Will our housing market cope?

If you live in a capital city you would be familiar with seeing the endless cranes on the skyline and may be wondering where on earth are people going to come from to occupy this continual development. But they will fill – and fill fast.

We hear that Australia is in the throes of a housing shortage yet builders are going broke!

Rents are so high that more people are fast tracking their purchasing decision simply because they can’t find rental accommodation.

Immigration projections are exceeding our housing capacity with migrant population expected to have grown by more than 700,000 between 2022 and 2024 financial years. Where are they going to live?

With net overseas migration at record levels and rising, there is a chance more permanent or long term migrants who can afford it will skip the rental phase and fast track a home purchase simply because they can’t find rental accommodation.

Home owners are holding waiting for the next wave before they sell, and astute investors are preparing to pounce on a good buying opportunity.

Although we don’t have a property crystal ball, there are certainly signs that property prices across the country have bottomed out. In April we saw the first sign in nearly 12 months where there was an increase in the Home Value index reported by Core Logic two months in a row.

CoreLogic’s Research Director, Tim Lawless, said that, despite the divergence, the figures suggested Australia’s housing market downturn had passed.

“Not only are we seeing housing values stabilising or rising across most areas of the country, a number of other indicators are confirming the positive shift,” he said.

“Auction clearance rates are holding slightly above the long-run average, sentiment has lifted and home sales are trending around the previous five-year average.”