Property investors appear to be regaining their confidence in the market after recent figures revealed an increase in the number of financial commitments on houses in several states in the last few months of last year.
ABS housing figures for November showed an overall increase of 0.4 per cent on financial commitments across the country, with the Northern Territory seeing a jump of 2.1 per cent – the greatest anywhere in the country.
Peter Bushby, president of the Real Estate Institute of Australia, says upward trends were also evident in areas such as Victoria, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia.
Much of the new investment appears to have come from more experienced property owners, with the number of first-time buyers in decline.
Typically, first-time buyers make up between 12 and 15 per cent of the market, but these figures were as low as 4.5 per cent in Queensland and 4.2 per cent in New South Wales in the month of November.