Australian property prices fell slightly during the September quarter, with an Australia-wide fall of around 1.8%. Some of the hardest hit suburbs are also the wealthiest, with inner Melbourne suburbs tumbling by up to 13.2%. This is unexpected, with a lot of people thinking that inner-city suburbs were the safest bet.
Anyway, some experts are frustrated by the ongoing negative news and opinions being expressed within the mainstream media.
“The property market is based on supply and demand fundamentals, such as property and employment growth, and these factors remain solid in many markets, including Brisbane. People need to remember that we are suffering from a financial crisis, not a property crisis.”
– Colleen Coyne
Some agents aren’t helping things either. I spoke with one Brisbane real estate agent recently who said that property sellers are telling her that a lot of other agents are really talking down the property market, and she’s becoming quite frustrated by this. I guess some agents feel that they need to talk down the price in order to get the sale, and to an extent that’s true. Some sellers are unrealistic about what they can achieve in the current market, and that needs to be talked through, but constant negative talk can be self-fulfilling.
Another real estate agent was telling me that he’s having no trouble selling appropriately priced homes and units. Yes, prices might be down on what they were last year, but as I’ve said elsewhere it’s still a good time to be buying and selling real estate:
1. Make sure you have a large deposit
2. Know the market.
3. Sell well.
4. Be in it for the long term.
Property prices go up and down, and that’s ok. Be smart about how you go about it, and you can do quite well. I work in the real estate industry, and my business is going absolutely ballistic at the moment. There are so many properties coming on to the market, and agents are getting really, really busy.