Two of Australia’s biggest residential developers have called the bottom of the housing market, saying some life should return to the troubled sector next year.

Billionaire apartment developer Harry Triguboff and the listed Mirvac Group said signs of growth in demand were emerging.
It runs counter to a report this week from AMP chief economist Shane Oliver, who said Australia’s overvalued house prices could fall 10-15 per cent next year.
Mr Triguboff, founder and owner of the country’s biggest apartment builder Meriton, completed and sold 1000 apartments this year, well down on the 3000 a year built during the boom in 2002, The Weekend Australian reports.
Next year, he hopes to build 1500.
While Mr Triguboff said he "always met the market" when conditions cooled, he expected Meriton’s prices to rise 10 per cent next year underpinned by the government stimulus of rising rents and the lack of supply.
"I don’t think we have to worry, we have such help from the Government," he said, referring to Canberra’s $14,000 grant for established homes and $21,000 for newly constructed homes announced in October.
"Petrol has come down, income tax has come down. Some people will lose their jobs, sure, but let’s talk about the ones who won’t."
AMP’s Mr Oliver said an increase in unemployment posed a significant threat to house prices. AMP forecasts the jobless rate will rise from 4.3 per cent to 6.5 per cent in 2010.
Mirvac Group chairman James MacKenzie said the company was starting to see "what we hope are early signs that the residential market, and consequent demand for Mirvac product, being stimulated", though he was cautious, given the state of the market.
He also cited the Federal Government’s boost to the first home-buyers grant, the cuts in interest rates and measures in the NSW Government’s mini-budget as factors.

Read the full article from Jessica Irvine and Turi Condon of Perth Now here:

http://www.realestate.com.au/doc/Resources/News/market-going-up.htm

Paul Castran