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Confidence in the state’s property industry is at its lowest point since the 2020 lockdowns, according to a new poll.
Conducted by the Property Council of Australia (PCA), a survey of 532 of the organisation’s members showed that outlook on the nation’s property prospects has dipped, while in Victoria it plunged into decidedly negative territory.
PCA’s Confidence Index fell 14 points nationally to sit at 106 points, with a score of 100 considered neutral. In Victoria, sentiment dropped by the same figure, but sending the state’s score to 90 points – the lowest across the nation.
The findings echoed a report by Apollo Auctions, which found in its quarterly Auctions Market Update that Melbourne had the lowest clearance rate for the period, with 50.5 per cent of homes under the hammer securing a new owner.
By comparison, the national average was 63.76 per cent, with other major cities Sydney and Brisbane coming in at 63.2 per cent and 69.6 per cent respectively. The Sunshine Coast, meanwhile, revealed itself to be the strongest market, with 81 per cent of auctions achieving a successful sale.
“There is no denying that Melbourne continues to struggle due to negative market sentiment at present, said Apollo Auctions director Justin Nickerson.
Auctioneer Andy Reid agreed that the last quarter of the financial year had been harder in the Victorian capital, though he said that the price point at which homes were selling remained strong.
“It has become trickier to get buyers involved in the purchasing process, with plenty still sitting on the fence, but it’s being seen time and time again that when they do engage, they are spending good sums of money that wouldn’t be spent in a typical ‘buyer’s market’,” Reid said.
With confidence seemingly faltering both on the part of buyers as well as the industry, PCA’s Victorian deputy executive director, Andrew Lowcock, said there was “serious cause for concern in the context of the ongoing housing crisis”.
The property industry advocate attributed the negative sentiment across the state to “an increasingly uncompetitive tax regime, the high cost of conducting business and no sign of interest rate relief”.
On the first factor, Lowcock had strong words for the Victorian government, urging policymakers to reassess its property tax settings.
“The taxation and investment environment in Victoria is making it increasingly difficult for our members to obtain the financing to get projects out of the ground,” he said.
“At the exact time we need to be accelerating progress towards our ambitious housing targets, we’re going backwards instead.”
“This should be an urgent wake up call for Victorian policymakers that a quicker and deeper response to the housing crisis is required, which needs to start with taxation incentives and relief that stimulates both supply and demand,” Lowcock commented.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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