78% of Australians say prices won’t fall

From Mortgage Professional Australia.

Nearly four out of five Australians don’t see house prices falling in their state over the next two years, according to a new report by comparison site CANSTAR.

CANSTAR surveyed 2,026 consumers on their views on property prices and home buying. Nationally, 47% of respondents expected steady growth in house prices, with a further 8% predicting prices would ‘skyrocket at some point’.

Just 11% of respondents thought prices could fall in the next two years.

Even in Perth, where according to CoreLogic, values fell 2.5% over the past year, just 7% of respondents thought prices could fall. Conversely, 37% of Perth respondents believed prices could rise.

Sydney was the most pessimistic city, with 16% predicting values would fall. CANSTAR’s results were timely, with the Harbour City experiencing a quarterly decline of 0.6% in October.

Are Australians just naive?

With many Australians preparing to invest in property, driven by optimism on house prices, CANSTAR’s results may be cause for concern.

QBE recently published their 2017-2020 Housing Outlook, which predicted that the price of units would fall in four of Australia’s capital cities.

Unit prices in Sydney would fall by 3.8% over the three years, with units in Melbourne and Brisbane falling by 4.8% and 7.2% respectively.

However, house buyers are far better placed, with falls only predicted for Sydney and Darwin.

Author: Martin North

Martin North is the Principal of Digital Finance Analytics

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