Housing market sentiment has cooled, and house prices could follow.
The
NAB Residential Property Survey has found house price expectations have fallen over the second quarter of the year. Last quarter, survey respondents tipped house prices to grow by 1.7% nationally, versus 0.9% for the second quarter.
Sentiment was down in all states, with the sharpest decline in WA. Victoria and Queensland showed the most confidence in house price growth over the next 1-2 years, while WA, SA and the NT were weakest.
Housing affordability replaced credit availability as the biggest concern of buyers of new property.
As housing expectations slow, NAB said it expects the housing market to follow suit. But the bank tipped house prices to return to sustainable levels of growth, rather than see declines.
"There are now clear signs that the momentum in the dwelling market has eased, with dwelling prices slowing in nearly all capitals in the June quarter (RP Data-Rismark). NAB expects average capital city house prices to cool further over the next two years towards more sustainable levels and is forecasting average house price growth of 4.6% through the year to June 2015 and 3.2% in the year to June 2016," the bank said.
