Kushi said it was likely to remain a seller’s market “for some time”, due to the severe housing shortage and the “unsustainable” house price rise.
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She said: “Nominal house price growth in the double digits, as it is right now, is just unsustainable and it’s very hard for house buying power to keep up in (what is) one of the most competitive housing markets in history.”
Despite some early signs of “softening” in the sector, thanks to inventory starting to increase and mortgage applications dropping “a little bit”, it was still not enough to make a positive impact on affordability.
“(Increasing inventory) would be the sustainable way to moderate house price growth and bring a little bit more balance to the market, but it’s difficult – you can’t just bring the necessary or sufficient amount of inventory overnight. The other way to do it would be to have a sufficient increase in mortgage rates, but they just haven’t been budging,” she said.