The Economy and the Year Ahead
January 23, 2012
With so many mixed messages going around about the state of the economy, we thought it was time to look at what the statistics tell us. Here’s a round-up of the latest research on the Australian property market: (sourced from SQM Research and Genworth’s Home Grown Mortgage Industry Perspectives report)
- Australians remain better placed to cope with their debt levels than borrowers in many other countries. 45% of Australian borrowers are overpaying their mortgage, compared to an eight-country average of 26% (across Canada, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the UK and the US).
- The typical borrower in 2012 is expected to be refinancers and upgraders, with first homebuyers and investors remaining cautious.
- In the past year, WA has seen the largest growth in lending, then QLD, followed by VIC and NSW, with SA and TAS having seen a drop in home lending.
- Of the capital cities, Sydney stands out as a being on track for house price growth of between zero and 4 per cent by the end of 2012, factoring in no interest rate change.
The statistics show us it’s not all doom and gloom, with the health of the property market varying from suburb-to-suburb and state-to-state.
Our housing markets ended 2011 in a better position to where they started and John Edwards from Residex is confident that the year ahead will be better for residential property owners compared to last year.
Australians are much better placed than many other people in the world and the adjustment period we have recently seen, with a clear upswing in our markets in the last few months, means that there is a reasonable chance that our markets will advance positively, albeit by a relatively small amount, in the current year.
Additionally, in this situation there will be bargains for the astute house hunter along with quality growth in many suburbs.
The last year has seen many homebuyers and investors sit on the sidelines and property prices reduce with most concerned about the global financial markets. Although some industry experts predicted a property meltdown, our markets have remained intact and many savvy buyers have even been rewarded with good buying.
In these times, we continue to reinforce the importance of doing your research to buy good quality property that will stand the test of time. Nobody can predict the future markets with exact precision; however you can be sure to weather market movements with quality property.
As your mortgage broker we would be happy to speak with you about any lending issues and or property decisions you may be concerned about for the coming year.
