Real estate agent tips sales slump in Australia
Monday 21 June 2004
SYDNEY - Sales turnover in the Australian property market could fall 20 per cent this year after home values peaked for the current cycle last August, real estate agent Ray White said yesterday.
By The Landlord
Average home prices in Sydney, Australia's most populous city, were likely to fall between 3 per cent and 5 per cent in the second quarter, said Sam White, deputy chairman at Ray White Group.The group operates 700 offices in Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia and has annual sales turnover of A$24 billion ($26.3 billion).
White said homes were taking twice as many days to sell this year as last year and turnover in May was down 9 per cent on a year earlier at Ray White, even though the company had expanded its network of agencies by 40 during that year.
"The total turnover in real estate this year will be significantly less than it was last year," White told a gathering of the Australian Business Economists.
"The total market turnover may be down by as much as 20 per cent," he said, adding the main culprit was "longer days on the market rather than price declines".
Read More - Opens in a new window
Commenting is closed
House Prices
House price drops are short-lived - Alexander
Periods of house price decline are rare and "short-lived", says economist Tony Alexander, amid forecasts of a drop of 10%-15% this year.
Commercial
Resilience needed in face of change
The Reserve Bank says the commercial property sector is vulnerable to the Covid-19 crisis. But PMG Funds' chief executive believes that while there’ll be short-term pain, the biggest long-term impact will be structural change.
Mortgages
Mortgage lending slumps to record low in April
Mortgage lending fell to its lowest level on record last month as the property market ground to a halt during the Covid-19 lockdown.
