Nowra Blog

PROPERTY MARKET ROUND-UP

After all of the build up to the state election, the results came as a bit of a surprise to everyone, most of all the Labor Party!  Maybe it’s a pushback from the people to the Labor Party to let them know we are not happy with their policies to change negative gearing - just the thought of which had people running scared and confused.   With the fixed interest market being the lowest it’s ever been, and the stock market being a volatile beast, where are the mum and dad investors in Australia going to invest their hard earned funds?  Property is tangible, it provides income and growth, it serves the community by having properties available for lease, and it’s been a staple in the portfolio of self-funded retirees for years.

With the added effects of the recent Banking Royal Commission being felt by all sectors of the property market and the media leading us to believe that the great Australian dream is fast becoming the great Australian nightmare, a further change may just drive our values lower as investors leave the market. At least this is what some of the economists are predicting.

It’s been an interesting week this week, as we’ve been rifling through the latest news media to see what the property analysts are predicting next for the property market (according to the media) but alas, we have come up fairly empty handed.  The looming Federal election seems to have taken the spot light and the spectre of doom and gloom is now firmly focused on all things political. 

So is there any good news on the horizon – Yes! It’s been refreshing to see the pickup in enquiry and inspections in the last two weeks.  The banks also seem to be listening as well, and we are now seeing quicker turn-around times for lending, and less declines as they educate their customers on the new lending regimes. Sneaking under the news radar – probably because it is the fourth positive week in auction clearances, and incidentally good news, was this weeks’ clearance rate of 65%.  With these figures I think it would be safe to assume that people are taking advantage of this buyers’ market and the confidence we have started to see in the market place recently, is slowly gaining pace.

Although we still have the hurdle of the Federal election in May, there are a lot of decisions that are being put on hold, and unfortunately this will also include some of our buyers, but having said that we are already making appointments for inspections over the Easter break and are continuing to field a healthy amount of property enquiries.

We at Raine&Horne, who are working at the coal face, think that we may be starting to see some light at the end of tunnel.

So the message for this week is once again patience, as we navigate the coming election, Easter break and Anzac day.

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