Why selling took off this spring

This selling season has been more eventful than most.

It kick-started with a Federal Election upset, a number of rate cuts, and easier access to credit. After our two-year downturn, the speed of the property market recovery has taken most by surprise.

Now the latest figures from CoreLogic show Sydney values are on track to recoup the 15% loss of the 18-month downturn early next year, reaching new record highs by March.

The city’s prices surged 2.7% in November, the highest monthly growth rate since 1988.

CoreLogic’s head of research Tim Lawless said yesterday: “The synergy of a 75 basis points rate cut from the Reserve Bank, a loosening in loan serviceability policy from APRA, and the removal of uncertainty around taxation reform following the federal election outcome, are central to this recovery.

“Additionally, we’re seeing advertised stock levels persistently low, creating a sense of urgency in the market as buyer demand picks up. There’s also the prospect that interest rates are likely to fall further over the coming months and an improvement in housing affordability following the recent downturn are other factors supporting a lift in values.

“I think for the next few months, I can’t really see any changes that would start to slow the market down.”

Across the BresicWhitney network, this played out in a number of ways, including two consecutive months of 100 sales in both October and November. Since July, 106 BresicWhitney sales were executed off-market, and one in four homes sold off-market in November.

Last month we also saw $187 million worth of property changing hands, up a massive 59% on November 2018. October also saw our highest-ever average sale price, with more than half the homes trading above $2 million.

The strength of this activity is more than just market forces at play. While conditions have improved across Sydney, we’ve pushed BresicWhitney results beyond that.

Perhaps more significantly, 52% of purchasers are now coming from within the BresicWhitney network. That is, half of our successful buyers are people already working with BresicWhitney agents either as a vendor or pre-registered home hunter. 

In each of these instances, they were introduced to the property they went onto purchase from either a BresicWhitney agent or one of our digital property alerts. While the industry norm is to upload a new listing to the real estate websites and wait for buyers to turn up, our proactive and multi-channel approach has reaped rewards for BresicWhitney sellers.

These channels uncovered more buyers traversing between key suburbs this month, with BresicWhitney introductions accounting for a range of successful sales. Here are just a few:

We sold 176 Nelson Street, Annandale for $2.05 million to someone from Bondi. And 141 Johnston Street, Annandale set a suburb record for a home with no parking, selling to an existing client from Paddington.

Eastern Suburbs agents brought buyers to 228 St Johns Road, Forest Lodge, with both buyer and underbidder introduced via our Darlinghurst office.

2 Little Nicholson Street, Balmain East sold off-market for $2.775 million, in one week, with our team introducing 15 pre-qualified buyers from Hunters Hill to Woollahra.

A terrace at 103 Chelmsford Street, Newtown sold off-market for $3.651 million. With three people competing at this high price point for the area, all participating parties weren’t Newtown buyers.

At open homes, average attendance numbers lifted and remained strong to the end. The average number of people through each BresicWhitney open home is now 14, compared with just seven in 2018.

Our auction clearance rates were up with September hitting 81% at BresicWhitney, October delivering 92%, and November coming in at 82%

It made for hotly contested moments such 38 Union Street, Paddington, sold for $2.3 million, with seven registered bidders, and 40 O’Neill Street, Lilyfield, sold for $2.9 million, with 10 registered bidders.

With record low interest rates, these unprecedented times will continue into 2020, and with speculation of a fourth cut coming, the RBA’s February meeting will be watched closely.

Demand for property always comes on strong in January with fewer sellers ready to launch, and buyers still looking as they were before the holidays. Our sellers see this as an opportunity, when supply and demand factors are likely to work in their favour.

According to Domain figures, the average view time on BresicWhitney listings climbs rapidly in early January, as new campaigns are launched.

Meanwhile, our strongest auction results rates are typically achieved early, during the first auction weeks of February. Historically, those weekends deliver our highest clearance rates of any time from January to May.

With spring 2019 putting selling conditions in a better position than we’ve seen in years, summer 2020 will likely to continue to surge.

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