Act quickly and profit now as market changes gear - October 2024

By Munro Donen, Director & Principal, Propertybuyer East propertybuyer.com.au

The basics of buying a property are reasonably simple. The challenge is getting the most favourable overall result from the buying process. For example, price is important but often the best outcomes relate to the contract’s conditions. By using contract conditions to your advantage, it’s possible to make your offer more attractive than others, particularly in a competitive market.

Steam has come out of the market. Now is the time to buy and, more importantly, the time to take advantage of the skills, expertise, intel, experience and connections of a buyers’ agent to ensure you don’t overpay.

With pricing, some agents are guiding high and some are guiding low and that’s causing confusion for buyers. As a buyers’ agent, we know which sales agents are realistic and which are opportunistic. Slowing markets bring buying opportunities to those with intel, knowhow and connections – it’s not what you know, it’s who you know – but this window of opportunity is not going to last, so act now or you will regret it.

Property markets are cyclical which means they move up and down over time. However, history shows that prices don’t rise and fall evenly and consistently. What often happens, especially in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, is that property prices will rise, and then stall or soften slightly for a while as they find their equilibrium. Then some form of stimulus will eventually get them moving once more.

For much of 2024, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs there has been strong demand at some price points, less demand at others. Overall, I’d categorise price shifts in the eastern suburbs as stable in some locations where demand is being met by adequate supply and strong in locations where demand has not been met.

However, in recent weeks I feel like that is changing in favour of buyers looking to purchase, and the time to act is now before the next increase in property prices.

Competition among buyers has lost a bit of steam. The Sydney auction clearance rate for the week ending 27^th October was 60.6 per cent. This is down from 63 per cent over the previous week and 68.5 per cent this time last year.

These figures are in line with what I am seeing on the ground too with more listings and less competition. In areas like the south-eastern beaches, I’m seeing fewer committed buyers per listing. In recent weeks there have been around 60 properties on the market in this area with around one buyer per property. And as such there’s not much competition to drive up prices.

Vendors’ expectations may not be in line with current market changes. I don’t believe this to be a long-term scenario, and the window of opportunity is now.

Auctions are becoming less effective as there are less buyers for each property. Selling agents are increasingly trying to get properties sold early via their buyers’ agent network. I am receiving more and more calls from sales agents about properties that are yet to hit the market. Agents are being careful not to flood the market at this time of year so the opportunity to gain access to off-market listings through a buyers’ agent is definitely working in your favour pre-Christmas.

This means we are able to access more pre- and off-market homes. As a buyers’ agent with inside intel, I get to sort through these listings and unearth the best buys for my clients before the general public knows about them. By the time the general public receives off-market alerts and emails, buyers' agents will have already seen and assessed these properties beforehand. This week, a client called and said she'd just received an email about an off-market listing and wanted me to have a look at it. I told her I had already been through that home two days ago. I even sent her a video and my notes straight away - she was amazed and impressed! 

Sales agents are experts at creating FOMO among buyers – even when there isn’t any. They will try to extract every last dollar from purchasers and push them to their maximum for properties even as market activity flatlines. As buyers’ agents, we see it first when the market is changing gear. We are able to leverage that knowledge to ensure our clients don’t overpay for a home and get best value from the purchase.

Finally, I wrote in a recent article that now is the time to act as once interest rate cuts are announced, activity will ramp up once more. As soon as the RBA has its first rate cut, confidence improves, buyers flood back into the market and once the second-rate cut happens (expected mid to late 2025) the market will be firing again.

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