Melbourne's spike
Victoria recorded a further 134 cases of COVID-19 today, taking active cases in the state to 860, more than doubling from 415 active cases ix days earlier.
All other states continue to run at close to zero, except for a handful of quarantined cases relating to returned travellers.
Unfortunately the Victorian government mismanaged hotel quarantine badly which led to international travellers transmitting the contagious virus into the local community.
Thus while most of Australia is gradually returning to a new normal, Victoria now faces a renewed six-week lockdown.
Australia has now worked through 2.85 million tests, and has uncovered a total of 8,886 cases since the pandemic began.
There are 8 cases in ICU, and thankfully very few deaths have been recorded over the past two months.
Lockdown 2.0
The announcement of a new six-week lockdown in Victoria is expected to deliver a fresh $12 billion hit the local economy, and is desperate news for the many businesses that had already reopened or planned to do so.
Local business owners are understandably livid that mass protests were allowed to go ahead while they are now precluded from trading.
Local business owners are understandably livid that mass protests were allowed to go ahead while they are now precluded from trading.
Moving on to property, home values have declined by -2.91 per cent since their April 6 peak in Melbourne, and now there will be renewed logistical challenges related to open homes and auctions again, alongside the deleterious impact on consumer confidence.
That's the bad news, and it will be a tough six weeks ahead for Victoria.
Smoothing the cliff
APRA announced via a media release today that mortgage deferrals up to a period of ten months will now not need to be treated as arrears for the purposes of capital adequacy and regulatory reporting purposes.
Prime Minister Morrison also suggested that there would be further stimulus measures to replace the JobKeeper package, which is due to expire in September, with the details to be announced in the Federal Budget on July 23.
Prime Minister Morrison also suggested that there would be further stimulus measures to replace the JobKeeper package, which is due to expire in September, with the details to be announced in the Federal Budget on July 23.
Stuart Wemyss of ProSolution also delivers some more considered thoughts on what lies ahead for property and the Victorian economy here.
