Property billionaire Harry Triguboff said he will not push through with the planned discounts on Meriton apartments because of the Coalition’s win in the recent election.
"I won't have to discount anymore," he told ABC’s The Business. “I sell now probably at a 10% discount and, besides that, I give [buyers] money at 3% and help them with the stamp duty, so I think at first I should be able to get the full price."
Triguboff said that some buyers purchased his apartments immediately after the weekend’s election win.
“The buyers didn’t know whether to go ahead or not, but once they saw the results of the election they are going ahead,” he told The Business.
Triguboff also said that the strong likelihood of an interest rate cut in June would play a significant role in putting a floor under declining property prices.
The Reserve Bank of Australia, in one of its recent statements, hinted on a nearly certain rate cut next month.
"It will be very good, it will be a great help to the real estate market which has been very weak, and I think it will give hope or it will give the people the confidence to buy, not to pull out and not to think," Triguboff said.
Economists and market watchers, meanwhile, expressed their concerns about the government's initiative to help first home buyers who cannot save up a 20% deposit for a loan.
The news about APRA reducing the floor for mortgage affordability added to some of the property professionals’ list of apprehensions.
"Needless to say a combination of loosening credit restrictions plus a cut in interest rates increases the risk of another housing boom, which I am sure is not what the powers that be would want, but they may well yet get," Louis Christopher, property analyst from SQM Research, said in a statement.
Triguboff, though, dismissed the concerns about debt levels and mortgage stress.
"There are people struggling, but that's because the price of houses come down so they can't sell. That is the real problem, not that they can't repay,” he said.
