Debelle reassures no danger of housing market collapse
(28 June 2012 – Australia) Assistant Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Guy Debelle said there is no danger of a collapse in the country’s housing market.
Debelle told a mortgage conference in Adelaide this week that the only signs of oversupply were in south-east Queensland.
''Nationally the level of housing construction is about where it was 10 years ago, but the population is 15 percent higher,'' he told the conference.
''In that sense there is no overbuilding. People point to the level of debt, and it is rather high, but we don't see any problem with the households who have borrowed servicing the debt.
''It tends to be held by the upper end of the income distribution. There are not a whole lot of first home buyers out there gearing up heavily.''
While a collapse in the Australia's housing market is not something that keeps the Reserve Bank ''awake at night'' there is a ''day of reckoning'' coming for the European Union and nobody knows how it will play out.
''Nationally the level of housing construction is about where it was 10 years ago, but the population is 15 percent higher,'' he told the conference.
''In that sense there is no overbuilding. People point to the level of debt, and it is rather high, but we don't see any problem with the households who have borrowed servicing the debt.
''It tends to be held by the upper end of the income distribution. There are not a whole lot of first home buyers out there gearing up heavily.''
While a collapse in the Australia's housing market is not something that keeps the Reserve Bank ''awake at night'' there is a ''day of reckoning'' coming for the European Union and nobody knows how it will play out.
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