Rate cut sends house price hopes berserk

Tuesday 19 August 2025

Wetspac with the note.

Westpac Consumer Sentiment Index up 5.7% to 98.5 in August.

• RBA’s third rate cut for the year provides a clear boost.
• Long period of pessimism finally coming to an end. • Consumers less anxious about finances, cautiously positive on economy.
• Sentiment lift broad-based, not just confined to those with a mortgage.
• Home-buyer sentiment up 10.5% with consumers still bullish on prices.

House price expectations are now the highest since December 2013!

About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.