Investor finance in Western Australia increased164 per cent in April 2021 compared to April 2020,according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS),whichis good news for the states rental market.
ThelatestABS statistics revealed investorlendinginApril 2021was$453 million, up164per centfrom$171 millionin April 2020.This is on top of the March 2021 improvement, which saw investor finance come in at$441million, up94 per centfrom$227 millionin March 2020.
REIWA President Damian Collins saidalthoughWA still had a way to go to reach the $1 billion a month investmentlendingfigures that occurredduring the previous market booms in 2014 and 2006-07, this was a positive trend and animprovement on the lowinvestorlendingfiguresof recent times.
The April 2021 figures are the best we have seen sinceDecember2015andconsiderably higher than this time last year.
Low levels of investor activity in WAarea key reason behind the states rental shortage.Property investors and the private rental market are essential to ensuring tenants can find appropriate housing," Mr Collins said.
Investor confidence is starting to return
The past few years have been challenging for the WA rental market and during the downturn,a lot of property investors wereimpacted. Now that the rental moratorium is over and thepropertymarket is firmly in recovery mode, investor confidenceis startingtoreturn," Mr Collins said.
As investor levels increase and more available stock comes to market, this will help provide housing to tenants and ease the rental shortage.There are also a lot ofinvestorschoosing to sell nowthatwere unable toduringthe height ofCOVID-19. Once this wave of activitysubsides,we will see more improvement.
Although we are not out of the woods yet, it is encouraging to see some light at the end of the tunnelfor the WA rental market,"Mr Collins said.
