Property report

Housing demand strong in PNG

Hausples.com.pg has released its Real Estate Survey 2018, revealing that there is “unequivocal demand” for housing at various price points.

The report found that respondents have a positive outlook towards the house sales market in PNG.

However, it also found that perceived unaffordability has increased slightly since 2017, with 87 per cent of respondents believing that buying a property in PNG is either “moderately or very unaffordable” (compared with 85 per cent in 2017).

The percentage who believe buying a home is “affordable, through to very affordable” also decreased from 14 per cent to 12 per cent.

“Attributing this shift is difficult,” the report says. “Increasing urbanisation is certainly one contributing factor.

“The APEC Forum has increased the costs of goods and labour in the run-up to the event and this is likely to have had a flow-on effect for the construction and housing markets.”

The report says two-thirds of respondents believe that prices have increased over the last 12 months and 61 per cent believe that prices will continue to increase this year.

“The majority of people believe that now is the best time to purchase a home, however this decreased slightly from 61 per cent in 2017, to 56 per cent in 2018.

“Almost 23 per cent of respondents indicated that they intend to buy a home in the next 12 months.

“However, this is a large shift from the 2017 survey in which 39 per cent of people indicated an intention to purchase within 12 months.

“People’s purchasing horizon has now shifted from 6–12 months to a longer time horizon of 12–18 months. These results indicate strong underlying demand to purchase housing, however this is tempered by a medium-term ability to purchase.”

A complex title approval process and a limited construction work force are also limiting factors.