The president of Australia’s peak real estate industry body is ‘‘astonished’’ that Australia’s top central banker queried the wisdom of going into hock to invest in property.
The comment sparking the reaction came from Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens in an interview aired yesterday.
‘‘I think it is a mistake to assume that a riskless, easy, guaranteed way to prosperity is to be leveraged up into property.
‘‘It isn’t going to be that easy,’’ Mr Stevens told interviewer David Koch on Seven’s Sunrise program.
On the other hand, the real estate industry would prefer it to be just that easy.
In a statement released today, the Real Estate Institute of Australia said its president, David Airey, was ‘‘stunned’’ to hear Stevens had said ‘‘property was no longer the easy path to prosperity’’.
‘‘I’m astonished the RBA governor would get so involved in the property market and effectively warn Australians not to buy or invest in property,’’ the statement quoted Airey as saying.
The divergence of views is understandable, given that the RBA and the REIA have divergent mission statements.
Even so, it would be easy to overstate the extent to which the RBA’s plans threaten to dash the hopes of the real estate industry – assuming the real estate industry’s hopes extend beyond the coming weekend’s auctions.