Feb 17, 2021
No one expects 2021 to be the same type of rollercoaster ride as 2020.
And while there’s plenty of good news for our economy and our property markets, it’s important to remember that considerable uncertainty remains and the extreme dislocation to many businesses over the past year will take time to resolve.
Now the general optimism is well-founded.
We seem to have this virus “thingy” under control, around 90% of the jobs lost during the pandemic have now been restored – and that’s a tremendous achievement and our property markets are rebounding.
Australia and the world also stand on the cusp of the biggest vaccination rollout in human history, which will only increase the rising levels of consumer and business confidence we’re experiencing.
Sure, the COVID rollercoaster may be slowing, but we still face a bumpy road to economic recovery and that’s what I’m going to discuss in today’s show with Pete Wargent as well as giving you five of my predictions for our property markets in 2021.
Then I’ll share my mindset message with you.
2021 Property Trends
It seems that everybody has been making predictions for our housing markets for 2021 and they’re all extremely positive.
While on the one hand I love to hear this, on the other hand I’m always concerned when everybody thinks the market is going to perform in a particular way as we have seen how wrong consensus opinion has been over the last few years.
So in today’s show I share 5 property trends that I think will occur in 2021 and I’m looking forward to Pete Wargent’s view on these, plus we’ll discuss some economic trends that will influence our property markets.
One of the leading indicators I watch carefully is finance housing approvals, and these are at record levels suggesting that we will have strong demand from owner occupiers and investors in the first half of this year.
Despite the “recession we made ourselves have”, rising unemployment, and many small businesses facing challenges, interest in buying residential property has skyrocketed.
This has come particularly from owner occupiers who have amassed household savings at levels not seen since the mid 1970s, and this is in part because they have not been able to spend their money on vacations or even local entertainment as they normally would.
Now, with borrowing costs lower than they ever have been, the reassurance that interest rates won’t rise for at least 3 years and increasing confidence that we’ve got this virus thing under control, it is likely that buyer demand will remain strong throughout the year.
While currently there are many first-time buyers (FHB’s) in the market, buoyed by the many incentives being offered to them, I can see demand from first homebuyers fading as property values rise from increasing competition as investors re-enter the market.
You see…typically investors compete for similar properties to FHB’s.
As always, there are multiple real estate markets around Australia, but in general property values should increase strongly throughout 2021.
However certain segments of the market will still continue to suffer, in particular in the city apartment towers and accommodation around universities. It is unlikely the segments of the market will pick up for some time and the value of these apartments is likely to continue to fall as there just won’t be buyers for secondary properties.
At the same time some rental market will remain challenged. In particular the inner-city apartment markets which are reliant on students, tourists (AirBNB) and overseas arrivals.
If Coronavirus taught us anything, it was the importance of living in the right type of property in the right neighbourhood.
In our new “Covid Normal” world, people will pay a premium for the ability to work, live and play within a 20-minute drive, bike ride or walk from home.
Residents of these neighbourhoods have now come to appreciate the ability to be out and about on the street socialising, supporting local businesses, being involved with local schools, enjoying local parks.
Some commentators are concerned that we will fall off the fiscal cliff when JobKeeper and the mortgage deferral system end in March.
I can’t see the government allowing this to happen after having put so much time effort and money into “building a bridge to get us across the other side” as Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised.
In fact APRA (the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority) released data showing Households and small businesses are now paying back more than 80 per cent of the almost $250billion in loans deferred at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
This is just another sign that the national economic recovery is on track and we won't fall off a fiscal cliff in March as some of those Doomsayers were predicting.
The reduction in our banks’ exposure to loans that may default puts them in a stronger position to continue lending and support of the economic recovery by lending to homeowners, investors and businesses.
Now, let’s talk about the number of the influences that will help influence our economy and our property markets in 2021
Core and underlying inflation measures will remain the main focus of central banks and right now they are well below target in the US, Europe, Japan and China as is the RBA’s preferred measure of underlying inflation in Australia at 1.2% year on year.
Consumer and business confidence is rising
Some concerns:
Links and Resources:
Metropole’s Strategic Property Plan – to help both beginning and experienced investors
Pete
Wargent – Next
Level Wealth
Pete Wargent’s new book Low Rates High Returns
Shownotes plus more here: Here's why I'm excited about 2021 - What the next 12 months has in store with Pete Wargent
Some of our favourite quotes from the show:
“I’m optimistic about our future, but this year we’re going to require optimism balanced with realism because that’s what gives us resilience. – Michael Yardney
“We’re not going to have a cliff. We may not even have much of a step in March.” – Michael Yardney
“One of the things that happens after every downturn is a flight to quality.” – Michael Yardney
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