Omicron won’t hurt property market: BuyersBuyers

Pete Wargent, co-founder of BuyersBuyers, a national network of property buyer’s agents believes there is “little to indicate the latest strain of the virus will have any meaningful impact on housing market trends”.

“Financial markets are possibly factoring in the various news about the lack of serious cases of the latest strain to date, with many reporting mild symptoms. However, case numbers seem to be increasing rapidly, which could delay the full reopening of the international borders into 2022,” Mr Wargent said.

He noted that omicron could delay the rebooting of immigration, but nevertheless, Mr Wargent expects population growth to be back to more than 300,000 to 400,000 per annum, whenever travel becomes easier.

Fellow BuyersBuyers co-founder Doron Peleg similarly added that a cooling of the housing market was inevitable after the rapid rise in 2021, but the newest virus strain wasn’t a key factor in his forecasts.

Instead, he pointed to other factors such as rising mortgage rates, higher listing volumes and buyers becoming more cautious as affordability bites following the price gains in 2021.

“The rate of immigration has not been a key factor in driving the market over the past couple of years, with the notable exception of CBD and some inner-city apartments, where the absence of international students has been felt particularly keenly,” Mr Peleg said.

“Remember, though, that the closure of the borders didn’t lead [to] the doomsday outcomes many commentators predicted, partly because corrective policy measures were taken. All eight of the capital cities recorded double-digit price gains over the year to September, with most recording price rises of about 20 per cent or higher.”

Mr Wargent added that buyer sentiment has been broadly unchanged by the newest virus developments.

“There is less fear of missing out in the housing market now. But the pattern of housing trends through the pandemic has taught more buyers to look through the short-term noise and to buy quality properties when they can while taking a medium-term outlook,” he said.

[Related: Productivity Commission to review National Housing and Homeless Agreement]