Australia's economic fundamentals are strong enough to warrant a forecast of strong growth for the country's property market in the long-term, according to one expert. Eynas Brodie, editor of Australian Property Investor magazine, highlighted the nation's lack of housing supply in some areas in particular, as well as a low unemployment rate and highly regulated lending.
While the real estate sector is set to stay flat in the short term, fairly steady interest rates and a "massive mining boom" should help push up financial confidence in the long term, paving the way for more property investment as prices begin to move again and resulting in "healthy rates of growth", she remarked.
The comments come after economic forecaster Harry Dent predicted that a second downturn will begin in Europe in mid-2012 before spreading to China, the US and Australia. He told AAP that Australia is the best location in which to survive this crisis, although house prices are likely to go back to where they were in the late 1990s to early 2000s.