Can you believe we are already halfway through March and seeing off our first quarter for the year, as Ferris Bueller said, if you don’t stop and look around once in while, you could miss it. I turned 60 yesterday and it reminded me to stop and have a look around, which I did for a couple of hours. After which, I got straight back into it. It is busy for us at Kim Olsen Property and we are enjoying the pace of activity at the moment.
For me, the excitement is watching the market, being a student of it and learning as much as I can about it, mostly through just doing it. If you have been a regular reader of this newsletter, you will know I have for some time now talked up the market – you may come to expect this of a real estate agent. However, when the market is performing like it is, you call it as you see it.
Without a word of a lie, I would receive on a daily basis 3 emails from buyer agents who have clients looking for property and they list the requirements in the hope we have a property coming up that may suit. Many of the buyer agents are struggling to satisfy their clients, such is the lack of stock, particularly in certain price ranges, which don’t exist anymore in some suburbs.
I constantly get asked from potential buyers, “how’s the market, do you think prices will abate?” My simple answer is No. Demand is far out striping supply and this is likely to continue throughout the year. In fact for the first two months of the year, house prices have risen by 2.2% nationally, if this rate continues, we could see price growth of around 10% for the year and that is before any rate cuts should occur.
The outlook for the remainder of the year is for Sydney and Melbourne to pick up, as last year saw what they call the minor cities leading the pack, which includes Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. If you own an apartment in Melbourne, you would be acutely aware that prices have been in the doldrums for some time, however there appears to be some life coming back into this market.
Over the past couple weeks the Kim Olsen Property team have sold 4 properties with the likelihood of another couple going under contract over the weekend. On average we have been selling 8-10 per month and renting everything within 2-4 weeks. Forward listings are strong, we usually will not launch properties over the school holidays as many buyers take off, so we bring them on at the end of the holidays to capture the whole market.
As for rentals, we still have a lack of properties to rent, in fact we only have two on the market at the moment. I mentioned in an earlier newsletter that we wanted to focus on growth, but not just growth for growth’s sake. Quality over quantity is preferred, as bad properties devour your time and distract us from providing a service to everyone else. As part of this I have ben advertising for a part-time property manager to assist with inspections. Whilst I haven’t been overrun by quality applicants, I believe I have found someone that could fit well into our team. More to come on that in due course, but rest assured nothing will change dramatically, I will just have an extra set of hands to assist.
The last comment is February 2024 was Ray White’s best February on record, closing the month at $1.54B. All of the early signs pointed to a remarkable month, despite the juxtaposition of it being a longer, shorter month. In the end all the major markers were up. As Ferris Beuller said, “If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it” I believe many sellers and buyers won’t stop and have a look and they will miss the boat. Now is a great time to make your real estate plans.
Until next week, stay safe and be kind.