Issue 02 | Thursday 27 January 2022 | Oh what a day … The Event 2022 Wrap
Hi, Andrew Bell here and coming to you from The Event 2022.
What an incredible day already. It’s nothing short of spectacular! Despite having to navigate COVID regulations with a limit of the number of people we can have here today, we actually have a massive crowd. We have opened it up to the maximum size of the grand ballroom and it’s been full from the time we opened the doors this morning. At the time of recording this update, we are only about halfway through the auction and we have already recorded 95% success with over 600 bidders registered.
We entered 2022 with a lot of distractions from bad weather to the significant increase in COVID contagion and lots of dramas from the Australian Open tennis to the cricket but it’s clear that it hasn’t diminished the continued passion that people have for the real estate market.
In the first three weeks of this year and in the lead up to today, we recorded 480,000 enquiries online, 6,834 buyer enquiries through multiple platforms and conducted 3,763 inspections of properties. This is an all-time record. One property received 173 inspections, but typically we had 50+ inspections through most properties, and of course here today the sales activity has been phenomenal.
The constant question we have been asked, as we were earlier today on the Sunrise breakfast show, was where are all the buyers coming from? Well the local market has certainly been strong. But we all know there have been huge amounts of interstate migration. With the borders opening on 17th December we got another wave of interstate migrators and they were the people who physically wanted to inspect properties themselves and not rely on videos or Facetime inspections. That group of people certainly boost our inspection numbers and there are people here from interstate today bidding on properties. When you consider over 400,000 border passes were issued from 17th December onwards you get an idea of just how many people have been here in Queensland
For many of our properties, up to 50% of all inspections came from interstate buyers. There still remains a strong desire by so many in other states of Australia, to move to Queensland. There has just been this reassessment of life in QLD and for many reasons, holds great appeal. And now we see a wave of people coming simply to join family and friends who made the move here a year or more ago. The attraction of having friends and family here has been irresistible. So it’s been a great balance of local, interstate and some expats returning to Australia that is the makeup of our buyers here today.
So where are people going to find the properties they are wanting to buy?… Well, there are 3 prominent sources. The first is our database which has been amassed over 32 years. Hundreds of thousands of people have either bought or sold through us from all of those years or have previously inspected properties with us. 480,000 new contacts just in this month alone! Not only do these clients continue to buy through us, but they are now introducing their children to our office. The second source is the digital platforms of realestate.com and Domain among others. They continue to be an easy meeting for buyers to sit at home and do their research. However, many buyers are people who don’t follow digital platforms as they are not actually looking to buy and this is why print media is still such an important tool and is the third most prominent way of tracking buyers. Print these days, of course, is not just a newspaper but all the digital platforms that attach to it and it’s interesting to know that properties that only did digital without print, received significantly fewer enquiries than those that did both.
Reasons for purchasing? For the locals, it’s just a desire to get into better locations or better homes. Sometimes bigger homes, sometimes smaller homes but there has been this real urge to get the home of their choice that suits their lifestyle today. For buyers from interstate, many of them have fallen out of love with where they have been living for years and they just want a fresh start. And of course, with Queensland hosting the 2032 Olympics, people are confident that this is going to be a region with Government investment that will generate many new additional jobs and that it’s simply the place to be.
Two quick last points. This coming Friday (28th January), we have the final stage of The Event 2022 program. We have 20 stunning Gold Coast prestige properties that are part of the program that will be offered at auction at the Sheraton Mirage Resort commencing at 6pm. Over the past 30-years, we have sold more prestige properties than any other agency on the Gold Coast and we pride ourselves on not being a ‘flash in the pan’ agency but one that delivers consistent results in this space year on year. I will be pleased to give you a report of all the strong activity in this segment of the market in my next eNews.
The last point, we have literally thousands of today buyers that we have been in contact with throughout January. We have a huge pool of pent-up buyers who have missed out on properties and are still desperately keen to buy. If you are thinking of selling, please contact us today on our hotline shown on screen now. This truly is a rare opportunity to match your property with some red hot buyers desperately looking to buy a property ASAP.
I look forward to giving you a further update on the huge success of The Event 2022 in my next eNewsletter, but in the meantime, I wish you all the very best for 2022 as I sign off from this exciting Event venue.
Warm Regards,
Andrew Bell, OAM
Chief Executive Officer
The Ray White Surfers Paradise Group
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