While property sales are now at an all-time low, brokers remain optimistic about the future, according to the yearly sentiment survey
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WHILE CONSUMER confidence remains historically low, brokers are bullish about the future. According to The Adviser’s latest sentiment survey, 65 per cent of brokers expect their business to grow over the coming six months, spurred on by the Reserve Bank’s recent interest rate cuts.
Almost 70 per cent of the 200 plus brokers surveyed said the current RBA cash rate will have a positive impact on home loan demand over the coming six months.
This statistic is significantly higher than what it was six months ago, when just 57.3 per cent of brokers felt the current monetary policy would have a positive impact on home loan demand.
This could suggest one of two things; firstly, that brokers believe consumers will be happier with the current monetary policy.
And secondly, it suggests brokers believe the RBA is doing a good job of controlling inflation through managing monetary policy – a suggestion that is supported by the survey.
According to the sentiment survey, 66.9 per cent of brokers believe the RBA is currently doing a very good job with the economy – up 7.8 per cent over the last six months.
But while the Reserve Bank is currently being applauded by brokers, the federal government is not faring quite as well in terms of broker satisfaction.
Just over 75 per cent of brokers believe the federal government is not doing a good job of managing our economy, while less than 20 per cent feel as though the government is on the right track.
Despite this, it seems brokers are still confident of writing more business over the coming six months. In fact, the results of the survey prove brokers are more optimistic than ever before, with 59.1 per cent of brokers saying they expect their business to “grow” over the coming 12 months.
Just 1.9 per cent of the brokers surveyed said they expect to see a decline in business – down 7.4 per cent over the last six months. Moreover, 50 per cent of brokers expect property sales to “increase” over the coming six months – markedly higher than the 28.2 per cent that was recorded in May.