RealTeam started the year strongly, with several new clients wanting to buy Adelaide property.
It’s a good time to be buying — the RPData-Rismark Index reports that Adelaide property prices are still declining, with a 1.6% decline, to a median of $395,000 in the latest quarter.
Meanwhile, it now seems unlikely that the Reserve Bank will raise interest rates in the short term. So the cost of money is also down at present.
Agents are giving mixed signals. Some are excited at the response to open inspections, while others remain discouraged at the lack of strong action from buyers. It seems to depend on a couple of factors:
- The location of the property
- The price level of the area
In a declining market, there’s always a bit more overpriced property, as vendors (and some agents) take longer than others to come to grips with the new, and sometimes unwelcome, reality that their property is no longer worth what it was, even a few months ago. Recent higher prices, some homebuyers probably paying a bit more than they should’ve, and consequently over-borrowing will have some home buyers wanting to get out.
Our view at RealTeam, as a buyer agent, is that home prices have probably reached a high-point, at least for a while. It seems that demographic influences are beginning to be felt, while efforts at urban consolidation mean that land prices are steady or rising.
Maybe 2013 will be the year when the market ‘takes a breather’ and prices level-off, as they did in the early to mid 1990’s.
No-one knows the future, and so I may be quite wrong. But I think it will be a year when well-prepared buyers will ‘have the wind at our backs’ in terms of finding opportunities to buy property at advantageous prices, and on favourable conditions.
