{"id":948368,"date":"2026-05-09T13:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T13:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948368\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T13:30:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T13:30:26","slug":"housing-market-levelling-out-as-interest-rate-hikes-place-pressure-on-buyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948368\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing market ‘levelling out’ as interest rate hikes place pressure on buyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elevated interest rates have trimmed the borrowing capacity of prospective home buyers, as many agents report the housing market is beginning to level out.<\/p>\n

The Reserve Bank lifted interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 4.35 per cent on Tuesday<\/a>, leaving the cash rate at its highest level since February 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Property data firm Cotality shows demand is softening and growth <\/a>is slowing across mid-sized capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sri Sankari Ravindran and Akshaya Anandan won their Blair Athol home at auction.\u00a0 (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)<\/p>\n

Sri Sankari Ravindran and Akshaya Anandan purchased their first home in Adelaide’s northern suburbs on Saturday after a six to eight-month search.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was the most recent rate hike that spurred the couple to take another look at their budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“With the latest rise, we re-evaluated our numbers, \u00a0Ms Anandan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“A couple of days ago we thought OK, this is how much it’s gone up by and if it raises again we’re in a bit of a pickle, so we literally have to draw a line here.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Hossein Ranjbar and his wife are looking to buy their first home near Adelaide. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)<\/p>\n

Major banks hike interest rates<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia’s big four banks have all lifted their interest rates for customers following the RBA’s decision to increase the national cash rate to 4.35 per cent, a third consecutive hike.<\/p>\n

House hunter Hossein Ranjbar <\/strong>has been struggling to get a foot on the property market in South Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Any property we like, it’s above our budget; we couldn’t find anything,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We made some offers, we couldn’t get that because there was someone who was not a first home buyer who has better budgets and they made a higher offer and they got it.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week’s rate increase is going to push more properties out of reach for him and his wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“[My broker] told me that it’s going to reduce my borrowing capacity, so previously we couldn’t afford the other one that we like, so I think our choices will be less than before.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ray White real estate agent Nick Borrelli has noticed increasing hesitance among prospective home buyers in the past few months across Adelaide’s inner north-eastern suburbs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Housing downturn on the cards<\/a><\/p>\n

The tight supply conditions that have underpinned the national housing market in recent years are starting to ease, according to property data firm Cotality.<\/p>\n

“What we’re hearing here in SA [is a] little bit of hesitation from some of the buyers out there, just with a little bit of the uncertainty with interest rates and the budget coming out on Tuesday,” Mr Borrelli said.<\/p>\n

The Albanese government will deliver its federal budget on May 12, with significant changes to the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing set to be the centrepiece.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0While home prices surged post-COVID, agents are now seeing a “levelling out” in the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s still good buyer demand, probably just not what we were used to seeing six to 12 months ago,” Mr Borrelli said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nick Borrelli has noticed increasing hesitance among prospective home buyers in the past few months. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)<\/p>\n

In western Sydney, Raine and Horne sales agent Allana Kazzi said auction rates in Parramatta recently hit their lowest point since 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re finding that there’s still a lot of people on the market, they’re just very hesitant buyers right now and rightfully so,” Ms Kazzi said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“You have to be more fussy now when you’re paying a lot more money, so it (interest rates) makes a big difference.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Auctioneer Brenton Ilicic says there are still strong sales in the sector.\u00a0 (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)<\/p>\n

South Australian auctioneer Brenton Ilicic says while it will inevitably affect buyers, it may not drastically dent the housing market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It needs to have an impact on them (buyers) because it means that their repayments are going to be larger,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“However, do I see a clear change in the market each time there’s a rise? I’d say the answer is no.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For those who have seen the business wildly expand since the pandemic, against market predictions, they know nothing is certain in real estate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’ve seen things take place in the world where you’d think ‘Oh, the market’s going to drop’ or ‘the market’s going to rise’, ‘what’s going to happen?’ and fear,” Mr Ilicic said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“And an interest rate rise doesn’t necessarily equate to decreased clearance rates, buyers dropping off, it doesn’t necessarily work that way.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elevated interest rates have trimmed the borrowing capacity of prospective home buyers, as many agents report the housing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[15750,51,1700,264583,6791,478,154588,3711,3716,3715,18855,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-948368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-auction","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-house-auction","12":"tag-housing-market","13":"tag-interest-rates","14":"tag-rate-hike","15":"tag-rates","16":"tag-rba","17":"tag-real-estate","18":"tag-south-australia","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116544867245438305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}