According to the Real Estate Institute of Australia, the December 2015 quarter CPI figures confirm the RBA Board’s assessment that inflationary pressures are well contained and are likely to remain within the RBA’s target over the next one to two years.
REIA President, Neville Sanders, says “this means that we can expect a sustained period of low interest rates which is good news for home owners.”
“In the December quarter, the CPI rose by 0.4% and an annual rate of 1.7%. These figures are well below the RBA’s target zone of 2-3% and should ease any pressure on the interest rate outlook,” Mr Sanders said.
“The annual changes for the analytical series of trimmed mean and for the weighted median were 2.1% and 1.9% respectively. In the case of the trimmed mean this is the same as for the previous quarter and is the lowest annual increase since the series was introduced in June 2003 and for the weighted mean the lowest since June 2012,” Mr Sanders said.
The housing group increased by just 0.1% for the December quarter and an annual rate of increase of 2.2%.
Rents increased by 0.2% for the quarter and 1.2% for the year which is the lowest annual increase since March 1995.
“The impact of the past increased investor activity in the housing sector is flowing through to the lowest increases in rents in over two decades,” Mr Sanders added.
