Although the new year is only a couple of weeks old, early signs are that 2020 will see a highly active year for the real estate market.
This is obviously good for property owners but can, at times, be highly frustrating for willing buyers as they often have to compete for properties. One of the proven rules in life is that everyone does what everyone else does. We generally find comfort in following the herd and this is particularly so in real estate. Currently the herd is firmly headed in the “active” direction.
This is being caused by a favourable economic environment where interest rates are low and stable with a bias towards further cuts. The stock market is at all time highs and the metropolitan markets of Melbourne and Sydney had a strong finish to 2019. As we have mentioned many times in this column, the coastal markets are a reflection of the metropolitan markets and based on early results we can see that, outside and I foreseeable event the foundations are in place for a year where property market participants are happy to transact in.
If you are currently looking to buy, I highly recommend that you be as prepared as much as possible before embarking on this journey. We are seeing a lot of competition between buyers at present and those that are not prepared with their finance are missing out. If you are borrowing money, make sure you are pre-approved for a certain amount so you can buy with confidence. If you are offering against a party who can offer unconditionally and you are offering subject of finance approval, you will be in an inferior position.
We recently sold an allotment in Aireys Inlet where we had twelve requests for documents. Half of those were ready to place offers. Three of the six could offer unconditionally and we therefore had to advise the other three they we would not be considering conditional offers. It ended up selling $60,000 over the asking price and importantly for our vendor the offer was unconditional.
Article by Marty Maher