Property Prices unlikely to fall further for investors

Now is as good a time as any to buy property, according to investor and entrepreneur Damian Collins.
Investors can get good prices for property in this market, he says, and if you’re going to buy, make sure you get a good deal.
“You don’t have to rush in, but if you’re going to get into the market don’t try to time it too much,” he says.
Collins, who has 30 properties and runs a company called Momentum Wealth, admits one of his biggest regrets is trying to time the property market.
“Residential property is relatively stable in price, it might drop back 5 or 10 per cent,” he says.
“I’ve lost more money waiting for the right time to buy rather than actually getting in and buying.”
According to Collins the under $400,000 market, driven by first homebuyers and investors, is starting to pick up in some parts of Australia, particularly Perth and Sydney.
“It’s doing reasonably well because of the $21,000 grant and rates are down now to 5 per cent.
“There’s a lot more investor interest in property and some of those are getting taken up.”
He says Melbourne and Sydney are going to be a bit further behind and the under $400,000 market in these cities is likely to pick up in the second half of this year.
Meanwhile, Collins believes the $600,000-plus market won’t pick up until the middle half of next year.
He says it’s owner-occupier driven, less rate sensitive and is much more sensitive to business confidence.
“There will be a progressional start from the bottom and it will work its way up into the top end of the property market,” he says.
While Collins predicts property prices in the top end of the market could come back another 10 per cent, he doesn’t foresee they will fall any further in the under $400,000 segment of the market.
“We’re seeing in Perth and Sydney it’s slowly gone from a buyers’ market to a sellers’ market,” he says.
“It’s gone past that equilibrium to a bit of a sellers’ market, there’s been a little bit of price growth in that segment.”
Median price figures may drop, he says, but that doesn’t reflect individual property prices, rather it’s related to the fact that there are more properties selling in the lower end of the market.
Collins says interest rates are likely to fall again and with yields increasing, investors will be attracted to the opportunity to have a cash neutral or positively geared property from day one.