BUILD ON THE DREAM

Covid-19 has battered our lives, but our love affair with real estate is likely to endure

- DARREN SNYDER

Months of economic and social shutdown were tough to cop but necessary to beat the coronavirus pandemic. The subsequent economic recession won’t be an easy beat either, but experts are reassuring us that Australia is in a far better position to recover than other countries.

Fears about our financial future are rational in these circumstances, but they will also go a long way in shaping how property and sharemarkets react.

Kristian Kolding, lead partner for macroeconomic policy and forecasting at Deloitte Access Economics, says fear will be important to Australia’s outlook because “fear generates its own momentum” and “that makes it really hard to stop. Fighting an awful virus is really hard. Fighting both a virus and fear is doubly hard [for an economy],” says Kolding.

In a survey of about 3000 people in May, Switzer Financial Group says close to 1600 (54%) believed that property prices will drop in the next 12 months. In its February survey, less than 150 people thought property prices would drop. According to comparison website Finder, 24 out of 42 economists and finance experts said in May that now was not a good time to buy property.

Fears about property – whether it is about affordability, supply, mortgage debt, vacancy rates or investment potential – are present and looming large. But it’s not all doom and gloom.

The greater Sydney region, for example, needs 1.03 million new homes between 2016 and 2041 to meet population projections. This means, on average, 41,200 homes need to be built every year for 25 years between the council borders of the Blue Mountains (west), Hornsby (north) and Sutherland (south).