The Long Term Growth Prospects of Units

The Investment Outlook for Residential Units

It is always risky to predict possible investment returns. There are, however, several reasons to be generally upbeat about the long-term growth prospects of units. The main reasons behind this optimism are the following.

Changing demographics and lifestyle patterns

Society is changing rapidly and many of those changes are translating into higher demand for ?non-traditional? types of dwellings. Some of the contributing factors are:

'significant increases in the number of single person households

? ?empty nesters? looking for more convenient living options and

?the tendency among young adults to 'settle down? much later in life.
Since we are probably dealing with ongoing trends here it would be safe to assume that the demand for smaller, unit based, dwellings will continue to grow.

Affordability

It is getting ever more difficult for first time buyers to get on the ?housing ladder?. This means that it is becoming much more common for people to buy units, which are generally more affordable, as a first home. This trend looks set to continue and bodes well in terms of the long-term investment value of units.

Housing demand: Australia suffers from an acute shortage of housing stock and not nearly enough houses to alleviate this are being built. This is also true in the case of units with projected demand over the medium term likely to outstrip supply. The basic laws of economics are therefore pointing towards solid capital growth on existing units for the same period.