Qld’s new-investor loan value plummets by 24pc in past year

We were recently featured in Adelaide Now and The Chronicle, where Colin Lee has provided expert opinion on the property market. You can view it here and here.

Investors have fled Queensland, with new loans plummeting almost a quarter in the past year, as the Housing Minister finally admitted the state’s housing crisis was now worse than when the government’s flagship summit was held.

Shock new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed Queensland’s new-investor loan value had plummeted by 24 per cent in the past year – higher than the national average of a 20.9 per cent fall.

And while May saw a slight recovery of new-investor loans 4.5 per cent higher than the previous month, Queensland was still behind every other state other than Western Australia, including Victoria (up 9 per cent) and NSW (up 8.5 per cent).

It comes in the wake of The Courier-Mail’s rental crisis investigation series, which saw the government accused of contributing to the ballooning crisis with continuing tinkering of rental laws, taxation and regulatory changes – in turn driving out private market investment.

Meaghan Scanlon – who was parachuted into the troubled housing portfolio less than two months ago – faced a media-conference grilling on Monday about whether the state’s housing crisis was now worse since the government’s summit in October.

While initially refusing to give a straightforward answer over several minutes, she finally conceded: “I think since the housing summit, you’ve seen RBA changes that have made it worse for families.

“There are a whole range of challenges right now across the country impacting people who are renting and of course people who are trying to own a home.

“I think you’d have to be living under a rock if you didn’t admit the cost of living pressures nationally are having an impact on families.”

Inspire Realty property investment adviser Colin Lee said the new data showed “everyday Australian investors are fleeing real estate”.

“We are in for more than a generation of homelessness if something isn’t done soon to address rental undersupply,” he said.

“What’s most disturbing is the lead-in time for adding new housing supply to the market is years, not months.

“As such, we need to make decisions now to address future demand for housing which is increasing at an exponential rate.

“Successive policy settings across all levels of government have seen these investors leave the market in droves over the past decade.

“I empathise with renters, but if governments and banks continue to penalise investors, more will leave the market.”

Earlier, QCOSS chief executive Aimee McVeigh and St Vincent de Paul’s chief executive Kevin Mercer said despite the high-profile housing summit launched by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last year, more people were in severe housing stress than ever.

LNP housing spokesman Tim Mander said there was “absolutely no doubt that the Queensland housing crisis has got worse since the housing summit that was held late last year”.

“And then yesterday we had the Housing Minister blaming everybody, but themselves – it’s the councils’ fault. It’s the developers’ fault. It’s landlords’ fault,” Mr Mander said.

“Well, this government needs to look in the mirror and realise that the crisis has got worse under Labor.”