Expatriates who live and work in Australia are currently finding property in the country to be beyond their financial means according to a report that was published online by an expatriate healthcare site.
Christopher Chadd, Head of Research at overseas property investment firm Property Frontiers, told the website that expatriates found property prices in the region: “wildly over-inflated and unaffordable.”
He added that issues with property prices in Australia have been felt the most by expatriates from the UK, whose currency makes property even more inaccessible:
“Couple this with an economy that never really experienced a recession and has seen property prices actually increase over the past two years and you have a market that is wildly over-inflated and unaffordable to anyone without deep pockets,” he said.
It doesn’t seem as though an improvement is on the horizon. Rightmove Overseas, an overseas property agent, have estimated that property prices in Australia may rise by as much as 10%. According to the site, John McGrath, chief executive officer of McGrath Real Estate Agents (MGREA) has revealed that prices will continue their upward trend over the forthcoming year: “Over the next two or three years, we are going to see close to double-digit increases in most parts of the market. I’ve been expecting 8 to 10 percent increases in Sydney, and in some areas, it will be well beyond that. Historically, rates are still low. Of course we’re expecting some more rises, which we’ll see in a short space of time. But we’re finding 7 to 9 percent is what most people are used to in terms of the mortgage cycle, so that will still be at the bottom end of that range,” he said.
Read the full article: http://www.property-abroad.com/australia/news-story/australian-home-prices-in-2010-could-rise-10-per-cent-19316713/
