4 in 5 home owners expect property prices to keep rising: Report

While 81 per cent of respondents – or four in five home owners – believe property prices will increase across 2022, nearly six in 10 expect those gains to be greater than 10 per cent.

Just 13 per cent of those surveyed expect prices will fall over the 2022 calendar year.

Analysing the findings, LocalAgentFinder chief executive Richard Stevens said the survey results suggested that “despite the incredible price growth and sales volume through 2021, Australians remain quite bullish on the market’s prospects in the short term”.

“This confidence is likely generated from the remarkable resilience of the property market through the pandemic and many may feel that this is likely to continue with the easing of restrictions as Australia opens back up,” he explained.

As well as asking respondents for their expectations around the market, the survey also probed owners on topical property issues.

It found that nearly one-third of all home owners – or 27 per cent of respondents – feel that COVID’s impact on their lifestyles had made them consider moving locations.

Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) agreed that working from home was a benefit to employees – with 36 per cent of home owners believing it would continue to support property price growth.

For anyone who has already made a “sea or tree change” of sorts since the pandemic’s onset, 62 per cent said they were “very happy”, 24 per cent were “happy”, 10 per cent were undecided to date.

The report even uncovered that respondents who had moved to coastal areas were happier than those who moved inland (91 per cent versus 78 per cent net happy).

Moving forward, it appears that affordability is beginning to weigh on the minds of home owners – despite the bullish sentiment held by the majority of respondents.

The survey also highlighted that 83 per cent of respondents were in favour of restricting the number of properties that foreign investors could acquire.

According to Mr Stevens, “this may directly relate to the issue of housing affordability”.

Upwards of 80 per cent of respondents agreed housing affordability was a “big” issue for Australia, with six in 10 individuals surveyed stating that the government “should do more to help first home buyers”.