Confidence is returning to the Australian housing market, with a survey finding 38% of people expect house prices to rise in the next six months and 51% expect them to rise over the next year. Last October, when the previous housing market sentiment survey was conducted by RP Data and Nine Rewards, only 33%or respondents expected prices to rise over six months and 42% expected rises over 12 months.
The latest survey of 1040 people revealed differences from region to region, with 68% of Perth respondants expecting prices to rise over the next 12 months compared with Tasmania, where only 30% thought prices would go up in the same period. Most respondants – 80% (up from 76% in October 2012) – believe it is a good time to buy a property, and 33% also think it is a good time to sell, up from 29% last October.
“As consumer confidence in housing market conditions rises, we are likely to see a larger number of dwelling sales as the year progresses”, says Tim Lawless, RP Data national research director. “Transaction data from last year was already showing an improvement in home sales, with 7.6% more homes transacted over the second half of 2012 compared with the first half. If the survey responses are anything to go by we should see a continuation of this trend through 2013”.
Data provided by “Money Mag”