12 months and a week ago, the (real estate) world had the look of running into that same Post-GFC nightmare, and it looked SCARY.
When I first started in real estate, the Cairns market had seen some tough times for a while. We had lost our biggest developers, it had been a number of years since we had seen any meaningful new residential construction and more often than not, selling someone’s home or investment property focused more on minimising a loss than maximising a profit.
I missed the pre-GFC boom (admittedly I was still in high school at the time), so I didn’t have the experience of meteoric rises that other agents had taken for granted (and subsequently, lamented) as the “good old days” where you would stick a sign out the front of the property, open the doors and wait for the offers to pour in. At the time I recall it being more of a case of advertising with everything short of smoke signals in order to attract a buyer that was still pretty wary of being burned.
12 months and a week ago, the (real estate) world had the look of running into that same Post-GFC nightmare, and it looked SCARY. In the space of about 2 weeks (or so it felt) COVID went from someone else’s issue on the other side of the world to a real issue here and now. As borders shut and workers were sent home, the market literally stopped overnight. Panic was an understatement for many, with buyers heading for the hills (or halving their offers), and sellers pulling out of the market as quickly as they could call their agent. There weren’t too many settlements in April, that’s for sure!
Fast forward to now, and things have certainly changed, but not the way we expected. Homes are selling quicker than ever, and regularly achieving prices above even vendor expectations. I’ve seen cases of more capital growth in the past 10 months than was seen in the previous 10 YEARS. For better or for worse we aren’t talking Sydney/Melbourne meteoric growth but 10% or more in a year is a huge change for owners that have seen prices stagnate since their original purchase.
There are still some challenges ahead, with the phase out of JobKeeper to have its impact and high body corporate and insurance costs an ever-present bugbear, but in comparison to where we could have been? There is a lot to be grateful for. And if you haven’t had your home appraised in a while – have a think about it – you might have even MORE to be grateful for.