Residential property in favour
10th April 2007
Property investment professionals are optimistic about the prospects of residential property in the next six months, with most recommending it above commercial and industrial property, a survey has found. Ashe Morgan Winthrop’s Autumn 2007 Property Investors Survey found 53.7 per cent of respondents favoured residential property for investments over the next six months.
That figure is higher than at any time in the 11-year history of the survey, which surveyed 889 small and large investors, lenders and property advisers for its latest report. The proportion opting for residential property was up 9.2 per cent from the previous survey.
Of the remaining respondents, 14.3 per cent said they would invest in the office market, 13.3 per cent opted for industrial property, 7.8 per cent said retail and 4.5 per cent chose some other form of property. Property investment intentions were up 3.4 per cent over the last survey, with 61.4 per cent of the property professionals saying they were either definitely going to invest or quite likely to invest in the next six months. A similar proportion, 66.1 per cent, said they expected to see the residential market improve during the next six months.
Queensland is the most favoured destination for property professionals, with 35.5 per cent nominating it as the location most likely to deliver the best property investment returns in the next six months. Western Australia was the second most favoured (25.2 per cent), though it had lost considerable favour since last year’s Spring survey. Victoria was the third most favoured destination (19.4 per cent), followed by New South Wales (12.4 per cent). A record total of 66.4 per cent of respondents said they expected yields to improve in the next six months.
In terms of the property cycle, respondents in all states except Western Australia indicated the property market was either improving or at the bottom of its cycle. In New South Wales, 34.3 per cent said the market was at its bottom, while 24.3 per cent said it was improving and 18.8 per cent said it was stagnant.
In Victoria, 57.3 per cent said the market was improving, 15.7 per cent said it was stagnant and 14 per cent said it was at its bottom. In Queensland, 55.5 per cent said the market was improving, while 31 per cent said it was at its peak. In South Australia, 42.8 per cent said things were improving while 34.8 per cent said the market was stagnant and 10.5 per cent said it was at the bottom of the cycle.
In Tasmania, 44 per cent said the market was on the up and 34.5 per cent said it was stagnant.
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