Buying affordable property and long term consideration should be the priorities for Australia's real estate community, according to ME Bank.

The bank's new Quarterly Property Sentiment Report indicated nearly 90 per cent of respondents agreed that ‘despite price falls in some areas they still think housing affordability is a big issue in Australia’. 

ME Bank Quarterly Property Sentiment Report - at a glance:

• 88 per cent of Australians in the property market think housing affordability is still a big issue.
• Of the respondents featured in the report, 35 per cent reported feeling positive about the housing market, 37 per cent felt neutral and 28 per cent were negative.
• In Victoria, the majority of people feel that house prices will fall further in the next 12 months.

Tighter credit policies were also high on the list of worries, with 68 per cent indicating concerns over the issue, while 62 per cent expressed worry about the value of their property falling. 

ME Home Loans General Manager Andrew Bartolo told WILLIAMS MEDIA vendors needed to consider the long-term prospects of the property market.

"Generally speaking, property tends to increase in value over the long-term, despite the occasional dips along the way," he said

"Holding long-term increases the likelihood of capital growth and reduces the need to predict property cycles, which is notoriously difficult to do.

"Holding long-term also avoids the high costs of transacting property, which is why it’s important to buy the right property from the outset."

According to the report, 35 per cent of respondents were positive about the property market, while 37 per cent were neutral and 28 were negative.

The data indicated that sentiment was being driven by property status, age and property intentions, with younger people more positive than older, investors more positive than first home buyers and owner-occupiers, and ‘those intending buy in the next 12 months’ more positive than those intending to sell or do nothing. 

Bartolo said while positivity among investors and younger groups suggested some people were seeing price falls as an opportunity to buy, they needed to make sure they stayed within their price range.

"Buying affordable means having a mortgage you can comfortably repay over the long term regardless of changes to interest rates, your lifestyle, and without having to rely on less dependable sources of income like rent and bonuses," he said.

"The benefit is you’re less likely to be forced to sell a property because of short-term financial difficulties, which in a property downturn could mean selling for less than you’d like."

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