The Time To Buy Is Now | Spring 2023
In This Week’s How's The Market | Edition 64
The Time To Buy Is Now | Spring 2023
Multiple Market Update
Off The Plan Apartment Nightmare
The Time To Buy Is Now | Spring 2023
After a tough year for buyers with supply shortages, heavy competition at each open and multiple offers on most properties, the spring market is now alleviating pressure and providing a great opportunity to purchase prior to Christmas.
Finally, across most markets, we are seeing an uptick in stock. Whilst it has not been an extreme jump yet, it is a positive sign.
SQM Research shows the Melbourne market jumping from 32,095 properties available in July to 33,980 in August. Traditionally, the two months that follow, October and November are the two busiest months of the year in real estate, and this would usually mean that real estate agents have already signed up most of those listings now.
If you’ve read my previous articles on off-markets, you will know that you have the opportunity to get access to this stock now.
Therefore, this is why we believe the best time to buy is now.
How Not To Buy Real Estate
A common problem I see with buyers when multiple good properties come online at once is believing the fallacy that, if they just wait a few more weeks, a better property will come up for a better price, and therefore, we shouldn’t take action now.
I would like to remind you that there are now only 14 weekends left until Christmas time, and throughout this period, many of these are not large auction weekends due to school holidays and the Melbourne Cup which means we may only have 10 to 12 auction weekends left in the year.
If you’ve got any holidays planned over a weekend where you need to take a week or two off, you may have less than 10 opportunities to purchase before the year ends.
Take Advantage of Opportunities
I encourage you to get serious about buying, as right now we have seen some great opportunities in the marketplace.
At Tomii, we have purchased 3 properties for clients in the last week and may be making two more offers for different clients before the week ends.
Now make sure you do not overpay for any property, though it can be a good time to start putting in some offers at fair but competitive prices for the properties that tick your boxes.
What The Agents Are Saying
Different regions and price points are starting to break away from one another and move at very different speeds. See below the sentiment I have been hearing from different agents across different regions:
Berwick, Officer & Pakenham Region:
Surprisingly, this market has picked up its pace even more. One agency I spoke with said their median days on market across their whole office for the last couple of months has been 14 days!
Their new strategy when they list a property is to put it live on Tuesday, hold the first open on Thursday night, two opens on Saturday, one open on Sunday and have offers close by Monday night.
I attended a Sunday open just to see how many people actually go to these and to my surprise there was 5 groups lined up when I got there. This property sold after being on the market for 6 days with 4 offers.
Glen Iris, Malvern, Camberwell, Hawthorn Region:
This market, particularly the top end of this market is performing very well. The Wow Factor of the week last week, quoted with a single price of $4,200,000 after someone made an early offer, sold for a staggering $4,790,000.
As well as multiple other properties selling in the $3m+ range.
Inner City Region:
Fewer properties have come online in this region, and we have also seen fewer large auction results.
For example, Richmond - a suburb we are currently looking in - had 10 auctions over the weekend and only had 3 sell under the hammer with the remaining 7 passing in.
Most notably, we have noticed properties that require work are not in high demand.
The Wow Factor!
17 Shakespeare Grove, Hawthorn, Vic 3122
I’m a sucker for an impressive home office, and this property has an incredible one. Black bookshelves, grey walls, period features, marble fireplace… EPIC
Price Guide: $12m - $13.2m
In The Media
Residents of a West Footscray apartment complex have received a devastating email. They were notified that their apartment complex had had combustible cladding installed back when it was built in 2014. The builder has recently gone bust meaning that the residents are liable to pay for the reinstallation of compliant cladding.
This is one of the many issues that this building has had over the years. Several independent builders have found that the original builder of the apartment complex Shangri-La Construction had also carried out inadequate water proofing, causing some residents to experience waterfalls in their lounge rooms, which resulted in rampant black mould all throughout the complex and rendering some apartments unliveable.
The residents of this apartment complex now have strata fees in excess of $10,000 meaning some residents are facing serious financial hardship. Some residents have had to move back in with their parents, get a second or third job and even one resident has described themselves as being suicidal from the financial strain that this has caused on their life. A resident Andrew John has accurately said that this a “life sentence”.
Really sad stuff. This leads me to another article that I read this morning titled First home buyers: surge in off plan apartment inquiries I’m sure a lot of people heard that in NSW first home buyers are now exempt from paying stamp duty up to $800,000. This means that there has been a huge influx of first-home buyers looking in the sub $800k range which inevitably creates a higher demand in the apartment and unit space including off-the-plan apartments.
If the first article mentioned doesn’t act as enough of a warning, I’d like to encourage that you please research the building and developer thoroughly prior to purchasing anything off-the-plan. We advocate that established is always a better option, especially when it comes to apartments. These construction issues are popping up everywhere in new apartment complexes and unfortunately, it’s not always possible to get these issues claimed under warranty and can oftentimes end up in legal battles with the builders in court.
Final Thoughts
The property market is heating up and we are now heading into the best time of the year to buy.
Our advice, strike whilst the iron is hot!
If you’re going to buy this year, the time is now. Double down on inspections, agent relationships and due diligence. There are great deals to be had.
Thanks for reading this far!
We value feedback and if you have any suggestions on what you would like covered in the future please email me at tristan@tomii.com.au
Happy Buying!
Note: This is general advice and does not take into consideration your objectives, situations or needs. Please consider if this advice is suitable for you and your circumstances and speak to a professional before making any financial decisions.
