I hope you have been taking a balanced approach when reviewing Sydney Real Estate market commentary, but even that wont help understand what is going on at the moment.
Real Estate is an emotional topic and, as such, it is subject heavily to sentiment, resulting in prices going up or down. The collective sentiment around a certain market can see property prices withstand macro-economic impacts and global concerns i.e COVID-19 however can buckle at the first sign of weakness i.e WAR.
Further, the market moves in cycles, which is widely regarded as a 7- or 10-year cycle. However, this cycle sort-of spirals up, while corrections occur at the end of each cycle period, the correction is rarely enough to wipe the growth. Population growth and inflation almost certainly guarantee that this occurs.
Typical correction periods have been measured on average to span from ‘peak to trough’ about 12 months and typically are punctuated by very low buyer activity at inspections, high volumes of stock, giving us upset in supply and demand favouring the buyers in the market. Firstly, the data on this ‘correction’ is uncertain as COTALITY (RPData’s parent company) at the beginning of the year, were claiming the correction began in November 2025, which many Agents would agree to. However, more recent data attributed this change to coincide with the budget release in May (or perhaps just before based on the leaked rumours around certain policies).
If we were to measure this correction 12 months from November 2025 then we are almost at the bottom, meaning we are expecting green shoots shortly, but we may be measuring from May. I would love to know how long it takes to go up from the bottom because I haven’t seen data on this….
The thing that changes this time is that buyers, for the most part are still very actively inspecting homes across The Upper North Shore market and stock levels remain subdued, which may be protecting us from something worse.
Market sentiment from both buyers and sellers seems to be that things ‘aren’t great’ right now but if you believe the data, we are still up on values from this time last year, I guess that’s a good sign. Further, we are up over 5 years, 10 years and every other year prior to that.
It would be remiss of me as an Agent not to comment on the opportunity that exists in all markets, ironically, we find it harder for homeowners to transact in a booming market; The complication of competing back into the market against a volume of buyers creating booming prices with prohibitively short settlements meaning, even if they sell first, they’re homeless in 6 weeks.
Contrasting with the current market, settlements have pushed beyond the 3 months mark regularly with the average settlements being between 3 and 6 months. While this can be perceived as prohibitive to some sellers, it can also be a relief and in some cases, but necessary to secure a buyer.
The importance of a ‘quick transaction’ has returned to the market as the average days on market on the Upper North Shore has blown out to 110 according to the most recent Domain report.
This is why we are still bullish on Auctions, whether sold at the first Auction or not, committing to the auction process has proven to be more successful than traditional ‘Private Treaty’ with the average days on market for an Auction property sitting below 50.
Buyers are willing to transact, and when they are, everything needs to move quickly while the competition is there and while the iron is hot. Some of the stock that has been sitting on the market with competitors, we have managed to list and sell at or before Auction using this philosophy to the advantage of us and our clients.
