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Andrew Bell’s Market Wrap: A Very Encouraging Start For 2019

By Andrew Bell

Issue 4  |   February 14th |  A Very Encouraging Start For 2019

As we speak, just over 60 properties have been sold and this is quite amazing given the headwinds we were dealing with. Lots of negative media, plenty of negative predictions for the future, major challenges around buyers getting finance due to the Royal Commission, and of course increasing political intervention due to the upcoming Federal Election.

We devised a marketing program like none before. We know that there is a never-ending demand for real estate just by the need for people to live somewhere, but we had to get in front of more people than just simply an internet listing. Our campaigns worked spectacularly which is evidenced by the massive turnout on auction day, the number of bidder registrations, and ultimately from the huge number of sales that have been generated. There were 230 bidders who snapped up properties ranging from $118,000 to $1,110,000. So strong was the interest in the properties we had, that six people who missed out on their property of first choice ending up buying properties they only saw on our big screen videos that day and purchased them sight-unseen. There was also plenty of competitive bidding which left us with a lot of bidders who missed out on properties. Pleasingly, we have been able to steer many of those into additional properties.

It has been a massively successful program, with more sales happening every day as bidders who were unfortunately conditional on the day because of finance, now have their approvals through and are going unconditional on their purchases. We certainly expect that the program will produce well over 80 sales by the completion of the program.

There were however several learnings that came out of the month. Firstly, there always remains a need for people to buy real estate. They must live somewhere and so they either must buy their own home or rent one. If they are renting, someone must buy it for them to rent, and so there is a constant demand. Second, in today’s market, we must go much deeper in marketing to find buyers. The active buyers who constantly search the internet are far less in number and so in order to attract the interest of ultimate buyers, greater marketing must deliver notification of properties for sale to those potential buyers whether it be through print media, social media, databasing, and several other means. In other words, we must take the properties to the potential market. Third, people are smelling fairness in pricing. Whilst many thought properties were overpriced 18 months ago, they are now starting to feel the current pricing is at levels that they are prepared to buy at. A significant point in the market. Last but not least, auctions are attracting more buyer enquiry and causing sales to happen in a much faster time frame than a private treaty. With private treaty, buyers feel they have forever to inspect and forever to negotiate, whereas they know with an auction that there is a time limit in which to complete their inspections, obtain their finance, and do their negotiations. Auction day is action day.

On top of all the auction sales, we have also had strong activity in our Prestige end of the market. A sale in Monaco Street for $7.5 million, another along the beachfront for over $8 million, and another under contract now for just a few dollars under $8 million. The strongest activity at the top end of the market that we have seen throughout all of 2018.

I am pleased the Royal Commissions findings and recommendations have been released and I am sure we are going to start to see some more encouraging activity come through the banking system as they now know the parameters they must work in, rather than guessing what they might have been. That, I believe, will start to see some loosening up and speeding up of finance approvals. We will talk more about that as all of the additional recommendations surface.

A very encouraging start for 2019 and the results remind us that every day of the week properties is being sold, and once current market values are identified by both buyer and seller, sales can occur. The real ask is being able to take properties for sale to the buyers rather than hoping buyers will come to the property. It is a vast difference and one where we clearly demonstrated effectiveness at The Event 2019 in January.

We also have our Commercial Event program, culminating in an auction on Thursday, 21st February. For those interested in commercial properties, please go to our website here: https://raywhitecommercialgoldcoast.com/properties/for-sale/auctions) to view those properties that are coming up.

Wishing you all the best through our shortest month of the year and look forward to keeping you up to date with all the developments here on the Gold Coast throughout 2019.

Andrew Bell, OAM
Chief Executive Officer
The Ray White Surfers Paradise Group

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