Approvals drop
Sydney apartment approvals were some 36 per cent lower than a year earlier in October, and are falling away fast.
With new unit sales to mainland Chinese and other domestic investors now all but frozen up, the construction cycle at Sydney is rapidly coming to an end.
The Grattan Institute and others have pointed out that with today's higher levels of population growth Sydney may revert to a dwelling undersupply position more quickly than was in the case in previous cycles.
Sydney drove the weaker unit approvals result for October, but the trend softness is now spilling over to almost every other capital city...
...except for one: Hobart.
Hobart has a chronically undersupplied housing market - flirting on the verge of a rental crisis - and detached house approvals in the Tasmanian capital have at least risen to the highest level across the data series.
Even here, though, a lack of investor access to credit has stymied the supply response for apartments.
Overall, the monthly trend for total approvals has now fallen by 17 per cent from a rip-roaring 20,441 at the May 2016 cyclical peak to a far more sedate 16,983 in October 2018.
Further declines in new dwelling supply appear very likely to continue well into 2019.
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With all of that downbeat news around today, here are a couple of snaps of Business Insider's Devils & Details Live event in Sydney.
The wry humour of Westpac's dovish Bill Evans (I think it'd be fair to say that he doesn't have a great deal of confidence in some of the more optimistic inflation forecasts)...
A packed house at The Ivy.
On stage with Michalakis (CIO, Statewide) and Koukoulas (MD, Market Economics), discussing something or other (a recording of the show will be released next week).
And the asset allocators panel discuss the outlook.
It was a super event, and great fun - book early next year to make sure you get a ticket.
