First up, the RBA has kept the official cash rate at 1.5%, and Core Logic hypothesises on what might happen next in this article. Auction clearance rates also went down this week. From Business Insider:

Data from CoreLogic showed an average preliminary clearance rate across the combined capitals of 56.2%, down from 58.4% in the week prior.

The result came despite a slowdown in volumes, as a total of 1,316 homes were taken to auction — down 14% from the previous week’s total.

Also this week, from SMH, an excellent, balanced article clearly explaining all the forces going on in the market, including the apparent contradiction of both property price and rent decline. A crash is still not being predicted though. From the article:

“…(AMP Chief Economist Shane Oliver is) tipping top-to-bottom price decline of about 15 per cent in Sydney to Melbourne, which is not a crash…Our housing markets have been through swings before, and they’ve recovered because when prices fall a new group of buyers comes into the market.”

However, there are fears that Labor’s changes to negative gearing could be the last straw: Will Labor’s negative gearing reforms “crash” the property market?

Also, in Melbourne, there are fears that new proposed rental regulations may also impact the market if investors start letting go of their properties in retaliation: Landlords will withdraw homes from rental market in response to new laws: REIV

Finally, we have some of our own positive news to share. We had a stellar month in July, having sold 7 properties in one building within the suburb of Canterbury. That’s double what others sold in the whole suburb for the month! You can read the story via Linkedin.

Have a great week all!