Welcome back to our first New Listings email of 2023!
For those loyal readers who tune in every week, we really appreciate your support.
For those new subscribers, hopefully you find some value in my weekly ruminations, insights, and observations on the Stonnington property market.
Given my media and communications background, the corporate office has kindly given me carte blanche to write the content each week for these emails, exclusively for Team Fetter/Sciola’s clients.
I must clarify that all opinions, sentiment, and humour is my own and not Jellis Craig’s.
So far, so good. I haven’t been cancelled yet…
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Australia Day marks the end of the summer break, with the Stonnington market now open for business with the first of the new listings for 2023 launching this week.
By all accounts it is going to be a slow start to the year, with a trickle of properties coming online rather than an avalanche. And that doesn’t look set to change anytime soon.
As much as the media keeps hammering on about mounting mortgage stress and distressed selling, our affluent bubble of Stonnington traditionally weathers such storms relatively unscathed.
With only a few exceptions, most property owners around here will get through this period just fine… Sorry buyers, no fire sales.
It has been a low stock environment for the best part of a year now. The start of 2023 is likely to be the same as the end of 2022 – limited supply, some strong results, some not-so-strong results, and clearance rates in the 60s and 70s. That is, a ‘normal’ market.
Tight supply is a challenge for buyers, making it harder to find a suitable home. Quality properties still see competition, as buyers all tend to want the same thing – good street, pretty house, great spot, decent value.
Vendors can take solace in the fact that with restricted supply, they won’t be competing with many properties and can still achieve a premium result if the market finds their property attractive.
Having said that, prices have come down, even in Stonnington.
Any agent that says the market hasn’t come off is either lying or ignorant. Or both.
You can get an unrenovated but comfortable family home on 600sqm in parts of Malvern East now for low $2,000,000’s. This was not possible in 2021.
You can get a fully renovated family home in Malvern now for mid $3,000,000’s, for which you would have needed high $3,000,000’s in 2021.
But to put this into perspective, even a (hypothetical) 10 percent contraction in prices since the November 2021 peak would have only eroded about a third of the gains made in the preceding two years.
Most owners are still in a far better equity position than back in 2018/2019/2020.
It is a great time to upgrade, enter the market for the first time or invest.
In uncertain times, many people take a sit-back-and-wait approach, lacking the confidence to buy or sell until thing seem rosier.
This herd mentality is innate. But volatility creates opportunity and those willing to take the plunge – both buyers and sellers – tend to be rewarded in the long run.
The thing about houses is that people outgrow them (when kids arrive). Houses outgrow people (when kids leave). People relocate for work or schools. People get married or divorced. Life happens. You can’t put your plans on hold forever.
If you do have the motivation to move this year, if you have the ‘why’, we are here to help with the ‘how’.
Feel free to reach out or simply reply to this email if you’d like some advice.
Thanks for reading.
David.
David Sciola 