市場走勢

December is the holiday season for many people who take time off from work, travel and spend time with family. For many business, it’s the slow time of the year. However, with interest rates rising, home buyers this past December were in a hurry to lock in a mortgage rate. The housing market became so tight in December 2016 that the months of supply fell to 4.1 months, the lowest for a December since 2000. That means that it would only take four months to sell all the existing houses listed for sale at the December sales pace. The December 2016 supply was about one quarter of the peak level of 16.2 months in January 2008, but higher than the trough of 3.5 months in June 2000.

The national auction clearance rate edged up to 74.6 per cent in the week to May 7, from 74 per cent the previous week, according to the latest data from housing market analysts CoreLogic.

Victoria will spend $300 million building a nine kilometre bypass around suburbs on Melbourne's southeastern edge. Construction on the Mordialloc bypass will start in 2019 and will take traffic from Springvale Rd in Aspendale Gardens to the Dingley Bypass. "We'll build the Mordialloc Bypass to slash congestion and create jobs in Melbourne's southeast," Premier Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday.

New figures released show that over the month of March, Melbourne's median land price rose $300 a day (or $9000 for the month) to $258,000, pushing the total cost of a new three or four-bedroom basic home to around $500,000.

The dream of owning a home is getting more difficult in Melbourne, where the median house price has hit a record high of $826,000. The city-wide median increased 7.6 per cent in the first three months of this year. It is up $55,000 on December's figure, reflecting the strongest quarterly growth since 2013.

Cargo containers sit in stacks at Laem Chabang port in Chon Buri province. Exports are projected to drive growth this year. The Thai economy is expected to expand by 3.5% based on an export recovery and domestic public spending this year, with momentum set to continue next year, raising growth to 3.6%, says the Asian Development Bank (ADB).