Christine St Anne is Morningstar's online editor.

HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham reckons Australia's housing boom is just beginning. Housing prices have risen by 9 per cent since their trough in May 2012 and are 5.5 per cent higher over the past year.

Growth has accelerated recently, with prices up by a strong 3.7 per cent in the third quarter.

Other indicators are consistent with continued solid growth in prices. Auction clearance rates - a timely indicator of housing market activity - are holding at levels that suggest a forthcoming housing price boom.

Bloxham says sustained low interest rates will only accelerate housing price growth.

"While the housing construction upswing has had a slow start, solid population growth and the current limited supply of housing should see construction continue to increase," he says.

This housing boom was one of the themes explored in the last Huntleys' Forecast 2013-14: Sector reviews. Back then, Australian housing approvals had just risen 7.7 per cent to 158,800 for the 12 months to April 2013. Morningstar also believed the boom would be sustainable.

"Our view has still not changed," Morningstar sector head of consumer, healthcare, industrials, tech and telecom Peter Rae says.

He says the healthy pick-up in housing approvals will be sustainable given relatively low unemployment, a sustained low-interest-rate environment (with additional rate cuts possible), tight rental markets and consumer deleveraging helping affordability.

UBS strategist David Cassidy identifies the housing boom as a "playable tilt" in a portfolio.

"Within the domestic economy plays, housing remains a playable tilt for us. The housing market is improving both in terms of price and physical activity trends, and physical construction should strengthen further in 2014," he says.

"We believe housing-related stocks look attractive into a strengthening cycle."

For Rae, the issue, however, is that many of these housing-related stocks are trading at expensive levels.

"The issue is that the rest of the market also expects a housing recovery and as such the prices of many companies linked to a housing recovery are well-priced," he says.

Nevertheless, Rae says there are a number of stocks that investors should keep an eye on should a market correction happen.