Property industry experts tip little price growth this year and bad news for landlords
PROPERTY industry experts say sentiment is down and predict little price or rental growth this year.
A NEW survey of more than 300 property industry experts predicts only minor price growth this year and that rents will continue to weaken further.
The NAB Quarterly Australian Residential Property Survey canvassed the views of a panel including agents, developers, fund managers, owners and investors.
While they predicted national house prices would only rise by about 1.5 per cent this year their outlook varied from state to state.
Victoria was tipped to have the biggest growth of 2.2 per cent, followed by Queensland with 2.1 per cent and New South Wales with 1.5 per cent.
Prices were expected to remain flat in South Australia and the Northern Territory and were tipped to fall by about 0.2 per cent in Western Australia.
NAB Group Chief Economist Alan Oster had a slightly more optimistic outlook, tipping 4 per cent growth to the end of 2015 and 2 per cent to the end of 2016.
“Our assessment of the market remains that house prices will continue to moderate because of rising unemployment, sluggish household income growth, affordability concerns, cost of living pressures and high levels of household debt,’’ he said.
Mr Oster also tipped two further interest rates cuts this year.
He said while New South Wales overtook Queensland as the strongest state at the end of last year, Queensland and Victoria were the most optimistic looking forward.
Mr Oster labelled the situation in Western Australia has bad and said sentiment was “still deeply negative’’
He did not think anything could be done to turn that situation around and said it was likely to worsen.
The markets which were tipped to have above average capital growth this year were;
QUEENSLAND: Brisbane, Gold Coast, New Farm, Toowoomba, West End
NEW SOUTH WALES: Eastwood, Glebe, Manly, Marrickville, Newtown, Oran Park, Penrith, Ryde, Surry Hills, Sydney.
VICTORIA: Essendon, Glen Iris, Ringwood.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Mile End, Norwood, Parkside
WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Baldivis, Belmont, Bentley, Kelmscott, Mandurah, Perth, Subiaco.
The survey also found foreign buyers had been less active in all states last year except Victoria where they still accounted for one in three of every new property sales.
Foreign investors were more in favour of apartments with more than half of sales for units.
Almost three quarters of properties bought by foreign investors were for less than $1 million, although at the high end of the market they accounted for 5 per cent of sales worth more than $5 million.