Election a wildcard for housing market

PHOTO: Federal election 2019

The outcome of the federal election could be a wildcard for the housing market amid signs the worst of the downturn in prices may be over, an analyst says.

CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless says there is uncertainty about the impact of Labor’s planned changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax concession on the housing market, should it win the election.

“This really is a wildcard because nobody really knows what the outcome of changing these policies is going to be,” he told AAP, noting the stage of the housing market cycle usually had a bigger impact than a federal election.

“If we do see these policies being passed through the Senate, arguably we will see a bit of a dampening effect on investment in the housing market.”

Mr Lawless said a key issue would be whether there was a commensurate lift in owner occupier activity, which was probably a greater unknown given the tighter credit conditions.