With Covid-19 all but eliminated from Australia, the property market is looking healthier than ever.
After Australia went into lockdown shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic hit our shores, national dwelling values fell dramatically and all signs pointed to property prices going south.
Against the odds, as of late 2020- within the same 12- month period that nationwide unemployment and a sudden spike in empty rental homes were rife- housing market prices are on the rise again. This has manifested in 2 per cent in capital cities and 7 per cent in regional areas before new year.
Managing director of the property data house SQM Research, Louis Christopher, calls the housing market rise “surreal,” especially as hundreds of thousands of homeowners who took repayment holidays during the height of the pandemic have already started repaying.
Some lending experts predict the increases are due to:
- Vaccine program rollout;
- Stronger economic growth expectations; and
- Government Stimulus packages.
“I strongly believe stimulus packages … stopped the economy from going into a death spiral and helped the housing market,” Christopher says.
Christopher Joye of The Australian Financial Review said home values would “either move sideways or at most fall by up to 5 per cent over the next three to six months, after which the robust cyclical boom will resume.”
Even more surprising the nation’s economic forecasters and housing analysts are signs that the market will be more competitive this year, with first-time buyers taking out mortgages at the highest levels in more than a decade, and a resulting surge in construction is expected within the next 12 months.
