Australia`s long-suffering wanna-be homebuyers were likely to be disappointed by the housing affordability measures in the country`s 2017-18 budget, analysts said.
John Flavell, CEO of Australian mortgage broker network Mortgage Choice, told CNBC`s "Squawk Box" on Wednesday that out of the nine budget measures aimed at addressing housing affordability, at least three might actually drive up demand.
"What we`ve got is a series of irrelevant pops and fizzles as opposed to the big bang," Flavell said.
The relatively tepid housing measures included increasing a capital gains tax discount for affordable-housing investments, offering lower-tax options for first-time homebuyers trying to save up a home deposit and efforts to encourage seniors to downsize their home.
Home prices have loomed large in Australia`s political landscape as affordability plunged, vexing monetary policymakers who were stuck between the rock of a slow economy and the hard place of soaring housing prices.
Demographia data for the third quarter of 2016 showed the median housing price in Sydney was 12.2 times more than the median household income. In Melbourne, the median home price was 9.5 times more than the median income. Comparatively, in the priciest market, Hong Kong, the median home price was 18.1 times more than the median income.
In April, home prices in Sydney were flat on-month, but up 16.0 percent on-year, while Melbourne prices rose 0.5 percent on-month and 15.3 percent on-year, according to data from CoreLogic.
0 comments:
Post a Comment