The real estate market is seasonal. Particularly in Stonnington.
Our year goes like this:
January – Closed (everyone is in Noosa and/or Portsea)
February – Opening Market (a good month to sell with a full buyer pool and limited stock)
March – Busy (a good month to buy and sell… Make sure your A/C works)
April – Clunky (due to Easter and school holidays)
May – Busy (a good time to buy and sell… Garden is just hanging in there)
June/July – Pause (Everyone is in Port Douglas and/or Positano)
August – Opening Spring Market (a good month to sell with a full buyer pool and limited stock… Make sure your heating works)
September – Busy (a good month to buy and sell before the Grand Final… Garden looks ace)
October/November – Busy (a good time to buy and sell as long as you aren’t selling too late into November/December)
December – Last Drinks (real estate decisions start getting postponed until next year… Christmas parties more important than open inspections).
As you can see above, we are currently in the ‘pause’ period of winter / school holidays.
There is very limited stock and nothing new coming to market. Buyers are trying to escape Melbourne’s worst winter in living memory and most vendors are waiting until after school holidays to launch their campaigns.
Clearly the market is experiencing some other challenges right now.
Interest rates are rising, house prices are levelling and sentiment is a tad gloomy. Many people are genuinely hesitant to act right now, which is understandable.
But before we press the panic button and get the ‘foreclosure’ stickers ready, let’s just take a breath and remember that aside from the lockdown years of 2020 and 2021, this is always a quiet time of year for real estate, and we are coming off the back of an unprecedented 35% property market rally over the last two years.
So when you read that the Melbourne’s median house price has dropped (a measly) 0.8% in the last quarter, let’s not forget the 34.2% net growth that most homeowners have enjoyed since the pandemic.
On Saturday we sold a two bed, one bath semi-detached house with no parking on 147sqm in South Yarra for $1,570,000 with three bidders. It was beautifully renovated.
In the large crowd at the auction there were more than a few buyers secretly hoping that the interest rate hikes and doom and gloom would allow them to snap up the house for $1,400,000.
Their hopes were dashed pretty quickly with a strong opening bid of $1,450,000 and the home sailing past reserve in 15 seconds flat.
Good properties attract interest and competition in any market.
There will be no bargains in Stonnington anytime soon.
I wouldn’t be surprised if sentiment starts to improve after the winter holidays, especially if the future rate hikes don’t materialise to the extent that many punters are predicting.
Watch this space.
David Sciola 