Two thirds of Australians think now is a good time to be purchasing residential property: Tim Lawless
GUEST OBSERVER
The latest quarterly housing market sentiment survey by CoreLogic and TEG rewards revealed that almost two thirds of Australians think now is a good time to be purchasing residential property while roughly the same proportion believed the housing market is vulnerable to a significant correction.
The latest CoreLogic and TEG Rewards Housing Market Sentiment Survey highlights the paradox in housing market attitudes, with the large majority of survey respondents indicating that it’s a good time to buy a home at a time when the market may be vulnerable to a significant downturn.
Of the 2,432 Australian residents who participated in the June quarter CoreLogic TEG Rewards Housing Market Sentiment Survey, 64 percent of respondents thought it was a good time to buy a dwelling, up from 60 percent of respondents a year ago.
Sydney-based respondents, where affordability constraints are the most pressing of any capital city, were the most pessimistic about whether now is a good time to buy a property, however slightly more than half the respondents still felt it was a good time to buy.
Conversely, the regions where dwelling values have peaked and shown a downturn are where respondents are most confident about buying conditions. 80% or more of respondents in the Northern Territory, Regional Western Australia and Perth indicated they thought it was a good time to buy.
With such as a large proportion of survey respondents thinking that now is a good time to buy a dwelling, it was surprising to see almost two thirds (65 percent) also indicated they thought dwelling values could suffer a significant correction. While the results suggest that survey respondents are concerned there could be a substantial fall in Australian home values, the proportion is lower from a year ago when 75% of respondents thought the market was vulnerable to a significant correction in values.
When asked whether dwelling values would rise, fall or remain steady over the next twelve months, the majority of respondents expected values to remain steady, with Tasmanians the most optimistic about the direction of value growth over the next twelve months.
Nationally, 38 percent of respondents are expecting dwelling values to rise over the next twelve months. In contrast, a year ago 45% of respondents thought values would rise, indicating that respondents have become less optimistic with regards to their views on capital gains over the next financial year.
For rental market conditions, only 11 percent of survey respondents are expecting weekly rents to fall over the next twelve months, despite the CoreLogic rental series showing the weakest rental conditions in at least two decades.
Nationally, almost equal numbers of survey respondents indicated that weekly rents would either rise or remain stable over the coming twelve months, however there were some considerable variations across the regions.
Less than one fifth of respondents in Perth and Regional Western Australia think weekly rents will rise. The low expectation of rental rises in these areas is in line with current rental statistics which show ongoing falls in weekly rents across most parts of Western Australia.
Tim Lawless is head of the CoreLogic research and analytics team and can be contacted here.