Housing Affordability to Worsen, Reuters Poll FindsHousing Affordability to Worsen, Reuters Poll Finds

Reuters said between Aug. 10-25 it polled more than 100 property market experts covering the U.S., Canada, Britain, India, Australia, New Zealand, China and Dubai and found that price rises would "cool" over the next two years.

Based on the poll data, the pace of house price rises in most major world housing markets since the pandemic began has likely peaked.

However, affordability is set to remain stretched or worsen in the next few years, according to the experts polled.

When asked how housing affordability would change over the next few years in markets they cover, more than 80% of poll respondents (77 of 94), said it would worsen or stay about the same, according to Reuters. 

Experts overwhelmingly—88%—believe the affordability in the Australian housing market will worsen over the next 2-3 years.

The poll also showed that most experts believe the affordability in the Canadian (69%) and U.S. (62%) markets will worsen.

On the flip side, more than half (54%) of the experts polled believe it will improve in India.

Seventy-three percent of those polled believe the affordability in the Dubai housing market will stay the same.

"Clearly there are many cross-currents impacting the housing market today from volatile long-term interest rates, low affordability, shortages of labor and land, and sparse existing inventory," Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West, told Reuters. "We are forecasting housing market activity to settle into a more sustainable pace over the next 18 months, with some payback from home sales that were likely pulled forward during the pandemic."

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