What type of recovery is our property market going to experience ?

The housing market has experienced quite a sharp recovery, though, effective almost immediately after the election result was announced.

Prior to this post election bounce the base case scenario seemed to be a housing downturn and a likely U-shaped recovery, which – a bit like a bathtub – traditionally has slippery sides, bumpy stuff along the bottom, and can take a long time to drag yourself out of.

Some of the uber-pessimists even predicted the dreaded ‘L-shaped’ downturn, where no recovery could be foreseen or expected for years into the future.

That’s not going to happen, and although some are still talking about dead-cat bounces and perhaps a W-shaped recovery, in Sydney and Melbourne the recovery has been far more ‘V-shaped’, at least in the scarcer and more desirable assets of the inner suburbs.

Housing prices are up by more than 3 per cent in both Sydney and Melbourne over the past quarter, although as always the medians can mask significant variations in fortunes.

The Reserve Bank possibly even fears a parabolic ‘J-shaped’ outcome from here, with housing prices running sky-high without looking back for thought, but that doesn’t look too likely.

And in fact much of the underlying market data has barely improved at all, especially for new apartments and the construction outlook.

So, it’s a real mixed bag!