While times have been tough in recent months for Australia’s real estate sector, several new reports indicate that a recovery is on the way. Archicentre, the advisory service for the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA), notes that there is a strong housing demand and, combined with lower interest rates, the market should pick up by the end of the year.
Robert Caulfield, managing director of Archicentre, said “With the Reserve Bank likely to start reducing interest rates next month, and if commercial banks follow suit, then things will likely ease up for both homeowners and homebuyers, especially for potential first home buyers.”
He continued, “We predict that there will be an upturn in the housing market in the last quarter of 2008 and a continued increase in renovation demand, which will probably push prices up in early 2009.”
Another analyst, Tim Lawless, National Research Director of RP Data, also noted that the country is seeing a huge population increase, which will only increase demand for housing in the coming months and years. “”Australia is currently undergoing a population boom with population increase of more than 330,000 last year. In raw numbers, Australia’s population growth has never been higher. Over the 2007 calendar year, almost 180,000 net migrants arrived in Australia.”
“At a time of record population growth, there are simply too few new dwellings being built to house the growing population,” he continued.
With the overall numbers of potential buyers up it looks as if the real estate market in Australia may well be on the upswing once again.
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