What to expect in our changing market – John McGrath

As I’ve noted several times recently, Australia’s property market is shifting. But this isn’t bad news, and nor should it cause you to panic.

I say this for one key reason: the bricks and mortar you live in, or rent out, is one of the greatest wealth-building assets you’ll ever own. This is why the Great Australian Dream of home ownership is still such a significant goal for Aussies.

Admittedly, news for the property market hasn’t been positive lately, with spiralling interest rate making life challenging for home owners.

But the one thing you can be sure of, is that property can be cyclical, where returns and values will move up and down over time. These changes are also usually due to unforeseen issues, such as inflation, geopolitical unrest – or a Federal Budget.

By all means, be aware of current news, but also study the past and consider the future.

Firstly, it’s true that capital city growth has slowed in the last quarter, especially in Melbourne and Sydney. Yet even these locations’ dwellings have only declined by a respective -1.5% and -0.9% in this period, according to Cotality’s latest Home Value Index. And in the past year, they experienced 2% and 4.2% increases.