What Happened to the Markets in June

Interest rates are the Siamese twins to real estate activity. Sooner or later, increasing interest rates are bound to cause purchasers to hold their breath, sit on their hands, and wait for further signs that one should become aggressive in the market.

It took four interest rate increases in Australia for this to happen. New Zealand's first increase was last month. Buyers, in New Zealand, were not as patient, or as confident, as those in Australia and reduced activity occurred immediately.

All in all though, the Ray White Group results were quite pleasing at $2.4 billion. This was down 11 on the previous month, but still up on the previous year. In Australia, one didn't expect the controversy over the Resource Super Profits Tax to impact on property. But it did. The Ray White results in the mining cities were very average indeed. But offices in those cities reported a quick upswing as soon as the new Prime Minister declared that an agreement had been reached with the mining companies. More proof that real estate activity reflects the attitudes of the community as much as their basic needs.

There were some terrific results in New Zealand, particularly in Auckland's eastern suburbs. The Victorian market again produced strong results, even though newspaper reports had declared reduced interest in open for inspections and auction clearance rates on the days of auction.

Why Victoria has been so strong continues to mystify us.
Queensland was the most disappointing of the other Australian markets. One looks forward to a change in attitude in this market that has been so strong for so many years.

Our New South Wales team was happy with its results which held up nicely with their 12 month average. The same pattern existed for Western Australia and South Australia.