A client asked a question recently regarding borders opening up and international arrivals happening again. They were curious what impact, if any, this would have on house hunting and the housing market overall.
Here are my thoughts on the matter...
Real estate is a finely balanced eco-system. Not one thing generally has a huge impact, but over time, several things can affect market sentiment.
As the borders open up, arrivals (both interstate and overseas) will start to have some impact. Statistics do show that initially, new arrivals tend to rent for 2-3 years, before they buy. So initially they rent somewhere to live (in an investment property) and then they buy (owner occupied property).
During the pandemic, some rental providers lost renters or had to provide rental reductions. There were also quite a few vacant homes. I think those homes need to be soaked up before investors decide to dash back into the market.
Additionally, with the acceptance of being able to work from home, home buyers can live where they want versus where suits best for a commute. The push for inner city to be close to the CBD has eased, but as more people are required to return to an office to work, this may change.
Couple this with more stock hitting the market over the past few months and looming interest rate rises, we are starting to see an easing of the market in some suburbs for some particular types of housing stock. Where we see more choice, we traditionally see what we term "A Grade" homes continue to do well, with "B" and "C" grade stock starting to suffer a little bit. The A,
B and C equation exists in all suburbs.
No matter what the market does this year, make a time to chat to us to see how we can help and how we can make the process of buying or selling easy and stress free.
