Festivals and events in the Macedon Ranges and surrounds are resuming, hospitality is recovering (despite acute staff shortages) and travel to holiday destinations is back. It is definitely a welcome relief to finally feel that life is back to normality.
As expected, with Covid restrictions almost a thing of the past, we are also seeing a return to a more ‘normal’ market. Whilst two years living with a pandemic had quite an extreme impact, we are now witnessing a far more predictable buying and selling environment.
Demand is still high and as expected, with more properties now available post the summer holidays, the market is certainly becoming more balanced and less frantic.
One of the silver linings of the Covid experience has been how we transact property. There is far more flexibility in how we sell and the predominantly one size fits all approach of selling methods has changed for good. For example, auctions are held at varying times through the week, with virtual auctions likely to have a permanent place and campaigns now vary in length given the immediacy of information via the internet to large pools of buyers. Advertised private sales, ‘off market’ sales (essentially created via internal buyer matching systems to find qualified buyers without conventional advertising) as well as expression of interest campaigns have changed our selling landscape. Consequently, list to sell ratios, days on market and auction results are less relied on as a barometer of what’s actually occurring in the market than they have been in previous years.
Though the cooler months (largely winter) were traditionally viewed as a time not to sell, compared to spring, we have found in the last couple of years that seasonal selling is no longer a big deal. The market is now more responsive to the ebbs and flows of supply/demand on a month-to-month basis, with activity more in tune with the volume of properties on offer. But in essence the best time to buy or sell is always when you are ready! Buying and selling real estate is invariably a long term decision so be careful not to over analyse or predict what is around the corner. This has never been highlighted better than the last couple of years with economists predicting 10-30% falls in property values post Covid when the opposite was true.
Robert Broadhurst
If you are considering taking the next step in your property journey, please feel free to reach out — we are here to assist.
