4.6%: CBA Boss Says Rate Hikes Are Finished

Rate hikes may be finished at 4.6%—but auction data is already showing the pressure on buyers and sellers. - The cash rate moved from 4.35% on 29 September to 4.6% from 30 September. - Brisbane cleared just 32%, down from 64% a year ago, with 59% of reported results passed in. - Across five capitals, 611 of 1,277 reported properties sold: a 47.8% clearance rate. - Alice Springs offers a 9.73% yield and 1.3% vacancy, while Moe records a 5.01% yield and 3.5% vacancy. The message is not to avoid the market. It is to test the property, the suburb and your borrowing buffer against the evidence. Get the clearance table and suburb layers in the free Top Five Markets Report: https://ripe.house/brief-ratepeak Disclaimer: This commentary is general information only, not personal financial or property advice.

The Commonwealth Bank's boss says the Reserve Bank's rate hikes are probably finished with the cash rate at 4.6 per cent. In the week before that hike, Brisbane cleared just 32 per cent of reported results, half its rate of a year ago. When money gets dearer, bidders thin out before sellers adjust, and today's two top suburbs point in opposite directions. The Reserve Bank's own cash rate table now shows the move. It read 4.35 per cent on the 29th of September and 4.6 from the 30th. So every clearance number ahead describes the market before the higher rate. Across five capitals on our own aggregation of domains preliminary figures, 611 properties sold from 1,277 reported. That's 47.8 per cent. Melbourne was weakest, 38 sold from 117 reported. That's 32 per cent against 64 a year ago. Now the peg, ABC reports that the Commonwealth Bank's boss says the Reserve Bank's rate hikes are probably finished. On domains preliminary figures for the week to the 26th of September, every capital cleared less than a year ago. Sydney 51 per cent down from 70, Melbourne 49 down from 71, Canberra 47 down from 62, Adelaide 42 down from 48, and Brisbane 32 down from 64. The steepest fall at 32 points. That's a pricing gap between buyers and sellers, not a verdict on the homes. One percentage is never enough. Sydney withdrew 211 properties, about 27 per cent of its reported results, and passed in 171, about 22 per cent. Brisbane withdrew just 10, yet passed in 69 of its 117, or 59 per cent. Adelaide passed in 48 per cent, Melbourne 38, Canberra 34. In Sydney, many sellers stepped back before the day. In Brisbane and Adelaide, sellers turned up and met a thin room. Two new suburbs today from our 30th of September snapshot. First, the suburb on screen now in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, at the 100th percentile nationally, yield 9.73 per cent, vacancy just 1.3, but only about 35 per cent of homes are owner occupied. So this is an investor heavy market. 25 sales in 12 months from 170,000 to 1.1 million. Second, Moe in Victoria's City of Latrobe at the 99th percentile, yield 5.01 per cent, vacancy 3.5, and about 63 per cent owner occupied. And real depth, 115 sales in 12 months. Four map layers, sold price, rental yield, owner occupied depth, and social housing. Our Alice Springs suburb packs 1,529 addresses into 32 streets at a 90-day rolling sold price of $310,000. Moe has 7,516 addresses across 236 streets at about $457,000. Public housing sits at about 4.6 per cent in the Alice Springs suburb and 6.5 in Moe. The map is a prompt, not a verdict. Always check the exact street. Here's the contrast I flagged at the top. Our Alice Springs pick leads on rent, a yield almost double Moe's and vacancy just over a third of Moe's. Moe leads on owners, about 63 per cent owner occupied against roughly 35 for the Alice Springs suburb. Our engines, sold price signal is flat for the Alice Springs suburb and pointing up for Moe. Same top band, opposite strengths. A buyer carrying dearer debt needs the rent to arrive. A buyer who wants resale depth needs owner occupiers. A caution on the clearance board, Sydney's 51 per cent rests on 772 reported results. Melbourne's 49 comes from 221, Canberra's 47 from 86 and Adelaide's 42 from just 81. Sample size matters as much as the rate. Back to that ABC report, it's one lender's view, not a Reserve Bank decision and the cash rate still sits at 4.6 per cent. If the call is right, a buyer's pullback near the peak gives patient, wel