Morning Briefing: Change in Aussie spending habits hints at housing downturn

A global card payments giant has said a downturn in the property market may be on its way... Aussie dream becomes more popular with Chinese buyers...

Change in Aussie spending habits hints at housing downturn
A global card payments giant has said a downturn in the property market may be on its way, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. 

Analysts at MasterCard say a change in Australians' spending habits indicated by a marked slowdown in expenditure on household goods shows the housing sector can expect softer conditions ahead.

MasterCard's new SpendPulse report shows growth in household goods sales has been under the three-month moving average for five of the past six months and the slowdown is expected to accelerate.

MasterCard analyst Sarah Quinlan said, "We are seeing a pronounced slowdown and it's deepening each month," she said. "Therefore we fully expect real estate will weaken further."

"It's the same correlation in the United States," she said. "We saw a drop in appliance sales for eight months and sure enough we saw the housing recovery basically slow to a crawl - it's a very correlative indicator."

Aussie dream becomes more popular with Chinese buyers
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The appetite of Australian based Chines buyers looking to break into the real estate market looks to be changing, with new figures suggesting their focus is shifting off the type of property they have traditionally targeted.

According to figures from Juwai, an online real estate platform that markets Australian real estate to Chinese buyers, the end of 2015 saw a marked increase in interest in residential properties that come with land.

“We saw a 23.5% increase in the past year in the share of inquiries made for Australian property that specify a desire for a home with land. This is the based on the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to a year earlier,” chief executive officer of Juwai Charles Pittar said.

“Chinese buyers most often buy apartments in inner city areas. They know urban living best, those who live offshore are required by Australian law to purchase only new homes and the entry price is more affordable,” Pittar said.

According to Pittar, Chinese buyers in Australia, and those of Chinese decent, are becoming more likely to chase what has traditionally been known as the “Australian Dream.”

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