Australian policy makers say efforts to rein in the runaway housing market are working. But on the ground there's a fresh bidding frenzy, as fibreboard shacks fit for demolition and miles from downtown Sydney go for almost A$1-million (about R10.5-million) . A shortage of houses in and around the city, the epicentre of Australia's property boom, is pushing up prices again even after banks last year tightened mortgage lending. Some buyers are snapping up homes they've never seen, worried it might be their last chance to own a patch of land, said Peter Baldwin, the chief auctioneer at real estate agency Richardson & Wrench. "It's all guns blazing again," said Baldwin, who's never seen fewer properties for sale in spring, a season when home hunters are usually spoiled for choice. The shortage "will just keep this market humming along". A three-year surge in Australian home prices paused at the end of 2015 after banks raised mortgage rates to offset the cost of holding more capital. The...
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