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Now is a good time to buy a property, says one in two Australians

Aussies are under the impression that property prices will increase within the coming months

Key in hand, with an Australian home in the background. gmstockstudio/Shutterstock

For six months, comparison site Finder conducted a study involving 6,077 Australians, asking them for their opinions regarding the real estate market. Based on the results, 59 percent claim that now is a good time to buy a property and 52 percent believe the property prices will hike up over the next 12 months, reported The New Daily.

Bessie Hassan, Finder’s head of PR Australia, describes the market sentiment as “slowly, but steadily” improving. “This is likely driven by three recent cash-rate cuts, increased lending flexibility, and some certainty from the presumed continuation of negative gearing,” she added.

Wakelin Property Advisory director Jarrod McCabe believes that more lenient bank lending and reduced interest rates will cause the price increase by the last quarter of 2020.

Despite values dropping for the first half of the year, McCab predicts that properties will be valued higher by the end of 2019, compared to the beginning. He explained that the level of supply dictates whether the prices will continue to soar by the end of next year.

“If that continues to build, then the market will probably start to plateau,” he said.

More: Australia’s housing market bounces back, with a $2,000 weekly price increase

On the other hand, J-Han Ho, a senior lecturer at Curtin University’s School of Economics, Finance, and Property, said that there is no guarantee if the prices will continue to rise.

He explained that the growing uncertainty, weak wage growth, and rising unemployment in the worldwide economy could reduce the prices over the short to medium term, which is why he encourages prospective buyers to be more cautious before making any purchase.

“If real estate is a long-term investment, then people need to purchase based on their long-term lifestyle objective and life choices… because once you buy into something, you can’t sell it easily,” said Dr. Ho.

“That’s why there’s sometimes a benefit to purchasing when you’re slightly older, because you’re probably more in tune to knowing what you want and where you want to be.”

He further added that people who owned property does not necessarily mean they are better off compared to those who simply rented money and kept theirs in a savings account.

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