Sydney house values could plummet by nearly $194,000: Finder

Sydney and Melbourne should prepare for a big drop in housing value, according to finder.com.au.

Finder asked experts and economists to weigh in on ANZ Bank forecasting a 15-20% fall from peak house prices in Sydney and Melbourne.

The majority of experts surveyed (15/21, or 71%) said they agreed with ANZ’s assessment.

Graham Cooke, Insights Manager at finder.com.au, said that economists’ predictions of drops in the property market have become more dramatic.

“ANZ’s suggested 15% drop would see $145,500 and $118,500 wiped off the average house price in Sydney and Melbourne respectively," said Cooke. 

“A 20% drop would see nearly $200,000 disappear from the equity of Sydney homeowners,” Cooke said.

Interestingly, economists were evenly split as to whether the housing downturn would result in more or fewer renovation projects.

“There is however solid agreement that there’ll be fewer new homes built in 2019,” Cooke said.

The Finder Survey showed that two-thirds of experts (14/21, or 66%) expect less construction, with 38% of experts predicting there’ll be at least a 10% drop in construction of new homes in 2019.