how's the market looking?
the selling market...
14th February 2009
the 2009 local property market has started strong with our team selling in excess of $11.5m worth of property within the first 6 weeks of the 2009 selling season. this strong market is a direct result of the low interest rates and the increase of the first home buyer grant which is creating a 'snowball' effect within the market, as buyers are presently seeing great opportunity to upgrade. additionally, we are experiencing strong inquiry from the overseas market, especially from the asian region.
a number of sales by mcconnell bourn achieved outstanding prices, including the sale of a stunning federation home in provincial road, lindfield sold for $2.84m, setting a new record for the street. while close by, a spacious contemporary new family home sold for in excess of $2.55m again setting a record price for the area. on the apartment front, we have had a number of significant sales including a 3 bedroom apartment in victoria street roseville selling for $625,000 and a renovated 2 bedroom apartment in killara achieving $510,000. i believe this represents about a 10% uplift in values over the last 6 months.
should you wish to get a more detailed market update, please feel free to contact one of our skilled agents on 94962777. also don't forget to take the 'ccnnll'challenge whilst visiting our site.
recent estimates suggest that sydney’s population will increase from around 4.5 million residents to 6 million over the next 30 years. this increase of 40% is projected to be faster than the population growth of nsw overall, which is projected to increase to 9 million or 33%. the question is, where are they all going to fit?
recently at the enmore theatre here in sydney, an la based comedian joe kay was shocked about how congested our roads were and how well we do road rage compared to the yanks! we don’t know the answer to that question for certain, but what australia hasn’t done so far during its short history, is decentralise its major cities to anywhere near the extent that other, highly populated, developed economies have.
from our vantage point, parramatta appears to be gaining ground rapidly. besides traffic and decentralisation, when we combine this with the trend for falling household sizes, a trend that has unwaveringly progressed since around 1911, it adds up to a whole lot of housing demand.
of course we can’t ignore the issue of credit availability. with interest rates dropping lowering the debt servicing burden, australian interbank credits spreads narrowing, indicating that aussie credit was becoming less crunched; as well as strong competition in our lending sector increasing the volume of loansm credit availability in australia is very likely to be better than what is commonly perceived by the general public. it is also anticipated that higher forecast unemployment, will also have a part to play here.
on the supply side, the conditions for developers have continued to be unfavourable, with inflation in the costs of both wages and building materials keeping construction activity at 50 year lows. this age old ‘supply – demand’ equation will put upward pressure on both house prices and rents in the medium term.