00:03Australian houses are getting more affordable, as we know, which is to say there is a market
00:08correction underway – 5.2 per cent nationally so far, and more in the East Coast capital
00:14cities.
00:14Now it's not a crash yet, and still well short of the two previous largest falls of
00:18about 8 per cent each, although there are plenty of predictions that it will get there
00:22and beyond.
00:23But something in the housing market has crashed already – the volume of sales.
00:29Nationally, sales volumes are down 19 per cent in 12 months.
00:33In Sydney, Brisbane and Perth it's 25 per cent, Melbourne close to 20 per cent.
00:37The average of the capital cities 22.5 per cent, regionals 13 per cent.
00:42The big losers from all this are the housing ticket clippers, real estate agents, mortgage
00:48brokers and state governments.
00:50They've all been having a wonderful time for the past few years, but that's over.
00:54Sympathy for the agents and brokers might be in short supply, but a fall in state government
00:59stamp duty revenues affects you too.
01:02Property taxes are falling short of budget forecasts everywhere, but especially in NSW and Victoria,
01:09which are facing a $5.5 billion hit to their bottom lines.
01:13And, with long-term interest rates rising along with the RBA cash rate, the Federal Government's
01:18own sensitivity analysis suggests that the states will be up for an extra $3 billion in interest.
01:25And then there are all the other businesses that rely on people moving house – architects,
01:31gardeners, painters, carpenters and electricians, conveyancers, removalists, furniture retailers,
01:37cleaners, property photographers, building inspectors and pest inspectors.
01:42A housing downturn doesn't just reduce sentiment and spending via what they call the wealth
01:48effect.
01:49It ripples through the economy in a hundred different real ways.
01:53Making housing more affordable was taken on as a national project.
01:56It's both a good thing and well overdue, but it isn't going to be easy.
