ANZ Property Outlook for 2008

ANZ publishes a half yearly report on the property industry in Australia. The most recent one has just been published. I reproduce some highlighst below;

Overview
Property returns have accelerated, underpinned by buoyant economic growth and tightening market fundamentals. Despite a meltdown in US sub-prime mortgages and a crisis in global credit markets, the economic outlook remains supportive. Nonetheless, rising interest rates and a marked jump in risk aversion have heightened the risks facing the domestic property sector.

On residential property
In risk-adjusted terms, residential property has delivered vastly superior returns to all other broad asset classes. Affordability conditions for new home-buyers and renters will deteriorate further unless appropriate policy action is taken. A dramatic tightening of the housing market will force already soaring house prices and rents sharply higher. By 2010 we project a record housing shortage of nearly 200,000 homes which risks becoming an intractable imbalance as renters and first-homebuyers become collateral damage in the Reserve Bank’s ongoing war on inflation.

ANZ Australian Property Outlook - January 2008 (PDF, 172kb)

Table of Contents

• Market overview
• Residential property
• Office property
• Retail property
• Tourist accommodation
• Industrial property

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