Green Square Blog

Buyers may be enjoying more choice, but there are still opportunities for sellers in Green Square as recent sales results show.

A top-floor two-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment fetched $2.2 million on Danks St, Waterloo in April; while another in Alexandria fetched $2.38 million in March. At the end of last year, a three-bedroom Zetland property fetched $1.7 million.

Another strong sale was a three-bedroom top floor apartment which sold for $2.05 million. The previous record in this development was $1.75 million. This was an off market sale that had never even been advertised.

The noticeable difference between the current market and the recent peak is that buyers are no longer desperate. Plenty are now sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what happens next.

Like always, but now even more than ever before, there are three crucial factors for those looking to sell. The first is presentation. Declutter, clean the place up, make sure it has nice furniture and looks fantastic, even if it needs to be styled. For these apartments, you've got to make sure the internal presentation is spot on. Create that wow factor when people walk through, because otherwise it's just a box in a building.

The next is promotion. You need to give it top billing on the online portals and focus on social media as well as digital and print. Social media is probably the most important part of this, which is why at Raine & Horne, we have an exclusive new product called Amplify. We can blast out properties through social media like Facebook and Instagram, targeting different demographics and specific buying audiences. I sold a property recently and was talking to the buyer when I asked him where he saw it. He said “on Facebook”.

The final selling factor is the most important of the three. It is crucial that you make sure to price the property correctly, because now is not the time to test the market. Vendors need to understand you've got to price your property to sell. You may hear in the media about properties selling for $200,000 above reserve, but when you've got an apartment in a development that's basically the same as all the others, you have to be realistic. Those 16 or 17 per cent yearly growth rates that people had become used to were never going to last and now the market is flat at best, especially for city apartments.

The bottom line is that if you get your pricing wrong, it doesn’t matter how well it is presented or promoted, it will sit on the market for months at a time.

 

Published by Trevor Back

Principal, Raine & Horne Green Square

Phone: 0428 006 900

[email protected]

 

 

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