Residential housing developers offer first home buyers deep discounts
Residential house and land developers are offering first time home buyers cash incentives to first-home buyers to fill the hole in the residential property market left by second and third home buyers who can't sell their existing homes to move up.
Land developers are also moving to cut the size of their lots and change their housing designs to a more affordable product as they move to capture demand in the only area of the housing market showing signs of life. Many see this as a strange move considering that the natural flow of first home buyers buying used homes to start where land is expensive, so that second home buyers can move to a better house and land has been broken only temporarily due to lack of buyers for their existing homes and the short window for the increase in the the first home owners grant, which ends in June 2009.
It comes as figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released this month show the number of first-home buyers seeking loans increased by 17.8 per cent in November, the highest level since 2002.
Queensland general manager of Brisbane-based developer and builder Devine, Paul Nash, said second-home buyer demand has been sluggish, but when the $21,000 first-home owner's grant was introduced in October, there was a pickup in first-home owner inquiry.
One swallow does not make it springtime
"We had a spike, but the activity was flat in November and December," he said. "As a result, the company has been making its lots and housing designs smaller and more affordable.
" We are offering to top up the grant. We will make up the extra from the $21,000 to take it to about $30,000," Mr Nash said.
Chris Lamont from the Housing Industry Association said there were other developers offering similar discounts, which was a popular move by developers when GST was being introduced about nine years ago.
First Home Buyers growth
Mr Nash said in the past year, first-home buyer sales had doubled from about one-third to about two-thirds of the company's business.
Three-bedroom houses started in price at $299,000 in Caboolture in Brisbane's Northern corridor, while prices started at about $219,000 in Pakenham on the outskirts of Melbourne and $209,000 in South Australia about 30km north of Adelaide CBD.
The sales manager of the Cornish Group in Sydney, Colin Lake, said the company had about 17 house and land packages that sold in the past month to first-home buyers, starting from $350,000 at its Spring Farm development in Sydney's Camden.
"Before October, we were doing about four or five a month, now we are doing about 30 a month," he said.
Last month, the company saw a change in the market and cut blocks to smaller sizes and reduced the prices by up to $50,000. He said the company had so far sold 120 blocks.
"We decided to just slash and burn, cut the prices and get the market running."
Land developers are also moving to cut the size of their lots and change their housing designs to a more affordable product as they move to capture demand in the only area of the housing market showing signs of life. Many see this as a strange move considering that the natural flow of first home buyers buying used homes to start where land is expensive, so that second home buyers can move to a better house and land has been broken only temporarily due to lack of buyers for their existing homes and the short window for the increase in the the first home owners grant, which ends in June 2009.
It comes as figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released this month show the number of first-home buyers seeking loans increased by 17.8 per cent in November, the highest level since 2002.
Queensland general manager of Brisbane-based developer and builder Devine, Paul Nash, said second-home buyer demand has been sluggish, but when the $21,000 first-home owner's grant was introduced in October, there was a pickup in first-home owner inquiry.
One swallow does not make it springtime
"We had a spike, but the activity was flat in November and December," he said. "As a result, the company has been making its lots and housing designs smaller and more affordable.
" We are offering to top up the grant. We will make up the extra from the $21,000 to take it to about $30,000," Mr Nash said.
Chris Lamont from the Housing Industry Association said there were other developers offering similar discounts, which was a popular move by developers when GST was being introduced about nine years ago.
First Home Buyers growth
Mr Nash said in the past year, first-home buyer sales had doubled from about one-third to about two-thirds of the company's business.
Three-bedroom houses started in price at $299,000 in Caboolture in Brisbane's Northern corridor, while prices started at about $219,000 in Pakenham on the outskirts of Melbourne and $209,000 in South Australia about 30km north of Adelaide CBD.
The sales manager of the Cornish Group in Sydney, Colin Lake, said the company had about 17 house and land packages that sold in the past month to first-home buyers, starting from $350,000 at its Spring Farm development in Sydney's Camden.
"Before October, we were doing about four or five a month, now we are doing about 30 a month," he said.
Last month, the company saw a change in the market and cut blocks to smaller sizes and reduced the prices by up to $50,000. He said the company had so far sold 120 blocks.
"We decided to just slash and burn, cut the prices and get the market running."
Labels: Deveine, developer, first home buyer grant, home buyer, Housing affordability. builder, residential
posted by Rick Adlam, Mr Mortgage at
9:29 PM
