No roof on house prices: Lend Lease boss
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Shortage in housing supply gives Lend Lease confidence the market will bounce back. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin, file photo)
The head of the property construction and management group Lend Lease says house prices should continue to recover, boosted by an ongoing shortage of residential housing.
Prices in Melbourne have risen by just over 6 per cent since the start of the year, the highest jump in Australia.
Lend Lease chief executive Steve McCann says the right balance will return to the market when the economy fully recovers.
He has told ABC1's Inside Business program that his company understands that could take some time.
"There is a shortage of supply generally in the housing space in Australia," he said.
"That is what gives us confidence that the downturn we have seen will bottom out and a recovery will occur in a hopefully relatively short order.
"We don't see massive pressure on prices and it will take some time for the economy to get back into full swing and that should result in the right sort of balance."
Figures released last week reported a slump in apartment approvals, down 43.6 per cent in May.
Mr McCann says the numbers are partly the result of developers being unable to secure finance.
"The reality is the apartments market has been fairly slow for a little while," he said.
"It's not a very significant part of our business though, we're much more focussed on the residential sub-division area, and the market in the last couple of months there has been a bit slower than it was in the early parts of this calendar year.
"But that's typical around June, [financial] year end, when it focuses on settlements."
You can watch Alan Kohler's full interview with Steve McCann on the Inside Business website.
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