Confidence in the housing market has collapsed, with the number of Australians describing property as the wisest place to put their savings falling to its lowest level in more than 40 years.
The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research has been asking about the wisest place to store savings since it began its consumer confidence survey in 1974.
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Having children delayed for a house
Parents are putting off having children to get into the housing market according to Scott Morrison who has also offered an insight into his plans for negative gearing in the budget.
Real estate has been one of the most popular answers, often eclipsing bank deposits and paying down debt as the wisest place for savings.
As recently as September 2015 more than 28 per cent of those surveyed nominated real estate as the safest place for savings -Â more than any other asset class.
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Confidence has fallen near-continuously since then to an all time low of 11.6 per cent in the latest survey.
Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said the result showed "a clear increase in risk aversion".
"Consumers are saying: yes we expect [real estate] prices to rise, but we are a little cautious."
"There is no doubt there is nervousness about the sustainability of the prices."
It comes amid warnings from the Reserve Bank that the banking system might encounter "systemic issues" in the event of a downturn.
"The worry is what happened in the United States: a big downturn in housing prices and negative equity. Hopefully what we've done with strengthening the resilience of the households and the banks means they can withstand that sort of thing if it happened," Reserve Bank official Michelle Bullock told a business breakfast on Tuesday.
"We are watching it because investors can be the first ones to get out if things turn down," she said, warning that a rush for the doors could make a slump "much bigger than it would otherwise be".
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show investors now account for more than half of money borrowed for housing, making the market vulnerable to a sell-off should prices begin to turn down.
Government backbenchers are understood to be suggesting that the May budget allow first home buyers to use their superannuation funds to help buy homes, in order to better compete against investors, an idea not yet being seriously considered by the prime minister's office.
On Thursday, Mr Turnbull said he would not "discuss particular issues that are in consideration for the budget".
"The key to having more affordable housing is to build more housing and so the argument against demand side measures in isolation is that all you do is, is pump up the market," he told ABC radio.Â
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said any plan under consideration to raid super was "a sham" that would just increase house prices.
On Thursday the National Australia Bank lifted its standard variable mortgage rate from 5.25 per cent to 5.32 per cent, in the first out-of-cycle increase by a big bank since 2015.
Its rate for investors will climb from 5.55 per cent to 5.80 per cent.
The bank has also introduced a new two-year fixed rate for first home buyers at 3.69 per cent, the lowest on record.
In other figures released on Thursday the Bureau's employment statistics showed the number of hours worked slid further in February to be down 8.8 million on February 2016.
Over the year to February, full-time employment slipped 23,100, offset by a jump in part-time employment of 104,600.
The number of people underemployed (wanting to more hours) climbed to 1.1 million, a new all-time high.
The underemployment rate climbed to 8.7 per cent, also an all-time high.
The combined underemployment and unemployment rate was 14.6 per cent. The unemployment rate climbed from 5.7 to 5.9 per cent.
Over the past six months NSW has lost 14,200 jobs while Victoria has gained 27,400.
"Employment continues to zig-zag around the zero growth line on a more or less monthly basis," said Bill Mitchell of the Centre for Full Employment and Equity at Newcastle University.
"Overall, the Australian labour market is weak and showing no signs of improvement."
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