Property Point

If you find yourself in the mood for some bad news, if you really want a solid dose of negativity, if you think things are humming along a bit too nicely and you want to suck the life out of it and sink into a state of overwhelming negativity … the easiest thing to do is turn on the TV news.

The bad news could be any number of things; crime is a good one, particularly violent crime against innocent people. Let it get in your head and your depressed mood is set up for the day.

‍

The cost of living is another beauty. Electricity costs, petrol, interest rates, inflation … turn on the morning news and you can hear all about it and set yourself up for the day.

‍

The bad news for home owners has all been about how the property market is collapsing. It’s a national story and there is no doubt that some cities are being smashed with low clearance rates at auction and falling prices. Sydney is suffering the most.

It is definitely true that since the Federal Government’s decision to ban negative gearing on housing other than brand new builds and to increase capital gains tax, there has been a change to property markets around the country.

‍

Investors are running for the hills in Sydney and showing a serious lack of interest in Melbourne and Brisbane.

The Government’s idea was to make property more affordable for first home buyers but in those big cities the first home buyers seem to be holding off as the prices fall. Meanwhile, home owners in those cities are stressed as they see the value of their properties fall. Strangely, most people don’t want the value of their home to fall.

‍

But the national news coverage doesn’t tell you anything about Mackay. What are buyers doing here?

One good way of assessing that is to look at the number of loan applications and submissions from mortgage brokers to banks for those loans.

‍

Gardian CEO Ben Phillips was until recently in charge of Gardian Finance’s Mortgage Choice franchise and in his new CEO role he obviously continues to have his finger on that pulse.

‍

He spoke with Gardian real estate’s sales team the other day to tell us that whatever we might be hearing about the real estate situation around the country, it is a different story here.

The big indicator is the number of people in Mackay who are applying for loans to buy properties here.

‍

The Gardian Finance/Mortgage Choice franchise is one of the most successful in the country and the number of loan applications in a particular month or quarter gives a good indication of the number of buyers in our market.

Gardian Finance’s Mortgage Choice franchise is 14^th in the country for the dollar value of settlements (we are competing against much higher prices in southern cities) and is fourth in Australia for the number of submissions for loan approvals.

‍

So current loan applications through Gardian finance tell us something about the number of buyers out there.

Ben said that in the month of July, we had the fourth-highest number of loan submissions in 26 years of business. That’s not bad in a supposed property downturn.

‍

“We are incredibly busy with loan applications from Mackay buyers,” Ben told me.

“It shows that you can listen to the national news but Mackay seems to run differently to the capital cities and the settlement and loan submission numbers show that Mackay is getting on with it and people want to buy properties

‍

“This is the best year we have had in terms of loan submissions and July was one of our strongest months ever.”

‍

“Ninety-two per cent of the loan submissions are for owner-occupiers who want to put down roots in Mackay, people who love this place and feel confident about its future.”

‍

You won’t hear about that on the national news but it’s worth knowing.

‍