Ray White Maroubra

What’s happening in our market? There have been some attention grabbing headlines of late about housingmarket slowdowns. After nearly six years of either spectacular or scary gains - depending onwhether you own a home - capital city real estate has peaked. The trend is far fromuniversal though: high-end property has been hit harder, while less expensive homes continue to advance. AsMelbourne and Sydney slacken, regional values are not only holding up, they’re gaining. Inmany areas units are nowoutperforming houses, despite the huge surge in supply in the big cities. Clearly, there is still strong demand for themost affordable housing. One of the biggest impacts for those looking to buy is tighter home loan restrictions implemented by the banking regulator, APRA, meaning access to finance ismore constrained as banks exhibit greater caution. Mortgage rates meanwhile are refusing to budge from their record held stretch, and even seasoned economists seem to be hedging their bets onwhen that might change. It makes sense that any spare cash you might have is used to pay down debt whilst the going is good! Of course, a Federal election is on the cards some time next year, and changes to negative gearing have been flagged by the ALP. It may be a closely fought election, with these proposed changes sure to be front and centre of the debate. Philip Elmowy Director 0425 285 444 Anthony Vella Director 0412 232 904