A survey has found that at the end of 2018 confidence in Australia’s property industry fell to its lowest level in five years.
According to the ANZ/Property Council of Australia survey, overall confidence in the Australian property industry fell by 11.3% over the past 12 months, reaching its lowest point since September 2013.
The state with the strongest confidence in the property industry was found to be South Australia, followed by the ACT and Western Australia. The largest falls in confidence were experienced in Victoria and New South Wales.
Property Council of Australia chief executive, Ken Morrison, said that with the final report of the banking royal commission due in February, a NSW state election due March, and a federal election due in May, it’s important that the nation’s policy-makers support the property industry:
“The global economy headwinds are picking up, foreign investors have been turned away, credit availability has tightened, and our largest residential markets have softened rapidly.”
“It’s not the time to be making changes to policies which undermine certainty, confidence or incentives to invest in Australian property.”
ANZ head of Australian economics, David Plank, added that according to the survey, the availability of finance is forecast to worsen further over the coming year, along with house prices and construction activity.
“The survey also suggests that firms expect the next interest rate movement to be higher, though the conviction in this expectation has dropped from the last survey.”
“With risks around global trade tensions and questions over the sustainability of domestic household spending, we think any RBA move is still some time off.”
The findings of the ANZ and Property Council of Australia survey follow recent research from CoreLogic, which found that some of the weakest housing market conditions in a decade at the end of 2018.
