Headline: Rate cut will help housing, says industry

The Australian Financial Review, pg 66. Michelle Singer. 3 December 2008.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest 1 percent cut brings the cash rate down to 4.25 percent but Tim Lawless of RP Data does not think this will help sales until the second quarter in 2009 at the earliest.

Stockland’s Matthew Quinn has told the UBS Global Real Estate conference in London that the local prestige market has been hard hit with oversupply making the sector very fragile’. The Housing Industry Association says new housing starts are down 7 percent year-on-year and a moderate recovery is not expected until 2010. The Real Institute of Australia’s Housing Affordability Report for the September quarter indicates that affordability has improved by 0.7 percent but the average homeowner will still need to fork out 38.8 percent of household income to meet loan repayments.