# WILSON WEEKLY Ep 140 | Rental Rollercoaster, Slowing Building Approvals & Hot Auctions

An episode of [Money Mentor Podcast™](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1632604767), 9 Oct 2025, 39 min.

Audio: https://episode.flightcast.com/vafol44oc6tsu5mn97akdjy4.mp3

In this week’s Wilson Weekly on the Money Mentor Podcast, Rachael Howlett and Dr. Andrew Wilson break down the latest trends shaping Australia’s property market. They explore why rental growth is steady despite historically low vacancy rates, unpack slowing building approvals for houses and units, and reveal why auction clearance rates remain strong across the country. From Sydney’s dominance in unit approvals to Brisbane and Melbourne’s mixed outcomes, this episode delivers data-driven insights with actionable takeaways for buyers, sellers, and investors. Discover our new tool: What's My Rental Home Yield? Money Mentor YouTube Channel: @moneymentorau Link to Dr. Andrew Wilson on LinkedIn: / dr-andrew If you enjoyed our podcast, make sure you follow and subscribe to stay up to date with the latest episodes.

## Transcript

[0:00] Welcome back to another episode of Wilson Weekly on the Money Mentor Podcast, where we cut through the noise, the headlines and the social media hot takes to bring you the facts that actually move the market.
[0:10] Joining me, as always, is the man who makes economics exciting, Australia's leading property economist, Dr. Andrew, data doesn't lie, Wilson.
[0:18] This week, we're unpacking what's really happening behind the rental roller coaster, why builders are hitting the brakes and how auctions are somehow still hotter than the Gold Coast summer.
[0:28] Doc, let's get into it.
[0:30] Yes, Rachel, good day.
[0:32] Here we are, first week in October past.
[0:35] I just, I actually had a little visit to Kmart earlier today with my new grandson.
[0:43] Well, he's not so new, but yeah, it's Grandpa Day today.
[0:48] You wouldn't believe I'm a grandfather, you know, so young, but that's right.
[0:51] No, no, no.
[0:52] It started early.
[0:54] And everywhere I looked, there was the Christmas stuff, you know, and it was just everything to control the little type, you know, I want this, I want that.
[1:03] So, yeah, my theme obviously is, hey, if you haven't done your Christmas shopping yet, get into it.
[1:11] It's closing very fast.
[1:13] But, yeah, we've got some very interesting data today, Rachel.
[1:16] Latest rent report.
[1:17] That rental market's been...
[1:19] A little confounding to some degree over recent months.
[1:23] Still a very tight rental market, but we're not seeing the rental increases that we've seen in, well, perhaps the past 18 months to two years.
[1:30] So I guess landlords are keeping their powder a little dry at the moment, but they've certainly still got plenty of choices in terms of prospective tenants out there.
[1:42] And really everywhere is...
[1:45] experiencing tight rental markets at the moment, both units and houses.
[1:51] The other data set that we've had released over the past week was building approvals.
[1:56] And there's some very strange results we've seen in building approvals.
[2:00] A lot of government action over the past year or two, certainly a lot of government talk that recognising that we are an undersupplied housing market, that we just can't match demand with supply with housing.
[2:12] And that's another factor why we keep seeing higher house prices, particularly and unit prices and, you know, upward pressure on rents as well.
[2:21] But, um,
[2:22] Other than perhaps a sense this year, not a sense, but the data showing a big surge in unit approvals, we're actually seeing that now, some early signs that those rises in unit approvals are starting to wane.
[2:35] So no good news really on trying to supply our housing markets with enough homes to go around, new homes to go around.
[2:44] Some interesting data there.
[2:45] And this is also a very interesting time for the auction markets this time of the year.
[2:51] We've sort of moved through the first phase of the spring selling season, which sort of leads us up to all those distractions around football grand finals and also a couple of public holidays.
[3:06] And that sort of punctuates the first part of the spring selling season.
[3:10] And we're now into the second part of the spring selling season because all those distractions are behind us.
[3:17] And that sort of leads up to typically the second punctuation point, which is Melbourne Cup Day in early November, which is also the day that the Reserve Bank meets and will tell us what's going to happen with interest rates for the rest of the year, while certainly for November.
[3:33] So we're into the second part of the spring selling season.
[3:36] We get a real sense of what the first...
[3:39] first part of the spring selling season has done.
[3:41] And, you know, as we've been saying now, month after month, it just shows no sign of slowing down.
[3:52] So let's get started, Rachel.
[3:53] Enough of the preamble and let's get on to the...
[3:57] the nuts and bolts of what's happened over the past week.
[3:59] Of course, in conjunction with Infinity, my housing market brings you the update on housing market activity every week.
[4:07] Or latest with the news here.
[4:11] We're all about the current state and future prospects of your housing market.
[4:14] So if you're thinking about property and wanting to make a decision,
[4:19] in terms of property, particularly now we're really in that energised state of where people are thinking, oh yeah, I want to buy, I want to sell by the end of the year.
[4:28] And that's why we're seeing a lot of listings now coming into the market, certainly a big rise in listings.
[4:34] So
[4:35] Thanks to the folks at Infinity for hosting this every week.
[4:39] And what we do here is to give you the background and the insights into what is actually happening in the housing market, not just data in terms of prices and rents, but also the background noise in terms of what's driving the housing market as well.
[4:55] Because we certainly, Rachel, want everybody to be making informed decisions on the property market.
[5:01] And that's what we're all about.
[5:02] So let's see.
[5:03] This week, first week of October, full week of October, ending Wednesday, October the 8th.
[5:11] We're going to look, as we've already mentioned, the September home rents.
[5:14] So latest data hot off the press for the September, the month of September rental market activity.
[5:21] We'll also look at the latest ABS data on building approvals.
[5:24] That's for the month of August.
[5:26] And as usual, the latest weekly auction results.
[5:29] So let's get started, Rachel, with the latest home rents.
[5:34] So rental markets are a little bit mixed as usual, our results over September 2021.
[5:41] House rents and vacancy rates were generally steady, a little bit more diversity outcomes for the unit market.
[5:49] But generally, despite those mixed results, the one consistency here is that vacancy rates remain generally low for both houses and units.
[6:01] And as that continues, we will inevitably see higher rents coming through.
[6:06] So, yeah.
[6:08] A bit of the same old, same old in terms of still a tough market out there for tenants.
[6:14] Still landlords having plenty of choices in terms of new tenants coming through.
[6:20] And clearly that means not just the prospect of higher rents, but with more choices, Rachel,
[6:26] It means landlords can be a little bit more discerning in terms of who they and their agents select as a tenant going forward.
[6:35] So still good conditions there for landlords, but still pretty tough out there for tenants, you know, with plenty of competition amongst prospective tenants for properties that are advertised for rent.
[6:50] So let's have a look at the data.
[6:51] But overall, a reasonably flat month for rental growth for houses.
[6:58] Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Owen all recorded steady rents over the month.
[7:04] Hobart, which has been a little volatile lately, was up 3%.
[7:08] and Canberra, which is starting to show some early signs of picking up after a flat period, up by 1.5%.
[7:14] The yearly growth numbers are still reasonably solid for most of the capital city markets.
[7:22] Hobart, the top performer, up by 9.1% over the year, which sort of reflects that 3% rise it had over the month.
[7:29] Perth up 6.9%.
[7:30] Brisbane,
[7:32] which keeps on keeping on in all facets of the housing market.
[7:36] Its house rents are up 5.1%, Adelaide up 4.1%.
[7:41] But the real focus, Rachel, again, as we've discussed, is the vacancy rate.
[7:46] Vacancy rates all there well below 2%, as we discuss every time we look at these results today.
[7:54] Any vacancy rate below 2% means that it's a competitive market for tenants and likely to see higher rents.
[8:03] Above 2% means that it becomes less competitive and we see a sort of a neutral effect on rental growth.
[8:12] because there are fewer choices out there for, sorry, more choices out there for tenants.
[8:20] So vacancy rates there, the top vacancy rate is Canberra and Melbourne for houses at 1.4%.
[8:27] But as I said, most are below 2%, sorry, well below 2% and really hovering around 1%, the lowest Hobart and Darwin.
[8:36] with vacancy rates of 0.4% and Darwin 0.6%.
[8:42] Even though we've seen a little bit of an upsurge in vacancy rates in some of those capital city markets, we tend to see that volatility, particularly in the smaller markets, when you do have
[8:52] very low numbers of properties coming into the marketplace.
[8:56] So a little bit of the same old, same old, Rachel, but certainly this is still a very competitive market for tenants looking for a house to rent in all the capital city markets and with all the capital city markets with vacancy rates well below 2%.
[9:10] Um,
[9:12] And really at or just above 1%.
[9:15] So likely to see higher rents going forward.
[9:19] But we haven't seen that for quite some time as the market has, I guess, steadied over the past year, Rachel, for a number of reasons.
[9:27] So units a little bit more mixed in terms of rental outcomes for units, but.
[9:34] The big mover was Melbourne up 1.2% over the month.
[9:39] Brisbane was up 0.8% similar to Perth, 0.8%.
[9:43] But Hobart, again, a very small unit market.
[9:47] Hobart down 9%, so that tends to be volatile from month to month.
[9:51] Adelaide down 0.5%, again, a very small market.
[9:55] And Canberra down 0.4%.
[9:59] Annual growth, similar to houses for the capital cities,
[10:04] with the top performer there being Darwin up 7.6%, Perth up 7.4%.
[10:12] Melbourne unit rents, similar to the Melbourne buying market, Rachel, have certainly seen a revival up 3.8% over the year.
[10:22] So growth in Melbourne unit rents.
[10:25] Vacancy rates a little higher in units as we typically see compared to houses.
[10:30] But generally, with the exception of Melbourne and Canberra, which are now above 2%, it's still very low vacancy rates for the other capital city markets.
[10:39] So same old, same old, low vacancy rates.
[10:45] generally except for a couple of the unit markets, that being Melbourne and Canberra.
[10:51] But the Melbourne rents continue to grow despite those lower unit rents, continue to grow despite those higher vacancy rates.
[11:00] And we did see a big fall in vacancy rates in some of the smaller unit markets over the month.
[11:08] But again, we do see that volatility, as I explained, because of the small numbers that are...
[11:15] that are involved in those smaller capital city markets.
[11:20] So, yeah, a little bit of the same old, same old, Rachel.
[11:23] If you're looking for our My Housing Market latest September rent report, there's a QR code.
[11:30] You can scan that and it'll give you a link to a PDF copy of the report, Rachel.
[11:36] Thanks, Doc.
[11:36] Look, the interesting part there is not just what rents are doing.
[11:40] It's also those vacancy rates, which have remained historically low despite the slowdown in rent growth in the capital cities.
[11:47] That tells us demand isn't fading.
[11:48] It's just reshuffling.
[11:50] So would it be fair to say the demand is spreading more to those regional markets now?
[11:55] Yes, Rachel, I think it's about affordability too.
[11:57] I mean, if we go back a year, we were talking 10, nearly 20% increases in rents, annual increases in rents, which is unprecedented.
[12:06] We went through a period where rents just skyrocketed as we resumed migration, the impact of that low supply also affecting rental growth.
[12:15] But you get to the point similarly to...
[12:17] house prices or home prices, where you reach affordability barriers, where even though there's plenty of competition, you just can't keep putting up rents at certainly at double figure plus annual growth rates, because people just can't afford to pay it.
[12:33] And I think landlords get a bit more circumspect about, you know, sort of maybe gouging rent to the optimum and that they do start looking for perhaps what they would consider to be more of a quality tenant going forward, you know, because what landlords want, yes, is higher rent,
[12:49] but they want it consistently.
[12:50] So they want a tenant who can be there for the longer term that secures them their return going forward.
[12:56] So I think it's a little bit of those affordability barriers that are kicking in to keep rental growth certainly a lot lower than what it was when, as I said, we had unprecedented growth
[13:08] in rents for a couple of years there.
[13:11] But I do think with these lower vacancy rates that eventually you're going to see higher rents.
[13:16] It's just the law of supply and demand, Rachel.
[13:19] And I think in terms of regional market activity, when you get smaller markets, obviously it becomes very much localised.
[13:27] Supply is a different factor, although the same type of undersupply is affecting regional markets, particularly larger regional markets.
[13:35] Yeah.
[13:35] And larger regional markets have experienced the same extraordinary growth in rents over the past two years as the capital city markets.
[13:44] But it does depend on the actual number of rental properties in those regional markets, which can be quite small.
[13:52] And therefore that increases.
[13:54] tends to make the sort of the aggregated results, the total results, a little bit more volatile compared to the capital city markets, as we see with some of the smaller capital city markets like Hobart and Darwin, which tend to be volatile.
[14:09] from period to period going forward.
[14:12] So still the same old, same old, still very much a landlord's market, Rachel.
[14:17] Still a tough gig for tenants or prospective tenants seeking properties out there.
[14:24] And I think, you know, one of the things I haven't mentioned that's probably taken some of the heat out of rental markets is a big reduction in migration that we've had over the past year.
[14:34] The federal government has certainly acted to reduce the intake of migrants and
[14:39] And of course, that has a particular effect on the rental market.
[14:42] And of course, the reduction in migration has been focused on the student market.
[14:48] So a lot fewer students are now coming into Australia.
[14:53] And of course, notionally, the first port of call for students is the rental market.
[14:59] And that's why we haven't seen quite the same
[15:02] growth in unit rents as we've seen in house rents.
[15:06] So that's one of the factors, as well as under supply, that's been the other side of the coin, which is significantly reduced migration going forward.
[15:16] But we await the next results.
[15:18] And I think that they'll continue to show the trend that we've had over the past year or so, Rachel.
[15:25] So having said that, let's have a look at the home building approval data.
[15:30] Again, very problematic just talking about the rental market in terms of providing more supply into our housing markets, which we clearly need, which governments have clearly acknowledged that we aren't building enough homes, that we don't have enough to go around.
[15:46] And the data coming through on new home building approvals is certainly problematic in terms of trying to fix that problem.
[15:55] problem of undersupply.
[15:56] So home building was down again by 4.7% over August, building approvals.
[16:03] That followed a 9.5% fall in July.
[16:07] So back-to-back falls in house or home building approvals.
[16:12] And this is the interesting thing, Rachel, it was units that fell again.
[16:16] Now, typically with units, and that's been the big improver this year has been building approvals for units.
[16:23] Now, state governments have certainly got their act together, particularly New South Wales and Victoria, in terms of expediting planning approvals for units, particularly higher density inner suburban or middle ring suburbs have really experienced a significant growth in building approvals for units because of actions from the governments, particularly New South Wales and Victoria.
[16:49] And we tend to see one month a big rise in units,
[16:52] because you get a big development coming through.
[16:54] Then the following month, it falls back.
[16:57] And then the next month, it picks up again.
[16:59] But we're now starting to see perhaps early signs.
[17:02] And let me make that clear, that that surge in unit approvals is starting to wane, which has been the one bright light going forward.
[17:12] Houses were also down 2.2%.
[17:15] That's been a trend really over the past year, Rachel, which is a real concern.
[17:20] that building approvals for houses are consistently falling.
[17:25] Queensland was a top state, top performer, but homes only up by 3.7%.
[17:31] And in the scheme of things, that's actually not a big rise.
[17:35] So that was the best of all the states, Rachel, was 3.7% increase.
[17:40] So that sort of says it all as well, that what was a reasonable but certainly not an exceptional rise in building approvals over the month,
[17:49] for all the states with Queensland at 3.7% is just sort of saying, yeah, that's okay, but it's not what we're used to seeing in terms of some of the growth rates of states on a month-to-month basis.
[18:00] And the whole point to this is that now that we're seeing fewer building approvals in the shorter term anyway coming through for units, as well as houses, which we've sort of been used to, the trend is now starting to fall, Rachel.
[18:13] So let's have a quick look at the data.
[18:15] You can see there that,
[18:18] Houses were down 2.6%, units down 8.1%, overall down 4.7%.
[18:25] Over the past year, we're still seeing, as I said, the results of that big surge in approvals for units this year compared to last year, up by 37.5%.
[18:35] Over the full year, 27.6%.
[18:38] But houses up just 2.4%, Rachel, over this year so far compared to the same period last year.
[18:46] You can just see that trend now.
[18:47] This is national home building approvals.
[18:50] This is the annual trend, sorry, the quarterly trend, seasonally adjusted.
[18:56] So just a little bit above where we were a year ago, but you can see how that trend is now starting to flatten.
[19:04] and maybe look like it's heading downwards, Rachel, which is not good news.
[19:09] After you can see the trend last year was certainly on the rise, we haven't continued that this year to date.
[19:16] When we look at the breakdowns for houses and units, you can see the trend for houses has certainly flattened.
[19:23] And units is now starting to fall away with those consecutive months of falls.
[19:28] We await, obviously, next month's results.
[19:31] Perhaps we'll get a big surge in unit developments coming through, which wouldn't be surprised because that's the nature of the beast.
[19:37] But to this point, the big surge in units that we have seen has started to ease.
[19:42] So...
[19:44] Some concerns there again or continuing for the supply of housing in Australia.
[19:52] We can see the results there of the year to date on the capital city basis that Melbourne is usual well and truly ahead of the rest in terms of total home building approvals.
[20:14] has provided more building approvals for units than Melbourne.
[20:17] Melbourne actually earlier this year had been overtaking Sydney consistently in terms of the number of building approvals for units, but Sydney sort of reasserted itself in terms of being the number one destination for unit building approvals of the capital cities.
[20:36] But this is the interesting stuff, Rachel.
[20:37] When we look at this year so far,
[20:39] compared to the same period last year, you can see that concerning Melbourne is actually down 5.9% on the number of building approvals for houses compared to the first eight months of last year.
[20:54] And Brisbane, which is, you know, a rocketing housing market in all factors, in all areas,
[21:01] rental and buying is down 2.9% for the number of houses approved for building.
[21:10] So I think that's a real concern.
[21:11] Melbourne and Brisbane, particularly Brisbane, which has so much demand for housing and a lot of demand in the pipeline coming through, is now approving fewer houses than it did over the same period last year.
[21:25] But you can see the big rise in units really everywhere.
[21:29] this year so far compared to the same period last year.
[21:32] But we have seen, as I said, Rachel, in the latest data that we're not seeing the continuance of that surge in unit building approval.
[21:42] So that may resume over coming months.
[21:45] But to this point, it's just a little bit concerning for our ongoing challenge of building enough
[21:56] homes in this country.
[21:57] So the long term trend, you can see how we've fallen away since the 2016 peak down still 27.9% in capital city home building approvals and units of the big underperformers down 44.6%.
[22:12] Even with that surge that we've had this year so far compared to last year, we're still down 44.6%.
[22:19] on the peak trend compared to way back in 2016 when we peaked.
[22:25] So still plenty of work to do, Rachel, in terms of home building approvals.
[22:31] Now, we've seen two back-to-back monthly declines in the building approvals down almost 15% combined.
[22:37] That's a big signal that, you know, we're already in a supply shortage environment at the moment, but, I mean, little promising to see Queensland is actually up by 3.7%.
[22:47] I suppose this is almost going to be like a rhetorical question, but does this construction slowdown, is this going to worsen the housing shortage or are we just seeing a lag in the material and labour costs playing out?
[23:00] Well, yes, the material costs could be part of that and it could be a lagging factor.
[23:07] That's a good point, Rachel.
[23:09] But we did see building costs improve recently, although now starting latest data showing to perhaps deteriorate a bit.
[23:18] So the cost of building a home could be a factor in reducing activity.
[23:25] That's a good point.
[23:26] But I still think it's the usual suspects, red tape, green tape, that's holding things up.
[23:33] It was interesting that last month New South Wales announced some significant changes to the home planning approval process.
[23:41] It wasn't so much a structural change per se in the actual tape, you know, red tape that confounds a lot of those that are putting in a building approval.
[23:52] It was streamlining all the various aspects of what you've got to do.
[23:56] So it was more of a creating a one stop shop for getting a building approval.
[24:01] So that would hopefully make it a quicker process.
[24:05] But it's still the issues that are involved in actually constraining building approvals, the structural issues, weren't really addressed in that because the green tape, which is also a factor in building approvals for New South Wales, that wasn't changed.
[24:22] And they were very clear to say that, no, no, no, we're still going to be very much focused on environmental issues as we have been in terms of getting a building approval.
[24:34] I'm not suggesting they shouldn't, but perhaps they've got to look at things really at the organic level just to see how they can get more units particularly approved and houses approved.
[24:48] But, you know, what concerns me, Rachel, is that we're now starting to see fewer unit building approvals coming through.
[24:57] It's short term, a couple of months ago.
[25:00] And maybe, you know, we've seen the surge, particularly in Sydney, of building approvals for units.
[25:06] So it was the sites that were, okay, we can get these ones.
[25:10] And are there any sites left that can be expedited in terms of getting a planning approval from, you know, through the state government?
[25:19] Maybe this is just like the first early part of a more structured building approval process from the New South Wales government.
[25:30] And, you know, it's sort of taken advantage of the early amenable sites that were available.
[25:37] And maybe it's getting tougher now to get those sites approved.
[25:41] Now, that's just a theory.
[25:43] The following months we'll see whether that is the fact in case that it's been an early surge but we're sort of back to the same old, same old in terms of higher density building approvals in the Sydney metro area, which is where all the demand is per se.
[26:06] Not such a great result again.
[26:09] And the concern, as you said, Rachel, is that, you know, that we've had back-to-back approval.
[26:16] So we will be looking for when we get the September results for a bounce back.
[26:21] But it will be sorely awaited.
[26:22] But regardless of that, the trend is still, you know, modest at best.
[26:27] And we're nowhere near providing what we need in terms of balancing our housing markets between supply and demand.
[26:35] Sorry, bad news, folks, except for those that are homeowners, I suggest.
[26:40] And, of course, the other point, just quickly, we've got tens of thousands of first home buyers now entering the market.
[26:48] And none of them are bringing a trade-in property with them.
[26:51] So, yeah.
[26:53] You know, they're going to need, that's where, again, we don't need more demand.
[26:57] We need more supply.
[26:58] But we're getting more demand, Rachel, and we're getting less supply.
[27:01] So you do the math going forward.
[27:03] Not so good.
[27:04] All right, so let's have a look at the latest weekly auction results.
[27:08] Again, it was a week that was affected by the seasonal aspects of the auction.
[27:13] not just the football grand finals, which we saw for the AFL the week before, the NRL this week or the past week, but also the New South Wales Labor Day public holiday, which was conducted, which meant there were fewer properties, obviously due to those distractions of the long weekend.
[27:30] So from this week, Rachel, we're back at full pace.
[27:33] all the way up to, so we're in right at the beginning of the second part of the spring sailing season, which will go right up, which will bring us right up to the Melbourne cup long weekend for the long weekend holiday in Victoria, of course, for that.
[27:48] And, um,
[27:50] So no excuses now going forward in terms of avoiding some of those factors that we see through September and into October.
[28:01] So we will see more listings coming through.
[28:06] Let's see if what has been still a strong, strong results, whether they continue.
[28:11] So Sydney, no surprise, auction numbers well down half of the week before because, as I said, long weekend holiday.
[28:17] Labor Day in New South Wales, clearance rate still very strong, 77.4%.
[28:23] Number of auctions was actually higher in Sydney compared to the same period last year, same week last year, and clearance rates 10% higher.
[28:33] Melbourne bounced back after its long weekend holiday for the AFL Grand Final the previous week.
[28:39] 1074 auctions well ahead of the 250 the week before, but a little bit fewer auctions compared to the same week last year, Rachel, but auction clearance rates still tracking 10% higher in that revived Melbourne housing market.
[28:55] Brisbane, a little bit higher in the week before with its clearance rate.
[29:00] Down on what we've seen, some strong results over the past month.
[29:03] But nonetheless, for Brisbane, still a reasonable result.
[29:07] 136 auctions, about the same as what we saw the week before.
[29:11] But again, down a little bit on the same week last year.
[29:16] Adelaide, similar auction numbers and a similar auction result at
[29:19] Adelaide's certainly leading the charge at the moment in terms of the top capital city auction market.
[29:26] And Canberra continues to revive another 70% plus auction clearance rate in Canberra despite a big fall in numbers because of those distractions similar to what occurred in Sydney.
[29:39] And again, when we compare the clearance rate in Canberra to the same time last year, we can see that it's well ahead in that range.
[29:47] Here we have our clearance rates just for the first week of October, of course.
[29:52] But Sydney still tracking certainly in favour of sellers, nearly 80%.
[29:56] Melbourne down just a little bit.
[29:59] But of course, it was the bounce back week following the AFL Grand Final.
[30:05] Brisbane has faded a bit compared to what was a very strong three-month period for Brisbane, but it was only the first week.
[30:13] Adelaide just roaring ahead at the moment, two very strong plus 80% results over the past two months.
[30:19] And Canberra just remarkably higher, nearly 20% higher than where it was the same period last year.
[30:27] If you're looking for the latest auction results,
[30:29] You can get them on my LinkedIn site, Doc Andrew Wilson, at LinkedIn every Saturday night at 6 o'clock, around 6 o'clock.
[30:36] Full national report on my LinkedIn site, Doc Andrew Wilson, at LinkedIn Sundays at around about 9 o'clock in the morning, which includes the regional breakdowns for Sydney and Melbourne and the top 10 sales under the hammer over the week for each of the capitals.
[30:53] A good report there to get involved with.
[30:55] If you've missed that report, Rachel, there's a QR code where you can get the full weekly national auction result as a PDF file.
[31:03] How exciting.
[31:05] That's awesome.
[31:06] Look, despite all the noise around our cost of living and the borrowing pressure, auction markets just refuse to crack.
[31:13] Doc, clearance rates holding steady in the 70s is absolutely remarkable.
[31:17] Is this pure demand resilience or do you think low stock levels are artificially holding up the numbers?
[31:21] Yes.
[31:23] Yeah, look, that's a good point, Rachel.
[31:25] Some of those markets are recording lower numbers on a week to year comparison.
[31:31] So maybe a little bit about that.
[31:33] But some of the markets that are still very strong, such as Sydney, are actually recording higher numbers compared to the same period last year.
[31:42] So
[31:43] I'm not quite sure about that supply-demand imbalance because at the end of the day, most buyers are sellers and sellers are buyers.
[31:50] So it's not so you get fresh stock coming in that isn't an actual buyer.
[31:57] Most of them are changeover buyers, particularly in the auction market.
[32:02] So because, you know, at auction you have to purchase without any conditions, you have to sign the contract on the day.
[32:10] So if, for example, you're a first home buyer, sometimes, you know, or you can want to make it subject to finance, etc.
[32:18] There tend to be fewer first home buyers, not saying there are none, but fewer first home buyers compared to changeover buyers in our auction markets.
[32:28] So, you know, there is a point there.
[32:31] The other point is that a lot of we've had a very strong start to the year with those lower interest rates.
[32:37] with auction results.
[32:38] We've seen that, we see with those charts that we just looked at how it's just risen and risen and risen since those interest rate cuts in February, followed by May and then August.
[32:49] So a lot of people have actually done their buying, Rachel.
[32:53] So the actual volume of buyers and sellers out there has been reduced by actual buying and selling to some degree going forward.
[33:03] But I think that this is just another driver from lower interest rates of housing market activity.
[33:11] And understanding the issues with housing.
[33:15] cost of living, which of course with inflation having risen so much or prices having risen so much over the past three years, is a factor.
[33:23] But it's not really stopping increased prices, which we've seen, which we saw last week with that.
[33:31] And the only way you can pay more for a property is if you're earning more and it also, you know, you have to look at what your disposable incomes are.
[33:38] So it's certainly not holding back.
[33:41] the housing market in terms of issues over cost of living.
[33:45] And also we've seen with the last set of data from the ABS, which will actually be the last set of data produced by the ABS for retail sales, which is a bit sad, a surge in people out there buying retail.
[33:58] So I'm not suggesting it doesn't exist.
[34:00] It does exist.
[34:01] And perhaps it's one of the factors why we have such a very strong participation rate in our labour market is people are being really forced to go out and find more work.
[34:10] you know, to cover their cost of living expenses.
[34:16] But very strong auction market, Rachel.
[34:19] We're moving into the meaty part of the season now, the mid part of the season, and I would expect that to continue going forward.
[34:27] So let's finish off by just giving our great giveaway as we do on the show every week, the My Housing Market Infinity Suburb Data app.
[34:35] This is where you can look at what's happening on a suburb basis.
[34:38] If you scan that QR code, it'll give you a link to the app or you can click on that hot link there.
[34:43] You need a password, which the folks at Infinity will be only too happy to provide you with.
[34:48] And this gives you an insight into every suburb in Australia that has data.
[34:53] It's in real time, so you get the updates continuously.
[34:57] You can look at, and these are for asking prices and asking rent, so it tells you what the market's asking at the moment.
[35:02] So in real time, you can understand just what,
[35:06] agents and vendors are seeking for their property.
[35:09] So you can filter for price or rent, asking prices or asking rents.
[35:14] You can look at either the capital city region or the outside capital city region.
[35:17] We're looking here as an example of the screenshot at the capital city region for New South Wales.
[35:22] That, of course, is Sydney.
[35:24] You can filter for all the suburbs that have data.
[35:26] We're looking at Blacktown.
[35:27] You can filter for house unit or townhouse.
[35:30] We're looking at houses.
[35:31] You can also filter it for the number of bedrooms.
[35:34] So four bedroom house in Blacktown, Rachel, on the screenshot here is showing not just the median asking price, but also the low and the high.
[35:42] So you know the boundaries which the market is currently providing for that particular property type and the number of properties currently for sale in that market.
[35:53] So lots of really good information there.
[35:55] Help you take a scientific approach to your property decisions and you can do exactly the same thing for the rental market.
[36:02] You can see there the median rent.
[36:03] the high and the low rent, and the number of properties that are currently listed for rent.
[36:08] We also, for our investor friends out there, of which there are many, we can look at the top 10 yielding suburbs in each of those regional breakdowns, as we discussed previously,
[36:20] for rents and prices.
[36:23] So these are the ranked top 10 yields.
[36:25] And the yields, of course, measure the gross yield, that is the annualised rental income.
[36:32] So that's the weekly rent by 12, sorry, by 52, divided by the current asking price.
[36:38] And that gives you the yields, not only the yields in a ranked top 10 order, but also the vacancy rate for all those suburbs, the number of properties for rent and for sale.
[36:48] So again,
[36:49] Some really great insights there which cover the rental markets.
[36:53] And if you don't know where these suburbs are, you can click on the hot links and they actually take you to a map there.
[36:58] So how great is that?
[36:59] Next week we're going to look at regional house prices, which I know is always a favourite for our viewers and listeners out there.
[37:06] Rachel, what's happening in the regions over September?
[37:09] Also, let's have a look at the latest population data.
[37:12] We looked at population as a factor in terms of the rental market today and, as usual, the latest weekly auction results.
[37:21] If you've missed this week's report at all and you'd like to get a hard copy of it, there is a report.
[37:29] a QR code that you can scan and that will give you a PDF copy to this week's report.
[37:33] It's been fun again, Rachel.
[37:35] I look forward, as usual, to next week where every week's different in the housing market, but it's all about education and knowledge and that's what we're here to provide our wonderful customers with.
[37:51] Yeah, as always, Doc, absolutely incredible.
[37:53] And that is a wrap for Wilson Weekly this week.
[37:56] A big thank you to Doc Wilson for decoding the data with us, as only he can.
[38:01] Remember, knowledge compounds just as fast as your mortgage interest on Infinity's debt reduction program.
[38:07] So keep learning, keep levelling up, and keep flipping the banks, not your strategy.
[38:11] I'm Rachel Howlett, your finance strategist.
[38:13] See you next week for another deep dive into what's really driving Australia's property market.

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