Where Are the Top Housing Hotspots in Australia Together with New Zealand and Sweden, Australia is considered one of the leading housing markets in the world. This makes the country even more attracting to investors and migrants applying for Australian permanent residency. According to the data from the latest HIA Population and Residential Building Hotspots Report, Victoria has the most number of housing hotspots with six, followed by Western Australia with five hotspots, New South Wales is home to four hotspots, Queensland and Act with two apiece, and one in Northern territory. With a total of 602 hotspots across Australia, the statistics defines being a hotspot as a local area where the population growth tops the national average and also where the price of residential building is in excess of $100 million. According to HIA Economist Diwa Hopkins, there are more than 220,000 new housings commenced in 2015, so it is no doubt that there was a very strong performance among housing hotspots in the country. Hopkins said, “These two states have been the engines of the strong upturn in new home building over the last few years. It is also encouraging to see WA still perform strongly this time at the national level, considering the difficulties arising from the natural resources downturn.” Melbourne, unsurprisingly, is considered to be the housing hotspot to see the highest value of new housing approved. Below is the table: Source: Housing Industry Association

Improvements on the Australia’s Unemployment Rate The good news is the Australia’s unemployment rate has defied economists’ predictions that unemployment rate would reach the 5.9% rate from the 5.8% in the month of February. The total number of people landing jobs had risen by 26,100 beating the market expectations of a rise of 20,000. Based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics report, the unemployment rate in March is 5.7%, which is the lowest rate since September 2013. Full-time employment rate, however, fell to 8,800, while the part-time jobs is up by 34,900. According to Employment Minister Michaelia Cash, during the past 12 months, there is a 2.2% increase in the number of employed people and 4.6% decreased for the unemployed. “So when a Coalition government is able to implement its economic agenda, you can clearly see it’s one of job growth and job creation,” she added during an interview. South Australia’s unemployment rate fell from 7.6% in February to 7.2% in March, but remained the highest in Australia. For the 10th month, on the other hand, New South Wales remained to be the lowest rate of unemployment across the nation at 5.3% in March.