Speaking at a Sydney event, BIS Shrapnel managing director Robert Mellor said evidence is surfacing to suggest that investors and lenders involved in the property market – particularly in Sydney – are beginning to respond to APRA’s directions regarding loan interest rates and loan to value ratios.
Mr Mellor said it will be “interesting” to see how investors buying off the plan will respond when property price growth begins to edge back toward two or three per cent.
“Will they buy off the plan? Will they be paying inflated prices – because there will be inflated prices for off the plan [compared] to established property,” he said.
“At that point, you could get a bigger correction in the market simply because investors leave the market for new property.”
Investors looking at properties going for $1 million to $1.4 million in the middle-distance suburbs may think they are seeing unaffordable prices, Mr Mellor said.
“If there’s not a correction, we’re in for a period of fairly modest price growth over the next five years,” he said.
Finding areas in Australia with huge growth potential is difficult, he said, but noted it may be worth investors looking at places such as suburban Brisbane.
The suburbs that lie around 10 kilometres from the city offer the greatest value, rather than inner city areas such as the CBD, Mr Mellor said.
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