If previous Auction clearance figures weren’t enough to turn a ‘medium term seller‘ into a ‘short term seller’ then last weekend will change that as the season continues to feel the heat.
Saturday the 27th of September witnessed another steady increase in sales at Auction in the Sydney market, although the percentage was down the overall figure increased;
Of the 723 listed Auctions, 533 were reported to have taken place seeing the sale of 452 properties at Auction. Notwithstanding the fact that a small number of properties were withdrawn, the clearance rate was still up at 82%, a couple of percent down on the previous weekend but still a great achievement around Sydney Auctions at the weekend.
The big news from Saturdays Auctions is the median price lifted to $1,000,000 – that’s 6 zeros – which is a solid compliment to the security of the property market in Sydney.
With the booming property success sweeping the state there are still a couple of common complaints resonating around ‘first home buyers’ and ‘downsizers’, comparable only in their requirements and budgets.
Commonly these type of buyers are looking for apartments with 2 or 3 bedrooms, entertaining areas, near amenities and transport with room for family.
Consider; Compromise. As a downsizer it is important to be open to compromise, typically the baby-boomer generation and generations before are used to larger land, smaller TV’s and bigger families and there is an inherent stubbornness in us all to tick every box on our property check list.
Moving into a smaller house or an apartment can be a big change, but is it the property or the change that is the biggest compromise as a downsizer.
The psychology is far too controversial to be handled by an agent but there are a few common points that can be explored by downsizers.
Start looking; It is never too early to start looking at options, the market is seldom short of choice for downsizers and any good agent should have an off-the-cuff list of properties that are on the market suitable for any downsizers, feel free to use your local agents.
Get an appraisal; A good agent will provide an up-to-date market opinion of your property for free, this will give you a good idea of what sort of money there is tied up in your property, furthermore, this will create parameters for your future purchase.
Write a list; Have a list of requirements in order of importance, the first few being items that can’t be compromised and then a number of things that can be changed or ‘compromised’.
Keep looking; The current property market is like any market, there is more stock coming on the market every week.
It is also important when considering compromise, to be prepared to rent. A daunting thought for any homeowner is the idea that they may find themselves ‘out of the market’ for any period of time but when the sales market is hot the rental market is typically not performing as well, with regard to finding tenants, this means competitive rental prices and room for deals to be made with agencies for rentals.
While the median house sale-price in Wahroonga is up at $1,405,000 the median unit sale-price is just $605,000 – accurate at end of August 2014. This is indicative of the activity in Sydney’s Upper North Shore sales market.
So while the market is hot, good luck to sellers, good options for buyers and good riddance to winter.
Thomas Merriman.
Thomas Merriman 