“The (Reserve Bank’s) strategy is ‘let’s keep putting rates up’. You’re impacting people that are going to make mortgage repayments. What you’re not impacting is the wealthiest group of people.”
Tom Panos is a leading auctioneer who is known extensively within the industry as a Real Estate Coach and Influencer. Much sought after for his coaching and speaking skills, Tom is also known as the founder of Real Estate Gym and the man behind the massively popular tips and strategies of Million Dollar Agent Podcast.
As the impacts of the interest rate hikes become clearer, Tom joins Mark on Property Insights to bring his considerable knowledge on the current state of the property market in Australia to the conversation.
With real world examples as one of Sydney’s most active real estate agents, Tom shares unique accounts of how rate hikes are impacting vendors and mortgage holders. With more rate hikes looking likely, both Mark and Tom wonder if many Aussies will soon face a future of broken dreams?
Key Takeaways:
- The Reserve Bank continues to raise interest rates, causing financial strain for many homeowners, particularly those in lower income and rental situations. As a case in point, Tom discusses the western suburbs of Sydney where people are struggling to make mortgage repayments.
- Mark and Tom unpack the argument of inflation versus high interest rates. What are the impacts on Australians’ standard of living? Are ongoing rate hikes the best response to inflation driven by the current post covid factors?
- Property sales are down overall with approximately half the properties on the market than usually expected at this point in the year. With distress selling beginning to be seen in a larger portion of the sellers markets, and further increases expected as fixed rates expire and variable rates kick in, Mark and Tom unpack how the housing market will shift over the next few months.
- Concerns are raised that the ‘Spirit’ is broken in the mortgage market, with many Australians not confident that they will be able to hold on through the RBAs rates strategy. Both Mark and Tom express concern that this psychological effect may drive the increase in distress selling and destabilise our economy’s ability to stick the RBAs increasingly predicted hard landing.
- The increase in property supply is expected later in the year, potentially leading to a drop in prices, but Mark and Tom still feel the timing and extent of the impact are uncertain.
