How Long Do Property Cycles Last?
You’ll often read that Australian property cycles last 7–10 years — but is this actually true?
Well…not really.
In a moment I’ll share Shane Oliver, the Chief Economist at AMP Capital’s thoughts on this, but first some context:
The property cycle isn’t easy to read.
Firstly there are many property cycles around Australia — with each state at a different stage of its own property cycle.
And then different sectors of their markets running their own races
Also the various phases are not clearly defined and the length of each cycle and its various stages varies from cycle to cycle.
However, the following graph shows what could happen over two property cycles.
The thick black line shows how “on average” property values increase over time, because well-located capital city properties tend to increase slowly but steadily in value.
But the curved grey line shows that at times the value of properties in a region remains flat for a number of years (or even drops in value) — this is the slump stage of the property cycle.
You can see that the shortest phase of the property cycle is usually the boom stage when property values overshoot their natural levels.
You can also see that at various stages in the cycle property values exceed the underlying long-term trend (such as in boom times) and at other stages they fall short of the long-term underlying value, such as during property slumps.
Want to know where we are in the property cycle?
We’ll be discussing this plus much more to help you navigate what’s ahead for property and our economy at my National Property Market and Economic Update in 3 capital cities in March and April.
Click here now get all the details and join us for this one day training and hear Dr Andrew Wilson, Ken Raiss and me give you the research finding showing exactly where each state is in it’s cycle and where the best investment opportunities will be in 2019.
And just as importantly what to do differently this year and which areas to avoid
As I said, the length of each property cycle varies and is not always seven to 10 years as is often suggested.
This is because cycles don’t occur simply because a certain number of years have passed, they occur because of a combination of macro and micro economic factors and the interplay of several social and political issues.
A few years ago AMP Capital’s chief economist, Shane Oliver, explored this topic and explained what causes property cycles to change over time.
Q: Shane, what is meant by the seven year property cycle? What are the different phases?
A: The “seven year property cycle” is often referred to by property market commentators and refers to the swing in house prices through the phases of boom, bust, bottoming and recovery.
But it’s rarely seven years.
In fact, average Australian capital city prices have had multiple cycles over the last 15 years with booms around 2003, 2007, 2010 and just recently.
The cycle is better seen in terms of the rate of property growth, as not all downturns or bust phases have price declines, but rather just a slowing.
The cycle can also vary from city to city, with only Sydney and Melbourne being in boom phases recently, and also within cities.
Q: What factors influence this?
A: The main factor driving the property cycle is the cycle in interest rates, with periods of rate cuts eventually driving upswings in the property cycle and vice versa for rate hikes.
Around this, the supply of and demand for property also has an impact, along with job security and unemployment.
Q: What is the rule of 72? Is this accurate in predicting how long it takes for a property or area to double in value?
A: It’s a short cut to understand how compounding works.
It’s actually quite useful because it all depends on the growth rate or interest rate (which in the case of compounding is the same thing).
Because it depends on the growth rate, it allows for the impact of a shift from a higher growth world to a lower growth world.
But now in a world of lower inflation and wages growth, property price growth over the last decade has slowed down to an average of just 6% pa, which means they are doubling in value roughly every 12 years.For example, when inflation and growth in wages was higher in the 1980s, property prices averaged growth of around 11.5% pa, which meant they would double in value roughly every 6.3 years.
So it’s a mental arithmetic shortcut for investors to use: 6 X 12 = 72 (hence, the ’72 rule’).
Q: Do you believe that if people haven’t been through a full property cycle then they can’t really know real estate markets?
A: No. People can understand how real estate markets work by doing their homework.
They need to look at past property cycles to gain an understanding of how the cycle works and how it interacts with interest rates and other variables.
Unfortunately, as with other investment markets, people tend to get lured by property at the worst point in the cycle, after it has already had a strong gain and is more expensive.
Want to know where we are in the property cycle?
We’ll be discussing this plus much more to help you navigate what’s ahead for property and our economy at my National Property Market and Economic Update in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in March and April.
Click here now get all the details and join us for this one day training.
I’ll be joined by
- Dr. Andrew Wilson, Australia’s leading property economist. Last year his presentations wowed the attendees and changed their way of thinking about certain matters
- Ken Raiss, director of Metropole Wealth Advisory- asset protection, structuring and tax specialist
- And a group of local property experts to give you insights into the changing property, finance and tax markets, and help you make sense of all the mixed messages surrounding property and our economy.
If you have any interest in property at all this is the year you MUST attend — the markets are very different and will be for quite some time, so you better start doing things differently if you want to protect your assets and grow your wealth.
When you join us you’ll:
- Learn some new information as the Australian markets are likely to be very different to last year
- Reinforce some thinks you already know
- Gain some distinctions — just to fine tune how you’re doing things.
Click here now and get all the details and reserve your spot.
Originally published at https://propertyupdate.com.au on February 1, 2019.
