Interesting article in AFR today. Its key points are:
- After plateauing in 2014, the proportion of taxpayers declaring rental income has been falling gradually since 2017, hitting a 12-year low of 19.4 per cent in 2022.
- Grattan Institute says tougher lending rules imposed by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority seem to explain why there are more investors selling than buying.
- While the rules have been lifted, lending standards remain far tighter than was the case before 2014, making it much harder for investors to significantly leverage into the market.
- Grattan Institute says it’s also possible that investors no longer expect property to deliver the same rate of capital growth as it did in the past, with many savers now opting to put their money into other asset classes.
- Just 10 per cent of consumers surveyed by Westpac and the Melbourne Institute in September said real estate was the “wisest place for savings”, well below the long-run average of 24 per cent.
