MEDIA RELEASE

63,000 ADDITIONAL FIRST HOME BUYER HOUSEHOLDS PREDICTED BY APRIL 2009

-Further interest rate cuts set to compound Sydney housing shortage -

11 February 2009 – Real estate investment specialist and CEO of new property and research portal, Find Investment Property, Mark Mendel, has predicted that 63,000 additional households across Sydney could be actively seeking their first home by April 2009 because of changing market conditions.

The staggering increase is down to a series of significant interest rate cuts with more forecast in the coming months, while rents are continuing to rise at the bottom and middle of the market. Following this week’s interest rate cut we now have a situation where the average mortgage repayment is less than the current Sydney median weekly rental payment for the first time.

In addition the tripled first home buy grant is providing a huge incentive to take the plunge because the amount needed to purchase a new property is now significantly less than it was at the beginning of last year. The 30 June deadline for the grants will start driving purchasers into the market well in advance of this date, so by April the pressure will be on.

Find CEO, Mark Mendel said, “We arrived at 63,000 figure by calculating the current percentage of people renting in Sydney whose rent will become more than the average mortgage repayment as of yesterday’s 1% interest rate cut. It is likely that 7% on either side of the rental medium will look to purchase property, working out as 14% of the current rental market, equalling 63,280.”

“No science is ever exact, but it does seem likely that an unprecedented number of people will decide to become property owners because it makes good financial sense to do so. We need to start preparing for this scenario to become a reality very quickly,” continued Mr Mendel.

63,000 additional first homebuyer households would put significant pressure on Sydney’s housing provision, already in short supply. With the global financial crisis eating away at funding for new residential projects and driving up unemployment across the housing industry, this could be a testing time.

“One option for the government could be the allocation of funding to provide a stimulus to the residential property industry and ensure that the construction of projects isn’t affected by lack of funding. We need to make sure there are enough properties on the market which will help speed up our overall economic recovery,” added Mr Mendel.