Nila Sweeney is a Property Reporter at The Australian Financial Review, with over 10 years’ experience creating hard-hitting content across multi-media platforms.
Nila Sweeney and Mark discuss the current state of the Australian property market.
Sweeney highlights the ‘obsession’ Australians have with property and the challenges young people face in affording homes or finding affordable rentals.
She emphasises the need for government and industry solutions to address these issues.
The conversation also touches on the potential impact of economic factors, such as unemployment, on the property market. They discuss the relationship between rising interest rates, property values, and inflation control, with Sweeney suggesting that interest rate reductions may not happen until late next year or early the following year.
Key Takeaways:
- The discussion explores Australian’s tendency to hold onto properties regardless of market conditions. Nila highlights that property ownership is part of our culture – a source of security, wealth, and status.
- Housing and rental affordability remain a concern, particularly for younger Australians who struggle to enter the property market without parental assistance or some kind of 3rd party equity.
- A “perfect storm” – The complex interaction of the long term economic features leading to the current supply and affordability issue is discussed. While the political nature of any decision is acknowledged, Mark and Nila suggest urgent action is needed.
- Nila suspects the reason some economic features, such as unemployment and housing prices, are proving resilient in the face of interest rate rises is due to a lag – the impact is just not being felt yet.
- Still on hold. Nila sees the RBA remaining on hold for now, possibly starting to reduce rates mid next year. While she sees a desire for earlier rate reductions to ease the burden on property owners, it also depends on unemployment which remains relatively unmoved.
