Australian House Prices Reaching Record Highs

The Australian Property Institute recently teamed up with The Search People, a tech company, to survey around 600 Australian property valuers on their perspectives on the real estate market. Nearly 66% predict “continued strong growth” for real estate values in the country’s six main capitals in the next half a year. This was also labelled a “worrying” prediction set to put a number of prospective buyers in unfair positions. Specifically, over 60% of property valuers in Perth, Sydney, and Melbourne anticipate an increase in house prices. Brisbane paints an even bleaker picture with 70% expecting a price jump and 12% forecasting property values in Queensland to increase by over 10%. Adelaide is the cheapest place to purchase property — despite over 55% of valuers also expecting future price increases here.

Housing bubble

“Professional valuers believe Australia’s residential real estate prices will continue to rise despite serious affordability and sustainability concerns,” the survey also found. While most property valuers surveyed expect a property marketing boom, they also believe the country’s entering a property bubble. “A combination of record low interest rates and buyers’ uncertainty of investing in other alternatives is fuelling high demand. This coupled with low supply is driving a ‘fear of missing out’ for many buyers”, explains Rafe Berding of the Search People. “As a result, in some cases, properties are being snapped up significantly above the asking price within moments of being listed”. While a bubble may be forming, it doesn’t seem set to burst at least in the short term.