Local knowledge is the secret to securing the ideal home - February 2025

By Rich Harvey, CEO & Founder, propertybuyer.com.au

To me, there is without doubt one thing that buyers’ agents need in order to secure the ideal property for their client at the right price… and that’s local knowledge.

Smart buyers’ agents have specific local knowledge about the nuances that drive markets and what motivates dominant buyer demographics in certain suburbs.

Think school zones, market trends and specialist services catering to particular buyer types. All of these can influence not only what you should pay for a property, but also its capital growth and rental potential.

Local awareness is really important for investors living elsewhere and for owner-occupier buyers moving from another region too.

Such knowledge will ensure buyers have the best possible chance of fully understanding their preferred area and from there, finding the best property for their budget buck.

Here are just a few examples of where being in the know can give you an inside running on a property purchase.

School zones

A CM Lawyers report in September 2024 found 60 per cent of home buyers in New South Wales believe proximity to quality schools is a key factor when purchasing a property – and rightly so.

Buyers’ agents wise in local ways, especially those with a family themselves, can help incoming families find the best local private and public schools as well as pre-schools and kindergartens.

At the same time, family buyers wanting to live near top-rated private or state schools could find property prices are up to 10 to 15 per cent higher than the average – or even more.

And sometimes it’s surprising to those from outside an area as to what schools are helping real estate values boom.

I was definitely startled when I found that Australia’s highest price growth in state primary school catchments (Walloon State School in Brisbane’s outer-west Ipswich centre) jumped 43.9 per cent between August 2020 and July 2021.

And, our highest state high school catchment growth was 37.9 per cent at the Gold Coast hinterland’s Tamborine Mountain State High School.

Property growth for homes near private schools are almost certainly above average as well.

Demographics and migrant communities

“The lucky country” is undoubtedly a major attraction for migrants, and especially so since borders opened again after the pandemic. Did you know that in the first year of the pandemic, Australia’s drop in annual migration numbers was the second lowest on record and the first decrease since 1946?

It’s hard to believe, and thankfully for migrants, we’re now – relatively – back on track, according to recent ABS figures for the 2024 financial year.

Honing back in on the importance of local buyers’ agents, immigrants will understandably often want to live in an area with similar demographics to their hometown – in other words, finding their own “tribe”.

This includes suburbs with like-minded cultural and social events plus shops and schools.

Such points can be more important for house buyers – or just as important – than property trends, data and statistics, with buyers also willing to pay more for them.

The value and appeal of such communities is again why buyers’ agents with strong local knowledge can help their clients get a great result.

Local buyers’ agents will also ensure specific price drivers, such as lucky numbers and feng shui, are understood and ticked off. I know of one property in Brisbane where the house number was 88, and the end contract had multiple 8s in the price. The buyer was of Chinese heritage, and he happily paid a big premium to have that lucky number on his letterbox.

One of our team was also explaining to me the other day how a certain suburb with a large Vietnamese community would regularly see houses close to the local temple achieve substantial markups on their sale price compared to similar but less conveniently located homes.

Buyers’ agents in these areas also recognise the importance of major cultural events, such as Chinese New Year, right down to their dates and symbolism.

As a result, they can advise immigrant owner-occupier buyers on where and how to purchase a property – and we’re talking both on and off-market properties.

Local regulations and advisors

For first homebuyers in particular, the legalities involved in buying a property can be puzzling. You often need experts with specific local knowledge to ensure your property transaction runs smoothly.

An experienced buyers’ agent can take you through local challenges step-by-step, ensuring they make sense and that all legal requirements are met.

They can also advise which conveyancers and inspectors can best help you in a particular location.

Again, I had one of my team in years gone by talk about a particular street in one of our major capitals that had highly reactive soils. It seems that if you bought in that road, you were guaranteed to face some sort of structural issue. Yet walk 100 metres past the intersection, and everything was fine.

Another example is buying too close to waterways and getting inundated with mosquitoes and midges during the summer months. Some properties backing onto the canal areas of the Gold Coast have this common issue but it’s localised to specific streets on canals with more stagnant water.

Locally experienced buyers’ agents are also well versed when it comes to the ins and outs of local council and state rules and regulations – of which there can be many, some with bewildering nuances.

I’m talking about zoning laws, conveyancing details, contracts and much more, with all of them highly important in their own way and needing you to be smart about what you sign.

The upshot is this – venturing into an area without the support and guidance of a knowledgeable advisor with a keen understanding of their area is risky. Why take the chance when you can contact our team at Propertybuyer? We have specialists who live and breathe

their service areas. Take advantage of their depth of local knowledge and you’ll soon own a great home with exceptional potential in the community you desire.

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