the banks. The money being wasted on high-interest rates could be better spent in our local economy.

If you would like to take a look at your interest rates please contact us for a review.

Bateau Bay Median House Price (Feb 2023)

Bateau Bay property market summary (Feb 2023)

Last month Bateau Bay had 37 properties available for rent and 60 properties for sale. Median property prices over the last year range from $1,022,500 for houses to $690,000 for units. If you are looking for an investment property, consider houses in Bateau Bay rent out for $605 PW with an annual rental yield of 3.5% and units rent for $470 PW with a rental yield of 4.3%. Based on five years of sales, Bateau Bay has seen a compound growth rate of -2.6% for houses and 1.4% for units.

Central Coast House Prices - May 2023

Our Central Coast house price results are out for May 2023.

Whilst the median house price dropped from $955,202 to $951,420, the rate of decline has slowed this month. The drop from March to April was almost $20,000.

This median house price level was last seen back in December 2021. Amazingly, only 18 months prior to this date, the median house price was $300,000 lower. To put this into mortgage perspective, an additional $300,000 in borrowings would have a weekly repayment of $415, based on a 6% interest rate over a 30-year loan term.

The ranked table below shows 20 Central Coast suburbs with the highest number of houses. We have shown you the median house prices from January to May. As you can see, the trend is heading down for every suburb on this list. Although, some have fallen quite a lot more than others.

As always, we encourage you to call or email us if you have any questions at all.