Margaret Lomas

To me, it's more the fact that in all of those markets, I guess with the exception of Brisbane suburbs, properties then got to the point where the price of them was starting to get out of reach of the average income earner.

And suddenly we saw a lot less buyers in the markets.

So where before a vendor could put a property in one of those markets on the market and have interest within three days and probably a sale within a week, we began to see extended times even before rates really started to go up.

And that's always a signal that the market is going to cool.

So I think the interest rate rises have just pushed that a tiny little bit along.

But we were always going to see around this time vendors deciding that they wouldn't sell now and they will wait for a better time and waiting.

And I think if we don't have an interest rate rise next time around, which is highly unlikely, I don't think that situation is going to change a lot.

I think vendors are still considering it could be a better time, maybe in a year, maybe in two to sell their property.