“You saw signs with the Reserve Bank statement earlier this week around cutting interest rates again … It does help to sort of ease some of the cost-of-living pressures for households,” Kiernan said.
“But housing is still unaffordable, house prices are still relatively high, and rental yields don’t look great from an investor point of view. So it’s hard to see a lot of demand coming back into the housing market, and therefore the construction and residential construction industry, any time soon.
“But I think the key for me is, until you see the labour market starting to turn around, households are still going to be pretty cautious in terms of their spending – because that sort of job and income security isn’t in a…