2018 was the weakest for apartment approvals in four years. Approvals fell 12 percent to a total of 53,590 in 2018.
From Jones Lang LaSelle’s Q4 2018 Residential Apartment Market report released today: New apartment completions will drop this year to 16,000 from 23,200 last calender year.
The Labor leader declared the opposition would persist with contentious reforms to negative gearing, capital gains tax concessions and to the existing system of cash rebates for franking credits despite signs of a voter backlash, and an intensifying scare campaign from the Coalition.
ANZ job ads are down 1.7% in January and December was revised down to minus .7%, with the year on year growth down minus 3.7%.
And of course, the Hayne Banking Royal Commission will be released today. Hayne was not exactly friendly to Josh Frydenburg when the document was handed over, not even a handshake. That probably indicates that there will be a lot of cold hard reality recommendations in the report.
Politically, both major parties are committed to, in principle, implementing the recommendations. Well, that will certainly be the promise between now and the election, other wise it would be political suicide. Post-election, the reality may be different, as pressure groups mount their challenges.
Lastly, last Friday the monthly monetary and credit aggregates were released, reflecting the news above. Annual Lending growth continued its gradual slowdown to 4.6%, with Investor lending down to 1%. Over the last 3 months the lending credit growth has slowed even further to 3.8%.
