REIP Inside Real Estate – 13 December 2023 - Real Estate Industry Partners

Hi there

After the year most of us have had, I’m sure a lot of us are looking forward to the upcoming Christmas break, but before we down tools for the year, I wanted to share some recent updates from our strategic partner REIA.

We’re all aware that the RBA’s efforts to get inflation under control with rising interest rates has left a lot of Australians in a cost-of-living crisis situation. The impact of these decisions has come through loud and clear in REIA’s Housing Affordability Report for the September quarter, which reveals that both housing and rental affordability have hit new lows.

Leanne Pilkington, new REIA President says of the report “the results come at a time when cost of living has never been more on the minds of Australians and central to that is the cost of holding a mortgage on your home, and the rising costs of a previously very affordable rental market”. For more information on the report, see the media release or access the report.

REIA also responded to the latest lending statistics from ABS in a recent REB article saying that while the increase in first home buyers and investors was encouraging, the new housing sector is continuing to struggle with uncertainty around building costs, putting further pressure on the real estate industry.

Ultimately the REIA feels that “the RBA’s interest rate increases will suppress home building and spending across the broader economy next year by much more than would have been necessary to get inflation over the line into the RBAs 2-3 percent target range’.

Let’s hope that the worst of the RBA interest rate hikes are behind us and we can start returning to normal in the new year…

In other REIA news, for the first time in history women are holding the top 3 leadership positions. CEO Anna Neelagama has recently been joined by Leanne Pilkington as President and Hannah Gill as Deputy President. I’m sure that as a collective, we’ll continue to see exciting things come from REIA.

Leanne has also recently joined the REIP Board, further cementing REIP’s relationship with REIA and enabling us to collaborate on our advocacy for the Australian real estate industry.

With a challenging year soon to be behind us, I’m looking forward to seeing where the new year takes us. We’ll be taking a few weeks to rest and recharge and be back on board in January to pick up where we’ve left off.

I wish you and your loved ones a safe and relaxing break and look forward to continuing our work with you and for you in 2024 and beyond.

Until next time.

Stay connected,