Australia’s Housing Industry Association (HIA) recently released its National Outlook and the news was not pretty, but there are signs that things will improve in the coming year. Builders in Australia are expected to begin more new houses in the second half of 2009, resulting in an increase in Australia real estate sales, though that does follow a very poor year.
That National Outlook notes that housing starts were forecast to bottom out at 132,190 for the 2008-2009 financial year, which is a 17 percent drop from the previous year. Fortunately, the HIA predicts things to improve beginning in late 2009, with starts expected at 149,150 for 2009-2010, and 158,100 in 2010-2011.
“HIA´s forecast takes into account continued land and labour shortages and tough credit conditions for multi-unit developments,” the report said. “Continued slow housing conditions are expected over the coming years as a result of a very weak economy and higher unemployment.”
The HIA did give credit to the Australian government’s efforts to improve the market with interest rate cuts and increases in grants for first time home owners, saying that their estimates would have been much lower were it not for those changes.
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