Breaking Square | 27 Jun 24

I trust you have had a great week; I know we have.

Last Sunday, Ray White held a special auction event called the 100, to celebrate 100 years in Brisbane. The event was a raving success with over 100 properties offered for sale. The event witnessed strong bidding across all properties and we recorded a 71% clearance rate.

Haesley Cush who has been calling auctions since the 90’s and has seen it all, stated the other day, he has never seen a clearance rate like this at an event in Brisbane before. Typically, the clearance rates would sit around 45-50%.

At the start of the day, we had a panel discussion, which included Owen Wilson (CEO REA Group), Don O’Rorke (CEO & Chairman, Consolidated Properties) and Dan White (Managing Director Ray White Group). The main focus or topic of discussion was centred around Brisbane/SEQ and the outlook for property over the next 8-10 years, primarily with the lead up to the Olympics.

Owen Wilson’s comments were interesting as he claims Brisbane and SEQ will see an uplift in prices of around 50% over the course of the next 8-10 years and not all of this will be driven by the Olympics. He sees Queensland as place where a lot of folks want to live, particularly given the nature of work from home, but also the huge cohort of Baby Boomers and retirees.

Owen did go on to say that despite this predicted growth, home owners should still get on with their plans. It would be easy to excuse someone for thinking that they will just hold out for the next 8-10 years and ride the wave. Owen mentioned that if you are upsizing, now is the time, benefit from the uplift in a higher price bracket and if downsizing, don’t wait, enjoy the extra funds to enjoy life, travel, reduce or extinguish debt – tomorrow is promised to no one.

Don O’Rorke spoke about the cost of construction and how hard it is to get projects to stack up, let alone built. He claimed that he cannot build an upmarket 2-bedroom apartment for under $1,200,000, meaning he has to sell them for around $1,800,000 – $2,000,000, which we are seeing at the moment. It seems hard to believe, but this is the reality. It is no wonder developers have turned their attention to upmarket owner-occupiers to buy and live in these apartments.

We sense a perfect storm is on the horizon, in terms of sellers and buyers. When you have the level of interest we have with buyers and we start to see an uplift in listings, we know that Spring and Summer will be a hive of activity. Many sellers are getting in early and this is very prudent. The buyers are out in force now, so we have suggested to many of our home owners, if you are selling, get in now before the competition heats up in September and October, through to Christmas.

Next week the CPI numbers will be out and I think everyone are crossing their fingers in hope that inflation has not risen. It will put a lot pressure on the RBA to raise rates. Interestingly, our anecdotal evidence from our mortgage broker is, most buyers are factoring in a rate rise, so are not being scared off.

We had our end of financial year planning and strategy day for The Collective on Wednesday and enjoyed listening to Chris Fagan (Brisbane Lions Coach), he talked about how he turned the club around, by focussing on the numbers, not the score. He kept reminding the players that they were improving and showed them using statistics, he created a belief system and got buy in.

John Wayne “The Gunslinger”Parr an Australian Muay Fighter. Many in Australia may not know him, but in Thailand he is a hero. John’s passion was very evident, he talked about outworking the competition, enjoying the process of training and the results will follow.

Karyn O’Dea is a Chairman Elite agent with Ray White Robina, she spoke her journey of fighting cancer and having to let go and let her team cover for her whilst dealing with the treatment. Her message was, slow down and enjoy life, without your health, you have nothing.

To top off the day, we enjoyed our annual dinner and awards at Honto and I am so proud to announce that Kim was awarded the Number 1 sales agent in The Collective. If you know the calibre of agents in our group, you will fully appreciate what it takes to be number 1.

I have attached a brochure from our mortgage broker, Paul Hixon. You may find it interesting as there is a product in the market that facilitates buying before you sell, but it is not offered at all banks or lenders. If you are considering up sizing or downsizing, it may be prudent to have a chat with Paul. I know he recently assisted one of our clients and they were very grateful for the solution.

More next week after we see the CPI numbers.

Until then, stay safe and be kind.