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By: Kate Miller
The housing industry has welcomed the RBA’s decision to keep rates on hold and called for the central bank to continue to maintain the cash rate at the existing level.
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Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) President David Airey said property market activity had slowly declined since April and housing affordability had continued to worsen.
“With the current state of the housing market continuing to slow, increasing interest rates would have been devastating for home buyers and would have further impacted on the strength of the housing market.”
According to Mr Airey, this month’s result was welcome, but home buyers needed some “stability and certainty over the longer term”.
HIA chief economist Harley Dale concurred.
“Interest rate hikes in the first half of this year and their impact in fuelling interest rate expectations significantly dampened new housing demand amidst an acute shortage of dwelling stock,” he said.
“The continuation of steady rates through the remainder of the year would bolster new home buying confidence.”
According to Mr Dale, general inflationary pressures were in check and there was compelling evidence any recovery in home building would end prematurely if the cash rate were to rise.
“This is not an environment supportive of further rate rises.”
