MONTHLY MARKET WRAP – MAY 2017

The Easter holiday period certainly hasn’t slowed the local real estate market with recently released Domain data showing a record median property price of $1.151m for Sydney at the end of the first quarter of 2017, increasing 13.1% over the year.

 

As mentioned in our last report, April is traditionally a broken up period with the Easter and school holidays and ANZAC Day often resulting in a tightening of listings as people seek to avoid marketing campaigns during this time.

Leading up to Easter we continued to see strong buying interest across all price points. Sale prices suggest that the market is still moving forward although we are sensing that in the minds of some buyers and sellers we may be close to the peak of this current property cycle. Time will tell.

Notwithstanding the banks’ tightened lending policies, there will likely be no significant changes to interest rates in the foreseeable future and the property market is predicted to remain strong in the short to medium term. Additionally, there are not likely to be any major surprises in the upcoming budget, such as a variation to the negative gearing policy, which Treasurer Scott Morrison all but ruled out in a recent address in Melbourne.

In the same address he admitted that one Budget alone will not be enough to turn around the issues of housing affordability and the current generation of first home buyers shouldn’t expect home ownership to get easier any time soon. He cautioned “Disrupting negative gearing would not come without a cost, especially to renters, let alone the wider economic impact. This would not be good news for the 30 per cent of Australian households who rent”.

Historically, listings decline during the cooler months however across the C&H network we are confident that we will see higher stock levels during the Autumn/Winter period than we did last year.

We are already set to launch a superb selection of properties and in keeping with previous years, buyers are unlikely to go into hibernation during the cooler months, particularly for properties in the prime Sydney inner ring serviced by our network. As such, we expect continued strong competition for properties in our region.

Since our last report we have made many notable sales. A highlight was our Drummoyne office’s transaction of a major waterfront residence under the hammer resulting in the area’s highest priced sale so far this year. We’ll continue to watch the market closely and keep you informed.

 

This month’s signature performer’s:

 

321 Victoria Place, Drummoyne | Sold $3.398m

 

43 Alfred Street, Rozelle | Sold $3.3m (Suburb Record)

 

46 Brenan Street, Lilyfield | Sold $2.18m

 


39 Gerard Street, Alexandria | Sold $2.25m

 

 

 

Posted in General, Inner West, Monthly Market Wrap, Property on 3rd May, 2017