With Malcolm Turnbull wresting the Liberal leadership from Tony Abbott on Monday night, property pundits say the new Prime Minister could be good for the housing market. But CoreLogic RP Data’s Cameron Kusher said change is unlikely to come swiftly.
“In the past, Malcolm Turnbull has talked about property affordability and the challenges there so there might be some progress there, but it’s not something that’s going to change overnight. It’s going to take time to announce new policies and obviously implement those policy changes,” Kusher said.
Some of the changes impacting housing could come from where the government chooses to invest, Kusher indicated.
“Between Abbott and Turnbull you might see some changes, particularly around the infrastructure side of things: there’s been a big focus from the Abbott government on things like roads; you might find there’s a change towards public transport. Up here in Brisbane there’s some big ticket public transport items which the previous government hadn’t supported. If they had supported them it’d certainly have an impact on property prices in certain suburbs,” he said.
PIPA chair Ben Kingsley said most encouraging may be the housing policies that won’t change under Turnbull.
“It’s too early to get a clear understanding of the new Prime Minister’s full agenda. However, his own personal success in household wealth building provides us with some confidence that Mr Turnbull would support households who strive to achieve a self-funded retirement, which is the goal of any property investor. We are also pleased with Mr Turnbull’s comments that it’s ‘business as usual’ as this implies that the removal of negative gearing remains off the table,” he said.
Ultimately, Kusher said Turnbull’s ascension is unlikely to have a far-reaching impact on housing.
“It’s not going to have too much of an effect. It may help consumer confidence. Turnbull is more interested in economics and has better credentials there but overall it’s probably, at least initially, not going to have too much of an impact on the housing market.”
