Signs interest rate hikes are cooling housing market, says RBA governor | The Business | ABC NEWS

RBA governor Michele Bullock says the central bank is seeing signs monetary tightening is starting to work but "it will take around one to two years for the full effects to flow through to the economy." She was appearing before the Senate Economics Committee with her economics team. As for recent softening in the housing market, she said this was an area where rising interest rates had a rapid effect. "Conditions in the housing market eased in recent months, and that partly reflects tighter monetary policy." She said. Senator Bragg asked the RBA governor Michele Bullock about whether she has given any thought to the risk of people going into negative equity. She said practically no-one was in negative equity and it was something the bank's financial stability team does monitor. The issue of negative equity has been raised as a potential concern as property prices start falling from recent peaks following three interest rate rises and budget changes that will reduce tax breaks for property investment, if passed. The federal government's expanded 5% deposit scheme for first home buyers has allowed more first home buyers to purchase with less than the more standard 20% deposit, meaning they start with a lot less equity (or ownership stake) in their home. On KMPG, Michele Bullock said the RBA does use KPMG's audit and whistleblower hotline services. Given the consulting company's reported mistreatment of a whistleblower, the governor said she doesn't expect that contract to be continued. "I don't think we'll be reappointing them to the whistleblower service. We are re-tendering for that... In terms of the audit, that is a matter for the ANAO," she said. David Taylor was following the hearing and spoke to Alicia Barry. #ABCBusiness Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-04/asx-markets-business-news-live-updates/106757400 Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated. #ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia