2019 is the Year of the Buyer

The real estate market in 2018 was challenging to say the least. In a market where Auction clearance rates were declining rapidly, demand for properties was decreasing as lending criteria was made more difficult and most importantly, values of properties were consistently falling for approximately 18 months. 

Whilst this created many obstacles for home sellers, real estate agents and mortgage brokers, good properties in quality coastal and parkside suburbs still attracted large volumes of buyers. 

The unit market has been hardest hit - especially in areas where there is high density apartment living such as Rosebery, Mascot, Botany, Little Bay and Surry Hills. A 15% decrease in property prices is significant in anyone’s language - that means a $2,000,000 property in Maroubra would now possibly sell between $1.8m - $1.85m or a $1,000,000 apartment in Coogee would now possibly sell around $850,000. 

This is good news for buyers and good news for aspiring first home owners. The fact that interest rates are still at record lows and property prices are coming off still, is definitely an encouraging for anyone who doesn’t own property. 

At NGFarah we have the benefit of a 57 year history. Understanding the downturns is a key ingredient to getting the job done and 2018 was an extremely successful year for the NGFarah group - our Property Management division continues to thrive with now 2,300 properties under management.

Whilst sale figures were down - NGFarah still dominated the South East region of Sydney and achieved dozens of record sales for many different reasons, in many different suburbs in a declining market. Record sales in Mascot, Botany, Little Bay, Maroubra, Kingsford, Coogee - just to name a few. 

Moving forward, 2019 is the year of the buyer. It is that time when buyers need to be assertive, positive and proactive because prices won’t stay at this level for too long.

There is still plenty of opportunities, yet for buyers to be able to get the best value they must have an exemplary credit rating and have a good understanding of properties in the area that they are wanting to purchase. Quality properties will still achieve great results and coastal areas like Clovelly, Coogee, Maroubra and Malabar will still be in very high demand. 

NGFarah has already a host of quality listings signed up for February and March - please feel free to call one of our experienced agents to have your property assessed in today’s market.