Our Senior Buyers Agent Matt Cleland provides some insight into the Northern Beaches property market from a buyer’s perspective. Here are his thoughts:
- As Buyers Agents, perhaps our level of enquiry can be seen as a lead indicator for buyer sentiment in the market. Our current enquiry level and engagements, lead us to believe buyers are starting to see some value in the market and they are almost ready to re-engage.
- There is still a bit of a wait and see approach with no urgency from buyers, but there is an initial sense that the time is almost right.
- Buyers are having trouble understanding agents guides. Different agents are using different guiding strategies. Last year everything was selling above guides. Today we are seeing a real mix of property selling below, at and above the set guide. This lack of consistency is confusing buyers and leading to further hesitation and indecision.
- The media are again having a large influence on buyer behaviour. Naturally there is a lag in data and reporting. Whilst the data suggests that Sydney has only corrected 7% to date off its recent peak, we believe a larger pull back has already occurred earlier in the year to the tune of 10-15% in certain pockets of the Northern Beaches and therefore we believe we are closer to the bottom of the correction cycle than the media are suggesting. This reporting is adding to buyer hesitation as a number of buyers try and time the bottom of the market.
- Social proof is crucial right now in helping Buyers enter negotiations. Even at auctions with multiple registered buyers, no one wants to start the bidding. This is also playing out in private treaty negotiations with everyone waiting for someone else to make a move. Bold decisions by well prepared buyers who have completed their due diligence can pay off in this environment.
- We have spoken to multiple auctioneers this week who have all claimed, higher registrations, stronger bidding and higher clearance rates. It will be interesting to see if this trend holds firm as we enter spring.
- There are many indicators that the market is starting to level out with the largest percentage of falls in value already behind us. Although we are hearing that there will be strong levels of supply in Spring and if this eventuates, we could see further softening in prices. We do however believe that supply predictions and forecasts are often over stated coming into the Spring market and speaking to the auctioneers, their forward bookings aren’t suggesting a spike in supply yet.
- This is a very low risk market to buy and sell. Unless you have a strong reason, selling first is critical.
- We expect good buying conditions to continue through to Christmas and its likely that we will look back in time and those that have bought during this window will have bought well.
If you or anyone you know needs assistance with their property purchase, please contact our team at any time.