CHIEF ECONOMIST UPDATE: INVESTORS SLOWLY RETURN BUT NOT IN OUR BIGGEST CITIES

Investors evaporated fairly quickly from the property market at the end of 2017, the catalyst being the announcement of the financial services royal commission. A subsequent clampdown on lending led to a fall in property prices in many locations across Australia, particularly those with a lot of investor activity. Conditions remained stagnant for two years but by the end of 2019, as prices rose, investors began to tentatively re-enter the market. Then COVID-19 shut that activity down.