Stuart Zullo
This year in real estate is going to be far different from the year just gone by. Last year we saw the majority of the real estate market slowing down and the main buyers were those interested in getting into the property market while homes were at such low prices.
2010 is going to be a different story however and we are going to see a different trend in the types of buyers that we see coming into our office in Casula. Last year we had lots of young people and first home buyers, as these guys were the least effected by the GFC and also had lots of government incentives to get into the housing market. With the First-home Owner’s Boost gone this year, we are likely to see less of first-home buyers but more investors.
Many property investors will be getting back into the property game this year due to the economy improving and investors seeing now as a safer time to buy and develop. This is great news for the construction industry that have been a bit quiet as of late and this will hopefully mean that we will have more developments along the way (which is well needed considering Australia is suffering from a housing shortage!).
We will likely also see more people this year wanting to upsize houses, as with the economy doing better (and Gen Ys staying at home longer) many families want bigger and better homes that will accommodate more people living under the same roof.
Another big trend this year will be buyers who are looking for “greener” more environmentally friendly homes. So this will be homes with sustainable features such as energy saving devices and fixtures. In fact Queensland has even brought in Sustainability Declarations which means that they have to declare all of these types of features when they sell their homes, and I can see something similar to coming to NSW some time down the track.
Overall no matter who is buying and why, we will definitely have lots of people interested in buying homes this year, and in Casula I can see our Professionals office becoming very busy.
Let me know you thoughts, who do you think will be driving property sales this year?