Sydney will always be ‘bloody expensive’, says expert
An expert has stated that despite what the RBA’s recent report into zoning and property prices or what politicians may say about fixing the Sydney market, the issue of housing affordability in Sydney is being looked at in the wrong way and will always remain a situation for which “there is no solution”.
Simon Pressley, managing director of Propertyology, told Smart Property Investment the RBA’s recent report into zoning influencing property prices may not be as close to the mark as people think, claiming that zoning constraints are holding developers back from bringing more supply and lowering prices.
“While I don’t necessarily disagree with that, city councils and state governments do have an important role to play as well to make sure that there’s some containment to development. We don’t just do whatever we want. So, there is a fine line with that,” Mr Pressley said.
“Sydney is quite a dense city, really. There are plenty of high-rise buildings, so there’s not like there’s been a cap… and if we looked at what Sydney’s zoning was today compared to 20 years ago, I think it’s been loosened up a heck of a lot.
“The fact’s the facts: Sydney’s bloody expensive, and it always will be.”
Mr Pressley said that it was not what the public may want to hear, but it is a reality that must be faced.
The managing director continued: “Sydney’s properties are never going to become affordable. It doesn’t matter whether a politician bats with the red team or the blue team. There’s nothing they can say that is the honest truth of, ‘We’re all of a sudden going to make properties cheap in Sydney.’
“How can you do that? You just can’t.
“Unless you want to crash an economy or totally, totally flood the market with all this supply to drive prices down — drive them down to what level? From a median house price of $1.3 [million] to $1 million? Well, a few more people might be able to afford $1 million, but it’s still $1 million.”
By trying a widespread approach to housing affordability, Mr Pressley said that there would also be a knock-on effect to the rest of the property owners in the state of plummeted values.
“There is no solution to it. Some stakeholders have said what’s missing in Sydney is not more supply, but it’s affordable supply. That’s fine in theory, but how do you do actually do that?”
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