After a year that saw both record house price growth and tough conditions, the industry needs to continue to focus on people and sustainability
That’s the belief of Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) President Hayden Groves, who said businesses, customers and the communities around us must be at the heart of what the industry focuses on in the next 12 months.
Mr Groves wants to work with consumers to get a better understanding of how agents can help build better communities and encourage sustainable living and affordable housing.
“The reality is that people are at the centre of the success of an agency whether it is our staff or clients,” Mr Groves said.
“Successful agencies play a major role in wealth creation and financial success and we in turn need to do everything we can to enhance our service delivery of property transactions.
“This ranges from adopting new proptech to reduce workloads, working on recruitment and attraction campaigns to help plug the significant property manager shortage.”
Mr Groves also expects demand for sustainable homes to continue to increase going forward and believes agents should find ways to highlight these types of properties.
“Demand for sustainable homes or homes with sustainable features will increase as will client expectations that we as real estate agencies are running sustainable businesses,” he said.
“This could be anything from preferences for complexes with electric car charge points right through to homes built with green materials or powered by renewable energy.”
Mr Groves said economic factors like interest rates, employment and immigration will play and big role in what lies ahead in the next few years for housing.
“The Australian residential property market is now worth a whopping $9 trillion according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics,” he said.
“Our major focus from an advocacy point of view will be on the fundamentals of Australian housing supply and affordability.
“Whilst some agents are reporting an increase in the stock levels being offered to the market, the reality is within the current market there is still more demand than supply and until that demand is satisfied, we will likely see continued growth in value.
“Everything we should be doing from an advocacy and policy development perspective should be looking at encouraging Australians to list with confidence and to make the most of the current market conditions.”
Mr Groves said the upcoming Federal election will have a big impact on what happens with property markets and expects attention to be paid to housing affordability.
“Federal elections as real estate practitioners know can majorly impact the confidence of property customers to list and buy,” he said.
“Housing affordability needs to be addressed.”
“Affordability continued to decline over the September quarter of 2021, with the proportion of income required to meet loan repayments increasing to 36.2 per cent nationally.
“With a lot to play out both economically and politically before a touted May 2022 election, we will continue to advocate for policy initiatives that focus on helping first home buyers achieve the Great Australian dream of home ownership.”
