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Brendan Wong
More than half of the real estate industry think Kevin Rudd’s reappointment as prime minister will have a negative effect on the property market, a new survey has shown.
The latest Real Estate Business straw poll found that 55.2 per cent of 522 respondents voted that the return of Kevin Rudd would negatively affect the housing market.
A total of 23.9 per cent of voters disagreed, 18.6 per cent believed it would not make a difference and 2.3 per cent were unsure.
Director of Elders Real Estate Liverpool Sam Polistina said the whole real estate industry had been in a negative state after Julia Gillard came into power.
“They’re just not doing anything right, they’re not helping business people, they’re not helping anyone,” he said. “They’re just flogging money left, right and centre.
“There’s no incentives for business people at all, there’s no incentive for builders, developers ... obviously, if the developers don’t build anything we’ve got nothing to sell.
“I despise what the Labor government is doing to this country. At the end of the day, we’re the business people that work all day, we pay our taxes and try to do right by everybody, but we just get left behind on so many things.”
Do you think Kevin Rudd's reappointment as Prime Minister will be a negative for the industry? Why, why not? Leave your comments below.
Senior economist for the Australian Property Monitors Dr Andrew Wilson told Real Estate Business he did not think Mr Rudd’s reappointment would have an impact on the market.
“We don’t have any policies released yet by the new government and I guess we have to wait and see if there’ll be any change to what we have had so far, particularly in terms of the fiscal consolidation environment that we’ve been under in terms of both the Opposition and the government,” he said.
“I think the cyclical housing market factors are stronger than the political cycle at the moment. We don’t have a great difference between the policy positions of the two parties, as we had in previous periods.”
However, Dr Wilson said there could be some disruption if the election occurred during the spring campaign, in October or November.
One group that has responded positively to Mr Rudd's return as prime minister has been the Chinese market, according to reports by a Chinese translated listings portal Juwai.com. The portal reported a surge in popularity for Australian properties after Mr Rudd was appointed as the new leader.
"The prime minister is famous in China for his language skills, and understanding of Chinese culture," co-founder Andrew Taylor told Real Estate Business.
"Juwai.com has featured the prime minister's property which is for sale, and our WeChat (one of Chinea's most popular social media channels) membership has been abuzz with discussion about Kevin Rudd, property prices and general discussion about Australia."
Mr Taylor said there were a lot of very positive signs that trade between China and Australia was going to be strong in the future, particularly Chinese investment.
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