Bounce in Tasmania’s property industry confidence

Confidence in Tasmania’s property and construction industry has increased by 13 points but still
continues to be the lowest in the nation, according to new research.

The latest Property Council-ANZ Property Industry Confidence Survey reveals Tasmania has suffered its
seventh consecutive period of negative confidence.

Tasmania scored 96 on the survey’s confidence index for the June 2013 quarter – an increase of 13
points from the March 2013 quarter. A score of 100 is considered neutral.

The survey polled more than 3,100 professionals from the property and construction sector in all states
and territories for their forward-looking views.

Property Council Tasmania Executive Director Mary Massina said while the seventh survey in the series
showed confidence had bounced back, industry confidence sentiment still remained the lowest in the
country.

“The key issues of state economic growth and stalling construction activity levels across all sectors,
except retirement living, show that the state’s biggest private sector industry is doing it extremely
tough, which adversely impacts on Tasmania’s economic growth,” Ms Massina said.

“The industry needs a systematic structural reform agenda from the Government.”

The survey also revealed the four most important barriers to investment in property, being the state
political environment, domestic economic conditions, federal political environment and planning
controls.

“A total of 80.7 per cent of Tasmanian respondents believe the State Government is doing a poor job at
planning and managing growth,” Ms Massina said.

“The time for action is now and if the Government works with the property industry we will have an
opportunity to safeguard jobs and ensure the viability of the state’s biggest private sector industry.

ANZ Head of Property Research Paul Braddick said the survey results revealed a less pessimistic outlook
for the Tasmanian property sector.

“The improvement in respondent expectations this quarter was likely buoyed by the combined positive
impact of recent major property redevelopment initiatives (i.e. Parliament Square and Macquarie Point
redevelopment) and house price gains in recent months,” Mr Braddick said.
Property Council Tasmania Executive Director Mary Massina