It is an indubitable truth now that the Sydney property market has gone ‘off the boil’. While this is a hard admission for a Real Estate agent, it would be idiocy for a buyer to assume that this is the beginning of the end.
In fact, Australian, and of course Sydney property on a 10 year average has once again almost doubled in some cases.
So, let’s be very conservative and say that your home in say Pymble saw growth of 20% in the past 18 months. If this house was worth $1 in say July 2014, that means this house will be worth around $1.20 now – with or without the softening. Further to this, let’s say it drops 7% buy March 2016 (a claim circulating in the media) that would leave you at roughly $1.12, or thereabouts, not a bad profit considering that house was 50c about 10 years ago, right?
This is of course working conservatively, and on average figures that have been thrown around publicly.
Look at what is selling now, look at what has sold, track your property based on real and obvious comparable sales and work on the obvious trends – prices.
Once we start using the market, blaming the market and of course, waiting for the market, then we needn’t concern ourselves with what we are buying but merely when we are buying it, or selling it.
I would suggest that for most of us, the benefit of making money off our ‘family home’ would almost be secondary to what the home provides us in the meantime. Furthermore, I would suggest that the purchasing process seldom references, at least in our minds, the date of resale.
Although this commentary is less factual and more emotive, I think it is important, even as an agent, to ground oneself and remember the fundamental purpose of a home is what we make of it and unless the purchase is a 12 month plan, luckily enough we often make money – figuratively, in most cases.
Investor market and builder/renovator markets are different but operate on capital improvement rather than merely market variation.
Until next week,
Thomas Merriman.
Thomas Merriman 