Sydney, Melbourne housing markets have not peaked, brokers tell MyState

A survey of mortgage brokers has found 70 percent of respondents do not believe the housing markets in Sydney and Melbourne have peaked.

The survey of mortgage brokers by MyState Bank found 23 percent believe the markets are peaking now. Some 7 percent of brokers believe the markets will soon peak.

Of those that said the housing markets in Sydney and Melbourne would continue to grow, 3.5 percent said they expected continuing strong growth and 21 percent expected medium to strong growth to continue.

43 percent of respondent brokers said that while growth would continue, it would slow significantly. The remaining 3 percent said they expected the markets to peak next year.

Huw Bough, MyState Group Executive Broker Distribution said the survey results showed MyState’s broker partners were more positive about the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets than some other financial sector commentators.

“This will be encouraging for home owners and those looking to get into the market," he said.

"At the same time, survey findings indicate that home owners are growing wary about the ability of banks to keep rates at their current levels in the short to medium term, despite a historically low official cash rate of 1.5 percent,” he said.

The survey found 61 percent of respondent brokers were seeing a growing number of customers move to partially or fully-fix home loan interest rates.

When asked what proportion of their clients 24 percent of brokers said more than half of their clients had partially or fully fixed their home loans, and a further 16 percent of brokers said more than 40 percent of their clients had locked in rates.

Just under 37 percent of brokers said the proportion of customers wanting to fix loans had increased by 20-25 percent compared to six months ago, while another 23 percent said the increase was 10-20 percent over the same period.