It’s been a busy few weeks in property. Maurice Terzini sold his Bondi pad. A Clovelly stunner (with living room plunge pool) hit the market. Real estate expert Edward Brown revealed WTF is going on with Australian housing prices. What hasn’t made headlines, though, is how there could now be a short, golden window of opportunity for Australian buyers.
A bona fide, beachside, once in a lifetime opportunity. Your piece of paradise. A titillating tipple. A winner takes all, not-one-to-miss moment. Whatever you want to call it, and whether you like to abuse adjectives as much as us, it’s happening now.
To go beyond us running our mouths, we got in touch with one of the Eastern Suburb’s top real estate agents Gavin Rubinstein.
We put our theory to him.
Fortunately for those of us too ugly to score a Sugar Daddy, Gavin (to some extent) agreed: right now there is a small window of opportunity to juice your dollars for all they’re worth, and score the beachside house of your sueños.
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Of course, you’ll need a deposit and your bank on side, like always, but as Gavin told us, “there may be a small window of opportunity for local buyers, at least whilst our borders are largely closed, with less competition from overseas.”
Having said that, “the Australian dollar is a lot weaker than it was 12 months ago” Gavin added, “and this presents opportunities for expats and foreign buyers to potentially save 10-15% purely on the foreign exchange.”
“In addition to this, I feel like more than ever, Australia will be viewed as a ‘safe haven’ particularly for overseas buyers who may fear future pandemics impacting their home nations,” Gavin told us.
“The way Australia has responded to Covid-19 and how it has mitigated loss of life, I feel, will be seen as another positive for foreigners wanting to relocate here in years to come.”
For now though, prices are on their way down (we’re even seeing reports of 300k discounts). On that: NAB chief economist Alan Oster said on Thursday he expected Melbourne house prices to slip 4.8 per cent through 2020 and another 3.6 per cent next year.
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Sydney prices, he said, were expected to suffer a similar drop, down 2.9 per cent this year and then 3.6 per cent in 2021.
Additionally, and as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, “falling consumer confidence and a drop in migration will weigh on the two [Sydney and Melbourne] markets.”
As for areas likely to be worst affected, Gavin told us: “The two main aspects for me are supply and the vendor/buyer demographic. The suburbs that will be hardest hit will be those where unemployment rates are highest.”
“There is no question that individuals and families will be impacted by the economic fallout of this pandemic. There will be families who will liquidate property investments to help kids/grandkids,” Gavin added.
“I sense there will be a lot of transactional movement in the property market Sydney wide as people readjust to their financial realities. As a result, I think we’ll see a spike in supply in particular areas/postcodes and this where you’ll find better value as a buyer.”
DMARGE also recently spoke to Edward Brown, director at Australia’s leading real estate provider Belle Property, who said, “there are definitely opportunities in the next six months – and what we’ve already started seeing are opportunistic purchases.”
“If you need to move, move. The housing crisis is only going to be caused if everyone sits back and does nothing. The loans are very cheap. You can go and get interest rates for under 3%. That’s cheap money – you can go and get a million-dollar mortgage and they principle an interest for about $4,000.”
“So your rent and your mortgage on principal interest is about the same, potentially, if you’ve got the deposit to pay it now. Everybody focuses on property in the short term element – but what’s the long term?”
Your dream house awaits.