Angus Raine, executive chairman of Raine & Horne, said real estate in Sydney will continue to grow in 2016, albeit not at the same rate it has in recent years.
“The market might not achieve the double digit returns of the past three years; however, many Sydney real estate markets will achieve capital growth by the end of 2016,” Raine said.
“Many of the same fundamentals remain in play, such as Sydney's continued population growth, as well as our strong economy, improved employment figures, and low interest rates. Around 50,000 people move to Sydney annually and they all need somewhere to live, while there is a good chance we'll see more rates cuts in the middle of the year,” he said.
Rich Harvey, managing director of buyer’s agency Property Buyer, agrees with Raine’s outlook for 2016.
“It’s definitely not going to be the same as it was but we are going to see some growth this year,” Harvey said.
“It will probably be around the 5% mark, though it’s hard to put a single number on it because there are so many different markets across Sydney and some of them are vastly different,” he said.
Harvey said Sydney's suburbs with mid-tier price ranges would likely be the best performing suburbs this year, helped by attention from buyers looking to upgrade their primary place of residence.
While he also agreed that Sydney’s employment prospects and population growth will help the city’s market continue to improve, Harvey said there is another major positive in the Sydney market at present.
“There is a massive amount of money being spent on infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure, in Sydney at the moment and that’s a great thing for the market.
“The government has received a huge windfall from stamp duty in the last few years so they’ve got the money for projects like the light rails and metro systems and hopefully we see even more money directed to projects like those.”
