Real Estate Institute of WA President Rob Druitt, welcomed today's interest rate cut saying the housing industry was keen to see buyer confidence return to the market.
"Today's cut of 0.25 per cent will save a typical homebuyer about $10 per week. While this is not overwhelming it will help those struggling with increased petrol costs and help bring some positive consumer sentiment into a very slow market," Mr Druitt said.
Mr Druitt said the 105,000 first home buyers in WA who have purchased since December 2001 had only ever known interest rate increases. Today marks their first experience of a reduction.
"First home buyers are quite active currently, constituting around 30 per cent of the overall market - up from their usual 20 per cent. Even so, this added saving will help household budgets and should trigger some more interest from entry level buyers," Mr Druitt said.
Despite today's cut in rates, Mr Druitt called on the RBA to go a step further and reduce interest rates by an additional 0.25 per cent to half a per cent.
"In WA we need some real stimulus in the secondary housing sector to get it moving again. First home buyers may be active but we need to encourage other buyers, those upgrading, to have another look at the market now that conditions are improving.
"Sales volumes in the south west part of WA are down by 30 per cent on this time last year, even though we know there are lots of buyers waiting for the right signals to enter the market. Today's rate cut is hopefully one of those signals," Mr Druitt said.
In calling for a further rate reduction Mr Druitt acknowledged that the RBA had the challenging task of keeping one eye on the economy and the other eye on inflation.
"However, today's decision is the first sign of some positive economic news for a while and any news that helps homebuyers and overall consumer sentiment is very welcome," Mr Druitt said.
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