Home values to rise

According to the latest RP Data Nine Rewards consumer sentiment survey, 50 per cent believe house values will climb over the coming 12 months, while 41 per cent of those surveyed expect housing values to rise over the coming six months.

Interestingly, when the survey was conducted in October 2012, the results showed that 33 per cent of respondents expected home values to rise over six months, while 42 per cent expected to see a rise over 12 months.

“The May survey results revealed that there was a substantial upward shift in consumer expectations for housing market conditions over the past six months; however, this hasn’t changed a great deal since earlier this year when the February survey results were released,” RP Data’s Tim Lawless said.

“Based on the survey results, we’ve seen distinctive differences from region to region where, as an example, 59 per cent of respondents in Perth expected values to rise over the next six months, and 56 per cent of respondents located in Sydney expect values to rise over the next half year. In contrast, survey participants in Tasmania delivered a much more sedate reaction with no local respondents expecting values to rise over the next six months.”

When asked whether now is a good time to be buying a property or home, 80 per cent of survey participants agreed, compared with 76 per cent of respondents in the October 2012 survey.

When participants were asked whether now is a good time to sell, 37 per cent said yes, compared with 29 per cent last year.

“As consumer confidence in housing market conditions rises, we are likely to see a larger number of dwelling sales as the year progresses. We have already seen buyer numbers rise from their early 2012 lows, and transactions over the past six months are about 4.3 per cent higher than the same time a year ago,” Mr Lawless said.