The Property Council has expressed cautious optimism on the back of a significant jump in Tasmania’s
property industry confidence, as revealed by the latest Property Council/ANZ Property Industry
Confidence Survey.

The eighth survey, which is the largest of its kind in the country, shows Tasmania’s property industry
sentiment has jumped 25 points to sit for the first time in the survey’s history at 123 points*.

Property Council Tasmanian Executive Director, Mary Massina, said while the results were promising, it
was also clear from the survey that the State Government still had a lot of work to do in terms of its
economic policy directions.

“Respondents to the survey have continued to mark the Government’s performance as poor, with an
eighth drop in confidence in the Government’s ability to manage planning and growth,” Ms Massina
said.

“It is clear that the start or announcement of a number of large projects, such as Parliament Square, the
Royal Hobart Hospital and the Launceston Silo Redevelopment as well as the expectation that broader
economic conditions are improving, has boosted the industry’s confidence.

“Across a number of key indices, such as capital values across asset classes, staffing level expectations
and forward work schedules are looking positive.

“The State Government’s poor performance is the only downfall in an otherwise positive outlook.”
Ms Massina said the survey reflected that the industry was looking forward, which was in line with other
business confidence surveys recently released.

“Even the Federal Election results have put a bounce in the industry’s step at a national and local level,
with respondents indicating that the election of an Abbot Government has improved confidence about
the industry’s prospects over the next 12 months,” she said.

The survey polled almost 3,000 professionals from the property industry in all states and territories for
their forward-looking views.

ANZ Head of Property Research Paul Braddick said Tasmania’s property industry posted a somewhat
surprisingly strong increase in confidence in the December quarter.

“While this result shows a sharp improvement in confidence on previous quarters and provides a
cautiously optimistic outlook for the Tasmanian economy and property market, economic conditions
remain challenging for Tasmania’s property sector. Tasmania’s Gross State Product continued to fall in
the June quarter, as did employment and house prices,” Mr Braddick said.

* A score of 100 is considered neutral.

Full results are available at: www.propertyoz.com.au/confidence
Mary Massina Property Council of Australia TAS Executive Director