Housing policy played a key role in the election and with Labor’s victory, the shared equity proposition for some first home buyers of the Help to Buy scheme presumably awaits, says Tim McKibbin, Chief Executive Officer, REINSW.
“Housing policy played a key role in the election and with Labor’s victory, the shared equity proposition for some first home buyers of the Help to Buy scheme presumably awaits.
“The concern with this policy it that it adds to the demand side of the equation when in New South Wales, the lack of supply is the major cause of the affordability problem.
“The easing in clearance rates we’ve seen leading into the election was somewhat expected and unsurprisingly, transactions slowed down last week as shown by the weekend’s lower auction volumes.
“With the election now behind us, a spike this week is a distinct possibility, says Tim McKibbin, Chief Executive Officer, REINSW.
“As bigger issues dominate the housing discussion, in a transactional sense, market activity remains steady.
“The impact of the interest rate rise earlier this month will soon start to be felt and given the Reserve Bank actually considered a steeper increase, it’s not out of the question that another rise might be on the agenda in June.
“The end of the financial year beckons and that’s often a trigger for people to do a stocktake on their finances. Time will tell if it proves a catalyst for more people to list their properties.
“Given the rate of new development in the state and its failure to keep up with demand, the market will rely more heavily on downsizers freeing up larger homes, and there’s certainly an opportunity to incentivise this to a greater extent.
“This week the REINSW Roadshow tour visits Tamworth, where we’ll be talking with locals about the possible solutions to the undersupply.”