Selling in a busy market
At a recent real estate conference (Cairns May 2021), real estate agents and educators alike who have been in the industry for over three decades were commenting on how this is the best market that they’ve ever seen.
The best market they have ever seen! And not just in the big capital cities, in fact regional areas (including the property market in Mareeba and across Far North Queensland) are out-performing the usual markets when it comes to demand and price.
Is it still about COVID though?
In a nutshell, COVID is the reason. The changes that COVID has created have really been so far reaching, that it’s been like a bit of a domino effect on the real estate market. There are so many underlying factors now, that are keeping the market (and our market) going in this active direction.
And Queensland is a hotspot*. We are seeing the continuation of retirees migrating north, we are seeing investors getting back into the market in droves because rents are climbing and returns are great. No one is travelling overseas, people are looking for ways to invest their money. The list of buyers is ever increasing and this is great news for sellers.
When selling property in a busy market, sellers can be lured into making some common mistakes such as setting unrealistic asking prices for their property and waiting for prices to keep increasing before they go to market.
Buyers sometimes think that waiting for prices to go down is the right decision, why pay top dollar! The problem buyers face here is that in a high demand market properties get snapped up quickly and sellers are less likely to be asked to negotiate.
Unfortunately, no one knows how long the wait might be, and our question is, what if it’s not a bubble at all, and this buy/active market is the “new normal” as they say? Then buyers and sellers alike could risk missing out on a suitable property in their price range, all for the hope and the wait.
The best advice for buyers in our regional market
Get buyer ready. Well, at the moment we are seeing buyers that are ready to buy achieving their goals. By ready to buy, we mean the ones who have done their research and who have already sources/secured their finances before inspecting properties.
Sellers are getting multiple enquiries and in many cases, multiple offers at the same time now, and they can sit back and pick out the best one. Banks are feeling the pressure and finance applications are taking longer and longer, so if you’re a buyer and haven’t got yourself a pre-approval, you might be left in the dust by other buyers who know exactly what they can borrow, and they can offer a simpler contract, or shorter timeframe to a seller. Not to mention the number of cash buyers that are out there.
The best advice for sellers in our regional market
Make hay while the sun shines! There has never been a better time in the market for sellers. As we mentioned before, we are seeing properties selling in record times, some not even making it to the market before they get a contract on them. That and the fact that buyers are often fighting for properties and making great offers from the start, sellers are having to negotiate less and are achieving their goals as well.
We can’t predict the future, but there are no signs of any slow down in the property market in Mareeba just yet, and while the volume of buyers is so high, and the volume of properties is low, it’s just a simple supply and demand equation.
*Resources and articles from CoreLogic and Real Estate Property News
