The cash rate hit an historic low in Australia in November 2020 of 0.1%. In addition, piles of stimulus money were thrown onto an already heated asset market, and we’re still paying for the inflationary hangover and debt burden today. Doesn’t 0.1% just seem ridiculous now? For those on sub 2% mortgages, owning a house […]
Read more "What Next? "
We always see a peak in inspection numbers the first few weekends of the opening market in Stonnington. It’s predictable. The buyer pool is replete after the summer holidays, with not only the hangover of buyers from last year, but an entirely new crop of bushy-tailed buyers dipping their toes in the market for the […]
Read more "Before the dawn"
Welcome back to our first new listings email of 2025! For those loyal readers, I really appreciate you taking the time to consume my weekly musings, and thanks for all the positive feedback. (I’m almost as passionate about writing as selling houses). 2024 was a challenging time for vendors and real estate agents alike. It […]
Read more "2024 Job Description"
Melbourne has seriously underperformed most other capital cities since COVID. Perth and Brisbane seem to have been completely immune to interest rate rises, achieving double digit growth year on year in spite of mortgage rates tripling since 2022. So we can’t blame interest rates for Melbourne’s lackluster growth, even negative growth in some instances. My […]
Read more "2024 recap "
The property market is inextricably complex – millions of permutations relating to supply and demand that don’t always have the expected outcome. For example, the supply of new apartment completions in Melbourne in 2024 is roughly one tenth of what it was back in 2014, yet sales are stagnant, even though our population has boomed […]
Read more "Density is inevitable "
Last Saturday was ‘Super Saturday’, traditionally the busiest auction day of the year with campaigns bookended between the Grand Final and Melbourne Cup long weekends. There were over 1900 auctions scheduled across Victoria, although many of them didn’t make it to auction. The reported clearance rate ranged between 59 percent (REA) and 76% (REIV). What’s […]
Read more "You only need one buyer"
Markets are fickle because they are driven by humans, who are fickle. Market sentiment is a very subjective and nebulous thing – attempting to collate a bunch of people’s feelings and emotions towards the market. It is purely subjective. It depends on who you ask and when. It can also turn on a dime. Anyone […]
Read more "Fickle"
We have just hit the peak spring market. This is what buyers have been waiting for – the busiest period of the year for new listings. While it might not feel like it, there is plenty of great stock out there right now. Your REA and Domain feeds should be lengthening by the day with […]
Read more "Against the grain"
In a “normal” market like today, where prices are neither in free fall nor rapidly accelerating, most property transactions occur via negotiation between two parties – vendor and one buyer. So, for example, when you see a clearance rate of 70%, it often means that out of 10 auctions, two sold before, two sold under […]
Read more "Bidding against yourself"
Today we were presented with REA’s latest economic data by their Property Economist, Anne Flaherty. There were several key takeaways, but the woolly mammoth in the room was Melbourne’s gross underperformance in property price growth compared to literally everywhere else in Australia in recent years. Median house price growth since March 2020: Adelaide – 73.2% […]
Read more "Melbourne’s failure to launch"
David Sciola 